July 3 - 9 , 2015 in Paris

Six Nights in Paris - 3 - 9 July 2015

After a wonderful week in Barcelona, we took a high speed train to Paris. I’m sure we could have flown there more quickly, but I thought it would be more interesting to see the country side heading along the Mediterranean and then up north through France. We arrived at one of the downtown stations and took the Metro to Saint Paul’s. From there it was a short, nice walk across a bridge or two to Il Saint Louis, which is the second of the two islands in the middle of the River Seine. The first island holds the Notre Dame Cathedral and is better known. Il Saint Louis is filled with lovely buildings, shops and restaurants and is very central. Here's the view down the street from our apartment window.

Crossing one bridge put us on the Left Bank and St Germain neighborhoods of restaurants and art galleries; crossing another bridge put us on the Right Bank and heading towards the Louvre, gardens and shopping areas. We even had a french cat living in one of the restaurants a few doors down from us. 

One of our favorite things about living on Il Saint Louis was walking back from dinner each night. We would walk back passing either in front or behind Notre Dame. This was our view on the 4th of July at sunset looking down the Seine from one of the bridges to our island. 

On the Sunday that we were in Paris, we attended a service at the church on our island and walked to Notre Dame to listen to the choir there, also. Seeing modern windows in an old, traditional cathedral such as Notre Dame was unexpected and breathtaking for me.

Later that day, we walked to Sainte Chapelle, built by King Louis IV and one of the only churches in Paris consisting of primarily stained glass.

I had booked most of our dinners via Trip Advisor on-line before we left. I like to try “foodie” restaurants and while in Paris, I wanted to try some of the best restaurants there.  So, every evening, Alle and I returned to our small flat, changed into less touristy clothes and tried some great Paris restaurant. Most of them were really good; our favorite was Pur in the Four Seasons Hotel near the Paris Opera House. All of the special Parisian treats we tried were really good as well, such as macaroons at La’Duree and Mont Blancs (a ground chestnut dessert) at Angelina’s.  Luckily, the best ice cream in Paris was just down the street from us on our own island at Berthillon.

We did all of the traditional Paris tourist things to do, I think. We took a boat tour down the Seine. We visited the Eiffel Tower.

We toured all of the Impressionist art we could find at the Musee d’Orsay, L’Orangerie

and Musee Marmatton. We looked at the exterior of the Louvre, but did not go inside. We assumed that we needed at least three days to do it justice and I have seen it before. We took great walks all around our island, around the gardens of Tuileries

and Palais Royal, 

the new galleries of Bastille, and interesting shopping areas. Here is the entry to one of the traditional indoor shopping areas, Galerie Vivienne, the precursor to our shopping malls, but so much more civilized. 

We could have spent any number of more days in Paris; there was still so much to see and do.