After a slow start to the morning (we had to wake Dana at 8:45), we headed off for a day of sight seeing around Paris. Started with a walk to Invalides metro station then a short trip to St Michel Notre Dame. Up to ground level to get our bearings and work out where to go. The French are very light on with signs so it can be fun working out where you are let alone where you want to go. Easiest way sometimes is to find to major landmark buildings (such as the Eiffel Tower) and work it out from those.
Once we worked out where to go we headed for Sainte Chapelle, a 13th century royal chapel. Security was tight with full x-ray screening as the chapel is inside a larger building area that houses the legal courts. Security line beside us for those going into the courts was even tighter.
Once inside the chapel the stained glass was amazing, as were the painted walls. There were two levels and while the lower was beautiful the upper level was amazing.
From here it was a short walk to Notre Dame with a long but fairly quick moving queue to get in. Again a beautiful church, but on a different scale to Sainte Chapelle.
While we wandered through the cathedral a choir was singing which provided a real depth to the atmosphere of the place. The many stained glass windows were amazing.
We then stopped for an early lunch at a cafe across the road from Notre Dame, Dana had citron crepe, and Nerida and I had jambon and fromage baguettes. These came with some of the nicest chips I’ve ever eaten. While we ate we watched the queue for the climb of the towers. It moved about 25 meters in 20 minutes, and given it looked to be about 150 meters long we decided not to spend the rest of the day queueing.
We made the decision to walk up towards the Louver and the Champs Elysees instead. The walk along the north bank of the Seine was a bit noisy with the cars, but there were many buildings and bridges to look at along the way. When we got to the Louvre we crossed to the inner courtyards and walked through to the Jardin de Tuileres, where stopped a few times to relax in the chairs provided.
From here we then walked past Place de la Concorde, which was fenced off with a stand being erected presumably for Bastille day next week. Here we saw some Ferrari’s that you could hire for a 20 minute quick tour around Paris. We bypassed these and the tuk-tuks and continued walking along the Champs Elysees towards the Arc de Triomphe.
Again there was a fairly quick moving queue to get inside. After a climb up many steps the views across Paris are amazing and well worth the climb. When not looking out at the surounds, looking straight down at the traffic chaos is entertaining in its own way. It’s amazing that there were no accidents while we watched.
After returning to ground level we caught the metro home, punctuated with the fun of one of the 5 day metro passes failing. Luckily we have spare singles on the 10 carnet we brought in London which got us all onto the train. We stopped at an information window along the way and got the ticket exchanged for a new one that now works.
Plan for tomorrow is off to Versailles for the day. An early start to be there for opening at 9am, about an 8am start to get to Invalides station, buy tickets out to zone 4 and then the half hour train trip.
