I heart Paris…day 2

We started day 2 of our Paris trip with a breakfast in the hotel restaurant.  We arrived towards the end of the breakfast serving time and were not left with too much choice (note to self: get up earlier).  

Planning theday ahead

Our plan for the day – walking around Paris seeing as much as we can!

When we left the hotel we walked past many restaurants as we were staying in a very popular restaurant region. The French seem to love seafood and there were amazing displays of seafood outside some of the restaurants.

Seafood on display

We first walked through Jardin Du Luxembourg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jardin_du_Luxembourg), a lovely garden with a big palace on one side. It is the second largest public park in Paris and contains over a hundred statues, monuments and fountains.

The gardens

The palace

From there we made our way to the Pantheon.  It is a beautiful building with an interesting history (http://www.pantheonparis.com/).  The Pantheon was built under the orders of Louise XV as a monument displaying his gratitude to God after his health had recovered.  It is now a mausoleum and is a burial place for martyrs and brilliant French citizens.

The Pantheon

We then continued our walk...

An interesting wall

We arrived at the famous Notre Dame Cathedral (http://www.notredamedeparis.fr/-English-).  The building is very gothic with gargoyles and magnificent detailing all around the cathedral. 

Pictures of the outside of Notre Dame Cathedral

We were fascinated by the gargoyles as there were so many around the outside and they were quite scary looking. According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gargoyle) gargoyles were carved with a spout design so that water could run off the building. It comes from the French word gargouille and literally translates to “throat” which makes me think of the gargling sound the water would likely make when running down the gargoyles.  

It was interesting to see these scary looking creatures on a cathedral but apparently they were used by the church to convey messages. It is thought they were used to scare people into coming to church and it is also thought that their presence meant that evil was kept outside the church walls.

The gargoyles

The inside of the cathedral is beautiful with amazing attention to detail.  The stained glass windows can be seen on all the walls and they are all different and incredibly detailed. There are also a number of models of the Chuathedral on display.

Inside Notre Dame Catheral

Beautiful stained glass windows

A model of the Cathedral

And the walking continued...

Tour Saint Jacques

Hotel De Ville

We finally arrive at the Sacré Coeur (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gargoyle) in Montmatre.  Sacré Coeur means “sacred heart” and is a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

Sacre Coeur

We decided to walk up the 300 stairs to get a breathtaking view over Paris.  This is definitely something I would recommend.

Climbing the 300 steps

Amazing views

Sacre Coeur as it was getting dark

Tired and hungry we walked back towards our hotel and stopped at the nearby Le Rotonde restaurant for dinner (http://www.rotondemontparnasse.com/).  After seeing all the seafood everywhere we decided to give it a try.

The huge seafood platter

The display looked great but we were not used to many of the shellfish on our platter. The prawns and oysters were the best and very fresh and tasty. The rest of the shellfish could have been left off the platter as they were not to our taste.  Good to experience but we will stick to our South African style cooked seafood platter.

12 hours after leaving our hotel we arrived back for a very well deserved sleep...

I heart Paris...

This past Sunday was Hubby’s birthday and he surprised me (should it not be the other way around?!?) by booking us a weekend in Paris!

I had never been to Paris and was super excited about the trip. We left early on Friday morning and got the train from Geneva Gare de Cornavin which goes directly to Paris and takes about 3 hours. Unfortunately due to a technical fault with the train the trip took longer than expected and we were delayed by 1h 30mins but I was so excited I did not care.

Eventually we arrived at Gare de Lyon and we decided to take walk to the hotel as Hubby had seen it was only 10 minutes away (10 minutes by car!). So after about an hours walking, which was actually nice as we saw a lot, we arrived at our hotel.

Finally arriving at Gare de Lyon

We stayed at Hotel Le Royal (http://www.hotelleroyal.com/VERSION-II/english.html).  The staff were very friendly and spoke English well. I also liked the decor of the entrance area with the purples, browns and silvers. 

Our hotel

We were upgraded and the room was nicely decorated but still small, similar to London hotels. We were on the road side which I was a bit worried about as it was a busy main road, but with the double glazed windows it blocked out all the noise.

After checking in we headed for some lunch.  We decided on La Coupole (http://www.lacoupole-paris.com/fr) which was just down the road from the hotel.  It was an interesting experience as it is a very large restaurant, open plan with many tables and high ceilings. It is famous for the art deco and for the famous people that have dined there, including Picasso.

Enjoying a nice cold beer

Some of the art in the restaurant

 

The restaurant was huge

I ordered the mussel pot and Hubby ordered steak tartare. My mussels were lovely and soft, although the actual sauce it came in was very salty which was disappointing.  Hubby enjoyed his steak tartare although we both agreed that the tartare he had at Le Perron in Géneve was tastier.

My mussel pot

 

Hubby's Steak Tartare

 

Overall lunch was enjoyable and we kept looking around the room at all the art work but we felt it was a bit big and felt like a hall or canteen (although nicely decorated) and would have preferred something a bit smaller.

After lunch we headed off for a walk to the Eiffel tower passing by some interesting sites and beautiful buildings along the way.

Some of the side roads ended with a huge wall

 

The Paris Metro

We walked past the Musée De L’Armée (http://www.invalides.org/pages/menu.html) which is a grand building with a golden ceiling and lovely gardens.

Musée De L'Armée

The lovely gardens

 Continuing towards the Eiffel tower we passed the Ecole Militaire.

Ecole Militaire

 Then we were there...the Eiffel tower!

Doing the touristy thing

 

It felt strange seeing it in person after seeing it in books and on tv so many times. We took our time and viewed it from many angles. We bought some coffee and sat on a bench waiting for the lights to switch on, and it was worth the wait.

The Eiffel Tower is amazing at night - BEAUTIFUL!

I have to say that seeing the Eiffel tower lit up and the light display was truly beautiful. I definitely recommend viewing it at night.

That evening we went for dinner at Le Closerie Des Lilas (http://www.closeriedeslilas.fr/).  This was more our scene as it was cosy and romantic with a pianist playing lovely songs. The tables were a little close together, but this seemed to be the norm in Paris.

The placemats are copies of comments by all their famous guests

 Our waiter was very friendly and suggested we start with a glass of champagne, which we did. We were given fresh bread and olives while we waited for Hubby’s starters.  Hubby ordered garlic snails, which come served in the shell and were absolutely yum!

Garlic snails

 For mains I had foie gras (duck pate) served with fresh bread and Hubby had the scallops. Mine was tasty and a typical French dish but I bit too fatty for me. Hubby loved his scallops which were served with risotto rice and vegetables.

My Foie Gras

 

Hubby's Scallops

 I would definitely recommend the Le Closerie Des Lilas if you are in Paris but it gets busy do you may have to book.

For dessert we decided on the Napoleon, which is thin pastry with a vanilla creamy custard type filling. It was a great end to a great dinner and a wonderful first day in Paris.

The Napoleon dessert

 

Arriving back at the hotel

 Next time day 2...