Day 2: Paris

For our first full day in Paris, we decided to head out first thing to Montmarte. We walked up to the Saint-Lazare subway station and quickly discovered that the Paris metro system was easy to use, cheap and got you within 100 meters of where you wanted to go, anywhere in the city.

Montemarte is a section of the city in the 18th arrondissement, built upon a pretty big hill and featuring the Basilique du Sacré Coeur.

The view from the church was fantastic, and we were lucky to get there before the crowds and enjoy a crepe for breakfast (Beth's new favourite, all-meal snack food quickly became crepe with Nutella... too funny).

Even better than the church and the view was the street scene to the West of the church. Artisans lined the streets and squares, among cafes and shops selling local art. I think if we had more time in Paris or were to come back, we would frequent Montemarte more - it would be a great place for dinner.

Mid morning, we took the metro down to Pont de l'Alma, one of the many bridges crossing the Seine in the heart of Paris, for a trip on the Bateaux-Mouches. The trip goes east along the Seine, past Notre Dame and then back West to the little Statue of Liberty and back to Pont de l'Alma - a 75 minute round trip. What an awesome way to orient yourself to the city - highly recommended!

When we got back off the boat, we walked down to the area just south of the Eiffel tower and went into a supermarket. We bought a bunch of stuff for lunch: baguettes, a Bordeaux and most importantly, we found some Comte. We were introduced to Comte by Ross and Jill the week before when they hosted a wine tasting for my parent's anniversary. We ended up having a picnic under the Eiffel tower - how romantic.

After lunch, Beth made the daily, 1:45pm our time (7:45am back home) call to the girls - we missed them already! The line ups at the Eiffel tower were huge, so we figured we would come back at the end of the week and try again.

We decided to walk over to the Hôtel National des Invalides, among other things, the burial place of Napolean. Unfortunately, the Pope struck again - he had held a sermon there that morning, and security still had the whole place locked down. Oh well!

After walking several more hours around the different neighbourhoods in Paris, we ended up around Saint Lazare again for dinner at Cafe Marco Polo.