Woke up early, packed up and left the hotel at around 08:15, out to a cold and cloudy day. I left Song with the bags and walked up the road to Starbucks then turned around because they weren’t open. We had noticed that the French aren’t morning people, the streets were generally empty in the mornings.
Waited 10 minutes for the tram – Sunday service – and got to the station with an hour to spare. It wasn’t the main station, but a suburban one that was quite small with a shop that was shut, but which luckily opened after 10 minutes so I could get a croissant.
Train was on time, got to Paris and the station was packed. Got the metro to the hotel (just down the road from the Moulin Rouge), couldn’t check in so dumped the bags and headed out for lunch. As we arrived at the hotel a family turned up, they were wearing badges with “Canada” on them, but we were pretty sure they were American but didn’t want to be identified as such. Can’t blame them.
Found a restaurant off the main road that had decent reviews. I had vegetable soup to start, Song had prawn salad, then I had cod with pan fried vegetables and Song had veal liver with mashed potatoes. We ended up swapping the potatoes and veggies. I had a chocolate cake for dessert and Song had an apple thing with cream. All were nice, cost 50 Euro ($90).
Walked down to Galleries Lafayette, an Art Nouveau department store which has all the big brands. The inside has a beautiful dome which I wanted to see again. It was very busy, and since we were last there they had put in a viewing platform which partially blocked it from the ground floor, so we had to queue up to get on it. Took photos.
Got the metro to the Luxembourg Gardens, the weather was still overcast but not too cold, most of the time we had the jackets off. We walked past The Pantheon, a monument built between 1758 and 1790 (thanks Wikipedia), then got to the gardens.
The Luxembourg Gardens is one of my favourite places in the world; there’s just something about it. It’s a large park with thousands of metal chairs that are provided all throughout the park which you can move to sit with friends or family, and there are usually hundreds of people just sitting and enjoying the park. Today was Sunday and there were probably over a thousand people sitting or walking around, some having picnics. There are people reading books, and some artists painting the buildings, trees and people. There is a magnificent building with a lake in front, and kids hire small sailing boats and push them around till they catch the wind. It really is a magical place, especially on a warm sunny day. We always like to visit when we are in Paris. We sat for a while, then decided to head back to the hotel.
We passed an ice cream place so I had my first and probably last ice cream of the trip, which is unusual for me. Popped into a supermarket to get some stuff for dinner to eat in the room, we were too tired and had too much for lunch to go out for dinner.
Tomorrow we are visiting The Louvre, I’ve booked a time slot.