Started the day with a petite dejeuner at the Cafe Bar du Marche across the road from the hotel. For those of you who don't know the petite dejeuner is the traditional breakfast for Parisians. It comprises a small glass of orange juice, a coffee, a croissant, a buttered roll and a small pot of jam. Now the thing is the jam is to be used on your bit of bread but not on your croissant. The Parisians eat their croissants plain and consider it crass and bad manners to put anything on it. I find a plain croissant incredibly boring, so I save a little bit of jam from my bread roll and when nobody is looking I sneak it on to my croissant. (Graeme 1, Parisians Nil).
This morning I caught the metro to Bastille (where the prison used to be that the storming off started le revolution), There is an elevated garden there on what used to be an old railway line. It goes along for a couple of kilometres and is a really pleasant walk, except you are walking away from the metro station and at some stage you realise that you have to also walk back! This elevated garden was the inspiration for the Hi Line in NYC.
Under the elevated gardens are a whole lot of vaults that were probably warehouses at one time but are now used as workshops and showrooms for various specialist manufacturers and artisans, furniture makers, glass blowers, jewellers and the like, and as usual the bootmaker was last.
Caught the metro to the top of the Champs de Elysees and after an indifferent lunch I visited the Arc de Triumph and the tomb of the unknown soldier.
I had dinner at a proper restaurant, although it calls itself a Brasserie. If you are interested have a look at the website for the restaurant www.vagenende.com I had a pork terrine, a veal and mushroom sauce dish accompanied by a half bottle of Bordeaux.
A further observation, the waiters and waitresses in the bars, bistros and restaurants etc are professionals, they are not doing this job working their way through university or as a fill in whilst waiting for something else.
The weather has been great so far, coolish mornings turning into nice spring days.
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| Elevated Garden |
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| Champs Elysees and Arc de Triumph |
Only a half bottle of Bordeaux? I am surprised that they make half bottles
ReplyDeleteSounds like you are having a great time - what are you using to take photos?
ReplyDeleteAlso I was under the impression that the Bastille or a version of it (The original was torn down and bits were carted around as a symbol of the revolution) was no longer there? Is there a replica there or is it just a plaque?
I am using my Canon DSLR for the photos.
ReplyDeleteYou are right the Bastille was torn down, currently there is a large roundabout with a monument in the middle. There is supposed to be a small portion of the foundations of the original building there somewhere.
Lucky you werent there when that guy attacked people!
ReplyDelete