Sunday of the Penecoste long weekend, and the Parisennes are relishing in the beauty and bounty of their immense parks for family picnics, romantics strolls, couples witnessing the first wobbly steps of their young toddlers.
We decided to try out a two-day open city tour bus. There is a red one & green one - don't do what we did to take the green one. Even though it has significantly more routes and stops, we found that it was not reliable as it finished the day way earlier than suggested in the brochure. On both nights, we waited over 40 min near the Arc de Triomphe for the last bus, along with others, but it never came! Resolved not for this inconvenience to ruin our holiday, on the second night, we just hung around the Champs Elysee and ate dinner at George V bistro...the next morning we contacted our hotel concierge who helped us to call in to lodge a compliant. Not that we expect much rectification.. after all, they probably count on the fact that tourists using these buses are so short of time and are transients so they could get away with it... shame on them!
Luxembourg Gardens :
The Pantheon
The bus took us to Bercy and newer parts of the city - here is L'Opera Bastille
A restaurant named after the 1966 black & white art house film, satirizing the fashion world and its excesses
Fun time exploring the Latin Quarters to pick a restaurant - we're famished!
Dinner at the Greek place in the Latin Quarters
Day two of city bus tour :
Great complimentary morning coffee at La Motte hotel room
We headed out early to the bus stop next to Invalide
On bus morning 9:30am - best view fewer tourists
The Obelisk in Place de la Concorde - marked with Hieroglyphs
Place de la Concorde - where the guillotine stood during the "Reign of Terror" when over 1,300 people were executed, including the King, Marie-Antoinette, Danton & Robespierre
Pont Des Arts where faithful lovers swear their oath and throw the key into the Seine - said to be a tradition originating from Italy
Pont de Neuf "meaning new bridge" - despite its name, it is actually the oldest of the 37 bridges that cross the river Seine. It is recorded that back in 1578, King Henry III himself laid the foundation stone and those that attended the ceremony said that the bridge should have been named Pont des Pleurs "Bridge of Tears" as King Henry III was beside himself with grief after the death of two of his favorite friends following a recent duel.
