First things first…a traditional French breakfast…for Betsy
We spent the day walking The Marais and it was so interesting and beautiful. This area of Paris is filled with history, old world elegance, fancy shops, renowned restaurants and bakeries. The Jewish Quarter is lively and amazing. It is the epicenter of cool and hip, while also being quaint and old-school.
We left our Rick Steves guide at home and downloaded the Voice Map app and then bought the Marais tour of secret stories by Cory Frye (also known as the French Frye of Paris). It was fantastic. It allowed us to walk, look and listen, instead of having our nose in a book or map. We really enjoyed it.
From our nearby metro station, we were able to determine how to get the start of our audio walk simply by using the machine, which offered English as a language. Looks super simple, right? Would have been, except we turned the wrong way when we got off at the Bastille and ended up putting about a half-mile or so of walking in before we got to the right place. That’s okay, though. Today, we expect this to be easy breezy.
The Marais walk began and ended at St. Paul Church. At one time, the heart of King Louis XIV, the Sun King, was inside a reliquary in the church. However, it went missing during the revolution. Lore claims the heart was ground to make a color known as “mummy brown” and then used in the canvasses painted by Alexander Pau. Anyway, that’s just of many stories we’ve heard and read as we’ve toured Paris.
Now for Marais street scenes. Not many people out on a Tuesday, which suited us just fine. Plus it was overcast, but it was a great day to explore.
The other side of the Louvre
The Bastille
Betsy loves miniatures and found this in a shop window.
If one could gain weight looking at sweets and breads through windows, we would be waddling through Paris by now.
Piping meringues
One of the oldest bakeries in Paris, this shop is a regular contender for the best baguette in Paris
A Jewish bakery
Ooh la la, macaroons
We wasted an opportunity to have a delicious lunch yesterday just because we got a late start and then found ourselves hungry, so we plopped down in the first place we saw. Betsy did order a traditional French sandwich: a croque monsieur…basically ham and cheese. I made even a worse choice, a club sandwich with chicken. ugh
Our lunch table view
Betsy’s sandwich…I’m busy picking the boiled egg off of mine, and also removing slices of bread. It was such a mess on my plate the waitress asked me twice if it was okay. The chicken was quite delicious.
Back home to our apartment on Rue Cler, we hung out a while waiting for the big event of our evening…the sparkling of the Eiffel Tower.
Here are few of our street scenes.
I have to say something about these next two shots of a bar/restaurant here on Rue Cler. It’s really popular…and it looks fun, doesn’t it? Well, we can’t go there. Truth is, we did go there our very first day in Paris. We had a great table, but we just wanted drinks and they required that dinner be ordered. We looked over the menu…I wasn’t hungry yet and nothing looked good. Then I did it…something so rude I can’t even believe I did it. I got up, told the waiter (who was approaching with bread and olives for our table) that we weren’t going to stay. Betsy, meanwhile, was no where to be seen. As soon as I said let’s leave, she bolted. That look from the waiter has haunted me ever since. Every time we walk by the bar, and we have to all the time, we say that looks so fun…but not for us.
At 8:30 we headed to the Eiffel Tower to see the 9 p.m. sparkle show. We bought a bottle of champagne from some guys out there selling it for way too much money…we paid him less than he asked…but still too much for what amounted to a bottle of Andre or Cooks. Doesn’t matter, we enjoyed it.
Kim & Betsy 