As usual, I started adjusting to the time change quickly. I was up before 6am, and knowing it’d be a while until everyone else was up, I went out to explore a bit. After taking the Metro southwest and walking through the area by the Louve and by Notre Dame (which had a major fire months earlier and was mostly blocked off), I took a bus south of the Seine to Laurent Duchene, a bakery that is said to have some of the best croissants in Paris. I’d heard a story on it on NPR not long ago. After picking up treats for all of us, I took the Metro back to the hotel where everyone was slowly waking up.
Because of the time change, it took everyone a while to get going. We didn’t leave the hotel several hours later (early afternoon), but that was fine with me because I wanted to have as relaxing as a time as we could, with no real agenda. We walked over to the Porte de Vincennes Metro stop and took the yellow line over to Saint-Paul and walked south on to Ile Saint-Louis, a pedestrian island with hotels, shops, and restaurants. We had lunch at Le Sarrasin et le Fromente, where I enjoyed a duck salad with a glass of rose and the girls had crepes.
We meandered over to Notre Dame, where we got as close as we could with the construction taking place, snapping a few photos. From there we strolled along the Seine, enjoying the beauty of the architecture and scenery. While we didn’t go in, though plan to on another trip, we checked out the pyramid at the Louvre.
Adjacent is Tuileries Garden, a large park just northwest of the Louvre. We sat at a large fountain and played with the small sailboats for a while, and then strolled through the park where we found a playground for the girls to play on for a while. They met another girl around their age whose parents were French, but they lived in England and were in town on vacation also. They didn’t want to leave her! The last highlight of the day was riding the carousel in the park with her. While I can’t remember what we all had for dinner that night, there is a picture that shows that I picked up a delicious carrot salad and marinated clams for myself, along with a bottle of rose.
Bryant Boondoggles 