Day 3 6 Mai, When in Rome... do as

Day 3 6 Mai

Up early & off to Rue Monge open market, held Fridays,  Rue Monge over on Rive Gauche, as usual with unerring directional sense we went via Ille St Louis, next island down the Seine, not sure how that happened, I said to M, we should listen to our instincts & then go in opposite direction! We took special stair trolly, 3 wheels either side - thought initially what a waste, added extra weight, but saw the merit on return trip with few kilos goods, up 6 flights of stairs.

Rue Monge Market Left Bank

Stopped for cafe & pane aux raisin on Rue des Ecoles, first pane aux raisin in Paris, tres bon.
Market fruit veg, clothes, cheese, small goods,  plants etc, bought some lovely dipping North African things, as vendor great salesman & let us try before we buy & we liked it all! with pack of flat bread, tea back at the garret all sewn up.

Checked out old church , Eglise Ste Nicolas Chardonnet, dates from 13th C, reconstructed 1656-1763, interesting thing is that it has been occupied by traditionalist Society of Ste Piux X since 1977 with several attempts to oust them being unsuccessful, back to back sung masses on Dimanche apparently ........must pencil it in)

Eglise Saint Nicolas du Chardonnet - couldn't turn this around

  Back to garret to stow shopping, came back to island over a different bridge festooned with padlocks, apparently this is a new way to celebrate committment, buy a lock, attach to bridge with cheesy message & throw away the key.

One of the Australian romantics

<<   Yet another true romantic 










After a petit rest, took metro to Porte Maillot to check out where we catch the bus for Beauvais for our Barcelona trip, there was a protest happening at the Paris Congress,  lines of riot police at every entrance, & noisy protesters with placards , not sure what the protest was about, but one policeman was carted away in ambulance, broke a nail perhaps.  French do not live up to reputation of rudeness, from the bus depot we wanted to get to Porte Dauphine Metro to see one of the 2 remaining metro station entrances with the original Art Nouveau glass canopy designed by Guimard, anyway we asked a lady with no english how to get there, & she very kindly led us there, brisk 5 minute trot to bus stop, & then she had to scoot back to catch her own bus, can you imagine, day three & this hospitality displayed by Parisians several times already (don't try this in Italy!)

Porte Dauphine Metro entrance

 From there we walked down the very grand Avenue Foch

M. Alphand, Directeur des Travaux de Paris, 1800's engineer involved in renovation of Paris after slums razed, directed by Baron Haussman, this grand monument on Avenue Foch

which to our great surprise ended at the Arc de Triomphe,

Arc de Triomphe from Avenue Foch

 I was quite excited when I saw the Arc, as I knew Champs-Elysees  also came off it, but we had to walk past another of the 6 spokes to the wheel before we got there, 15 minutes or so, phew, anyway  we went, one of the most famous walks in the world, (accompanied by many, many other tourists), stopped for late lunch, moules, frites & beer, & much atmosphere-absorbing.

 Lunch on Champs Elysees, schmoozed by waiter, who assured us he was going to visit Alice Springs, now that would be quite a culture shock!

 

The restaurant , lady in glasses, older version of Bridget Bardot

Back on our ille enjoyed jazz/blues band playing on nearby corner, M got into swing of it, bopping away & bought 2 cd's "Swing in' Paris" & got the life story of the band members.