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Thursday, October 6, 2005

High above, then floating by

» Posted by Jon at 11:45 pm :: Comments (0)

Our evening finished with a boat ride that got us plenty of Eiffel Tower shots.

Day 2: Monday

We start with Notre Dame, taking the Metro down to the only station on the old Ile de Cite. Get there early (bought the Carte Musees to get us into just about whatever we want for the next five days) and we may have been in the first group allowed in the towers.

Let's take pictures of gargoyles and the landscape of the City of Lights. Then we come down, look around the facade, head inside (still taking pictures by the way) then around the side for a few more shots of rose windows and buttresses and the gardens in back.

We stopped into the park of the Deportation Memorial, but didn't get a chance to go down to the main part because it was already past noon.

So we figured, it was time for lunch, which took us to Ile St. Louis and the Flore en l'Ile, one of the first cafes over the bridge, but we took time to walk a few side streets first.

Jen had soup l'onion. I had quiche du moment and a salad.

Then it was time to walk: through the Latin Quarter and St. Severin, place St. Michel, up to Saint Chappelle (the one with all the stained glass windows, as you can see below) and the Concergerie, across the Pont Neuf and back across to the Left Bank on the Pont des Arts.

Eventually we got to St. Germain des Pres and had crepes: gnutella and creme de marron, which turns out be chestnut butter. Pretty good, sweet, kind of thick.

We worked in a short visit to St. Sulpice, the home of two towers, one unfinished, and a large fountain ringed by lions. Then down to the Luxembourg Gardens, which we got chased out of at closing time, and headed toward the Pantheon and decided on dinner: Restaurant Perrinaud, with a lovely three-course prix fixe menu.

I chose escargots, salmon in a soral sauce (creamy with spinach and very tasty) and tart tatin (yes, a giant apple tart with a cream sauce). Jen agreed to have the fois gras, but selected a main course of beof bourginnois and dessert of the ever-popular profiddorles.

Then we walked back down to the river. (The restaurant, practically in the shadow of the Pantheon, was on a street that leads right to the front of Notre Dame.) So started the round of nighttime photography. We hung out there for a bit before heading to one of the boat companies near the Pont Neuf (Les Vedettes du Pont-Neuf) for a cruise around the River Seine.

Down past Notre Dame and the Arab Institute, then up past the Louvre all the way until we turn around at the Tour Eiffel, which twinkled away on its hourly light show.

» Filed under: Paris, Photolog

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