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| Enjoying "Horrible Histories" together |
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| Waiting for the train at Boutigny |
We arrived at Chatelet les Halles, our first challenge was getting out from the underground! That took about 1/2 an hour!! and when we finally emerged at street level we were hit with an icy blast. We had been lulled into a false sense of security by the gorgeous April weather (mid to late 20's) we had encountered for the first few days of our French stay. We stopped off at a souvenir shop and bought scarves for the girls and a beret for Di, it helped but didn't solve the issue. We were going to go to Ste-Chapelle but the queue was horrendous so instead we headed to Notre Dame, thinking at least that would be out of the wind. The queue here was long too, but swiftly moving so it was quickly into the shelter. Crowded but warm, beautiful especially the windows. We had been before but a 30 minute revisit was worth it (and free).
Interior views of Notre DameFrom the Notre Dame we continued on to Ile St Louis enjoying the views of the Seine and the street sights as we went
where we looked at the beautiful little shops on Saint Louis en I'lle. We spent longer here than I had intended, thinking we had so much to see and do. The shops are really gorgeous and colourful and quite different products to at home. The favourite for the girls was the mineral shop, they each bought a small stone, Josie hematite, and Hilary some dalmation jasper, (yes it looks just like a Dalmation), white with black spots, from Mexico. There were also meteorites, and fossils and crystals of every colour and price. I had to shoe horn the kids out of there in the end!
Entering the mineral shopOther favourites were the Italian glass shop with beautiful pieces from Murano, and masks. We bought an interesting cat mask.
The cheese shop
Pylones
Gorgeous chunky resin jewellery (pricey though)Another shop we spent a lot of time (and Euro) in was Pylones which apparently has a shop in Auckland too, but we bought essentials like a grater, oven timer, vegetable peeler.
Pretty lolly/chocolate shopWe were really cold by now and though the children had eaten baguette and pastries while waiting outside (and inside) Notre Dame, they were complaining of hunger. We had packed picnic type food, knowing I didn't want to have to buy food at Paris prices, but it was so cold that outside picnicing was not an option. We stopped on Saint Germain Boulevard at a little cafe/sandwich bar, and 3 filled baguette and a piece of pizza, 4 drinks and 3 pastries later (30 euro) moved on. The baguette (ham) was literally that. A hunk of bread and a small slice of ham. Thankfully Hilary had salad with her pizza so we stole bits of that to pack out our baguette. Unfortunately mine didn't stay where it was put, $15 down the toilet literally. I've done a bit of that, there are some places you don't want to vomit, e.g Kuala Lumpur squat toilet (look out for splash back).
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| The Pantheon (closed) |
We had a plan to go to the Musee de Cluny which is on Roman ruins from the year 200,
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| The Roman ruins outside Musee de Cluny (closed) |
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| The taxidermy |
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| Fish stall on the road side. |
and also has great gory medieval exhibits. Unfortunately it was closed on Tuesdays, as was our back up the Pantheon for "exceptionale" circumstances. Instead we went to the Jardin du Luxembourg, by now it seemed a bit warmer, so we sat in the sun by the boating lake watching kids playing with little
sailboats,
The kids then went and had a play at the play area, (2.50 euro each)
and a horse ride (another 2.50 euro each)
before we raced back to Chatelet les Halles for the train.
A bit disappointed with the cold and also what we didn't get to do. But I guess there is always another day.
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