April in Paris

Sat. Apr. 9: We left Nice shrouded in haze and low clouds and brought the perfect weather we had all week in Nice to Paris! Bus #98 took us right to the Nice airport where we checked our bags, got our boarding passes and got online with free WiFi, the only annoying thing being we were there much earlier than necessary. Before we left home, Marv had downloaded about 8 Rick Steves walking tours and radio shows. While in flight we listened to one of two of his radio show podcasts about Paris. When we arrived at Orly we got our bags and called for our transport shuttle, which was waiting at the door with our name on a sign. He whisked us into the city to our hotel, La Jardin de Cluny, which is in the Latin Quarter on the Left Bank, about a two minute walk from Notre Dame. It is very nice and will be a terrific home base while we explore the city. We dropped our stuff in our room, walked to “Point Zero” in the square in front of Notre Dame, plugged in two sets of headphones, and began our Historic Paris walking tour. Steves suggests you take about 4 hours to do the tour and it took us at least that long, even though we skipped Notre Dame because it was so crowded and we can come back at a better time. His narration took us around the Ile de la Cité and the Left Bank including extended stops at Sainte-Chapel, where we bought our Museum Pass that will get us into many places over our time here, and the Conciergerie, where over 2000 prisoners, including Marie Antoinette, were held before going to the guillotine. We looked at both islands from many perspectives and hung our feet over the edge of the point of the Ile de la Cité near Pont Neuf. It means New Bridge but is actually the oldest bridge in town because it was built around 1600. The weather was absolutely perfect, with temperatures in the 70s and not a cloud in the deep blue sky. The tulips and flowering trees are in full bloom and add immensely to the beauty of every little plaza and park. They are having a bit of a heat wave for the next few days so we won’t see normal high 50s until our last day in Paris. So at the end of our tour we were happy to sit by a small playground in the shade of the flying buttresses and leering gargoyles of the by now closed Notre Dame. On our way back to the hotel we bought some provisions to make a supper in our room and relaxed for a while before going back out to explore our near neighborhood after dark. We are both already feeling confident about the streets around us and are ready to branch out further. It is so magical to just wander the streets of Paris after dark, still teaming with people who appear ready to make a late night of it! We however got back to the hotel to call Ken, as he had requested, finished the blog, and went to bed by midnight to get an early start tomorrow.