Sharon and I are at home now, but I will finish the updates to the blog for rest of the days.
Wednesday was a very full day. Elisabeth continues to be in
pain, but she is still downstairs each morning to greet us. The day began
with a morning tour of the Marais with Chris, another local guide, who was subbing
for Elisabeth. He was very good. Funny and informative.
Unfortunately, there is not much happening in the Marais in the mornings. The Place des Voges was very
quiet. The tour ended about noon at the St. Paul metro stop. We
did some shopping on rue St Antoine. Sharon found the little boutique that
Gisell recommended (La Vasilleries) and Bonnie found the BHV. And the really important aspect is they have
good WC's.
After that, we went for lunch at Creperie Bourbourg by the
Stravinsky Fountain. Crepes were great and the fountain was
actually working, so that was fun to see. Steve was able to order a
gluten free buckwheat beer. Very tasty.
Next we took the metro up to Republique to find a bike shop so
Steve could get a Tour de France jersey. He struck up a good
conversation with the people in the shop, so that was fun for him.
The next thing on the agenda was an evening visit to the Louvre.
We did not go all the way back to the hotel to connect with the group,
but we promised Elisabeth that we would take a break before meeting them under
the inverted pyramid at 5:15 pm. For the break, we found La Cafeotheque,
another one of Giselle's recommendations. Chris had pointed it out on our
morning tour, but it was still a challenge to find it again. The coffee
was totally worth it and we did make it to the Louvre on time.
Sylvia, yet another local guide led us on the tour. Sylvia was
good, but the tour was REALLY long. We did not finish until after 8:00 pm,
and we still had 2 metros to get to our group supper which was supposed to
start at 8:00. Sylvia was very enthusiastic!
When we did finally arrive at La Terrasse, Elisabeth was waiting
and it was another fun evening and delicious meal for all. Great tomato
and mozzarella salad to start, chicken brochettes and rice for the plat and a
wonderful chocolate cake for dessert. We were the last to leave for
the walk home. After 11:00 pm again!
Hard to believe but we got into bed a little earlier that evening. Even harder to believe that it is almost Friday which is our last full day of the official tour. It has gone by really fast.
We do have a good group!
The lobby of the hotel is the gathering place for each day.
Here we are getting introduced to Chris for the first tour of the day.
Some of the street graffiti.
Chris is talking again about the Wallace public drinking fountains. The story goes that before this place in time, drinking the water was not a good idea. Highly contaminated. They found a water table that provided safe drinking water and these public fountains tried to encourage the public to drink water instead of wine and other distilled spirits.
By the way, tap water was what we drank. It was very good.
The Stravinsky Fountain
Lunch at Creperie Bourbourg.
Just outside the Creperie Bourbourg and around the Stravinsky Fountain.
The Pompidou. Amazing structure.
Some of our Metro stops.
This is the La Cafeotheque that Giselle recommended. The best (at least for us) coffee we had in Paris. This place took its time making the prefect coffee. No contest to see how fast they could make one.
Plus a little bite to eat to get us to dinner at 8.
Into the Louvre we go to connect with the rest of the group.
For some reason, the Louvre does not encourage sitting. They don't provide places to sit. In fact, the don't let you even sit on the floor. Just after this, one of the official Louvre people made us get off the floor.
Some of the original foundations that the Louvre was built on.
After the tour, we made it back to La Terrasse where we had our dinner.
And that was Wednesday.
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