Well, it's been a really long day of exploring and tonight my feet and legs are feeling everyone one of the 20,000 plus steps I did today! My fitbit at one point told me I'd been active for 9 hours. Yep, seems about right, and we were still out walking!
We were up early to get down to some serious sight seeing. I had booked us a hop on - hop off boat tour on the Seinne. We found our way to the river via a stop at Notre Dame. I showed Patti and Meghan the beautiful garden on the opposite bank from the cathedral, only to learn it was the same area where we had toured the Christmas market back in December. I had absolutely no idea it was the same space.
Across from Notre Dame is a very famous book store called Shakespeare and Company, an English bookstore. I guess I'd forgotten an important fact about it until Patti reminded me. Back in the days that Julia Child first came to Paris she was wanting to learn to cook french food but couldn't find any french recipe books written in English. She would come here frequently in search of something she could learn from. It's a really interesting old shop that seems to go on forever. If you purchase something, they stamp the inside with a label that it's from their store.
I looked at several things but ended up finding a huge book on French Patisserie. The thing weighs a ton and Patti very graciously volunteered to carry it around for me for the rest of the day. I'm looking forward to going home and trying my hand at some of the recipes. They look amazing.
Once we were done there, it was onward to the boat. We got on at the Notre Dame stop and got off at the Muse d'Orsay, that I had tried to visit on Sunday when things were closed.
We had a specific time to visit the museum and we were early so we walked around to find somewhere to have some lunch. We settled on one of the many little restaurants and sat at a little table outside in the sun. Very french! Meg ordered a caesar salad that came loaded with large pieces of really tasty chicken and big chunky pieces of walnuts. It was delicious. Patti ordered a salad with ham and grilled goat cheese on top, equally delicious. I was thrilled to see carpaccio on the menu. It came with paper thin slices of beef arranged in a circle around the plate and topped with a beautiful salad. Also very delicious. Of course a large basket of bread accompanied everything.
Now that our energy level had been recharged, it was off to the museum. We had purchased our tickets early online so we didn't have to wait very long to get in but the line to purchase tickets was quite long.
I'm the first to admit I know absolutely nothing about art, but I'm picking up bits and pieces from Meghan as she's studying all the great artists in school.
After soaking in as much as we could, we got back onto the boat and floated down the river to the Eiffel Tower. We toured around there so Meghan could get the obligatory photos, as this was her first time to visit Paris.
Then it was off to find the right trains to get us back home. But first another stop to get something to eat for dinner. This time Patti ordered Salmon, which she really enjoyed, Meghan had a steak that came with the most amazing roasted tiny potatoes, and I was once again doing the very french thing and ordered the beef tartar. Two of my most favorite beef dishes in one day was just too amazing. It came with a small salad and some really great fries.
The french really do know what to do with a potato. Just over a block or so from the restaurant was a gluten free bakery so we had picked up some things there for Meg to have when we got home.
We had determined that it wasn't very far to get home so we opted to walk instead of taking the metro. After the meal I'd just eaten, that was a good choice. I've been amazed at the size of the portions. I expected them to be much smaller so we certainly got our euro's worth at each meal.
Finally arrived home, having taken a bit of a scenic route, tired but happy. It had been an amazing day for all.
Tomorrow, off to Versailles...
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