So we started relaxed into our first full day in Paris. What better aspect of a promising day, than picking a great place for breakfast. And that we successfully managed. Our quest led us to Sacre Coeur on Montmartre, to Bon Jo. Markus decided to start classical with Croissant au beurre and Juli took an almost Shakshuka like Ratatouille with eggs and tomato on top. Served in a quite open touristy environment with an excellent Chai tea.
We decided to experience the 18th district of Paris on foot and take a guided walk with the free audiotour “le walk”. A great way to see and listen – learn about diverse neighbourhoods with different building styles or a man coming out of a wall that was inspired by a famous book.
The walk took us from Sacré-Cœur around the church towards La Boheme and on the backside to “la maison rose” further to one of the few remaining parisienne vinyards Clos Montmartre – in the city – good for around 1.000-1.500 bottles and an important place for many as it is a key place for the Fete des Vendanges de Montmartre. The tour brought us further among statues, street art, the man who walked through walls based on a french tragedy by Marcel Aymé (Le Passe-muraille).
"Its notes take flight from his numb fingers and penetrate to the heart of the stone like drops of moonlight."
All of this combined with mostly stable weather led us to the parisienne Zoo where we could watch a small but lovely selection of animals from reptiles to spiders to monkeys and apes, large kangaroos and tapirs down to a leopard. Several of the animals were hard to spot, sometimes too hard for us. Still very worthwile and then we picked a (not so) small snack to share for us…
The savoury ganach “greek” was a local recommendation from a food blogger Juli saw for the journey preparation. Our choice was okay, probably not the best from the menu, still enjoyable and definitely enough for two to share if you’re not out for a large meal.
From there we decided to have a small stopover at a boulangerie/patisserie and enjoyed a few treats (and a seat) before we decided to go for the Seine and a boat trip. The weather decided to cost us a few minutes on the way, but we were protected at the French Pantheon from the suddenly very heavy rain.
The following streets led us through a comic-manga-gaming intense area with countless stores hording geek-stuff – games, comics and especially a multitude of figurines. Star Trek? Star Wars? Asterix? Disney? All there – and I mean ALL!
A good 45min headstart before our boat we decided to take a seat and wait for boarding – a proably good decision that ensured we would have a great seat with exceptional view for the planned 75min river cruise. Turned out it would be a bit longer, due to a passenger fainting and a water-police support that followed the medical emergency. But Paris seen from water is an exceptional experience that we highly recommend. We passed the touristy must-sees like La Tour Eiffel, La Cathedrale de Notre Dame, Place de la Concorde, Museé d’Orsay, etc. And thanks to a quick summer rain we got a perfect picture of a rainbow over a bridge.
After debording around 20.00 we decided, let’s finish the day with a japanese dinner with surprisingly fishy ramen, excellent noodles and an excessively decorated restaurant in the style of a japanese fish market.
Finally we took the bus 85 back to our appartment and decided around 22:30 to call it a day – tomorrow after all – we’ll be seeing Le Louvre!