My aunt grace celebrated her 90th birthday while I was in New Zealand and so I suggested she might like a trip to Paris to make up for my absence. The downside being I would go along too!
We met up in the champagne bar at St Pancras and had a celebratory glass before catching the Eurostar. The train was very crowded something of a surprise to me for a 2pm Tuesday departure. Fortunately all went to plan and we arrived at the Gare du Nord around 5.30pm Paris time and caught a taxi to our Hotel in the Boullevard Raspaill close to St Germain de Pres. Our room on the 6th floor was pleasant not very large but good bathroom and space for clothes which were distributed around before we set off for a little explore finding a typical bar to have a glass of wine
before we went and had a very good supper in a recommended local restaurant, Grace enjoying a chocolate pudding to die for!
One of the places Grace particularly wanted to visit was the Musee D'Orsay where there is a special Manet exhibition being held at the moment, so after a very good buffet breakfast we set off to walk the short distance passing a lovely flower shop on the way.
The queues at the museum were staggering so we decided to try another day somewhat earlier(!) and therefore jumped on a hop-on-hop-off bus and had a wonderful scenic tour to Place de la Concorde with it's obelisk,
the Champs Elysee up to the Arc de triumph, round to the Trocadero and Pallais Chaillet and Tour Eiffel.
We carried on past the Hotel Des Invalides
and Rodin Museum before returning over the Seine again to the Grand Palais with a special glass and girder roof.
This was followed by the Place de Madelaine, Opera and of course the Louvre.
At Notre Dame we changed onto a different hop-on-hop-off bus to Place de la Bastille where we alighted and walked to Place des Vosges which I'm not sure I had visited before where we stopped for a late lunch, listening to a violinist, very
civilised,
before visiting the Musee Carnavalet which houses much about the history of Paris and we wandered around for sometime before catching some buses back to close to the hotel arriving around 7pm, a long day. We tried a different restaurant also good but perhaps not such great value before taking a slightly circuitous route back to the hotel via Les deux Magots and Flores on the Boulevard St Germain, haunts of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemmingway and Pablo Picasso. We didn't stop as they are now rather more of an expensive tourist attraction.
On Thursday as we still had access to the hop-on-hop-off buses we decided to leave the Manet until our last day when it wasn't available and set off on foot to the Musee Cluny another on Grace's list to see the Lady with the Unicorn series of tapestries.
They were magnificent as was the whole museum about the middle agesset in a wonderful building.
We got the bus up to do a circuit including Montmartre, stopping off to visit Sainte Chappelle with it's amazing stained glass windows
and lovely ground floor arches
before stopping near the church of Sacre Coeur taking the funiculaire rather than attempting the steps (I was pleased!)
after having lunch in a little bistro nearby. The views of Paris are stunning but the church was rather crowded and the lighting of the Christ figure not as dramatic as I remembered it from previous visits.
We then had to rush to get to the base of the Eiffel Tower to pick up a boat for our Champagne tasting cruise! Catching an interesting sculpture on the way.
Another treat and it was a joy, 3 different champagnes including one Grand Cru with top-ups and good views of the river.
We only managed a few steps to the most local restaurant for supper but it was full of French people eating and a very enjoyable meal.
Already our last day, up early to check out and walk to the Manet, still a queue but not quite so big and we got in, enjoying both Manet and in my case a pre-raphaelite exhibition comparing early photo's taken at the same time with the pictures, which was also good. The D'Orsay was originally a train station which makes the inside different and has a lovely impressionist section too. We then caught a boat along with some 'old people' who made Grace look my age(!) for a final lunchtime cruise
we had vouchers for an aperitif so Kir Royale's arrived and then 3 courses and coffee for just over £30 a head with an hour and twenty minute cruise, a bargain! While we were afloat I got this lovely picture of the Eiffel tower looking somewhat out of place!
Also this bridge where there are railway tracks on the top and a road underneath with large hanging lights.
Plus a picture of these lovely ladies enjoying the ride.
Time to wend our way back to the hotel and then onto the station for our trip back home, a lovely and memorable short break to a beautiful city and I'm not sure if it's the depression or our ages but the Parisiens were amazingly polite!
