Away in April 2011

Day 22 – Paris Sights and Le Marais

Le Marais, Paris, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Bastille, Champs Elysees

Friday, 22 April 2011

Good Friday in Paris is not a public holiday so started the day with breakfast out at Elephant du Nil on the Rue St Antoine, at the top of our street. We ordered two breakfaste completes – hot drink of your choice, glass of orange juice and half a baguette split down the middle and pre-buttered buttered with glass of confiture (strawberry jam). Only 6€ each but don’t know whether it is as sustaining as museli!

Then shopping for provisions – supermarket Franprix was non-threatening for milk, butter, yogurt and museli but fromagerie (specialist cheese shop) was very scary as we were the only customers). We bought what we think was goat’s cheese with thyme. Then the boulangerie/ patisserie was scary too as you have to be able to say what you want (should have done our French homework more often). We bought pain du raisins (fruit loaf luckily there was a person before us with the same order). The Verges St Paul (fruit and veg shop) was OK but they really don’t like you handling the merchandise – some beautiful groseille (red currents), mure (blackberries) and a couple of tomato olivette (Roma tomatoes). We did well.

After a soothing cup of English breakfast tea and a slice of fruit bread, we walked to Ille St Louis, the smaller of the Seine islands. The island is very quaint, quite touristy but with many lovely shops. Apparently it sells the best ice-creams in Paris!

Then across the bridge to the Ille de la Cite for the start of our orientation of Paris on Les Cars Rouge (the Red Bus tour was free with our Paris Pass). The line of people waiting to get into Notre Dame went all down the road! With our Paris pass we can get priority at most venues but not with Notre Dame so we’ll either have to go early or late to try to avoid the queues!

The day was very hot so we decided to sit inside – but our very cranky driver, we think, must have arranged must have locked the back windows so we were warm. The bus tour gave a good overview of the main Parisian icons but it was useful also to see where we could take some of those picture postcards, eg Trocadero is a good place to take photos towards the Eiffel Tower and across the Seine.

Walked back to our apartment for a rest and then evening walk towards in our area of the Marais – Place du Voges, Place de la Bastille, Hotel de Ville and Village St Paul. Found the bakery recommended by Jean Jacques but will leave purchasing for another day – Anthony said it was right, right and right from our apartment but a couple of walks around the block revealed that it is in fact left, left and then right from our apartment!

	The Seine [Map]		Beautiful Easter chocolate display on Ille St Loui [Map]
	Crossing bridge to Ille St Louis to jazz buskers [Map]		The crowds at Notre Dame [Map]
	Arc de Triomphe [Map]		La Tour Eiffel [Map]
	Les Cars Rouge tour of Paris [Map]		That roundabout in movies – Place de la Concorde ( [Map]
	Place du Voges is a square with shops, mostly gall [Map]		Hotel de Ville [Map]
	Place du Voges – the park [Map]		Place de la Bastille [Map]