Paris – Day 19

This morning the weather is fine but cloudy and the forecast is for rain. We have plans to do a river cruise tomorrow night for our last night in Paris so we want to head down to Pont Neuf where the river cruise starts from to book some tickets. We also want to go to see a small garden dedicated to Anne Frank and the George Pompidou Centre (or as the kids would say “the George Dabadabadoo Centre”) which is a museum of modern art. We are also looking to go out for dinner tonight and then go up the Montparnasse Tower after dinner to get some views of Paris by night. This is an easier day than yesterday as the Anne Frank garden and the George Pompidou Centre is right next door to our apartment and Pont Neuf is over near the Notre Dame Cathedral so less walking will be required. So after brekky we start the “short” walk to Pont Neuf. It ends up being a little further than expected (a 3 ½ km round trip). When we get there we are told there is no need to book, just arrive 15 minutes before the departure time we prefer. Ok, would have been nice to know that 3 ½ km ago. Doesn’t really matter because but it was a very nice walk. We get back to the apartment for a short break before heading back out to see Anne Frank’s garden. After that we head over the road to George Pompidou and head to the ticket office. Once there we get informed that 1/3 of the museum is out of commission and it’s the good third (still charging the same price though, €26) so we pull the plug on that and bail. We make the decision to go to the Musee d’Orsay which has really good reviews. We look on the map and it doesn’t look far so we decide to walk. We grab some lunch to eat on the way and lucky we did because this joint was miles away but again, it is a great walk. We manage to get there just before the rain comes down. The museum proves a winner with works by Monet and Van Gogh and heaps of other stuff that is way above my intellect. By the time we leave the rain has stopped and we consider getting a taxi back to the apartment. Kris makes the suggestion that we stop and get some souvenirs (crap) on the way home. The souvenir shop is half way home so we decide to just walk. By now we are all a bit sore and tired from all the walking but we continue on. The kids are buoyed by the promise of an ice-cream (they are easily swayed). We do the souvenir shopping and get the kids an ice-cream and get back to the apartment just after 5pm. The round trip this time ends up being 6km, so much for a day of less walking than yesterday! So, with the 10 ½ km we walked yesterday and 9 ½ km we have walked today we have notched up 20km in 2 days. I’m starting to think we are a bit thick but for us, the best way to really see a place is to walk. We have a rest for a couple of hours before heading out to the restaurant for dinner which thankfully is directly over the road. We shower up and head downstairs to the Le Bouledogue restaurant. This is a very French restaurant which is exactly what we want. We end up having entrée, mains and desert and we also have our first coffee since Inverness as well as a bottle of French wine. It cost us an arm and a leg but the experience was worth it. After dinner we walk to the corner to hail a cab to get us to Montparnasse Tower. One thing we know from our last visit is taxi drivers over here hate taking four people because they always have their crap strewn over the passenger seat. We flag down the first guy and he motions for all 4 of us to get in the back. I tell him like hell, we want one in the front and three in the back and he starts rolling his eyes and moving his stuff off the passenger seat like it’s a real chore for him, so we tell him to stick it and slam the door shut and hail the cab coming up behind him. The next driver is more accommodating and we get to the Montparnasse Tower without any problems. The good thing about Montparnasse Tower is there is no line so we fork out the €42 and we get to the top within a minute. We get out of the lift at the 56 floor enclosed observation deck and the views are incredible. There are some stairs leading to the 59^th floor which is the roof of the building and the outdoor observation deck where the views are even better with gaps in the glass to look through. The one advantage this tower has over the Eiffel Tower is that you actually get to see the Eiffel Tower and being night time the view of the Eiffel Tower is stunning. We stayed there for over an hour and got to see the lights flashing on the Eiffel Tower twice. The flashing lights on the Eiffel Tower happen every hour for 5 minutes and it’s worth waiting for. We catch the lift back down and hail a cab with the exact same problem as before. We slam the door on another arrogant pig of a taxi driver before finding one that has a lesser look of disgust on his face to get us home. We finally get back to the apartment just before midnight for what has been a long but fantastic day. The kids jump into bed and they are out to it. Tomorrow we plan to have a quiet morning before trying to get in to see the catacombs after lunch.

Inside the Musee D'Orsay

At Le Bouledogue

Paris by night from Montparnasse Tower