The First Full Day in Paris

After the marathon day of travel yesterday, it was a blessed relief to finally reach our hotel in Paris. When choosing a hotel in this huge city I always choose the location first, then look at which ones I can afford before finally going through the list of possibles to choose the best of those that met the previous criteria.
Our home for the next four nights will be the rather grandly named Hotel Claude Bernard, situated right in the prestigious St Germaine district of Paris. It is only a very short walk from the beautiful Luxembourg Gardens and Notre Dame Cathedral. The location gets a huge tick. And as for the hotel ? The outside is classic Parisian style, Another tick. But what about the rooms ?
For those that have never been to Paris, you need to know that hotel rooms in Paris are usually about the size of a small kitchen. If you come expecting anything more, you will always be disappointed. At least the Claude Bernard has an ancient elevator, that is always a bonus, even when the size of the elevator is not big enough to get both you and your luggage in at the same time. It was certainly a challenge, but it finally managed to get me to the second floor and the very long awaited Room 21. And as for the room itself, although it was tiny, it was very clean. It also had a tiny bathroom, double bed, small desk and chair. It even had very effective air conditioning, something of a rare find in modest priced hotels.
It was a massive relief to finally take my shoes off and settle down in a bed. I immediately fell into a deep sleep. For about 4 hours. Then I woke up. After trying to get back to sleep for some time, I got up and began my first full day in Paris. Another long day lay ahead.
A few hours later I was with the other members of my small group in the underground breakfast room of the hotel. Since none of them had been to Paris before, I thought I would bless them with one of my famous walking tours of the city. Paris is a city that begs to be explored on foot, and it is easy to spend the entire day just walking and people watching.
We began by walking to the Seine and the nearby Notre Dame Cathedral. Notre Dame simply means "Our Lady" and there are actually numerous churches of that name scattered throughout France, but the most famous of all is the ancient building situated on the Isle de La Citie in the middle of Paris. This building is actually so important that it is the point that all distances to other places in France are measured from,
When I was last here in 2023 the cathedral was still in ruins after the disastrous fire. I was very keen to see what it now looked like, after the huge rebuilding project. Well it certainly looks better than it did. Not only has the roof been replaced, but the entire building has been cleaned and restored. They really have done a superb job, even it is not actually finished yet. Much of the rear part is still covered with extensive scaffolding and the previous walking routes are still blocked with security fencing and builders sites.
After the cathedral, our walk continued to the nearby Isle St Louis, home to some of the most expensive real estate in Paris, and probably the world. Then we crossed to the right bank to begin the long walk back to the Louvre. It was about this time that I realised that this was going to be the slowest walking tour I had ever conducted. Time and time again I turned around to discover that my companions were nowhere to be seen. So I waited, and waited, and waited. It became a recurring theme. Then they complained that I was walking too fast. I thought that I had been walking so slowly that it was hard to avoid falling over.
Some time later we reached the famous Louvre, probably one of the largest museums in the world and home to an astounding collection of priceless artworks and other treasures, although its inventory had been reduced lately by a brazen (and very successful) daylight raid that made off with tens of millions of dollars worth of items. As far as I know, none has ever been recovered.
The location outside the front of the Louvre is home to the famous glass pyramids. Although these were very controversial when they were first built, they are now accepted as one of the most iconic sights of the city. I did however notice that something was missing. On every previous visit the area in front of the Louvre had been plagued by groups of young gypsy girls working together to fleece the hordes of tourists of every piece of personal property they could get their hands on. This time, these groups were nowhere in sight. I wondered if the police had finally managed to clear them out of the city. The next couple of days will tell.
Our crawling tour then proceeded through the Tuileries to the Place de La Concord. By that time the group was complaining that their bodies could take no more. They had given up, even though I was just starting. I had to admit that maybe we are all getting old after all. "I think we will end it here", I said. The problem was that we still had to walk back to the (now distant) hotel.
Somehow I managed to get them all back, albeit with a few rest stops along the way. I began to think that I should have brought along a defibrillator, just in case. By the end I had to admit that even I was getting tired as well. It must be contagious. According to the step counter we had only done 28000 steps !
We eventually made it back to the hotel, where I immediately went to have a little nana nap. About twenty minutes should be enough. You could imagine my surprise when I awoke to find my watch telling me it was 6:45 pm. I must have been in a coma. Upon contacting the others, we discovered that Mark O'Connor really was in a coma. It took some time to wake him up.
All that remained was to find a nice place to eat. A short distance from the hotel we found a lovely street, alive with cafes and entertainers. It was the perfect place to end a memorable day.Read more