After a pretty hectic few weeks we had a day with nothing planned. We slept late had a very French breakfast of croissants and then started a self guided walking tour of the St Germain area.
This is a much more interesting and exciting area to where we stayed previously in Paris, St Germain has lots more cafes and restaurants as well as heaps of trendy art galleries.
Our walking tour took us past some interesting point of interest including Ladurée, where they specialise in macaroons; Church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, which is the oldest church in Paris; Cafe de Flore, where we had to stop and sample their excellent hot chocolate; and the church Église Saint-Sulpice, which is where some of the Da Vinci Code movie was filmed.
The Église Saint-Sulpice has a gnomon showing when the summer and winter solstices occur. Like most churches this one was built over the site of an older one from the 13th century.
We haven’t had the cathedral burn out issues in France which we started to have in Italy, I actually find them quite interesting from an artistic and architectural perspective.
Our last stop was at Jardin du Luxembourg which is a 17th century garden with a formal layout and lots of statues. It was laid out by Marie de Medici in the 1600s and is now a well used green space in the middle of Paris. The Medici family was a very powerful and rich Italian family and Marie was married to Henry IV but he died leaving her a widow.
The park has green spaces as well as pony rides and a fountain where you can sail model sailing boats.
We wandered around some more before stopping for a drink and to relax.
Dinner was an excellent beef bourguignon stew and a chicken risotto at a local restaurant.
Tomorrow we tick off the last big tourist thing we haven’t done yet in Paris - Versailles!Les mer
FrankrikeParis48°51’28” N 2°20’13” E
FrankrikeParis48°51’28” N 2°20’13” E