Leaving Bayeux and heading to Paris was bittersweet for me this morning. We love Paris, but small towns are in my DNA. It has been a relaxing, educational and beautiful 4+ days. This morning dawned clear and cold (0 degrees Celsius). The French countryside, clean and well-kept in Normandy as in other parts of France, was covered in frost anywhere that the sun hadn’t reached. Allan drove the rental car and we learned a lot about driving in Normandy…roundabouts are a civilized method of controlling traffic…gare de peage is toll booth in French and our credit card works well there…rappel when written under a round speed limit sign means that the speed doesn’t change, this is only a reminder.
Driving into Paris was a bit frightening…the roundabouts here are more like free-for-alls with cars juggling for position and motorcycles speeding between the cars…it took us much longer to get where we were headed than we expected…we were happy to drop off the rental car and get on our feet. We ubered to 58 Mazarin and brought our belongings up 4 flights (77 steps) to Mister Prince (our apartment for the next few days).
Charlie and Patti landed this morning and napped for a few hours before we arrived. We met them at Le H’oevre Gourmand across from our apartment and had a tasty lunch before walking through our neighborhood. The photos above are the Luxembourg Garden with the dome of the Sorbonne in the background.
Patti had yet to see the Seine so we walked over the Pont de Art and through the Louvre grounds and the Tuileries before crossing back over the Seine for an early dinner-like snack at La Fregate. An industrious young man named Charles de Batz, seigneur d’Artagnan who inspired Alexander Dumas to write the Three Musketeers once lived in this spot. There is a story on every corner in this interesting city.
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