Pay Attention in French Class! - July 4, 2010

 July 4

We wake up and realize that it’s 11:30! Whoa! Apparently the not sleeping during the night, makes you sleep during the morning. Since our itinerary was open, we didn’t miss anything! :)

After a quick shower (in the itsy bitsy shower stall) we head out to find some food (we have a theme here don’t we?) We walk over the bridge (one of many bridges) and see the Hotel de Ville (City Hall). This is not just any City Hall… but I’m too hungry too look for too long. We attempt to read some more menus in French. (I reject the one with lapin on the menu) and find a little place selling baguettes with meat and veggies. Perfect. For the bargain price of under 10 Euros, Steve and I have our breakfast/lunch.

Then we start walking again and find this very cool tower. What is it you ask? Who knows? All the signs are in French.  (Note to kids: Pay attention in French Class!) From the sign I figure out that it is the tower of St. Jacques, there was a church, it was demolished… and that’s about it.  It turns out it is called the Tour St. Jacques and it was built in 1523. It did used to be attached to a church but the only thing that remains is the amazing tower. (See my French isn’t that bad?) Steve goes back to his favourite hobby, but we’re both still a little disappointed how pictures don’t really capture the true magnificence of what we are seeing.

Note to all readers: You HAVE to come here yourself to truly appreciate it!

We keep walking back to the Hotel de Ville and admire the building and the fountains. I also get to admire the little girl dancing and chasing the birds while Steve takes more pictures :)

We head further down the Seine and see another amazing building… What is it we wonder? It has big L’s carved into the building… of course, it has to be a building dedicated to me! Nope, it’s the Louvre! We didn’t go in, but are definitely coming back to go in later this week. We continue on our trek and see more buildings that are part of the Louvre (it’s immense) and the famous glass pyramid. We take the obligatory picture with the pyramid in the background (but not the one where you pretend you are holding the top of the pyramid) and carry on with our walk.

We come to the Jardin des Tuileries. It has a little amusement park for the kids, which houses the giant ferris wheel. Steve and I watch for a while to decide if we can stomach the ride. We both agree that we can, but decide we’d rather go in the evening when the city is lit up. We continue walking through the gardens and just enjoy being on vacation.

I wonder how many people enjoying the park were tourists and how many were actual Parisians? There were so many people just sitting, talking, reading, lounging in the sun (and the shade) and generally relaxing. I like the feel of this place.

We decide to walk back on the other side of the river and admire many more buildings, bridges, businesses and people along the way.

Steve’s plan for this evening is a picnic by the Seine. He’s already got the baguette and the wine. Who am I to argue with a plan like that???

Steve and I had our first Picnic along the Seine. I say first, because I quickly became addicted to the idea. We had some wine, fruit, pain au chocolat, a baguette and found a place along the Seine to sit down. I was surprised at the number of people picnicking along the river. There were 100's if not 1000’s… and many of them had a bottle of wine out. We briefly wondered if it was legal to drink outside… but the more wine I drank the less I wondered if I was breaking the law! I am definitely up for more picnics!