Come On Along: Rue Cler, Paris

Arrived from Gare du Nord at our local Metro station, Ecole Militaire, to find the sidewalks and the roads dug up and the post office completely sheathed in plastic. Apparently when they say that the French go on vacation in August, they do mean ALL of the French people. And, they leave all of their projects just waiting for their return. We think all of the road workers, street sweepers and parks maintenance guys must be on holiday in the Canary Islands! We joked to each other in London that France must be empty because they were all in London. Little did we know...

In the neighborhood where we are staying, Rue Cler (7th arrondissement), about half of the stores are closed--just a little paper sign in the window "annual leave, return Sept 2". Luckily, our favorite restaurants, Cafe du Marche (seen here)

and Rouissillion) are open! Our hotel, the Hotel du Cadran, which is new to us, is great. It is all new and modern inside and has an elevator, queen-sized beds that you can walk around, showers that you can turn around in, safes, closets and a/c--what more do you need? Oh, and on level -1, which we believe was formerly the wine cellar, or maybe a dungeon, is the breakfast room where we had a delicious Parisian breakfast.

Our first full day in Paris and we whipped out our carnet of metro tickets and headed for Notre Dame. Unfortunately, when we tried to make our metro to RER connection, we discovered that the line we wanted is closed for renovations, so plan B--find the replacement bus.

We put our best feet forward at the center of Paris

and marveled at the architecture of the Cathedral. How did they get those ceilings so high back in the 1200's?

Notre Dame

We visited the Monument to Deportation which remembers the 200,000 French Jews deported to Nazi concentration camps.

Crossing the bridge of locks (we are not sure of the name, but the bridge is covered in locks with couples names on them) we wondered how often they have to come out with bolt-cutters and remove them as most of these were relatively recent.

We even saw one couple, in full wedding regalia, attaching their lock.

Wandering down Rue St. Germain we were lured into a cafe for Citron et sucre Crepes! Just a little snack to keep body and soul together. Onward to the Luxembourg gardens to enjoy a typical Parisian Saturday afternoon--we sat in the sun and watched the kids play with the boats.

Back on the metro, including changing lines, to the Riverfront to take a boat ride on the Seine.

We again marveled at the fabulous architecture--especially our favorite "Pont Alexandre III" which looked as if the gold leaf had just been re-done!

Finishing our itinerary for the afternoon we strolled under the Eiffel Tower,

down the park, and collapsed into a cafe for some wine and cheese--we cannot identify it but it was smelly and delicious! The cheese that is. The wine was just delicious. It should hold us until dinner! After which we are heading back to the Eiffel Tower!