Europe2013: Day 41 Thurs 5th July Paris

We decided to have a nice quiet day today and do some walking. (Lorraine & Murray left early to catch the Eurostar to London.) We wanted to walk to the Luxembourg gardens (Le Jardin de Luxembourg) and thought it should take about 20 mins. It was already quite hot when we set out and the plan was to buy some lunch and have it in the gardens. I am usually pretty good at finding my way around, but the streets of Paris go in all directions and the map we had didn’t have all the streets marked. We walked for 1½ hrs up and down and around and ended up quite near to where we had started!! That was OK because we wanted to walk BUT we wanted to find the gardens too. The names of the streets are so confusing as a lot are nearly the same. We eventually found a bakery that sold fresh rolls and the lady spoke English. We bought our lunch (baguettes and salad) and asked her where the gardens where. She took us to the back of the shop and down some steep stairs which led to another street. She said turn right then left and suddenly we were there!!! It was worth the long walk as it was so peaceful and relaxing with water fountains, large trees for shade and green grass which you were not allowed to sit on! There were chairs everywhere to sit on instead. We spent another hour having lunch and walking through the gardens. We would not have known we were in the middle of Paris!

We decided to catch a train back but by the time we walked to the nearest station we were only 2 stations from home so we thought we would just keep walking. I’m sure we walked at least 10 kms (same as a very bad round of golf) so it didn’t hurt us and walked off some of the food we have been eating. Paul had a rest in the afternoon and I went shopping. Montparnasse is a great area to stay in as there are shops, supermarkets and restaurants everywhere.

We decided to go back to La Coupole for tea as it was so good. We had told Jo & John and Ginny & Terry from WA about last night and they decided they would like to try it out. I had also looked it up on the internet and discovered it was a very famous French restaurant.

“A true art deco masterpiece, La Coupole is the most famous Parisian brasserie in the world. Today it is the quintessential symbol of Montparnasse’s history, as well as a key component of the art of living and socialising in Paris.” If you want to look it up the address is www.lacoupole-paris.com/en We couldn’t get a table with Vincent serving us, it was SOOO busy but he made sure we all had a free glass of champagne and were well looked after. After another extremely enjoyable meal we walked back to our hotel. It was 10 pm and dark was just setting in as we walked through the little streets and laneways and past cafes with food and laughter spilling out on to the streets.