Paris 2022 - Day 2

As my vacation went on, I had no will to work on my blog nightly. 

I completed the entries after I got home.

Steps: 29 531 / 19.2km

So close, and yet so far from 30k!!!  I'm tempted to just walk down to the lobby and back just to put it over 30k! 

Again today, I'm not going to "bother" uploading pictures...  too tired! If you are reading this with pictures, you'll know I went back to do some work.

After our interrupted sleep last night, we woke up just after 7AM and were on the road by 8:15. Perfect.

We had breakfast at a cute café near our hotel, the same place we went for capps last night, but they were pretty rude this morning, like we were interrupting them. We won't be back for breakfast, besides, I don't like to repeat restos on vacation anyway; the proximity to the hotel just made it convenient, but we are hardly starving for options

Our first stop was St Trinity Church, which shockingly we don't remember ever visiting on previous trips, but it was covered for renovations.  BOOOO!

  

Next, the Paris Pagoda:

Then, Parc Monceau for a view of the Arc de Triomphe from a particular spot.  

I think people are not using regular phone-cams to capture this image; mine is quite simple by comparison. Can you even see the arc? HA!

From there, we walked to the Arc to gawk at it a little from a distance, we didn't explore it more on this trip.....

.... and onwards to Bois de Boulogne. The Jardin d'Acclimatation has been on my list of things to see for a few trips, so I was happy to cross that item off. It's really mostly a kiddy amusement park / zoo, we did a swing through without doing any of the rides. It was cute overall and the walk was nice.

Next stop was lunch back near the Arc, and as just like when I am home, the place is empty when I arrive and packed when I leave. It's so enjoyable to eat outside when the weather cooperates. For us that means, not hot and not in the direct sun. 

With our full bellies, we waddled to the Trocadero for some iconic Eiffel Tower pictures, but most of it was cordoned off for renos, and even the peekaboo windows were marred by Love Locks so we did not see much from that spot!

We crossed the Bir Hakim Bridge... and did get the Tower from that angle....

 

.... then over to the Ecole Militaire to take images of the tower from that angle, but no, FOILED AGAIN! a new building blocked those views too! All you can see is the tippy top. We'll come back another day to try again.

We stopped for a liquid fuel break at one of my favourite cafes in the area (Tourville) 

 Sauternes for me!

We walked passed the Invalides Dome on the way to our next destination, no lingering this time since we've explored it in detail on previous visits. 

Next was St Clotilde Church - another place we never managed to see on any previous trips - amazing! 

Then, it was off to get pictures of the Continent Statues at Musée d'Orsay. It was a challenge due to the school groups that used the same area as a gathering place. I intended to wait them out but it took too long so I ploughed in and just asked them to kindly move over.  They were really nice about it, and I overheard a few of them say how much they like my accent. Cute.

Europe - Asia - Africa

North  America - South America - Oceania

Frank unfortunately got a huge blister on his heel, and it broke at that moment so he had a hard time walking for a bit. We therefore stopped for another drink near St Michel to take a load off.

Afterwards, we walked around Notre Dame, taking in as much as we could since it's mostly behind scaffolding. It was quite something to see all the images of the fire damage on the information panels erected all around it.

Our last stop was supper at another one of my favourite cafés (Les Deux Palais). 

Bring on the cheese!

We took the metro home after that, too tired and achy to walk. Frank got pickpocketed!!! Some guy tried to steal his phone, but he caught him right away and when he yelled out: "hey! my phone!" the guy gave it back just like that. Wow! lucky break! I still feel my anxiety levels rise when I think of what could have been!

After that drama, we both noticed that everyone around us were wearing masks - except for us! Whops! OMG. After ONE day we lost the habit.  We quickly put them on, hoping no one around us would curse us out. 

We wanted to stop for a coffee before calling it a day, but the place we had in mind was full so we took it as a sign and turned in.

Good night!

Paris 2022 - Day 1

As my vacation went on, I had no will to work on my blog nightly. 

I completed the entries after I got home.

 Steps: 19 076 / 12.05 km

Here we are! Back in Europe after a 2.5 year absence!

How does it feel? Familiar. We said we wanted something easy for our "first trip back" so we picked Paris. I swear to God it feels like I just went downtown from home because Paris is so familiar to us that it's like not being on vacation, but rather it's our home away from home.

The flight over was ok, of course we all had to wear masks the whole time but it was no big deal. In the city, all Covid restrictions are lifted and BOY does it ever feel weird not to wear a mask!... for a second and a half.  I said I would wear one in crowded settings, and I did put it on when I went inside the Samaritain shopping center to get pictures of the atrium, but every where else: Forget it. I have to admit that's out of sheer laziness. It's really amazing that after all this time, we so easily revert back to our previous behaviours without a second through. Frankly, I'll be amazed if I DON'T catch Covid...  the vibe here now (to me) is as if it never even happened.

We arrived at our hotel today around noon and only had to wait about 30 minutes for the room to be prepared. It's nice, small, clean, and well situated - we'll be very comfortable I am sure.

The room is so narrow mind you, that you can't open the bathroom door all the way because it buts up against the bed. On the other side, you have to crab walk to get into the bed and your body almost always drags the curtains open! I slept on the window-side and after a while, I just crawled over the bed to get in.

Once we unpacked, we hit the ground running but because it was raining I didn't bother with many pictures; too hassly to fumble with a camera, phone, and umbrella. Because I didn't want to takeout my phone, that also meant no map so it was an aimless wander until we popped out of the maze of streets at the Opera House... sorry, no pictures.

We stopped in at Café de la Paix for a drink and to dry my feet, then onwards to the Seine and the newly re opened (after being closed for reno for 10-something years) Samaritaine. WOW! what a beautiful space!

The rain pretty much stopped by then, so the picture taking frenzy commenced. Today was the only rainy day in the forecast, so I'll be spamming you all as usual on Facebook I'm sure! I have to admit that while the camera does take better pictures than my phone, I'm really lazy about all the fiddling in the settings. I like "point and shoot" and really, if that's all I plan on doing anyway, I might as well just use my phone.

After Samaritaine, we walked to St Germain and went to Brasserie Lipp for supper. Delicious, but it kicked my ass HARD! I was a dead woman walking after all the food and zero sleep since the day before! (I think I got 2 hours tops of sleep on the plane)

Cervelat sausage, my favourite! but so smothered in a Dijon mayonnaise sauce I think I scrapped 90% of it off!

Tuna Steak

Goat cheese + Butter

We poked into the St Germain Church across the street, the renovations are astounding! I have seen it looking run down, and under wraps, but now to see it in it's new glory is a treat for the eyes

 

We walked back to the hotel afterwards, it's about a 45 minute walk, cameras clicking away....

Close to the hotel, we stopped at a near by café for a last coffee before calling it a night. 

We collapsed into deep sleep by 8PM....  then WIDE AWAKE at midnight! Both of us not tired even a little! So, in the hopes of wearing myself out, I decided to just get up and set up my blog instead of lying in bed staring at the ceiling.

I am not going to try and upload pictures in this post for now. It takes to long and I do want to get back to sleep eventually, I am starting to feel droopy again, but mainly because I don't want the frustration of a bad connection putting me in a cranky mood at 2AM! So, if you are reading this post and it includes pictures, you'll know it's already a few days later :)

I hear Frank snoring away now, so he managed to fall back asleep...  my turn now!

Good night