So it’s been like this: We are active at the start of the day and in the evening. It’s in the afternoon hours when we’re in the hotel relaxing that I have some time to spare to update. That’s why the posts include parts of two days. Today, though, will include all of day three! Here’s what happened last night (day 2) after I last wrote.
One thing Sandy told us about and we really wanted to see was the Eiffel Tower sparkle. It does it for five minutes at the top of the hour after sunset. The sun doesn’t go down here until 9:15 pm so the first time it would sparkle would be 10 pm.
We went to the hotel bar to enjoy some wine (Kir Royale for Mom) and do some sketching to pass some time, then made our way to the Pont de la Concorde to watch the light show. It was, as expected, pretty damn great. It’s hard to capture in a photo though so here is the tower just lit up before it sparkled.
When the sparkling was over at 10:05 pm, I suggested we head to a nearby bar to have some champagne. It was not just any bar. It was Bar Les Ambassadeurs which is beautiful, plush, and swanky. Mom had a cocktail while Sandy and I enjoyed champagne, then we had another round of champagne for all of us. We had a great time!
We got back to the hotel after midnight and thus concluded day 2!
Day 3
We all woke up around 8 am or so and went down to the hotel breakfast, which was again quite good. Mom wanted to go to a patisserie/boulangerie. She had asked our waiter, Mikael, at the hotel bar the night before where he would recommend, and he told us a place called Yannick Martin. After breakfast, we headed there. It wasn’t far, but it was raining. Mom did great though. She purchased a few items, then we went to the Place de la Vendome, which is a really pretty plaza that has a lot of high end stores. Here’s the monument in the middle of the plaza.
We went back to the hotel where Mom discovered the beginnings of a blister 😦 I suggested that we go out to see some more Paris. Mom wasn’t interested due to the blister and the rain, which is understandable, but Sandy was down. We put on our rain jackets and headed to the Petit Palais, a museum that offers free entry to its permanent collection.
It was RAINING, like a lot. At one point, I asked if this was a bad idea, but we carried on. It wasn’t that far of a walk, but in the rain, it was less than ideal. Still, we got there, and it’s an amazing building.
When we got in there, we had a chance to assess our wetness situation, and, well, we were drenched. Our jeans were soaked in multiple places. But we carried on because what else were we to do? We walked through the sculpture gallery, which was lovely, then continued on to see some furniture and some paintings. I had watched a program on the plane over about some of the museums in Paris, and the Petit Palais was one of them. They mentioned that there were some well-known artists in the permanent collection. I thought they’d said there was a Picasso there, but when we asked about it, they directed us to the Musee Picasso, so no, there isn’t one there. But there was a Monet, a Cezanne, a Renoir, and a Gaugin. Those were actually really thrilling to see! I decided too late that I wanted to go to L’Orangerie Museum that has a whole room dedicated to Monet’s Lillies, so I was happy to at least see this Monet. Here’s “Sunset on the Seine at Lavacourt, Winter Effect”:
After we had our fill of the museum, we left, but it was still pouring down rain. However, we were right next to the Pont de Alexandre III so we had to take some photos there. Even shrouded in clouds, the Eiffel Tower is still magnificent.
We walked back to the hotel, and we were WET. And, honestly, a little miserable. We’d enjoyed the time, but it wasn’t pleasant to be so drenched. We relaxed a while until it was time to go meet my friend.
My friend is Dufflyn, and she now lives in Paris (and has for the last five years). I’ve known her probably 25 years. We’re not super close, but we’re bonded through mutual friends, poetry, and writing. She met us at Angelina (yes, we went again!), and it was great to catch up with her and hear how her life’s going,
After Angelina and hanging with Dufflyn, we hit a souvenir shop then went back to our hotel, but they were cleaning our room, so we went out again. We decided to go to Brasserie Flottes, it was around 4 pm, and it was an odd time to be eating. The restaurant staff were clearly prepping for their evening crowd, so our service was a little cursory. Still, we three shared a(nother) croque monsieur, that came with fries and salad. Sandy and I also had a glass of Pinot Grigio. It was good, but we got the feeling that we were an anomaly in their day. Oh well. On the way back, we stopped at a Pierre Herme shop and each ordered two macarons.
Once we were back in the room, tiredness took us over, and we rested, but we also debated going out again. I mean Paris was just outside our door! We went back and forth, and in that time, I started this blog post, but then after a while, Sandy decided that we should go out and say goodbye to the city. Mom declined to stay back and write a bit and rest. So Sandy & I set out again, this time heading toward the Louvre through the Tuileries Garden, and I’m here to tell you that it was pretty magical. The temp was good, there was no rain, there were plenty of people out and about enjoying the gardens and the reprieve from the rain. We took a number of photos of what was around us, and we simply took in Paris, at least this part that we’d come to be familiar with, and really just enjoyed our last evening. It was really wonderful.
From the gardens, we crossed Pont Royal, then headed down to the Seine to Pont Passerelle Leopold-Sedar-Senghor (the former “locks of love” bridge), and went back through the garden and back to the hotel. It was all just so lovely. I really like Paris and would definitely come back.
When we got back to the room, the three of us headed down to the hotel bar for our evening drinks. Sandy & Mom had Kir Rosales, and I had a glass of Sauvignon blanc. I had another and Sandy joined me. We were in touch with my cousin, Sonia, getting our plans straight for tomorrow. We are heading out early to catch the train to take us to Spain. So the next part of this amazing adventure begins tomorrow. Until then, au revoir!
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