We got a welcome notification the morning of our departure (Tuesday, May 27) to let us know American Airlines had upgraded us to Business Class!!! The trip over was much more relaxing. Brenda slept about 5 hours, John less, and we both felt pretty chipper on our arrival into Paris.
We easily found our bus into downtown Paris, the Montparnasse Station and walked (A taxi refused to take us.) about 2 km to Hotel Sainte Beuve. Quite a nice place tucked into a good location but away from maddening crowds. We were into our room by 2pm.
The afternoon was filled with a Rick Steves walk beginning at Notre Dame on Ill de la Cite. Also included were Ile St. Louis, the Left Bank and Sainte-Chapelle. The skies were overcast and we had periods of mist and light rain and were glad when that all passed. Photo on right above shows Brenda’s new rain poncho, much needed at this point. Another Container Store purchase, no doubt.
Notre-Dame was begun in 1163 and had it’s first mass in 1345, 182 years in the making. And then it is was renovated 150 years ago. The cathedral will hold 10,000 people for mass. ‘Not sure there are than many practicing Catholics among the French these days.
This marker is front of the cathedral is the center of Paris and the center of France.
The other two photos are from the Deportation Memorial, dedicated to 200,000 French victims of the Nazi concentration camps
For dinner we looked at quite a few menus and took our chances. Brenda had salmon and John ate chicken and we were both pleased. We passed on dessert since we were both about to do a face plant because of fatigue.
Brenda was fast asleep by 9pm; John stayed up to do laundry and edit Blog photos.
Ann and I did the same walk in late April. Too bad we were not there at the same time as you are.
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