A Second Day in Paris

Saturday, August 21st, Paris

Last night we walked down the Champs Elysees and over to the Pont Alexandre over the Seine. It was almost a full moon and a really pretty night. We took some wine and beer with us and just leaned on the wall overlooking the Seine, enjoyed our drinks and took in the sights. There were lots of boat tours going by. The Eiffel Tower, all lit up, is visible from there as well as from a lot of other spots. On the way back we watched some breakdancers performing on the street for change.

This morning during breakfast in our hotel we had quite a chat with a lawyer from Beirut who is here on vacation. We tend to take for granted that with a Canadian passport we can travel to many countries without a visa. With a Lebanese passport it's not so simple. He has to plan ahead and apply for his visas before travelling, even though he has the money and personal freedom to travel on a whim. These talks with travellers from other countries are always interesting.

After breakfast we walked down the Champs Elysees to the Place de la Concorde where there is a big 3,300 year old Egyptian obelisk brought back to France in the early 1800s. Place Concorde From there we walked into the Jardin des Tuileries which is another huge garden that leads down toward the Louvre. These open spaces are immense. The Parisians have a knack for keeping huge boulevards and gardens between places like the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe, even though they're several kilometres apart. You can still see the Arc de Triomphe from the Place de la Concorde.

We took a side trip a few blocks to the Ste-Marie Madeleine church and then to the Place Vendome, which is a square surrounded by classic French architecture. Then we went back to the Jardins des Tuileries and on to the Louvre. We weren't interested in going in. There was a long line and we're really a bit art galleried and museumed out. It would probably take a week in the Louvre to do it justice anyway.

From there we walked down along the Seine to the Ile de la Cite, the island in the Seine from which Paris was born. At the far end we stopped at the Cathedral de Notre Dame. We heard the bells ring but we didn't see the Hunchback. It must be his day off.

From there we walked over to the Left Bank and wandered back up to the Louvre and then re-traced our steps, more or less, back to the Champs Elysees and late lunch (roast duck again) in a restaurant. On the way past the Louvre in the morning we met a guy who pretended to pick up a gaudy gold ring and then asked us if it belonged to us. We just kept going because this was obviously going to be some sort of scam. If we had said it didn't belong to us, no doubt he would have sold it to us "cheap". If we said it did belong to us, he'd probably want a finder's fee for returning it. Anyway, the amusing part was, he must have forgotten what we looked like because he tried it again with us on the way back. I guess all tourists start to look alike after awhile.

The Champs Elysees is one of the most famous shopping districts in the world. People line up to get into the Louis Vuitton store. Lots of people are getting pictures of themselves in front of Louis Vuitton or other high end shops. Near the Place Vendome we saw some stores that appeared to be for shopping by appointment only. This is all very weird. A lot of people seem to be dropping a lot of money just to buy some designer thing they don't need and be able to say they got it in Paris on the Champs Elysees.

After lunch we picked up some supplies at the Mono-Prix department store, which has groceries in the basement, and came back to cool down. It's another beautiful sunny day in the high 20s. We'll probably go out for another wander around this evening. Tomorrow we catch the train from Gare Montparnasse for Arcachon and a few days at the beach.