Monday 8 July 2013

Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde


Ater we left the Arc de Triomphe, we strolled slowly down the Champs Élysées.  We bought a 'carte de sim' for the iPad Mini, so we can have the Internet in France, and then had lunch in a restaurant.  (By the way, they want your passport when buying a sim card...I guess it's an anti-terrorism measure.)  I uploaded some photos to Facebook, and wrote two status updates, one where I bragged I was sipping coffee on the Champs Élysées, the other in which I commented on how great Mondays were in Paris when on holiday.  I noticed on my blog stats that, over the last few days in Paris, each day there have been around 55 views of my blog somewhere in the world.  We chatted to a Canadian couple over a Club Sandwich and a Chicken Sandwich, before continuing on.

We passed the Petit Palais, and eventually came to the Place de la Concorde, the place where, following the French Revolution of 1789, several people like Marie Antoinette lost everything from the neck up.  Unfortunately, much of the area was roped off for the commemorations of Bastille Day on 14th.  In a shop nearby, we bought Jean a nice new broad brimmed hat, after she had kindly donated her other one to the people of Paris last night.  We think she did this in a pub we drank in.

We entered the suburb of Marais, which Jean said is the Jewish quarter.  In the Place Vendome, we saw a tall obelisk with Napoleon standing at the top.  We headed up the Rue de Capucines, along Rue de Seve and into the suburb of Madeleine.  We had a couple of double scoops of ice cream here.  Afterwards, we headed to Montparnasse, where we printed our train tickets to Biarritz for this Thursday.  We returned to our hotel for a short siesta.  We are now enjoying a drink on Rue de Magenta.  Jean's drink is a cider, and mine is a 'Blanche', a lager meaning 'white' like the German Weizenbier.  C'est tres bien!

Tomorrow we may be going to the Musee d'Orsay or the Sacre Coeur.

Jean sipping wine on the Champs Élysées 
Me and my Blanche

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