Day Four: Notre Dame, a river cruise and crepes on Ile de St. Louis

This will be my shortest post yet. A big reason is that it's 2:45 in the morning. How the heck did that happen? Ryan and I were talking about somethings, you know, relationship stuff and the time slipped away from us.

Because we stayed out so late last night we decided to sleep in this morning. And sleep in we did. When we woke up we both guessed the time. Ryan thought it was 7 and I thought it was 9. It was actually 12:30!! By the time we got out of the apartment it was 3:30 -- not much of a day left. That's the other reason this entry is short. If yesterday was the longest day, today was the shortest.


We hadn't seen Notre Dame yet, so we headed over that way. It was beautiful and we got to hear a bit of a mass when we got there. The Rick Steve's podcast we listened to gave us some history and asked us to imagine the church filled with peasants with the only light being what came through the stained glass windows through out the church.

After touring the inside and outside, we made our way to the location that was number one on Ryan's list--The Shakespeare and Co. book store along the Seine. This is not the original, but follows in the footsteps of the first one that was alive and kicking during the Hemingway and James Joyce days (when they lived in Paris). The owner would let "starving" writers stay in the small rooms upstairs. The current book store that was run by the same man for decades and now has been passed on to his adoptive daughter still supports struggling writers by providing them with opportunities to promote their books and a place to sleep as well.

Ryan and I took a walk down by the river and passed one of the river boat companies that was running it's next tour in a half an hour. Ryan suggested we go get sandwiches and come back for the tour, which we did. I've taken one of these rides before, but it had been about 12 years. It's definitely ideal to see Paris from the water. What a great perspective. What I really loved was seeing all the people along the Seine in little clumps playing guitars, drinking wine, dancing and etc. There were so many people -- even later when it was dark. You really got a feel for how alive Paris is! Oh, and we got a close up view of the Eiffel Tower, which is always fantastic.


After the cruise, it was time for more food! We walked over to the small island (connected by bridges) called Ilse de St. Louis for some delicious ice cream, a crepe and of course, cafe cremes (do you see a habit here).


On our way home, we swung back by Notre Dame to see it all lit up. Lovely. We stopped for a bag of french fries and this time rode the train up the Montmartre hill (out legs are still aching!) and settled in at home with a few glasses of wine and french fries.

I'm beginning to wonder if we will ever get to Versailles. As it's now 3:00 in the morning I think there is a very good chance we will sleep in again tomorrow. My how time flies!

Au revoir!