Paris 07 Palais-Bourbon

Part II: We began again with a bus ride around the 6th arrondissement to the Luxembourg Gardens, where we selected a few of the green metal chairs in the sun next to the Medici fountain to watch families pushing little sailboats around the pond. The boats had flags from around the world, and we followed the New Zealand sailboat for a while. Unfortunately, there were high winds, and the young sailor may have lacked experience in the conditions, so it regularly ran aground on the concrete edge of the fountain pond 😉. We strolled through the lovely gardens and a small sculpture exhibition in L’Orangerie, which featured varied styles. I liked the glasswork the most.

From the gardens, we began our long 'picnic crawl' through the 6th, Saint-Germain, 7th, and finally down the Quai d’Orsay towards the Champ de Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower. We wandered through markets, stores, and small streets with murals, all the while picking up little bites that together constituted a dinner. In Saint-Germain, we stopped for a quick aperitif and a rest before continuing towards the Seine. For dinner, we chose a baguette de tradition (I learned that the French make baguette ordinaire basically just for tourists. Why?!), a slice of pâté en croûte from a boutique charcuterie, and a few salami bites. We grabbed baby tomatoes, crackers, cheese, fruit, and wine from a supermarket. As sunset approached, we found our spot among the many in front of the Eiffel Tower, and a guitarist sang pop-folk covers of popular songs until the sunset and tower lit up, which was really nice and ambient. While setting up our dinner, I realized that the wine we'd bought was corked (like most of the wine in France 🤦‍♀️), and without a corkscrew, we fumbled trying to hack open the cork. Luckily, some Aussies sitting next to us offered us a knife, and they helped us MacGyver our way into the bottle. Good ol’ Aussies. We ended up drinking from the bottle with the cork floating inside of it…

We enjoyed our assortment of foods, our cork-tainted wine, and the music, as well as the atmosphere of excitement as everyone waited in anticipation for the tower to light up and sparkle on the hour. There was an audible gasp as it shimmered, and despite expecting it, the sparkling tower surprised me too. It was a nice evening, and despite having a wine-blanket by this point, I got a little chilly, so we wrapped up as it got dark. We walked right under the tower, past the saxophonist playing La Vie en Rose, and found a Metro line to take us back to the Airbnb, ending a very full touristy but fun day seeing Paris.Read more