Paris | Day 3

Time is different in Paris. There's a part of me that feels as though our days are flying by, but another part of me that feels as though we've been here forever. It definitely seems too idyllic to be permanent.

This might be the right time to let the blog followers know that we miss Violet terribly. We talk about her A LOT — weird, we know. It's especially difficult because there are so many dogs in Paris! They're in parks, restaurants, pharmacies...a puppy on almost every corner. Vio would love Paris. But we digress...

We started our morning by switching up the "usual" breakfast routine. Instead of our baguette and fruit we splurged on a quiche and sandwich from this organic bakery around the corner from the train stop. Good habits are hard to break though, and we ended up eating in our park, planning out the day.

[the organic bakery]


[our park]



Our first stop was the Musee d'Orsay, a museum known for its sculptures and vast collection of impressionist paintings. For those of you who haven't been, it's important to point out that the building itself is as impressive as the artwork. The palace turned railway station turned museum is an architectural feat with rooms laid out to take your breath away. Then you realize that you're looking at the original work of Van Gogh, Rodin, Monet, Degas, Cezanne, Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrex and it's like the world just stops. We managed to look past the fact that the museum was rather crowded (can you blame people?) and find some of our own treasures among the masterpieces. My new favorite piece of art is a painting by Degas featuring a couple in Cafe Absinthe. It doesn't get a lot of play in the gift shop, but there's something about it I just love.

[musee d'orsay exterior]



[musee d'orsay interior]






[my new favorite painting]


From the museum we walked along the Seine over to Notre Dame on the Ile de la Cite, an island in the middle of the river. It's hard to describe a cathedral like this. It was different from Sacre Coeur, but I can't put my finger on just how. In spite of all the people, it felt less touristy. They had this amazing music playing inside, like a chant, and we sat for a few minutes, just taking it all in. Heath commented that he was struck most by the fact that people had been worshiping in this building since the Middle Ages.

[walking along the Seine]




[notre dame exterior]




[notre dame interior]







From the Ile de la Cite, we walked over to the Ile St-Louis for ice cream from a little cafe called Berthillon, which Sarah Phillips recommended. It was so rich and so good! We walked down the steps of the nearby bridge to go sit on the ledge overlooking the Seine. It was so beautiful and warm that we decided to set up camp for awhile and read next to the river. These two guys were playing guitar and all these couples were holding hands and kissing — it was like something out of a movie and we were fortunate enough to be part of the scenery.

[reading on the Seine]




[the cafe with amazing ice cream]


We finally decided that we should start our march to the 11th arrondissement, which took us through La Marais (a very cute district) and right by Bastille Place.

[the bastille monument]


Our restaurant for the evening was Repaire de Cartouche, a recommendation from both the Michelin guide and Mike & Mary, the owners of La Petite Folie (the French restaurant where Heath and I used to work). This was the first restaurant or cafe we've been to where the waiter seemed slightly aggravated that we were Americans who spoke little to no French. Needless to say, that made asking translation on menu items a little embarrassing. That could be why Heath ended up with a first course VERY different from what he expected. :-)

Heath's meal consisted of a pate and then rumpsteak with morelle mushrooms and mashed potatoes. I had this fantastic asparagus soup served over bits of foie gras and then monkfish with a celery/cabbage mix. We split a vanilla pot de creme for dessert. The food was excellent but again, the server made it hard to rate this restaurant a perfect 10.

[repaire de cartouche]


Two days left!