Awake early and excited for what the day will bring! Continental buffet brekkie was more than adequate ... won’t mention how many delicious croissants Raymo devoured! After chatting with the lovely girl on the hotel desk, changed our minds re doing the hop-on -hop-off bus tour. Despite some drizzly rain and cool temperature we purchased 10 x metro/bus tickets at the nearby Pernety Metro ... then walked to the end of our street and caught the No 58 bus to the Luxembourg Gardens. Beautiful to stroll around - and the Palace quite magnificent... armoured guards and all. Enjoyed our first real Parisian coffee at Pavillon de la Fontaine in the gardens.
Although constantly distracted and overwhelmed with whatever we encountered, next stop was the nearby Pantheon. It hadn’t opened yet for visitors but we were in awe as we wandered around the exterior.
From here we just meandered, without consulting our map, heading in the direction of Notre Dame. Low and behold we found it - not without encountering an abundance of cafes and restaurants that left us drooling ....and our first visions of the Seine!
And we seriously fluked our visit into the cathedral ....we just strolled in with a low key crowd but when we emerged an hour or so later the queue seemed endless! It is impossible to absorb the magnitude of this cathedral even though I had been there in the past. You cannot captured the magnitude of those stained glass windows, not to mention the crypts, art works and sculptures.
We kept wandering along the Seine towards The Louvre. Stopped at a little cafe for lunch - a panini and a croque monsieur (good thing no lactose or gluten issues...!) Yummo!
It was then on to the Louvre ....or at least the impressive grounds and buildings of .....Seeing as apparently the queue for admission was an hour and a half long it is one of many highlights to be included for our next visit with ample time.
Our walk continued through the Jardin des Tuileries (shame about the number of Somalian/African souvenir vendors .... certainly spoils the atmosphere !) to the famous obelisk of the Place de la Concorde and the Champs Elysees - then finally the Arc de Triomphe. The traffic around this awesome landmark, supposedly the world’s largest traffic roundabout and the meeting of 12 avenues, is crazy to say the least.... regardless of where you view it from.
We then kept the Eiffel Tower in our sights and tried to ignore our aching feet ... and kept meandering ( who needs a map!) Once at the Trocadero all was worthwhile! Wow! A few pics then time for a beer and a rest before negotiating the Metro back to Montparnasse then Penerty! Easy!
Once back at our hotel ... a rest and freshen up before wandering out for a vino or two and some dinner nearby. Nothing better than people watching Parisian- style!
Now back for much needed sleep.