A Day in Paris

 One day, that's all we have in Paris. We start the day at a charming cafe at the end of our street, Rue de l' Amiral Hamelin, where we order coffee and a croissant, naturally. It is, in fact, the best croissant I've ever eaten. Well, if you can't get a decent croissant in Paris, then where can you get one?

A sunny morning for breakfast in Paris

The plan for the day is to catch the City Sightseeing Hop-on-Hop-off bus and see as much of Paris as can be seen in a day. We will hop off here and there, but there'll not be time to visit any of the usual attractions. However, much of Paris's charm is in its leafy boulevards and beautiful buildings, all of which can be viewed from the top of a tourist bus. Rue de l' Amiral Hamelin meets Avenue Kleber a few metres from our hotel and the avenue leads directly to the Arc de Triomphe which stands majestically at the western end of the Champs Élysées. 

Arc de Triomphe

We walk towards this grand monument which honours the war dead from the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars and lists French generals and victories on its surfaces. 

The sightseeing bus has a stop right beside the Arc de Triomphe and as we approach a bus appears and we are off on our Paris-by-bus tour.

We complete a circuit to take in all the main sights then make a few stops for photos and to just absorb the shear wonder of a structure like the Eiffel Tower.

The Eiffel Tower

The tragic fire in 2019 that brought down the spire and destroyed the roof of Notre-Dame Cathedral shocked the world. We leave the bus to view the restoration work in progress, from the outside of course. Quite a few others have the same thought and we all look skyward at this historic moment in the cathedral's history.

Notre Dame

Restoration underway at Notre Dame

We stroll along the Seine past all the little book lockers that line the banks, stopping now and then to thumb through this book or that. Neither of us has space for pamphlet in our luggage, let alone a book so we move on.

We have time to sit for a brief while in the Tuileries Gardens where the leafy trees provide relief from the hot Paris sun. The gardens lie between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde and are a wonderful example of the French formal garden style so satisfying to the eye.

Jardin des Tuileries

Pyramide du Louvre

Our day finishes with a Seine River cruise on an open boat with hundreds of other tourists. It's a bit like drafting sheep, getting all these people on board. As we inch our way forward, wondering if we really do want a river cruise, I see a small notice saying 'Licenced to carry 599 passengers'. Why not 600, one has to wonder. The cruise lasts for an hour and it is a pleasant thing to glide beneath the twenty-two Parisian bridges that we pass under on our way, watching Paris in its relaxed Sunday mood.

Under the Bridges of Paris

Paris from the Seine

We choose to walk home from the river and finish the day at the delightful restaurant on the corner of our street, diagonally opposite where we had breakfast, so many hours ago.