Bastille

Having crashed at 6pm (Amr) and about 7pm (me) last night, we both woke about 3am and didn’t get back to sleep, but had had good long sleeps. So eventually we gave in and were officially awake - looked at emails, did wordle, planned the day, and by the time it was getting light we went for a walk to find the police station as we had been advised by the embassy to file a police report for the theft. So that was a fun brisk walk round the neighbourhood where we hadn’t been before, quite cold to start, about 10°, and we found the police station but were told to come back at 9. So we wandered on, bought a pain aux raisins and a baguette, stopped for a coffee and returned to the room. Relaxed and set off again at 9 and a very nice policeman heard our story and recorded it all - his English was about equivalent to our French but we managed fine - he was really lovely. So we have an official report, and I think he sends some notification to the embassy.

With that done, and the passport to be picked up today, we decided to calm down and begin to enjoy Paris. And we did! It was a beautiful day…a while ago I checked the long term predictions for Paris weather and it showed raindrops for the entire time we are here…well so far it was totally wrong…not surprisingly! So our plan was to go to the Musée des arts décoratifs which Amr had booked on line a while ago…entry was for 11am, so we turned up at about 20 to and joined a queue and found it only opens at 11, so we had to wait standing in the sun for quite a while…and not good for us as Amr hadn’t been feeling 100%, thought it was jet lag and stress from dramas, but standing there he felt dizzy and shaky…not good he bent down to help but wouldn’t go and sit on the grass…finally the queue moved and he felt much better, but once in we would have headed straight for the cafe but we found there wasn’t one inside the museum…so he said he was now ok enough to continue and see the exhibits which we did…interesting new exhibit of the history of the big Paris shops, and another of Iris van Herpen, a Dutch outlandish fashion designer…anyway we had fun and Amr survived so all good.

After the museum we headed straight to a cafe where we both (even Amr! as a sugar boost) had hot chocolates and then over to a boulangerie where we bought yum baguette filled with chicken, avocado, salad and ate it sitting on chairs in the Tuileries. Just divine…trees with their new greenery, blossoms out, tulips colourful, children pushing boats on the round pond….

After a lovely relax there, and Amr declaring he was restored, we got the metro to the embassy to get my passport….success! …I now have a valid emergency passport, which I will not be carrying with me again in a visible bag until I board a plane! After that excitement we returned to the hotel to have some R and R and unwind before we have dinner. We have a booking at a little place from last time, in the Marais, for 7pm, looking forward to that, and afterwards I think it will be straight home to bed!

Now the report from dinner…Amr had a little nap during our downtime and we set off walking to the restaurant a bit after 6. It is light till quite late now, broad daylight when we walked back around 8.30 ish…anyway, had a delightful wander through the Marais where there are so many little eateries, and being Friday night they were all buzzing. Ended up at our place, Le Progrès, and had great meal till Amr started to run out of steam…poor thing, he has done such a stirling job holding up during our passport panics and sorting out solutions, but he is fighting a bug and for the first time ever couldn’t finish his beef tartare! A true sign he wasn’t feeling well. At first it was good. We shared a salad of barrata with tomato, rocket, peppers, pesto, just perfect, then he had the tartare and I had some skirt steak with salad and fries, really good. And a half litre of house red. Ambience great, but when Amr started to fade it was time to go back and he is now tucked up asleep, and very soon I will be too! Only just after 9.30 but we’ve lasted well, and it was a great day!Read more