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  • Day 28

    Another glorious day in Par(ad)is(e)

    September 20, 2017 in France ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    The weather when we woke up was beautiful, so what's not to like about that? Going to our busy little cafe for breakfast, the proprietor seemed a little slow to take our order. Following the bad dinner experience of the previous night - though at a different restaurant - we were getting a little concerned when he suddenly appeared with Mary's cappuccino and Brian's double espresso, followed immediately afterwards by the rest of the Frencj breakfast. Clearly, he'd remembered us from our previous visits and didn't need to ask us what we wanted, and clearly too, we're established here. We could happily stay on in Paris.

    After the four of us hade breakfasted we decided that this would be a day for strolling round Paris and revisiting all the tourist spots. The 15-minute walk to the Eiffel Tower was a good start, and we spent quite a bit of time taking photos and generally soaking up the atmosphere on this beautiful autumn morning. From there, we wandered up towards the Champs Élysées, looking in shop windows at all the grossly overpriced name-brand goods. Even the coffees we bought were double the going rate anywhere else. Still, we were on holiday, so these things shouldn't matter.

    We then headed for the Tuileries Garden, where the crowds were much less, and on to the Île de la Cité and the Nôtre Dame. We had contemplated visiting the nearby Sainte-Chapelle with its fantastic stained glass windows, but the queue was quite long and we didn't feel like waiting. We really weren't confident that Eileen's walking stick would work for us a second time. Anyway,people were starting to flag by then, so we headed back to our hotel, diverting en route to the newly-discovered Karamel Cafe for decadent cakes and coffee.

    Ian and Eileen had very generously wanted to shout us the previous night as our Golden Wedding anniversary dinner, but that of course had turned out to be a total disaster, fortunately at no cost to ourselves. We decided to have another try, but this time to go more upmarket. We'd been recommended a restaurant with the unlikely name of Fitzgerald which was only 100m or so from the hotel, so we decided to give it a try. It turned out to be quite classy and very very enjoyable, and we were grateful to our good friends Ian and Eileen for their generosity. Another fantastic Parisian day.
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