Paris - Day 2

After a breakfast of fresh pain au chocolat (oh how I love waking up in Paris!), my parents and I took the train down to the Eiffel Tower and went on a Bateaux Mouche tour. Cheesey and touristy? Perhaps, but it was actually a gorgeous and sunny day, and we were still pretty tired after our late-night adventures the night before, so it was a perfect day to just sit on a boat and drift along the Seine. While my dad focused on taking the touristy pictures, I focused on taking the touristy photos of my parents taking touristy photos.

After the boat ride, I decided I really wanted some street food for lunch, but the area we were wandering in (north of the Champs d'Elyeeses) wasn't exactly a street food neighbourhood. So I got us onto the Metro at Franklin D. Roosevelt (why are so many streets and stations in Paris named for American presidents?) and went down to the Latin Quarter.

After passing a restaurant with delicious-smelling food, all thoughts of street food were abandoned, and we went for a €16 prix fixe lunch. Tomato and goat cheese to start, steak with roquefort sauce for the main, and a bananna and chocolate crepe for dessert. I remain amazed at how it seems impossible to have a bad meal in Paris.

Then it was on to the Jardin du Luxembourg, watching all of the little kids playing in the pond with their boats and sticks, and my dad remained amazed at how much things had changed since he'd last been there 20 years ago, and how much it had returned to the Paris he remembered from his youth (when he'd been one of those kids playing with the boats and sticks!)

Finally we grabbed our suitcases from the hotel, and some panninis, and got on the Eurostar back to London. Once again, I love how in a mere two hours, I can whisk back and forth between two such stellar cities, and was back in my own bed by nightfall.