Unfortunately for poor Paris, it got the short end of our schedule: we were really only there for Sunday and Monday and Sunday all the restaurants are closed and on Monday all the museums were closed! Things to save for next visit. We arrived very late on Saturday night, just enough time for a stroll to the Eiffel Tower and Jardin de Trocadero before crashing into bed.
Paris trivia: first of all, the person who designed and built the Eiffel Tower was named Gustav, NOT Alec Eiffel like the Pixies song always led me to believe. Secondly, it was the winner of a contest to design a gateway to the 1890 worlds fair. The design that came in second place? A giant guillotine.
Day 5
Again we started off our visit by participating in a Fat Tire Bike Tour, as we did in London. We had another great leader who maneuvered us safely around some of the city’s great landmarks: The Louvre, Les Hospital de Invalids, the Place del la Concorde, Musee D’Orsay. Apparently, Napoleon had very sticky fingers and is responsible for the obelisk in the Place de la Concord and most of the Lourve’s Egypt collection, which is quite extensive.
After our tour it was fairly late, and because it was solstice the big celebration Fete de Music we decided to take advantage of this opportunity. We spent the next 6 hours walking around the Latin Quarter drinking wine in cafes and checking out bands. We did make it down and into Notre Dame, which is so huge, I think you could fit about 10 of my house in there. The amazing thing to this woman who lives at the 34th latitude? How late the sun went down. It was still light out at 11!
Day 6
Breakfast was Pan au Chocolate from a local patisserie, yummy! Those French know how to eat. The only museum that was open was the Louvre, so we headed over there. Here is what I learned about the Louvre, that probably everyone else knows and I didn’t is that it used to be a really, really large castle. And on the inside, it is gorgeous! The rooms are so ornate they are as lovely as the art on the walls. We wandered through and kept getting lost, but enjoyed everything we saw.
For lunch we went to a cafe where I had duck and Chris had (drumroll) Steak Tartare. Yes, it is raw ground beef, and yes, it was on accident that he ordered it. But, here is the thing: its pretty good! Those of you who like sushi, it tastes and the texture is very close to salmon sushi. And its served with pickles and cabochons to cut the richness of the beef. We managed to make quite a dent in it.
We did a little shopping in the afternoon, more wine at cafes, and then went to catch our overnight train to Rome!
See photos of Chris’ raw meat mountain, as well as other Parasian delights over here.
Cool trip! I love Paris – need to go back. Oh, and bravo for ordering the Steak Tartar – you’re braver than I – being used to the American way where you can’t hardly order a medium rare burger, it’s pretty nuts to see what looks like raw ground beef on the plate. Sounds pretty good really.
And yeah, the late sunlight thing is pretty crazy – esp. to have such mild climate at that latitude – thanks Gulf Stream!