Walking Paris

We took it easy in the morning on Monday, and didn’t actually get out the door until almost 10. We walked to the corner of our block and discovered that the café on the corner was serving petit-dejeuner (breakfast) for 2,00. What a smokin’ deal! We got a cup of espresso, a big glass of orange juice, and a hunk of baguette smeared with good butter, all for only a couple of euros. The funny thing (and the thing that reminds you that you are in a big city) is that the café is called the Cuban Café and the music they were playing inside was salsa. The owners, however, were from India. A Cuban restaurant with Indian owners in Paris. The world’s mixing bowl!

Of course as good as that baguette was, it wasn’t quite enough to satisfy Bill’s sweet tooth. But just a bit further down the road we found a boulangerie that was selling fresh-out-of-the-oven pain au chocolait (chocolate croissants) for a euro. That made Bill a happy man. We are very tickled at the packaging in Paris. If you buy a couple of fancy pastries, the shop owners put them carefully in a little box and wrap the box with very pretty flowered paper. And in the case of this pain au chocolait, she put it in a pretty little bag and twirled the corners to keep the bag shut.

When we set off on foot, we didn’t have a goal. We headed toward the Seine and walked and walked – 25,241 steps in total. We worked our way over to Notre-Dame, but didn’t see the inside, as the line was too long. We shot pictures from the outside of some of the gargoyles. Bill thought one looked especially like my dad and stepmother’s wiener dog.

We stopped at a little shop near Notre-Dame for a couple of café crèmes, and the 9,80 total surprised us a bit. We’re down to our final days and don’t want to have to get any more euros. I think we’ll stick to our 2,00 breakfast at the corner restaurant.

We continued to walk down the sidewalks overlooking the Seine River. About lunchtime we happened to be near the Tuileries Garden, between the Louvre and the Champs Elysee. We strolled past the garden and stopped at a hot dog stand on the Champs Elysee to enjoy a hot dog on a baguette.

What I noticed yesterday is the contrast between Rome and Paris. First of all, the weather yesterday in Paris was absolutely lovely. It was probably only in the high 70s or low 80s with a blue sky. Rome, as you will recall, had been deadly hot during our entire two-week stay there. An even more notable difference, however (since I assume Paris can also get hot), is the pace of the city. Rome is high energy all the time. Everyone has a purpose. Tourists walk towards a sight they want to see. Priests or nuns walk purposely towards their jobs or places of study. Students or working people are in a hurry to get to school or their jobs.

Paris, on the other hand, moves at a slow pace. There are park benches all around to sit and look at the sights or work on a crossword puzzle or a sudoku puzzle. Old men sit on chairs by the river. Kids ride bicycles with bells. Even the tourists seem to be taking it a bit easier, not in such a hurry to look at the museums but maybe more inclined to stroll over to a place where you can see the Eiffel Tower.

After our lunch, we walked down past the expensive shops and fancy hotels that line the Champs Elysee near the Arc de Triomphe. Since I couldn’t afford anything, and since we had promised ourselves that we wouldn’t push ourselves to exhaustion, we caught a metro that dropped us off very near our hotel. We rested a bit in the afternoon.

Around 7, we walked down to the Bastille area to find a place to eat dinner. We were, of course, way ahead of the dinner crowd. But after walking around looking at different restaurant menus, we found one that was very close to the metro stop. We shared a plate of smoked salmon for an appetizer (what they call the entrée). Then we each got roasted chicken (I was going to get something else, but because it’s August and so many people are out of town, their menu was very limited).

After finishing our dinner, we caught a metro train to Trocadero, where we emerged to the sight of the Eiffel Tower looming before us. Bill’s plan has been to take the elevator to the top. However, we soon learned that there was a 45-minute wait in line. He elected not to waste time in line. We walked around a bit, and then found a park bench on which to await the tower’s nightly lighting. As it began to get dark, the tower turned blue, which was very pretty. As we sat there awaiting the final lighting of the sparkling lights, we began to see rats running back and forth between trees, apparently waiting until all of the picnickers on the grass were finished dining so they could enjoy their leftovers. I immediately thought of the movie Ratatouille, which I saw with my granddaughter. Somehow these rats didn’t seem so darn friendly. It reminded us that Paris is a big city.

Since the rats were making us somewhat uncomfortable, we began walking away from the tower where we would have a more distant view and be nearer to our metro shop. We found some steps to sit on, and at 10 o’clock, the tower lit up in sparkling white lights. It was very beautiful. I’m so glad we waited.

We caught our metro home and dropped into bed about 11:30.