The last week we’ve been able to get up when we felt like it, generally around 0830. Another beautiful day, left the jackets behind and walked to the Louvre via the Opera. Walked along a street that had all the top brands and some so exclusive I’d never heard of them. I had to peel Song off the windows of some of the jewellers, then we stopped for a (Starbucks again) coffee.
Didn’t go into the Louvre, we’ve been a few times and it takes at least a day to do it justice, went on to the Palais Royale next door where there was a large garden with a fountain, trees, benches and seats with people reading or just sitting enjoying the weather – this is what I love about Paris, there are huge open spaces and gardens everywhere, it’s not as cramped as London. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of coming to Paris – every time we have a great time, it’s such a beautiful city, the buildings are imposing and decorative, the art galleries and museums extensive and the food out of this world.
Walked through the Louvre courtyard and onto the Pont D’Arts, then headed to a restaurant we visited last time we were here just near the Luxembourg Gardens called La Maison du Jardin. If you come to Paris I’d recommend it. It was full of old French people which I took as a good sign. I ordered snails in a garlic broth (how French is that?) because I can’t remember having had snails before. Song ordered rabbit pate. The snails were nice, no real taste except of garlic, and a texture like calamari. Song didn’t like her pate much. For main I ordered the lamb in filo pastry – the same thing I had 3 years ago. Song ordered – wait for it – cod. I also ordered a large glass of Bordeaux, which turned out to be about half a bottle so by the end of the meal I was a bit tipsy. The lamb was cooked for seven hours, and was fantastic. Song said her fish was nice. Song noticed someone had brought a dog into the restaurant, something we’d also seen in Nancy. I do like dogs, but I’m not too sure I’m keen on them in restaurants.
We decided against a dessert, so paid up and went walking again, round the corner to the Luxembourg Gardens. It felt like it was over 20C, and everywhere people were sitting in the sun, reading, eating lunch or chatting with friends, kids playing games, hundreds just enjoying life. So we joined them, sat on a bench for a while watching the world go by. I highly recommend it.
Carried on, looking for a patisserie because I fancied a cake but after a while just decided to go to a cafe and have a tea and coffee – they do like their coffee strong here.
Walked all the way back again, according to Google fit I walked just under 23000 steps and it certainly felt like it – my feet and calves were aching. We grabbed a couple of baguettes from a Paul’s bakery for dinner, we didn’t fancy a big meal.
Back to the hotel, packed up, we fly out tomorrow afternoon.
So that’s it for the first leg of Andy and Song’s epic journey around the world. A couple of weeks back in Melbourne and then off on the second leg to Canada and the US.
