This morning Douglas ventured out to look for the recommended organic bakery, ‘Alexine’ which is just around the corner from our hotel. We had croissants & palmiers for breakfast every morning. This shop won an award in 2016 best baguette competition in Paris. In Paris, everyone seems to be carrying a baguette and most of them are eating it while walking. Douglas says this is the equivalent of Americans eating in the car…the french eat while walking on the street, if they don’t have a car. A ‘palmier’ at your local Spanish or Mexican bakery might be called an ‘ear’. Each day, Alexine would have a special pastry that would only be available that day.
With a goal to focus on museums for the next 2 days in Paris, we bought a 2 day museum pass from the hotel, but these are available at museums and some of the bigger metro stations we were told. The pass gets you into most of the museums- often without having to wait in line…we tried to fit in 3 museums in 1 day- not sure I would recommend this. At least not the museums that we attempted. For example, you could spend a couple of days at just the Louvre. Hopped the metro to the Arc de Triomphe. Inspired by Rome’s Arch of Titus, Napoleon had this built to commemorate his military success. Great 360 degree views from the top. Lots of stairs for the able-bodied, and a lift for the rest. We had about a thirty minute wait before we hit the stairs.
Proceeded to walk down the Champs-Elysees- the most famous avenue in the world. It is a mix of high end French Boutiques next to chain US stores and nice Parisian restaurants juxtaposed against fancy 2 story McDonald’s with a view. The avenue translates to Elysian Field (resting place of the blessed in Greek mythology) and we took a long walk from the Arch to the Seine and then to the Louvre- the most important art museum in the world with over 800,000 works of art. (Not Pictured: The Louis Vuitton mega-store where they are supposed to have the best customer services of all their stores.)
The Louvre was originally a medieval fortress, then a royal palace and residence of Louis XIV before he moved to Versailles, and finally updated to a museum in the 1980’s. The Louvre is the 2nd most visited site in the world so we expected long lines. No lines for us since we had a museum pass which means no waiting in line to purchase tickets, plus it is not yet ‘peak tourist’ season.
