Paris Day 1 Sunday, 12/2715
We landed at CDG airport a little early and got through customs, immigration and baggage claim pretty quickly. We were surprised and delighted that the taxi dispatcher at door 24 was able to call for a 7 person taxi for us.
The driver recognized the address of our hotel, Hôtel Millésime located in the St-Germain-des-Prés quarter of the 6th arrondissement. Our four rooms were ready for us, and strangely our room keys were not. We moved our luggage into our rooms, freshened up and went out for lunch.
We walked just a few blocks and ate lunch at a very nice outdoor café, Café La Palette.
The Sun was out, it was relatively warm and we wanted to go the famous Saint-Chapelle. It was just a few blocks up to the Seine River, crossing at Pont Saint-Michel. We got there and it was closed. So we walked over to Notre Dame Cathedral. We toured the insides and took lots of pictures.
From here, we walked South to the Musée de Cluny / Musée national du Moyen Âge. The museum features the famous The Lady and the Unicorn / La dame à la licorne tapestries. We saw them and a special exhibit by students who put the tapestries into a comic book format story, called a BD.
We stopped at an outdoor café, Le Relais Odéon, on Boulevard Saint-Germain. We had drinks and snacks. We headed back to our hotel, but couldn’t resist stopping at Ladurée Bonaparte for a delicious macaroon.
We took a brief break at the hotel and then headed out to La Tour Eiffel. We took the Métro from Saint-Germain-des-Prés station to Saint-Michel, we then connected with the RER C to the Champs de Mars Tour Eiffel station. The station was 3 blocks from La Tour Eiffel. We took some nice pictures. We were tempted to take an elevator ride up the tower, but the line was too long, so we decided to take the next Seine River boat cruise, run by Bateaux Parisiens. The boat ride started a La Tour Eiffel headed all the way to Notre Dame and looped back. Going out, we were above deck, coming back we were inside. It got cold.
To end our day, we headed back to the hotel and went out to a nearby restaurant, La Bonaparte. We had a nice light dinner. We had fun recounting our long first day and watching the interactions between two other tables in the restaurant. The staff in the restaurant was friendly and patient.
It was the end of a long, first day in Paris. We made it!
