Week 12

Posted September 10, 2018 by camandkatie

Day 78

Grocery shopping and getting setup in our new place was the goal today. We went to grocery store and got all the essentials including peanut butter and jelly. (We found out later in the week how lucky we were to have found peanut butter in Paris but at the time we didn’t think anything of it.)

You can squeeze your own fresh juice at the grocery store.

After getting groceries and set up in our new AirBnb we checked out the neighborhood. We went to a boulangerie (bakery) down the street andwalked to the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont.

So yummy he couldn’t wait to get to the park.

The park was beautiful with huge hills and even a waterfall. We enjoyed walking through Buttes-Chaumont park. It was still early so we checked out Belleville park which is also close by our AirBnb. Belleville has spectacular views of Paris. It was cloudy when we were there but you could still see the Eiffel tower and most of Paris.

Bellville park with a beautiful view of the city.

Day 79

We did grown up/adult things today. In preparation for our adventures to Africa and SE Asia we needed to get vaccines. We made appointments and got those done today.

Being dramatic. All the shots were relatively painless.

$488.45 later and we were able to leave with our shot booklets and our vaccines. We were saying, “ouch” about more than the shots. They told us we might be tired after the shots so we took it easy the rest of the afternoon. Notre Dame was close by the Air France location where we got the vaccination shots so we strolled over there.

There is also a fun little playground behind Notre Dame that we would suggest checking out.

After Notre Dame we wandered the side streets and back streets of Paris. We saw the Pantheon, walked by the Luxembourg gardens, and all through the Latin Quarter. Eventually we stopped for dinner at Oulala.

On our walk home we enjoyed some music being played down on the river walkway.

Day 80

Today we decided to take a walk in the neighborhood. So far we have walked to the touristy area and today we wanted to do something different. We headed west from our AirBnb and wandered through the neighborhoods. We stopped for coffee at a nearby cafe.

We walked a little bit farther after the cafe stop. Everyone here is always carrying around a fresh baguette from the bakery. We wanted to do Paris like the Parisians so we stopped to get a baguette.

Our AirBnb is in the 19th arrondissement. We walked all through the 19th and then ventured through the 18th. Our next AirBnb is in the 18th so we walked by where we would be staying, once we move again. Walking through the 18th we saw a beautiful church up the hill. After some googling we found out that it was the Church of the Sacred Heart. We headed up the hill towards the church.

Church as we walked down the front stairs

After our church detour we headed towards the direction of the 1st/2nd/8th arrondissements. We didn’t have any specific plans other than to “see things”.

As we were walking we noticed the street cleaner. These guys work hard. Paris is roughly 100 square km and these men are everywhere trying to keep it clean. The city would basically be a garbage dump with out them.

We enjoyed their plastic brooms that are shaped like old-time wood brooms.

We wandered for what seemed like forever.

We got there just in time for the lights that twinkle for 5 minutes every hour.

We previously told you about the guys who sell wine and beer around the Eiffel tower park. They try to up sell, by a lot. Luckily we had brought our own wine and snacks with us.

“Wine, beer, beer, wine” echoed around us as we watched the tower.

Katie set a goal for herself to bargain the wine guys down to five Euros. The first guy she tried it on said he couldn’t go lower than seven. But eventually someone came over and Katie offered five Euros and he took it.

5 Euro bottle of wine. (probably worth 2-3 Euros but the haggle was fun)

We sat, talked, people watched and watched the tower. The crowd thinned out a lot by the 2nd or 3rd time the lights twinkled.

Day 81

We have had quite a few wandering days and decided to do some museum-ing today. But first we got lost in the train station. We had no issue getting to our train, getting on the train and getting off at the correct stop. But this stop services five or six different train lines so it is huge. We kept following the signs that said, “sortie” but after a few minutes of walking we were a little concerned we would never find our way out.

We found a full orchestra while we wandered the train station.

10 minutes after getting off the train we finally found an exit.

We stopped for coffee before heading to the museum. Lots of museums do late nights at least once a week so we have tried to plan around that to take advantage of seeing as much as possible. But that means a need for caffeine!

Not sure if we will eat inside at all while we are in Paris.

After coffee we headed to Musee d’Orsay.

Eiffel tower out the window of the museum.

After the museum we went to Cook ‘n Saj. It is down a little back alleyway and is a hole in the wall that would be easy to miss. Luckily we found it and it was delicious. And the people there were so kind. They took time to speak to every table, find out where people were from and have a genuine conversation. The people were great but the food was even better. Cam had a beef saj which is like a wrap and Katie had a mango quinoa salad. Being healthy never tasted so good!

Day 82

Today was the day. We were rested. We were caffeinated and we were ready for the Louvre to be open late. Everyone has heard horror stories of waiting in line for hours at the Louvre and then waiting in another line to push past people to see the Mona Lisa. We are happy to say that is exactly not what happened to us.

img_5480-1 — Ready for hours of museum time. (time stamp 2:05)

Under the Louvre you can see some of the original structures. (time stamp 2:56)

img_5510-1 — Sculptures (time stamp 3:31)

img_5531-1 — It goes on foreeeeeeever (time stamp 4:33)

At this point we had seen a lot of history of the Louvre, lots of sculptures, and Islamic art. We had done two and half hours of museum. We were ready for some paintings or at least maybe something that we recognized…

img_5547-1 — Cam says the stuff inside the museum is what you are ‘suppose’ to take pictures of but the views outside are stunning too.

At this point we were at over three hours of museum-ing. Most museums would be done in three hours but not the Louvre. It is huge! Cam was getting pretty slap happy silly at this point which led to quite a few terrible jokes.

C – “How much do you think Sally sold it for?” K – “huh?” C- “Sally from selling the seashell on the sea-shore…”

So many face palms. We realized we should probably get a snack and some coffee if we were going to make it to closing time.

img_5551-1 — Interesting info on the audio tour

Being here on a late night day we had so many rooms to ourselves.

img_5591-1 — Terrible picture but great view of the outside pyramid while we ate.

The restaurant that we ate in was part of Napoleon’s chambers when he lived in the Louvre. After the meal we walked through the rest of the chambers that are decorated and furnished with period pieces. It was beautiful.

Have dinner with 40 of your closest friends!

More out the window pics of the Eiffel tower

We heard a lady ask a docent for directions to the impressionist art. He basically told her to swim across the river to d’Orsay Museum.

Going to the museum late was great. We had so many rooms all to our selves or only a few other people in the room.

There were also lots of great views of the sunset out the windows.

img_5692-1 — We heard this is a thing… (timestamp 8:30)

You can see the Arc de Triomphe through the middle arch

Day 83

Moving day to the next arrondissement over.

The elevator barely fits us together with our bags.

In our new place we have the whole apartment rather than just a room in the place. Which means that we also have a TV! Katie’s high school French is coming back enough that she can translate American shows. We also figured out that with the right setting the American shows are in English with French subtitles.