Day 21: Paris

Thankfully I woke up this morning to a beautiful fine, but slightly cold day. This was the view from my perfectly Parisian room...

After breakfast I wandered the 30 seconds it took me to reach the Avenue de l'Opéra and this was my view.

I decided to start off my first full day in Paris by taking part in what's become a bit of tradition on this trip, and joined a free walking tour. I joined the Discover Walks - Walking Tour on the steps of the Opera Garnier @ 10am to do the Paris Landmarks - Right Bank tour.

Our tour guide Augustin lead us on a great 90 minute tour that provided us with great views and fantastic photo opportunities of places such as the Opera & Concorde; Place Vendôme; the Crillon, Meurice & Ritz palaces; the Arc de Triumph, the Champs Elysées, the Eiffel Tower and Montmartre; as well as the Louvre, the Orsay & the Orangerie.

Our guide - Augustin

Sacré-Coeur from the Tuileries Garden

Group photo time (in B&W for some Parisian romance) ...

The walk concluded at Place de la Concorde which meant I was right beside the Musée de l'Orangerie which displays 8 huge water lily paintings by Claude Monet, so I headed inside to view these spectacular works of art.

Guess who???

From here I stolled back through the gardens towards the Louvre, and then towards the Île de la Cité. 



I grabbed a bite to eat before heading towards Notre Dame Cathedral.  There wasn't much of a line so I headed inside see inside this amazing building again.

After I exited the Cathedral, I joined Philippe (again from Discover Walks - Walking Tour) to do what I thought would be the Left Bank tour, but instead it turned out that I should have checked as there'd been a change to the information I'd printed out before I left home, and the meeting place where I was at was now the meeting place for the Notre Dame tour.  Oh well, I was here so I ended up joing the tour.  There was a little bit of rain during the tour, but thankfully I'd remembered to bring along my umbrella (unlike last night) so it didn't bother me. 

After the walk finished I then spent a few hours exploring the Latin quarter.  And at the well-known bookshop Shakespeare and Company I even bought a copy of the "Hunchback of Notre Dame" which I then took outside and did a self-portrait photo with Notre Dame in the background...

While I was exploring the Latin Quarter it was time to face my "lemon & sugar crepe" demon from my last trip.  Mum - you know what I'm talking about!!!!  And I'm happy to report that all demons are well and truly buried.  In fact, this was the first of quite a few crepes I had during my time in Paris.  Yum!

After wandering around the left bank, I headed back over to the Île de la Cité where I checked out Sainte-Chapelle and its amazing stained glass windows before heading back to the right bank. 

Book sellers on the Seine...

My baguette "traditional"

Once back on the Right bank, I caught the metro to the Champs-Élysées.  And in what seemed to me like a day dominated by food, I called in at Laduree to pick up some of their macarons to sample before my class tomorrow. And let me tell you, they were as good as they looked...

(L to R: Lemon, Pistachio, Caramel with salted butter & Raspberry)

Next up, I headed to the Arc de Triomphe where, because I hadn't done enough walking today, decided that it would be a good idea to walk up the 284 steps to see the view from the top.  But let me tell you, it was well worth it, as I got to the top about 7:55pm which meant that at 8:00pm I was able to see the Eiffel Tower twinkle (let me hear you all say awhhhhhhh).

It was a huge day, and my feet were killing me, so it even though it was just after 8pm it was time to go back to the hotel for some rest as I can't sleep in tomorrow as I've got my macaron class tomorrow, which you guessed it, means I need to be up early (surprise, surprise...)!