Photos. The Arc de Triumphe, old houses, Madeleine Church where Chopin is buried
Photos: the Plaze de la Concorde, the Madeleine, Hard Rock Cafe Paris...no we didn't pay their outrageous prices
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Up this morning, with time to make coffee and make breakfast as well as get a welcome shower. All this was accomplished easily, and we got ready for our first full day in Paris—the one time capital of the world, if you think seventeenth century. And you better think old because most of the buildings we have seen are old.
We decided to find a tour bus to ride so we could get a feel of the city and then with that information and our guide book, we could make more careful plans for what we wanted to see. So we walked to Notre Dame; the cathedral is very impressive from up close, and we did get close. Across the square were the tour busses. The first driver didn’t want to deal with non-French speakers, so we tried a second bus and booked a three day ticket. We figured we could use the busses as transportation on Monday and Tuesday, because it didn’t look like sane people could ride all four routes in a single day.
We began with the green route: major attractions the Champs Elysees, the Place de La Concorde, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre all on this tour. We rode the whole way and disembarked at Notre Dame. We decided to look for a boat ride, which was included in our ticket. We walked a ways upriver and found the correct boat dock. The boat down at river level with windows to keep people from falling into the Seine was very hot. Since it was about lunch time, we got off by the Paris Zoo and walked a few blocks to a Café where with Peter’s help we ordered Ham and Cheese sandwiches with salad and fries, plus liquid refreshment—did we mention it was getting pretty hot even off the boat in the breeze. Much fortified from lunch we walked a few blocks to the bus stop for another tour bus route—blue.
This route took us through some areas west or upstream from the cathedral We saw a bit of this and a bit of that, but the sun was very hot, and we were getting a wee bit pooped so we disembarked at a convenient stop and went back to the apartment for some shade, a nap and some cold drinks. This did us a world of good and in an couple of hours we were ready to head back into the heat. We walked to a bus stop for the orange route, which was very close to where we had eaten lunch.
The Orange route took us south by the Luxuembourg gardens, the Sobornne, through a shopping district and so on. We got off at the Hotel des Invalides, and transferred to a green bus for a trip north to interchange with the final route the yellow, and you thought sane people couldn’t do them all in a day—try to ignore the sane/insane part. The yellow took us north to Rue de Cinchy with the Moulin Rouge Club and other sex oriented businesses, then by two of the major railroad stations, down another major shopping artery and back to the Opera House—well, one of the opera houses.
Since we had just disembarked from the last bus of the day, and we were quite a distance from our flat alternate transportation was needed. Down into the ground to catch the metro—not a problem and a quick but quite warm ride back to the Village de St. Louis neighborhood of our flat. The problem of dinner at 8:30 on a Sunday night was solved by a sandwich shop and cheese pannini’s and a cold soft drink.
We ate a quiet dinner of sandwiches, some fruit and a COLD soft drink. Then some time was spent on doing dishes and planning tomorrow. Now that we know something of the city we are ready to use the tour busses and visit some of the places on our list. The BBC weather guy says it will be cooler tomorrow, and we are anxious to get an early start.
So anxious we stayed home while Pete and Jess went out tonight to see Notre Dame lit at night. The blister on the bottom of Nancy's foot also contributed to the decision to stay put. They’re taking pictures.
13,323 Steps today.
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