Day 3 Paris

This Sunday morning we were planning on going to a couple of street markets but chose to sleep in instead. Once up & about Mark ran down and got us some pastries and again we enjoyed our morning ritual of enjoying these with the view.

We finally made it out of the apartment around noon and found a great little restaurant across from Gare Montparnasse called L'Atlantique. I ordered a French Onion soup since there was slight chill in the air and this hit the spot and was very good compared to the one I had in Beaune. Then we both had Fish and Chips which were also very good followed by our beloved Cafe (espresso). We liked sitting here and watching the people of the world come and go into the train station....prime people watching.

After lunch we walked across the street to Tour Montparnasse and went up to the top for the view and a few more pics of this monumental city. The sun came out and gave us some great shots considering it was only a Sony point and shoot camera.

The views from the top of Montparnasse tower.

E.T.

 E.T., Les Invalids and Arch de Triumph in between.

Montparnasse Cemetary 

                               

  Luxembourg Gardens     

 Cathedral of Notre Dame

Sacre Coeur Basilica in the background and part of the Louvre in the foreground.

After we were done at Tour Montparnasse we grabbed a bus down to the Seine river and walked over to the E.T. We decided to not go up the E.T. today as it was a 2 hour wait to get up to the second level and then 45 minutes to get from the second level to the summit. We really didn't want to spend 3 hours of our day waiting in the mob of folks. We thought that we would might come back later in the week and arrive at 8:45am to be one of the first elevators up. This never did occur as most mornings were rainy while there. You can get online 2 months in advance and buy presale tickets for a reserved time I didn't want to take the chance with weather and am happy with that decision. After going up Tour Montparnasse I didn't feel the need to go up E.T. and Marks slight claustrophobia was happy as well.  

  

The Imperial Eagels on Pont d'Lena. We never did do a river cruise since they weren't allowing people on the upper decks....our guess is the river was too high.

 A war memorial along the Seine river

I'll always remember this bright sunny beautiful day and the smell of the blooming jasmine and other spring flowers.

After walking around E.T. & Champs des Mars we decide to walk back to the apartment. Google maps said it would be about 20-25 minute walk, maybe as the crow flies but not with our feet. Mark seems to think it was 2 hours but I think maybe closer to an hour.

 Ecole Milatary

 Les Invalides

Just a block away from our apartment was a patisserie that I had read good reviews about and they happened to be open on this Sunday afternoon surprise, surprise so I had to stop in and get some pastries for the next morning. I don't remember what I got at Des Gateaux Et Du Pain other then the croissants which were out of this world as well as the other pastries. These croissants just melted in your mouth and where the best we had on the whole trip. If in the neighborhood I highly recommend stopping in here even if it is a little expensive.

Back at the apartment we rested up then walked across the street for dinner at Cafe Le Bistrot 15. I ordered a duck breast sandwich which was cooked perfect but was missing half of the ingredients including the special sauce when it arrived. Mark had a vegetable pasta with broccoli so old it was yellow all of the veggies were old. I can;t even believed anyone in Paris would serve a plate that looked that bad. Only good thing about this place is that they were showing a NBA playoff game of our Pacers against NY I think. We made it quick at the cafe and headed back to the apartment for another fantastic sunset and to enjoy one of our bottles of Chateauneuf du Pape.