Notre dame et nos amis (Our Lady and our friends)

Tuesday 3 June 2014

Blog post by the mother

After our very full day yesterday we were all a bit slow to get going this morning.  The plan for the day was to begin at Notre Dame. 

When we arrived there was already a long queue to go up to the bell towers.  We stood in line for a while but then worked out that it would take approximately an hour and a half of waiting before we could get inside.  This was not a particularly appealing proposition (especially on the back of yesterdays stair climbing marathon) so we opted instead to just admire Notre Dame from the outside.  Mr 14 took over the photography for a while and got some great shots of the cathedral.

From the cathedral we walked along the Ile de la Cite to the Pont de L'Archeveche which (like many of the other bridges in Paris) a place for lovers to place a padlock and then toss the key into the Seine. 

Here is a photo for Grandad to prove that the mother did indeed visit Paris with the family.

From Ile de la Cite we crossed over to the Ile St Louis in search of Berthillon icecream.  Unfortunately (but not unusually) Berthillon was shut but we found a local shop that sold their icecream and were able to sample this famous Parisian delicacy.  It was nice but not mind-blowing.  While eating our glace we walked to Shakespeare and Company a famous English language bookstore where we all enjoyed exploring and reading for a while.  I love their motto "Be not inhospitable to strangers lest they be angels in disguise".
We finally dragged ourselves away from bohemia and books to go and meet our dear friends now known as Grande Maman (Big Mama) and Le Trottin (the errand boy).  We met them at their apartment in St Germain on rue de Dragon (such a great name!).  The father helped to sort out a couple of minor issues such as the front door not unlocking and the boiler not working - yay for the papa! - then we headed off for a picnic in the Jardins du Luxembourg.

Unfortunately there were no little boats to float on the pond today but we did get to watch some games of petanque and see a man in a beret (our first one in Paris so it was quite significant!).  The friends were starting to succumb to jet lag so we escorted them to Monoprix to do some shopping and then headed back to the apartment for the evening.