Paris - the Next Few Days

We're being lazy, I know, not blogging each day and just wrapping everything together in a post or two.  To be perfectly honest, we're so tired at the end of each day that it's all we can do to download our photos to our iPads (for safety sake, in case our cameras go missing, or something happens to the cards) before falling almost deliriously exhausted into bed and sleep - restful, wonderful sleep before the next day and more exploring begins! 

On Friday we were booked into a "Parisian Market Experience" tour with a young woman who's actually a food journalist in Paris - it was quite good, but we probably could have done it on our own.  We were guided around an open-air market and offered vast quantities of crisp baguettes, cheeses and sliced meats before rounding off the tour with a visit to a local bar for a glass of wine and fond farewell.  

It was then on to an old favourite, the Musee D'Orsay, where we spent many happy hours on a previous trip to Paris, and again on this occasion. The museum building itself is stunning, having at one time been a major rail station in Paris, and is now converted into one of the finest art museums in Europe. 

Now, gratuitously included, is one of my absolute favourite paintings by Eduard Manet.

Having seen some interesting glimpses of the Marais district on Thursday, we decided to revisit that delightful area again on Saturday, starting with a quick stop-in at the Uniqlo store.  Of course we have Uniqlo at home in Melbourne and we've been to their store in Tokyo (amazing!!) but the brand new Paris store is housed in a fascinating mid-19th century former foundry - the designers have retained the original foundry's massive 35 metre red brick chimney and the underground machinery is still visible through a glass floor. It was worth visiting for the site alone, regardless of the merchandise.

We then trawled through some very interesting vintage-wear shops.  Check out the photos below, paying particular attention to the number of men's tweed hats, the amount of denim and the tartan range!!

Following that we went on to the Les Halles district (1st arrondissement) to explore the magnificent shopping avenue of Montorgueil, which is a wide cobblestoned pedestrian-only zone of some 500 metres where you can wander freely, looking at some really interesting shops, outdoor cafes and (as is our wont) sampling fabulous pastries. We had seen something somewhere mentioning a patisserie called Stohrer, the oldest patisserie in Paris, and there we ate two of the best pastries we will probably ever eat in our lives. Never to be forgotten, that's for sure.

In the evening we did a river cruise along the Seine which was very relaxing and most importantly dropped us off at our final destination for the day - the Eiffel Tower, where we had a 10:30pm booking for a ride up the elevator to see Paris by night from the second level of that grand old structure.

The yellow "tennis ball" is an advertisement for the tennis tournament currently under way at Roland Garros. 😉

OK, that's enough for one blog post in anyone's language - we had a busy day today, too, but will post about it maybe tomorrow.