Fri 15th Aug
Our first activity this morning was a 3 hour walking tour at 9 am of Notre Dame Cathedral & Ile de la Cite booked through Viator but run by Letz Go City Tours. Our guide was very friendly and well informed so it was an interesting and worthwhile experience. Almost half of the time was spent focused on Notre Dame and discussing the restoration effort, which is still ongoing. The only disappointing issue was the enormous crowd inside the Cathedral; it was actually a safety hazard!
Our morning tour ended near the Louvre and, since we were visiting there in the afternoon, we decided to save ourselves the one hour return walk and spend the time in the area having lunch and looking around. One stop was at a Louis Vuitton store where we’d hoped to visit the LV museum but it was closed unfortunately it Mark was pleased to see the store actually did cater for him with a bike and useful golf items. Another stop was to check out a particular beautiful street that I’d seen on Instagram but, when we got there, it looked nothing like the Instagram post. That’s the Internet for you.
Our afternoon was spent at the Louvre and we were quite hot and bothered by the time our 3.30 pm entry time slot rolled around. The queue for those waiting outside, who already had purchased tickets, and the crowd inside the Louvre were both enormous. It was a most unpleasant experience and, added to that, neither of us could get our audio guides to function properly. I had also wanted to visit the Islamic art section, to see all the beautiful glazed tiles, but this section was temporarily closed. It seemed it just wasn’t our day for the Louvre and, as a result, we only lasted just over an hour. I really think it is one museum best tackled earlier in the day, when you’re not at the end of your patience quotient. Unfortunately for us though, our walking tours were all scheduled for morning time slots so that’s why the Louvre got bumped out to the afternoon. Never again though; I’d return to the Louvre BUT only in the morning.
It was 5.30 pm by the time we staggered back from the Louvre and both of us were feeling very sore and weary. It turned out to be good fortune that dinner wasn’t until 7.15 pm because we both needed the recovery time! We had another 2 hour walking tour booked for tomorrow morning, that was a 30 minute walk away to the start, and we were both wondering how we’d make it; Mark even suggested getting a taxi to the start so we shall see when the morning rolls around.
Dinner tonight was at Le Procope which, thankfully, was only an 8 minute walk away and had the claim to fame of being on the site of the oldest cafe in Paris, dating back to 1686. It ended up being absolutely packed, just like the Louvre, but thankfully the food was delicious, which surprised us a bit because the place was very touristy. This is somewhere I would recommend given the nice setting, the associated history and the quality of the food. It was 9 pm by the time we got home and we both collapsed into bed. My phone was telling me I had walked over 15 km today and I was definitely feeling it!
Sat 16th Aug
It was another slow start to the day for us as we’d notched up around 15km for each of the last two days and we were both pretty bone weary. We had a morning activity booked, a walking tour of some of the many covered passages in Paris, and then little else. We decided that an afternoon Seine river cruise might suit us both, as it involved minimal walking, and that was booked in at the last minute.
It was a 30’ minute walk to the start of our 10 am Covered Passages walking tour and Paris was exceptionally quiet and cool on this Saturday morning. We found our guide, Fanny, and the tour turned into a private one as the only other registered couple failed to show. Fanny explained to us how the 150 covered passages were created by the Bourgeoisie in the early 19th century so that they could go shopping in relative comfort and hygiene but that only 21 remain today. The Bourgeois had taken power after the 1789 French revolution. No chain stores can be found in any of the passages, they are all individually owned / managed. We visited 6 passages, of the remaining 21, on our walking tour and these were:
- Passage Vivienne: 1823: influenced by Roman architecture: My favorite of the passages we saw as it was the most beautiful.
- Passages Royal Palace.
- Passages Choiseul: 1828. The longest of the passages
- Passages Panoramas: 1799. The oldest of the passages
- Passage Jouffroy: 1846
- Passage Verdeau. Also from 1846
Exploring the Covered Passages was well worthwhile and our guided walk was good but not great. There are a number of on-line self guided routes you could try instead and one link that looked fairly comprehensive is here so maybe give it a go on your own?
Our Covered Passages tour finished at around 1130 and we decided to go and have a coffee in one of the cafes we had spied along the way. We headed to Cafe Le Valentin, in Passage Jouffroy, and had a rather funny experience. We both ordered coffees and Mark ordered a pain au chocolat whereas I requested a plain croissant but asked if it was possible to also have some jam. At which point the waiter looked at me with, I’m not sure if it was contempt or disgust, and simply said ‘no’. Not, ‘I’m sorry but we don’t have any jam’. Just a very blunt ‘No’. At which point I decided to order a snail.
Our 60 minute afternoon Seine cruise departed from Pont Neuf at 1.45 pm and was a lovely way to fill in the beautiful sunny afternoon with tuckering us out too much further. We had clocked over 10 km by the time we got home from this Seine cruise so we spent a couple of hours back at the apartment resting before dinner.
Our dinner was booked at Bistro des Lettres for 6.30 pm and was a fairly last minute booking given we didn’t think we could cope with the 5 course degustation meal we’d initially booked at the rather swanky Le Christine. This turned out to be a great decision as we had a delicious meal at a reasonable hour and we were able to get home for an early night before a big day of travel tomorrow.
We had greatly enjoyed our short stay in Paris and probably could’ve even had another day or two. Our apartment was a great base for exploring Paris and is one I would recommend if you were ever considering staying in the Latin Quarter. The only suggestion I would make is to avoid coming to Paris in August; it is too hot, too crowded and many restaurants and cafes are closed for the summer as their owners also go on holiday. We leave Paris tomorrow morning and head out to the airport to pick up our rental car for the drive down to Troyes where we have three nights.
PS: I finally got out for an early morning walk on our day of departure. Couldn’t resist taking some photos as it was so peaceful and beautiful without many people around.
Au revoir Paris.
