I didn’t take single picture of the cathedral; instead I concentrated on the tourists! It was really interesting to watch (and photograph) people taking photos of each other! I feel slightly guilty for not visiting the Crypte Archéologique – but what the hell, I’m on holiday.Determined to walk everywhere today I walked from Ile de la Cité across the bridge to the smaller of the two Seine islands; Ile St-Louis. This, according to the Lonely Planet guide, is the most romantic part of Paris – although today it was too cold for any of that, and since it was early (10.30 am) there weren’t many people around.
Today has been punctuated by ‘tea’ stops due to me being so damn cold! From the islands I walked back to the Marais area where I knew there would be lots of things to take photos of. But first a tea stop - although I chose the wrong place, not that the tea wasn’t okay, but that it was bloody expensive - €4.50.
Of course ten minutes later out in the cold I needed a wee desperately, so gave in to another museum – the Picasso Museum – worth the entrance fee to get warm and use the facilities. The first hurdle though was the cloakroom, as the woman refused to take my camera backpack, claiming it was too big and she had no room. Instead she suggested that I leave it in an unattended box with lots of others. Although I don’t ever put my camera in the cloakroom, I still wasn’t going to leave my bag unattended.
I have to admit that the art did little for me – and I would say that I like Picasso’s art in general. This museum contained a lot of his lesser known works, many of which I can honestly say I didn’t really like!
Lunch was in a fantastic Bagel Deli in the Jewish Quarter – Bagel Store. Although I had a burger! Back out on the street, more wandering!Back in the area around the Pompidou Centre there was lots to photograph; I had intended to visit the Musée Poopee (Doll Museum), but it was getting late and I’d only have justified it if I’d been able to take photos (which I wasn’t) – a strange choice of visit for me anyway because I absolutely hate dolls!
I don’t know why but the queue for the Pompidou Centre was massive, snaking right round the square; not that you have to pay to go in the building, but that they are insisting on looking inside everyone’s bags. It’s just as crazy as in England, I have 3 large compartments in my rucksack but they are only interested in looking in the top one (perhaps they don’t realise that that there are 2 more) – I could put anything in the bottom of the bag – it seems to me it’s just an exercise to try and ‘reassure’ the public that things are being done to protect our security! What a joke, I have no idea what we are supposed to be protected from – the bogyman?When it got too dark to take photos I returned back to the hotel for a shower, and to finish packing (I’d done most of it last night). Then it was out for the first time without my rucksack to find a restaurant for dinner. Could I find anything I wanted!?!
I managed to find a whole shopping and public square area near the hotel that I hadn’t been to before, but the only places that I found to eat were cafés which did little in the way of meals. In the end I went for one that looked likely, and ordered kind of blindly from the menu as I didn’t really know what I wanted.
Not sure I wanted what I got – Maison Tartare – eg. pink mush!! Actually it tasted really nice, but looked bloody horrid. Although I wasn’t able to finish the massive plate of it that I was given.
On the way back I took a wrong turn out of the restaurant and ended up in completely the wrong direction!
So to bed, a good holiday over. I’m really glad I came, and being away over Christmas was great. I’d like to come back to Paris when the weather is a little warmer – the problem with that is the huge amount of tourists! Maybe one day I’ll even be able to persuade Colin to visit with me (ha!).
1 comment:
interesting blog.
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