Day 1 - Sacre Coeur

August 9, 2012

Dave:

My first comment upon entering our hotel room was 'is this the whole room?'. However, after the initial shock we discovered that it was beautifully decorated, and that the staff had shown great care in leaving roses and champagne as a honeymoon gift. A further bonus is the amply sized patio, which overlooks a narrow cobblestone street with Parisian character. Visible from the patio are a boulangerie, a cheese shop, an ice cream parlour selling delicious Berthillon ice cream (more on this later), and two brasseries.

After an early night, we began the day at what felt like 10am, but was in fact 2am. This was on account of severe jet lag. After lying in bed for four more hours pretending to sleep, we showered and ventured forth into the sleepy Parisian streets. This proved to be an excellent strategy for seeing the city, as no French person wakes up prior to 10:30am on a weekday.

Smaaaaall. But nice.

After a fleeting consultation with google maps, I was totally confident in my ability to find the Sacre-Coeur, our first sightseeing mission of the trip. This led to a number of interesting discoveries:

1) Vivian made a critical error in judgment in permitting me to navigate. Yes, we moved in the correct general direction of the Sacre Coeur. No, it was neither the most direct nor the most scenic route.

Bad call, honey

2) Not all of Paris is beautiful and idyllic. Much of it is dirty and populated with individuals who look more likely to rob you than to offer you a croissant.

2) Paris has a serious unemployment problem. During our circuitous route, we noted scores of temporary employment storefronts, all of which were lined up out the door.

3) Parisian police officers come in two varietals - the completely ridiculous and the ready-for-combat. The former look more like flight attendants than cops in their lunch-lady hats, iron-on patched shirts, and reflective trousers. If one of these officers tried to arrest me, I would be in jeopardy of severe abdominal injury from excessive laughter. The latter varietal looks set for deployment to Kandahar - green camp fatigues, assault rifles at the ready, and black lace up boots. If one of these officers tried to arrest me, I would be in jeopardy of severe abdominal injury from aggressively soiling myself.

Here's a sketchy character typical of the mauvais part of town

Several hours later, we found ourselves at the top of the Montmarte hill where the ancient church rests. The church itself was beautiful but no more so than any other church in Paris. The view was the true reward. It gave us a panorama of the majority of Paris and oriented us to where the major landmarks were relative to each other.


After descending from the Sacre Coeur, we sought refuge from the heat in Printemps, which is essentially the Parisian version of Holt Renfrew. No damage done as we were both too exhausted for shopping. The air conditioning was amazing.

Sacre Coeur

At this point, my hands started shaking from severe Olympics withdrawal. We returned to the Hotel just in time for men's handball and crashed out for a while.

We are lucky to have a good friend living in Paris, who invited us for pre-dinner drinks in Le Marais. Le Marais is a neighbourhood adjoining Isle Saint Louis and is traditionally the Jewish part of Paris. It's very hip and contains some of the best bars, cafes, restaurants, and shops in the city. We met Aude and another friend of hers at the Saint Paul Metro and walked over to Place des Vosges for a glass of rose and some lively conversation.

After saying goodbye to Aude and her friend, we walked over to Notre Dame to dine at Paris' oldest vegetarian restaurant, called Le Grenier de Notre Dame. The restaurant serves mostly North African inspired fare and serves only organic wine. The food was good but the dishes lacked some sophistication.

After dinner, it was time for the best part of any day - ice cream. We both ordered caramel and salted butter ice cream and wound down the day walking through the streets around our hotel. This was the best ice cream I had ever eaten in my life, and the perfect prelude to a very long sleep.

Only in Paris - a full orchestra playing in the Metro

 

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