TUESDAY IN PARIS--A WANDERING KIND OF DAY

We were so worn out last night after our very challenging arrival in Paris that we went to bed very early.  So, of course that meant we woke up very early-4 am!  That gave us plenty of time to relax, wake up with a few cups of coffee, and read the world news.

David made his daily baguette run--we've found a great boulangerie right around the corner from our apartment; they also have some pretty yummy looking deserts!

It was a pretty good weather day in Paris--the sun even peeked through a few times!  We left our apartment about 10:30, our plan was to explore our wonderful neighborhood.

Right away we spotted the "I Love You Wall",  so of course we had to stop for a photo.  The Wall of Love is in a pretty little park right near our apartment.  It was created in 2000 by a calligraphist, Federic Baron, and features over 600 enameled tiles with the words "I Love You" written in 250 languages.  I couldn't find the English "I Love You", but not a problem, we have our own I Love Yous!

Pretty little park:

Here we are!

Some interesting street art has been added.  Pat--translation??

We wandered the streets, generally heading the the direction of Sacre Coeur, the beautiful basilica that we can see from our apartment.

I love this restaurant sign--The Three Little Pigs!

We rode the funicular up the hill to Sacre Coeur and decided to pop in for a visit, as we haven't been inside since our first trip to Paris a few years ago.  Sacre Coeur is a very new church, about 1920 or so. It's built on Butte Montmarte, the highest point in Paris.   No pictures allowed inside, but the mosaic murals are stunning, wish I could share a picture or two.

Looking up at Sacre Coeur--note the blue skies!

In our wanderings today we also passed one of our favorite spots in Paris,  Cafe de 2 Moulins, which was the scene of one of my favorite movies ever--Amelie.  We've had lunch there a couple of times, and took Matt there for his birthday lunch on our "family trip".   We sure missed him today!

We wandered around the back side of Sacre Coeur, heading back down the hill.  We got a little lost (not necessarily a bad thing!) and found our selves in a not very interesting area.  Even though the area wasn't too interesting, I love just being in Paris!

We made a big loop, up the hill to Sacre Coeur, down the other side and way around, and finally back down to a main boulevard.  

Here's the Moulin Rouge:

We stopped in a local Starbucks to get our usual souvenir coffee mug; we're getting quite a collection from around the world!  We sat for a while, enjoying an espresso and some great people watching on the boulevard.

We walked back up the hill (did I mention we are staying in a very "hilly" area??), stopping along the way to pop into this cool little antique shop.  There were some very interesting items--weird things like old, dusty stuffed birds, antlers, scientific specimens like frog skeletons, etc.  I did find some things I'd love to bring home--but the prices were outlandish!  Fun to look, though.

By now we were fairly near our apartment, and were hungry for lunch.  We stopped in a nice little bistro, and shared a big salad and plate of pasta.  And red wine, of course!

By the time we finished our leisurely lunch (seems to be a theme on this trip!) it was almost 3:30, so we headed back to our apartment to rest our weary feet.  We relaxed for a couple of hours, reading and loading some photos.  When we were ready to leave we layered up a bit more--we were going to be outside for a few hours, and it was chilly and windy. 

Our plan for the evening included a visit to our "old" neighborhood near the Eiffel Tower, timing it just right so we could see her twinkle just for us.  And she did!

We never get tired of seeing this!

We walked back through the pretty streets of our old neighborhood.  The Christmas lights were nice:

We stopped for a late dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Le Roussillon in the 7th,  on the corner of Rue de Grenelle and Rue Cler.   We ordered a big salad with roasted Camembert cheese and one of their country pork chops with mashed potatoes.  We shared both dishes--they were delicious.  Red wine? Of course!

Yummy salad--the Camembert cheese was gooey in the middle and glazed with honey--what a great combination!

The pork chop was tender and delicious, the mashed potatoes were heavenly.  I don't even want to know how much butter and cream they put in them!

We hopped on the Metro and with a couple of line changes we were back home.  Well, maybe I didn't actually hop--I was pretty tired and my knees were killing me.  We walked for miles today!

It was after 9 by the time we got to our apartment, what a nice day in Paris!

Tomorrow in Paris:  The forecast is for 100% chance of rain, with winds to 15 mph.  Sheeesh--they could have at least say 90% chance and given us a little bit of hope, wouldn't you think?

Thankfully, we have an indoor activity planned for tomorrow--we have tickets for the newly remodeled and reopened Picasso Museum.  I'm really looking forward to that, he's one of my favorites!