Paris, France: Day Two - The Left Bank

Day two in Paris is coming to a close. It's almost 11:00 p.m. and I swear the sun just went down. Crazy. We had a great day.

I will start with something rather strange that happened in the wee hours of the morning. First, remember when I wrote that it was quiet here? Well, that was not entirely true. Last night it was pretty loud. Granted we had the windows open, but still. There was yelling and a lot of traffic. The windows will be closed tonight.

I stayed up late because I was thrown off by the schedule. At about 2:30 a.m. I shut down the computer and decided to take a bath before bed, as there is a great tub here in the apartment. I started running the water and a few minutes later heard banging on the wall -- at 2:30 in the morning! The thought did cross my mind that maybe the bath was bothering my neighbor, but I also did think that someone might be hammering -- at 2:30 in the morning.

I looked out in the hallway (peep hole) to see if there was any activity. There was none. I continued running my water. A few minutes later there were several loud knocks at the door and the doorbell was ringing (scary). I looked out the peep hole and a young woman was standing there with squinty eyes. I said, "Hello?" and she went on to say that she knows we just got in and we are probably jet lagged and THAT is why I'm taking a bath at 2:30 in the morning, BUT she is trying to sleep and can hear all activity in the kitchen and bathroom, so could I please stop running the water? Now that's communication!


So, I stopped running the water and had to explain to my half-asleep husband why the heck someone was ringing the door bell at 2:30 in the a.m. Geez. Needless to say, I took a very quiet bath. No splashing and no heating things up with extra hot water.


Moving on. Today we slept in (we had no idea, because there is no clock in our apt.). Ryan got up before me and made a grocery and bakery run and came back with fresh croissants and orange juice for our mimosas. After a leisurely breakfast we headed out for a metro ride to the Louvre area to walk in the Left Bank.




Too bad we didn't realize that it was going to rain for most of the day. We got to our destination after a stuffy metro ride (see photo of Ryan) only to find that it was pouring. Our umbrella was back in the apartment. We searched the underground mall that we happened to pop up in for an umbrella with no luck. By the time we were done, the rain had subsided (only for a while). We slowly (because were were having trouble following the map) made our way to the Louvre area to start a tour that Rick Steve's recommended in his guide book of Paris.

Once we found the Louvre (wow) which was closed today we walked through the Tullieries garden with the goal of finding a small wine bar we had read about in our Eat. Shop. Paris book. The rain continued to restart every 15 minutes or so, so a cheap umbrella purchased from a local tourist shop with small and large replicas of the Eiffel Tower was required (and used for much of the day).


We found the side street we were looking for and then the wine shop, but we didn't stay. We don't speak French at all beyond the basics and the owner of the wine bar didn't speak English and wasn't at all interested in helping us. It was a traditional place, supposedly one of the best wine bars in Paris, but it wasn't meant to be. Here's how it went down.

After the owner and I established that we couldn't communicate, Ryan and I began to study the food menu. We couldn't read anything on it so I took a seat (there was no one in the place) and looked the bar up online to see if I could find any recommendations.

As I was doing this, a few minutes had past. The owner came out from around the bar and asked, impatiently, if we were going to order (at least I think that's what he asked). I showed him my blackberry and motioned to the menu telling him that I was trying to decide. He made a "titch titch" noise showing his annoyance and I stood up and said, "Merci" and then "Au revoir." Clearly this was not the place for us.

We ended up eating an excellent sandwich (I'm telling you, all the food is so good here!) at a small place down the street for half the price. So it all worked out well!

After lunch, we decided to take the Left Bank walk we had planned on before the rain came. The sky would go from blue with a few clouds to gray with rain, so the umbrella continued to come in handy.

We past the amusement area of the Tullieries park where the Ferris wheel and carousel are, among other games and rides. We walked through the park and sat for a while near a fountain before making our way to the Seine River (see photo). We walked down the river for some time until we reached the start of our Left Bank tour which took us past a statue of Voltaire, the death place of Oscar Wilde, the first apartment author George Sands stayed in after she left her abusive husband and many other interesting spots. We saw countless art galleries and posh shops tucked away on small side streets and then we exited to a main street that is home to the famous Cafe duex Magots (no, that's not "two maggots" it mean dignitaries).

Ryan really wanted to visit this cafe because through the years it had been host to several communities of artists, philosophers and intellectuals whose names are well known in both Paris and America. Today it's just another cafe (there are SO MANY here) and served as a great escape from the rain. Cafe creme hit the spot.



As we headed home, we stopped by a crepe stand in St. Germain de Pres. Ryan got the Nutella with banane and I got the citron with sucre. We headed down into the metro with crepes in hand to make the journey back to Montmartre.





As we did yesterday, today we had to climb many flights of stairs to get home. We took a few photos to document the climb.










We cooked dinner tonight to save money and we opened our first bottle of French wine that we purchased yesterday. As I write this Ryan is fast asleep on the bed and I am ready for dessert. Again, thank goodness for those stairs.

Tomorrow we will either go to the Louvre or Versailles. I will wake Ryan up shortly to discuss. No doubt that he won't remember what we decided when morning comes. Once he's asleep, he's a lost cause.

Until tomorrow, au revoir!

P.S. Ryan did wake up and we decided we will go to Versailles. I think he will remember tomorrow morning!