France 2023 - Day 9 / Paris

Steps today : 28 368 / 18.7 km

Yet another rainy morning. bleh.

Today we had breakfast close to the hotel at a café my mom remembered from her last visit, but it was a let down. Was it because her expectations were too high, or because it really wasn't that good - who knows.

Unlike yesterday where all the cafés seemed to be closed, this one was open and ready to feed us just after 7:30AM

I even had eggs (& ham)...  that looked like boobs!

Next, my mom wanted to see the "Hotel des Ursins" which was on the tip of Ile de la Cité, but I thought it was the tip of Ile St Louis so it was a bit more rain walking that anticipated.

On the way, we saw some interesting views of the Notre Dame Reconstruction

After a detour, finally the destination - built in 1958 and made to look medieval. I wasn't motivated to take more pictures

A rainy wet view of Hotel de Ville

A rainy wet view of the Centre Pompidou

Still rainy and gloomy, we stopped for a coffee.  We had the place to ourselves!

Next we visited the Saint Merry church which I have been meaning to visit on multiple trips but never got around to it. Here was my ideal opportunity.

The Carnavalet Museum was next on the list, the museum of the history of Paris from prehistoric times to the present. It's huge and FREE! I visited many vacations ago, then it was closed for about 5 years  for renos. Frankly there is too much to see and after a while nothing sank in anymore. If I ever go back, I'll start at the section dedicated to the French Revolution, fascinating but my brain was closed by the time we got there today.

Time for lunch after this, and all we wanted to do was get out of the wind. I've been here before a few times to enjoy a drink outside, but inside it's practically in a diner - I didn't bother taking pictures.

When we were done there, we headed off to Place des Voges to have a drink, but the restos were all still full of diners having lunch so we couldn't get in anywhere. We walked around a bit, but it wasn't that pleasant because of the wind. The Victor Hugo House didn't tempt us either - too many tourists!

We walked around for about 30 minutes or so, but the rain had picked up again so we ducked into a café to wait it out. You know what I ordered... What else but Kir Pêches? It was just after 3PM

When the rain finally stopped, we emerged and enjoyed the dry weather and beautiful Paris architecture!

The Patisserie Stroher has been on my list for many trips now, but I'm never hungry when I am close to it! Today was no exception. One of these days I'll make it in for a dessert. Baba au Rhum is the thing to have here, it seems they invented it.

By about 5PM the blue skies were making an appearance, and we made our way to the Palais-Royal

And of course when you're in that area, you have to get pictures of this metro entrance! "Le Kisoque des Noctambules". I got a little experimental, taking a shot towards the sky from down the staircase.

If you look in the background on the left side of the first picture, you can see a glimpse of the big mirrored building erected to hide the construction behind it. I wish I taken a picture of it and went to look at it up close.

Now that the sun was out and we had blue skies, I suggested a drink stop. My mom reluctantly agreed to sit outside and it was nice! I ordered a boozy coffee, but instead I got hot chocolate, whipped cream and GM on the side. OK, whatever, go with the flow...  but I am not a chocolate lover so it was kind of wasted on me.

We headed back towards the neighbourhood around the hotel for supper. Check out these love locks people are desperate to affix to the foot bridge! You can't quite tell from the picture, but you have to practically hang off the bridge to reach! People are nuts.

Once near the hotel, we went on a typical tourist menu reading expedition, and enjoyed the Saint Sulpice church and fountain. We explored the inside on our last visit, so didn't bother tonight.

Predictably for supper, we ended up back at the first place we checked. I wasn't that hungry since I  practically had dessert with that hot chocolate, so it was some simple favourites tonight. Saucisson & Butter sandwich, red wine, and goat cheese for dessert which was much bigger than anticipated - poor me!

Another full day. I can't remember anymore how I was feeling vis-à-vis my cold that day...  but spoiler alert: it wasn't over!