Wednesday and Thursday, August 13-14--Paris or as we French say, "Ahhh, Paree!"

We had spent some time and anguish, angst galore on figuring out how we would get from Bern to Paris.  Our agent had us on a 8.5 hour, 4 transfer journey that would get us to Paris at close to 9:00 P.M. - oh dear, not how we care to spend our day.  We inquired as to option A, B or C and found that for the low, low price of $120.00, we could take the fast train to Paris - 4.5 hours, zero transfers arriving at 1:30 - DEAL!!!!  Who do I make the check out to?

We hit the land of the Parisians where attitude takes precedence over substance, where Euro's talk and manners walk, where history sits on every corner and us Americans sit on the back of the tram.  Our hotel, the Chardonne is in the Eiffel district of Paris and we can actually see the top of the iconic tower.  The room is small but fine and we are truly amazed at how small they are building bathrooms in France these days - the shower is a marvel or as I believe, you need to have lost your "marvels" to consider taking a shower there!  We took our nap, had a true French dinner, complete with Vin and real french bread and then walked down to see the Seine and Eiffel tower for the first time.

Yes, it's a REAL French poodle

Memorial to the 1400+ Jews taken from Paris in 1942 and killed

Made it to the Eiffel Tower

The Seine

We had purchased a small book of walking tours of Paris before we left home and I can honestly say that it was worth hauling it all over Europe.  Each walk covered 3 to 7 miles of an area of Paris or it's surrounds and took between a half to a full day to cover.  Our problem...there are 12 walks and we have only 5 days!!  Decisions, choices, compromises...Wow, it wears me out just thinking about it and the decisions are made, in the can, a fait accompli at the writing.  Anyhow, each morning, we would pick a journey, adjust it on the fly as needed and experienced Paris to, as they say to "Le max!"

We saw some of the icons and lots of stuff that is less well known but the term "jaw-dropping" comes to mind.  We did have rules and standards which went: 1) No hassle, keep your mellow. 2) Avoid crowds at all costs. 3)  Mandatory ice cream breaks and 4) See rule 1.

These rules seemed to work well for us.  We averaged 3 to 7 miles walking per day.  We got confident and at ease in using the Paris metro/bus system.  It is so easy to get from one side of the city to the other.  We met people from the 4 corners of the globe - China, Pakistan, Indonesia, Romania, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Poland and of course, the good old U.S. of A.  Many of them were surprised to find that we were doing this on our own and not via tour.  For us, it was so much better coming and going when we wanted.  If we were enjoying our space, we gave it the time it deserved.  If a space was less then ideal, folks would only see the dust and our taillights fading away.

Our first journey was to the Latin Quarter and university area (The Sorbonne).  We bought our three day pass for the transportation system and headed down into the Metro.  We came up for air at the entrance to "Jardin de Plantes".  This garden was established in 1626 as a source of medicinal plants for Louis XIII.

Statue of Buffon

In the rose garden

Path through the garden.  At the end is a museum

Path lined with trees.

Our next stop was the "Arenes de Lutece"  It is an ancient Roman amphitheater that was discovered and dug up in the 1800's.

Gladiators used to fight lions in this arena

Our next stop was supposed to be a street called "Rue Rollin".  The book said "climb the few steps"......  We looked around, went in several directions and retraced our steps and finally found the few steps.   OK, not so few

Where is Rue Rollin???

Here it is.....at the top of the stairs!  We are Rollin!

Finally!!!

Rue Rollin led us to a beautiful city square ringed by restaurants.  We chose the one recommended in the book and were not disappointed......Yummy French Onion Soup!

Lovely square

Panorama from our table

Look at all that cheese!

On the way to the Pantheon

We continued on our journey to the St Etienne Chuch (unfortunately not open) and the Pantheon.

Outside of St. Etienne

Talking to a woman who had extensive knowledge of French Churches.....she seemed a little obsessed.

The Pantheon

They are repairing the dome

Panorama of the Pantheon and surrounding buildings

Weird statue in the square, a great place to stop for a humor shot

We continued our walk past the Sorbonne, established in the 1200's.

We continued to the Musee de Cluny.  A former residence of the Abbots of Cluny.

The only surviving Gothic building in Paris

We found ourselves by the river Seinne and across the bridge is the Cathedral of Notre Dame.....one of the most famous churches in the world.  It was surrounded by tourists and the line to get in stretched for (seemingly) miles, so we didn't go in.  But what an impressive building.

Angels climbing the steeple

Amazing structure

From the bridge.  We did not cram ourselves onto a boat.

Details on the cathedral

Entrance.....too many tourons

Oops.....go the other way!

We went back to the Latin Quarter and did some shopping, saw an amazing fountain and one more church.....much older and smaller than Notre Dame.

Paris' narrowest street

Fountain.....we couldn't figure out who built it or why

Detail on the fountain

Street scene in the Latin Quarter

Fish Market

My new necklace

Jeff stops to smell the roses

Inside the little church

It was getting late and we were getting tired.  Jeff said that the last time he was in Paris, he enjoyed Greek food in the Latin Quarter.  We found a Greek restaurant and it was just as he remembered.....delicious.

Finally we found our way to the Metro station and got back to our little home and readied ourselves for another adventure the next day.