Roxane and CS take over Paris (part 2)

So you're waiting for part 2?? Really? If you don't know what I'm talking about, read part 1 here. There we go. Up to date, now?

We took our purchased and uncorked bottle of wine (we were pretty sure that there wouldn't be a corkscrew in the room, so we had it opened in the store) up to our room, picked-up two glasses from the reception along the way and once at our destination, I poured us a generous amount of wine. All while chatting away, Rox downloaded the pictures she had taken onto her laptop, we both checked our e-mails and the glasses were re-filled. At some point, however, the excitement of meeting-up after such a long time, her still being half-jetlaged, a LOT of walking and the thrill of being in Paris took over, we finally decided to shut-up and hit the sack around 1.30 am.

After getting barely enough sleep, but at least a long, hot shower, we went down to the lovely breakfast room where we grabbed a coffee and a bit of fruit before we would hit the road. We wanted to see more of the city, but from a different (and more relaxing) perspective. In the lobby of our tiny hotel, I found a leaflet about cruises on the Seine. But before that, we had to move hotels. Yep. Our hotel was fully booked for the second night, so Rox had been given another address only 5 minutes walk away.

We dropped our belongings at the new hotel and went for a little bit of shopping for Roxane's kids. After the puchases completed and dropped off at the hotel, we took the Métro to "La Cité" which is none other than the island on the Seine where you will find the famous cathedral of Notre-Dame and the Palais de Justice.

From there we went on a sightseeing cruise. Yes, I know, very touristy, but we had to do it... the lazy way.

Here are a few photos of what we saw along the way.

A side view of the Louvres Museum

Rox and the Eiffel Tower

Alexander III Bridge

The Musée D'Orsay

The conciergerie (the prison where Marie-Antoinette was kept until she was beheaded)

You'd think this is Amsterdam, right. NOT!

Finaly. The Notre-Dame-de-Paris Cathedral from the Seine in the haze.

A Zouave at the Pont de l'Alma

After the boat ride, we went to visit the Notre-Dame-de-Paris Cathedral. It's quite impressive, but I wonder what this person had to do with the history of it all. Starbucks was involved?? Who knew?!

After our visit, we decided it was time for a drink, so we wandered through the small streets and alleys of lively St-Germain area and had us a nice aperitif. The waiter was kind enought to take our picture.

We were slowly getting hungry, but we couldn't make up our mind where to go. We looked at a few small restaurants in an alley leading to the St-Germain boulevard and they all looked so inviting. Decisions, decisions.

We found a tiny, but very inviting restaurant and ordered two glasse of champagne and a menu du jour, which turned out ok, but not the best. I must say that it was a very friendly service and easy going. What the hell. We were there to get together and have a good time... which we definitely had. Whithin such a short notice period, we both didn't have the time to look up gastronomy in Paris!... But we were happy. Isn't that what counts?

Rox: Here's a special cheers to you and thank you for having kept in touch all those years as well as for the great time in Paris. I'll never forget it. I miss you, my friend, and hope that the kids will enjoy their football (soccer) dresses. See you soon in Canada (or Europe again?)!

PS: I will upload all picts on on my picasa web site and add the link asap, but I've been working on the pictures all afternoon and I'm zonked. Not to mention that I have another post coming up (Oranje weekend) and that Christiane and Robert are coming over for two weeks this Friday from Canada. We'll be going to Zermatt (Switzerland) and Amsterdam with them. Wheeee! Aren't I lucky?

Note to the readers: With a few exceptions, all these photos were taken with Roxanes' camera, because mine ran out of battery whithin the first hour, or so. I won't go into details, here, but I'll blame it on Orange-X ;) Thanks you Dear, that you made it possible for me to have all these wonderful photographic memories and to share them on the blog. Love ya!