A Morning in the Marais
I like our room! A good night’s sleep makes all the difference in the world. We hear no doors opening and closing, no traffic, no water pipes – nothing. We sleep, by the grace of God and good insulation.
Breakfast is included with our room, so we are up and ready at seven. The breakfast room is the hotel dining room, very lush and elegantly comfortable. The brunch is generous, meat and eggs and pastries and they are generous with the coffee, too, and that matters to me. A quick trip back upstairs to brush teeth and we are on our way.
We’ve watched all the YouTube videos about pickpockets, and how to buy tickets for the Metro and discovered we’ve overstudied for this test. It is easy. We are steps from the Metro entry, we know what we want, we step right up to the ticket booth and buy cards on which we pay for ten trips. Even if we don’t use them all; we will be back and unused trips can be at used another time.
Paris is still unusually hot. Although the morning is relatively cool, the metro is stuffy. Other than that, the signage is clear – as long as you know the line you are taking and the direction, you can get there. Our goal for today, the Marais, is a straight shot with no changes. We board at L’Etoile and get off at St. Paul.
It’s so early, it’s just us and all the people going to work, which is fun for us. What we love is walking, taking in the back streets, looking at the details, so we will take you along with us.
Sharp eyes, AdventureMan. You spotted the old city walls, and their significance.
This is the kind of discovery we love, below. Musical instruments – and a barber shop! This is a very cool place.
We find a mini-department store and I find all kinds of Olympic schlock for the upcoming spectacle.
Heading into Place des Vosges.
St. Paul’s
I love this sign below – Don’t go in after the signal sounds or you will hurt yourself!
We want to get back to the hotel because we know our family will be arriving soon, and as we are getting on the Metro, we get a call that they are leaving the airport. We can’t wait to meet up.
Dinner at Cafe de Paris
Sounds mighty fancy, doesn’t it? The truth is the Cafe de Paris is a lively restaurant just across the street from our hotel. It is full – a mix of tourists and locals stopping by after work. I am running on fumes; we’ve hit 17,000 steps, and I am tired. I am almost too tired to eat, but if we don’t eat, we’ll be awake and starving in the middle of the night, so we step into the Cafe de Paris, and the very kind waitperson seats us immediately in a little alcove, a lovely, comfortable, private table for two right by a wall with a window that seems to have disappeared. We are inside, but we have a great breeze and a view of the Arch.
I order a duck confit, just because I can, because I am in France and not in Pensacola, and duck is on the menu. We were so tired, we can’t even remember what my husband had. We think we remember he had a charcuterie board. First, we had wine, a rich red complicated Bordeaux that might also be why we can’t remember. We know whatever we had was just great.
We were happily surprised by the bill at the end of the meal. It was all very reasonable, especially drinking a good wine. Happy, appetite satisfied, and exhausted, we staggered across the street to the Napoleon and had a great night’s sleep.
Evening in Paris
We are so excited. No, it is not our first trip to Paris, but we are so excited to be back and so excited that our family will be joining us in 12 short hours. Meanwhile, just steps from our hotel:
We are exhilarated, and we are also operating on fumes, so we decide to walk down Av. Marceau to the Seine and take it from there.
Just to the left of the Pont d’Alma as we come down Av Marceau are the Bateaux Mouches, and one is loading up now. It is loading up busloads of people, so we buy our tickets and hang back, taking our chances that the next boat, so close to dinner time, will be less crowded.
It pays off. This is a great idea. It is shaded, there is a tree-lined park along the bank where the boats are loading, and a nice cool breeze, so welcome on this hot, stuffy day.
A line has formed, but as it turns out, the gate opens close to where we are standing and we get to choose. We choose the back of the boat, which turns out to be a good choice. Most head for the front, and there are plenty of seats for everyone. The boats are on a schedule, and another is coming in to offload, so ours has to take off without a full load. We are not complaining.
This is the perfect activity for an exhausted, jet-lagged couple with too much adrenaline to sleep. There is so much going on along the banks. We see all kinds of boats, restaurant boats, stands going up for the Olympic Games, (just weeks away,) bridges, and beautiful buildings.
I am guessing this might be the bridge where the press will photograph the boats coming through with the Olympic teams. you can see the stands built on the bridge. We hear grumbles that the Parisians are not happy to be disrupted for the Games.
I think this is where the French equivalent of Congress meets. Glorious location.
Musee D’Orsay
I may not be so good with monuments, but I’m pretty sure above is the Samaritaine Department store 😁.
Notre Dame of Paris, still under reconstruction from the terrible fire.
It is a beautiful hot evening. These girls have the right idea!
This building is on Isle de la Cite’; I think it might be the palace.
Our boat has turned around just past Isle St. Louis, and we have a good view of the Samaritaine. There is a restaurant on the top with great views.
I have no idea what this statue represents, and I find it weirdly joyful. Weird because in reality, having horse’s hooves at one’s back would be painful, but the body language is joyful. Below is the dome of the Invalides, Napoleon’s Tomb and the Museum of the Army.
Everyone wants their photo taken with the tower.
And as we land, the next boat is loading and ready to go.
Tauck Tours Family Seine Trip: Not a Single Glitch (!)
By now, you know me. I don’t scare easily. This trip scared me.
We’ve traveled before as a family – you’ve gone with us, to New Orleans, to Seattle, to the beach and family Thanksgivings. We get along. We have fun together.
Taking a family to a foreign country, with a foreign language, different customs, different foods, and different modes of transportation is not for the faint-hearted. When it comes to trying to figure out all the moving pieces, I anguished. And then, bless his wonderful heart, AdventureMan said “what if we throw money at the problem?” As soon as he said that, I knew what to do.
We called Tauck Tours.
We’ve only traveled with Tauck once before, to visit the Christmas Markets On the Rhine, in 2018. It was a truly great trip. They took care of every little detail. We don’t always need that kind of hand-holding, but this time, I did.
Here is a truth about me that has just never come up in this blog before – I am not that great with entertaining children. I am great at rocking a baby, or soothing a toddler, or talking over problems with pre-teens. Thank God for AdventureMan; he can make babies laugh, can speak toddler to a toddler and organizes game days our teen grandchildren love. AdventureMan is wonderful with youth. He volunteers with local schools. I volunteer behind the scenes, creating rosters, working financial matters, raising money for worthy causes. Yes. I don’t look it, but I am shy. And mostly quiet.
Tauck Tours Family Seine Trip to the rescue! As soon as the dates for this trip came out, we booked. We took care of air travel, and when we landed, Tauck took over. This is our ride to the Hotel.
I had never ridden in a Tesla before. I loved it.
Teachers waiting to get their children across to the Park.
Tauck had put us at the Napoleon Hotel; coincidentally, Napoleon is one of AdventureMan’s historical favorite generals. It felt like a good omen, and upon arrival, we loved it. First, we loved the location, with a view of both the Arch of Triumph and the Eifel Tower. We loved that just steps away was an entry to one of the best Metro interchanges in Paris. We loved that it was surrounded by sweet restaurants, something for everybody. I loved that it had great air conditioning. I was delighted that it was a 7-minute walk to my favorite shoe store, Arche. At first, I was not a fan of our room, with a view of a courtyard, but I do like to sleep, and we slept wonderfully in this quiet, peaceful room.
Paris was hot and sticky. We were hot and sticky. We showered. We took a quick nap and then we were eager to get out and enjoy a little Paris.
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