Day 4

Day 4 (April 3, 2006)   Paris, France

We got up a little later, as we had close to a free day. All the museums are closed on Monday and so the group went to L'Opera and visited Fragarnard, a place that makes perfume and cologne. Then we went to visit a friend of Bob's through Mike Levine. After the visit, we went shopping and stopped at Angelines, a restaurant that also makes chocolates.

Lunch with the JeRues au Paris

Spark with his lunch, a croque monsieur with frites

Afterwards, the group split up. The Murphys and Heslings took the subway to Vincennes to see the grounds where the famous treaty was signed. I took the JeRues to the Lafayette Galleries, which is a fancy department store in Paris. After a few hours of shopping, we went up to the roof of the store and got to see a grand view of the city.

The Opera House from the front

The rear of the Opera House from the roof of a nearby building

After that, we maneuvered our way to Mont Martre and all the shops going to the church on the hill, Sacred Heart or Sacre Coeur. We stopped at a place and bought bread shaped as a pretzel with a lot of olives on it (Yum!), an éclair, and a quiche. That fortified us to walk up the hill, shop, buy ice cream, and see the sights of Paris from Sacred Heart.

We met the others and had our supper at the open square near the church. We had Beef Bourganais, potatoes, and salad. We also had a fancy Jell-O-like dessert. The meals, as they have been so far, have been very French.

Sacred Heart, the tallest point in Paris

From there, we took the Metro back to the Eiffel Tower and got in line for a boat tour of the Seine. The tour talked about Paris, giving stories on the different bridges and sights to see. When we got back, we decided that we couldn't go up the Eiffel Tower and get back to the hotel by Metro in time, so we went back to the hotel. It took usabout a half hour to forty-five minutes to get back. We got back to the hotel at 11:30 p.m. The last trains run about an hour later.

The Eiffel Tower at night

Tomorrow's itinerary is in danger because it looks like the French will strike again, slowing down or stopping a lot of transportation. We're not sure what to do because we have to go to Italy tomorrow night by train. Mike has told us that the International trains will run, but we'll wait and see.