Journey to the centre of the earth

 Thursday April 20

Today was all about exploring some of the lesser known areas of Paris. This involved a lot of travel on the metro. One station in particular where we had to change trains involved a lot of walking round and about and up and down (though there seemed to be a lot more down than up) having no idea of which direction we were heading - a real navigational challenge. And tell me why is it when we find an escalator it is always going the opposite to what we want?

We first of all visited a walk around some of the gastronomic sites. This started with a street market just setting up. Would love to have bought a jacket from one stall but would never wear it at home. Along this walk was one of the oldest patisseries in France - in some way affiliated with Louis XV in 1730. We resisted the pastries on offer but did succumb further along our walk to coffee and millefeuille. The street we were following used to be the old oyster markets.

Dog of the day - the lady had this cart on the front of her bike and was loaded up with dogs. She was loading another as we watched her. A doggy day care outing.

We didn't buy any, but plenty of pate on offer.

Stohrer patisserie. Just a small selection.

Our second walk was through some of the old covered walkways. These were so beautifully decorated - lovely tile floors, columns and carvings, and some really interesting shops. One shop that I would love to have spent some time exploring was a toy shop. We took Odette back home to visit her birthplace. The same lady was in the shop (it was at least 5 years ago we bought Odette there).

Odette back at home.

Lunch today was at a restaurant we went to back in 2014 - not as good as it was but still a nice lunch. From the restaurant we caught a bus to go up to Sacre Coeur - my legs and feet were feeling it! We stayed on the bus till the end of the line and got a really good look around the Montmartre area. As for Sacre Coeur - thousands of tourists. It looks like the covid travel paralysis is at an end. 

The artists square near sacre coeur. So many tourists.

Not a great shot of the Eiffel Tower  - it was overcast and also very smoggy.

Sacre Coeur

A quick visit here, a ride down the funicular,  a little fabric shopping in Montmartre and then a metro trip home. We are both feeling pretty worn out after a full day so it was a quick pizza for dinner at a restaurant next door to the hotel.