We walked to the Voltaire Metro as today is the day we conquer the Metro. Well it was a lot easier than we thought and we were at the Champs Elysees in no time.
We walked the long walk up the street towards the Arc de Triomph. Along the way we happened upon a group of young girls all waiting to see- Ross Lynch of R5! We keep coming across this band.
We got to the Arc and headed up- via the many spiralled stairs! The view from the top was amazing- we could see all the way to the Eiffel Tower- our next destination.
We walked the stairs down and started the long walk down to the Eiffel Tower. It came into view quicker than I thought- although maybe not quick enough for Delaney (are we there yet?!)
We arrived and were starving by this time- it seemed on our walk down all bistros and cafes had disappeared and we were left with a lousy Eiffel Tower tourist trap sandwich place- it filled the gap and fuelled us for the CLIMB up! The line up for the stairs was a lot shorter than for the elevator so we stood there for 30 mins or so and then climbed to the 2nd level observation deck. The views of the city from here are spectacular. We looked around- caught our breath and had a rest. Then it was back down- Frank decided to walk down, while we caught the elevator down instead. Once at the bottom it was gelato time ;)
We headed to the nearby RER station- a double decker train that we caught to Notre Dame. We exited the train and there it was- so majestic. The line up looked long, but we were inside in no time. Wow, the stained glass windows are spectacular- unbelievably beautiful. We spent a long time walking around and admiring this 850 year old church. We were hoping to climb some more stairs and visit the tower top- but we were too late for the day! We walked down past the church to the bridge of locks- hundreds if not thousands of love locks on this bridge- quite the site to see. A left turn took us to St.Louis en I'lle- most of the building here were built in 1657- and a lot of the aristocracy lived here- very neat architecture.
We crossed back over to the North bank and walked up to the Shakespeare and Company book store- a quaint store filled with books old and new, nooks and crannies, and many walks of life. I great little treasure chest of books that is for certain.
After the book store we were in the Latin Quarter, a pretty amazing area, filled with boutiques, oodles of restaurants. We walked through the alleys and inhaled the sites and sounds, eventually finding ourselves in a little Italian bistro for diner. We were not able to get a seat on the sidewalk but were close enough to the street to see the sites, hear the sounds and smell the smells- mostly LOTS of cigarette smoke and sewage! It was a great dinner, followed by a visit to the confectionery store for some macaroons. Then we caught the metro back and were back here in the apartment by 10:30ish! That was a long day and a lot of walking- especially all the stairs- lets see how we feel tomorrow.
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