jetjunkies

May 26, 2019

I know I was a little out of sorts yesterday from all the challenges and travel time. But after 11 hours of sleep, a trip record, we felt renewed and went downstairs for breakfast. The hotel is looking much cuter today and the dining room/bar is a hoot. I was sitting facing away from Notre Dame, but could see it as clear as day, in the other direction, in what I thought was my window, but it was a cleverly placed mirror on the side of the window enclosure. No wonder those people walking and buses passing kept disappearing. I took a while to catch on, as I wasn’t quite awake. Suzanne was quite amused that I thought there was a black hole outside the hotel. You’ll notice in the photo of the dining room/bar that there appear to be two sets of side by side windows, but one of the windows is in the mirror. There is actually only one window. Those Parisian tricksters!

Here is our little hallway, we are in 25.

We have decided to take the Batobus, a hop-on, hop-off water tour on the Seine. We stayed on past the Jardini des Plantes, past the Louvre and got off at the Eiffel Tower.

I loved the live aboard barges on the Seine.

La Conciergerie is a palace of Gothic architecture. It was rebuilt in the 14th century by Philip IV.

Built for the 1889 World’s Fair, the Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris.

We decided to walk across the bridge to Avenue Des Champs Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe. Suzanne had her map out and said we only had to go straight up the street. Of course the straight up was literally 73 steps (yes we counted) up.

We were rewarded with a lovely garden that the neighborhood people were enjoying.

On our way we saw some familiar names and beautiful buildings.

We stopped at the Publicis drugstore. It is much more than it’s name implies. Yes there were drug store sundries, also a bookstore, a liquor store, deli, bakery and much more. I recognized the Piertre Hermé Macaron store. I’d read it was one of the best in France, so we of course had to buy a few to try out.

These are just some of your typical 3 and 4.5 liter bottles of Vodka.

A line to get into Louis Vuitton, seriously?

I don’t know how many hotel rooms there are in Paris, but I think they are all full. So, many people, like Venice you could get away on the side streets.

This beautiful little balcony was part of the view when we stopped for lunch.

No we didn’t climb to the top, but we could see the tiny little people up there. The Arc de Triomphe is so much bigger then I imagined it to be from pictures, truly massive, it is one of the largest triumphal arches in the world. It was built in 1806 to celebrate Napoleon Bonaparte’s victory in Austerlitz. Beneath the vault is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

We started down the Avenue Des Champs Élysées and after walking a while decided to sit in a little park. I was admiring this beautiful gate when five police vans showed up in front of us and men with submachine guns started getting out. We decided to move on, as Suzanne assumed they knew something we didn’t.

We turned right at the Grand Palace, across from the Petit Palace and walked across the Alexander III Bridge.

The photo above is of the corner of the Grand Palace and the photo below is of the Grand Palace roof from the bridge.

Below are two photos of the Petit Palace.

Back down to the river, we caught our water bus back to the area of our hotel. It was a long day and we only ventured out again for a quick dinner.

Au revoir! It’s a big day tomorrow…