Thursday – October 27, 2011
It had been a weird night. I had fallen asleep about five o’clock and then I awoke eight hours later at 1:00 AM. Jeff was also awake and we discussed getting up and starting our day. We joked and talked about all the things we could do in the middle of the night in Paris if we were truly brave explorers. We decided not to explore the city in the dark. Our bodies were still on New York Time!
View of the Louvre Museum From Our Window
I worked on my blog for a couple of hours and Jeff surfed the Web on his iPhone to find interesting eateries and cafes for the next day. The free WiFi in our room works great!! About 3:00 o’clock I started to get sleepy so I went back to bed thinking I would just take a short nap and get up again in a few minutes.
Beautiful Parisian Bridge
The next thing I knew when I looked over to see the time on the nightstand, it was 9:30 A.M.!! I must have been really tired to sleep so long! We showered and dressed and left Le Relais about 10:30.
Prize-Winning Boulangerie
Once outside, we walked toward the rue de Rivoli in search of morning coffee and a real French croissant. We found rue St. Honore and the Jean-Noel Julien Boulangerie (bakery) which had won seventh place in the 2011 Best Boulangerie in Paris contest.
Pastries at Jean-Noel Julien Boulangerie
We peeked in and took photos and promised ourselves that we would return soon to try their wares. At the next corner we stopped at a street cafe and had our cafe au lait with a delicious, buttery, flaky, baked-to-perfection, real Parisian croissant. Ah heaven….
Notre Dame Cathedral
Well fortified we walked toward the Ile de la Cite. This is where Paris originated as a small Celtic settlement known as Parisii, some say, in about 250 BC. It was appropriate to start our visit there. Soon we were following the crowds of tourists to the famous Notre Dame Cathedral. It is a beautiful and imposing Gothic structure. We didn’t want to wait in a long line to get into the church nor did we want to wait on a longer line to climb the hundreds of steps to the top of the tower. We did that on previous trips and could pass up the experience now.
Flying Buttresses of Notre Dame
We walked around to the rear of the cathedral and into the little park to take photos and admire the flying buttresses which support the roof of the Gothic building. Then we crossed the little bridge connecting the islands to Ile St. Louis. I had never been on the little sister island and wanted to see it. It is mostly residential and quiet with one main street, the rue St. Louis en l’Ile, running through the middle length of the island. There is also a road that goes around the periphery.
View of the Seine From Ile Saint Louis
We were starting to get hungry about one o’clock so we found a tiny restaurant that made crepes called Le Sarrasin et Le Froment Creperie. We had to wait for a table so we patiently people-watched and looked at the interesting decorations on the walls and chatted. The friendly waiter gave us a good table near the front window and was very kind to us. I had the Camembert crepe with green salad & walnuts and Jeff had the jambon & Ementhaler cheese. These were the authentic Brittany buck-wheat crepes called “gallettes”. For dessert, we had the sweet white-flour crepes with applesauce. Yummm… The gallettes brought back memories of our time in Brittany.
Flower Shop on Ile St. Louis
Back outside into the cool sunny air, we crossed the bridge connecting Ile St. Louis to the “Left Bank” of the Seine. We found the main street of Boulevard Saint Germain and walked along with the rushing Parisians. We strolled quite a way window shopping and people-watching. We were getting tired and decided to return to our hotel to rest.
End of Ile de la Cite
After dark, we went back out to find a good place for dinner. This is a prime tourist area in Paris and the last time we were here, we were disappointed in the restaurants and had a difficult time finding decent French food. We returned to the Left Bank and crossed the Pont Neuf then walked up rue Dauphine.
Halloween Window on Blvd. St. Germain
The neighborhood was jumping! There were many young people walking around, congregating in front of bistros, and sitting at outdoor tables on the sidewalks. The temperature was mild and it seemed like everyone was out enjoying it. Of course, this isn’t tourist season and the university was in full session.
View of the Seine on the Left Bank
We continued to walk and read menus along the way. Then we turned off rue Dauphine to enter a little alley that I remembered from the last time we were in Paris. It is a quaint little cobblestone pedestrian street lined with small boutiques and restaurants. We settled on the Relais Odeon and had a satisfactory dinner. After dinner we walked around the narrow back streets which were still filled with happy young Parisians. We were getting tired, it had been a long day and we did a lot of walking.