Bees and towers...

Playlist

UK – The Best of UK (CD-R)

Francoise Hardy – The Way of Love (2CD-R)

A lovely day commenced with me asking for, and being promised, a room change...

We had breakfast at a little place just along the road from the hotel...

...after which we walked up the hill to the Pantheon...

...burial place of the great and the good of the French Nation...

...then past the perimeter fence of the Luxembourg Gardens - with its exhibition of world photography...

...and on into the peaceful gardens...

....where we spotted in a newspaper the unexpected result from last night – Germany 3 Portugal 2 - and posed rather awkwardly in front of some public sculpture...

We walked back along the Blvd St Germain to St Germain des Pres and avoided the overpriced tourist traps of les Deux Magot and Café Flore for a less well known place down the road for a tasty coffee...

Then, down and over the river to the right Bank and walked past the Louvre, at which points the skies threatened a downpour which never materialised...

...and on up into the city towards the Pigalle and Montmartre looking for Chartier Restaurant which we finally found after an interminable time...

It was worth the search though – a superb lunch I’ve been waiting 26 years to experience again – Anne was here with her mum and sister a decade ago on a “solo” trip...

Post lunch, we bought a carnet of tickets for the Metro and took the tube back to the hotel where we found we’d been moved successfully to the very quiet second floor...

Anne took a rest while I went out to the local CD shops, the best of which was Gibert Joseph, where I found a couple of good Francoise Hardy releases, a 1968 disc by Jacques Brel and a new album by a girl I’ve not heard of, Loane...

Back home to Anne and, refreshed, we set out on foot over the river again to Place de Vosges...

...and then on up to the Bastiille via the Hotel du Scully (the mansion house after which our hotel was named)...

At a market we bought some tomatoes and nectarines for tea...

...and I picked up a Classical reading of the songs of Rammstein at the rather aptly named “OCD”...

We walked on past the Bastille (a monument these days rather than a prison)...

...into Les Passages and found a great wee place called the Bee Bar...

....where we both enjoyed a beer and Anne partook of the garlicky olives on offer...

Then the Metro from Bastille to the Eiffel Tower where, on the Field of Mars, it seemed the youth of Paris had congregated to watch the light show which commenced at 10 pm...

...and, while being less than spectacular, was nonetheless good to see...

We made what turned out to be a rather rash decision to walk back to the hotel...

...an hour later we were back at La Palette where we’d tried to get a drink last night...

Tonight we got the last two seats and had the privilege of paying £8 for two quarter litres of beer...

Suitably refreshed and with lighter pockets, we continued on our way home to a much better sleep, the big noise having been removed from our lives...

Highlight of the Day : Lunch at Chartiers...