We booked a private 2 hour walking tour for our second day, and met our guide Liv outside Notre Dame. She told us a bit about its history and pointed out some interesting details - including the statue of decapitated St Denis, holding his head in his hands to our amusement and the gargoyles on top which we are planning to get a close up look at when we go up the towers tomorrow.
We headed off to the other side of the river and took in some sites like the Shakespeare Bookshop - where writers can stay in exchange for working on site, the oldest church in Paris, as well as the Sorbonne (university).
The tour was great - it was nice to not have to look at a map and to get shown some of the things we wouldn't have seen, and learn a bit of the history. We were a little tired after yesterday's extra walking and the unplanned stair descent but a stop at a coffee shop for really good pain au chocolat and our first try of crepes was a good break. The kids also tried macarons but weren't really too taken with the flavours so we've decided chocolate and pastries and crepes are our go to's.
We ended the tour at Luxembourg gardens that is supposed to contain the statues of the many Queens of France. We were a bit too tired to bother exploring the garden much - though we did enjoy a brief rest by the lake where miniature sail boats glided around pushed away from the edges by children with long poles.
After a very nice lunch of filled baguettes and toasted ham and cheese croissants we headed off to find a place that I'd come across during my trip research - a taxidermy shop.
I hadn't given anyone too many details about what to expect - probably a good thing as April was not impressed, and Darryl used the phrase "a bit macabre" but the contents of the shop were amazing, from insects to platypus, a giraffe, crocodile, bears, a lion, leopard and many others. It was almost like going to a museum, except that they were all for sale. There were some artistic pieces too with the bodies of some pieces made out of embroided fabic - and there was even a unicorn. I saw a conch shell with the body of the creature crafted in metal which was quite neat. Definitely worthwhile including in the itinerary - unfortunately no photos allowed, but Deyrolles is the name of the shop if you want to check it out online.