Sylvie's Travels Home

September 26, 2023

We met with Bob and Heather at 7:30am for the included breakfast which was a basket of bread: each of us had a baguette, chocolate croissant and a regular croissant. Some Nutella, butter and jam completed the feast. We also had coffee and orange juice. We commiserated about our small rooms and bathrooms and had some good laughs.

We walked to the metro and made our way to Montmartre. We took the funicular to the Basilica of Sacré-Coeur. I lit some candles in honor of my parents. We walked around the old part of the neighborhood, saw some old cafés, had a coffee at the Moulin de la Galette, most famous because of a painting from Renoir called Bal du Moulin de la Galette.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moulin_de_la_Galette

We went down the hill to see the cemetery of Montmartre and it was quite impressive. We took the metro all the way to l’Arc de Triomphe and bought tickets for the Big Red Bus. We hopped off and on at a few places. Our first stop was Place Trocadéro to have our first look at the Eiffel Tower. We walked from one side to the other. You now have to pay to go close to it, in it or under it and we decided not to do that.

We had lunch at a sandwicherie. I had a croque monsieur and the others all had ham and cheese baguettes.

We had to walk all the way back to Trocadéro because the next bus stop at Champs de Mars had been canceled because of construction. It would have been nice to have been told earlier.

Our next and last stop was the Musée d’Orsay. We spent a few hours admiring a bunch of impressionists painter like Renoir, Monet, Manet and Degas. We also enjoyed paintings from Van Gogh and Gauguin.

We took an Uber back to the hotel and took an hour break, meaning everyone slept while I started working on my blog. The sacrifices of a writer…

We took another Uber to go on a boat ride and realized that we wouldn’t make it because of traffic but our driver Claude was determined to get us there. Omg! He found all the side streets, honked at everyone and everything and we were the last ones on the boat! Barely made it! Bravo Claude!

The boat was really crowded and we could hardly find a place to sit. We actually sat facing everyone. Pogo and Bob went to get us drinks and came back 30 minutes later. It was an hour long boat tour. It was still beautiful to see the city at night, especially the Eiffel tower.

We took a taxi back, had a late dinner at a small restaurant across the hotel and went to bed around 11:30pm. A full day of discoveries!