Day 7: 7/6, Paris - Restful morning and touring the left bank

Day 7 - 7/6

With Versailles being cut from our agenda, we took a much needed restful break for the first half of the day. We woke up around the later hour of 9 am, a good indication about how necessary this break was needed, and slowly made our way to the kitchen. For breakfast we had some brewed coffee (yay!), yogurt, and baguettes with brie. Olivia had a hard time understanding the concept of how to eat the cheese and bread together.

I spent a majority of the late morning and early afternoon writing while Janine read and watched Olivia play with the toys of our host’s son. At 12:10 we were interrupted with air raid sirens coming from outside. At first, we were a little concerned about the noise but noticed everyone walking on the street were unphased, so I turned to Google for explanation. It turns out that this is a routine siren test they perform on the first Wednesday of every month at 12:10pm. Here is a video by another traveler. I wrapped up my work around 1pm and we headed out to grab lunch and do a self-guided walking tour around Paris’ left bank. We grabbed a couple of bagel sandwiches from a nearby shop and made our way to the bus stop. One thing we learned was that Paris’ metro system is not stroller friendly, so we stuck to their more accommodating bus system for our time in Paris.

Left Bank Walk

The left bank of Paris refers to the half of the city residing on the left bank of the river Siene that runs through the city. With its winding medieval streets and historical role of playing host to many artists, poets, and intellectuals the left bank is considered the free wielding creative half while the right bank hosts logically planned housing, government buildings, and wider streets. It is said that each bank represents both sides of Paris’ traditional and liberal groups. Our walk through the left bank of Paris was originally intended to be an two hour jaunt through the old streets of the city, but toddler delays and underestimating our tendency to linger made this a four hour tour.

Left: Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés Top Left: Luxembourg Gardens Bottom Right: La Procope cafe

We started our tour on the Pont de arts bridge looking over the river Seine. I was glad they finally got rid of the cheesy love locks on the bridge after a panel fell off into the river due to the sheer weight of the added metal. Our tour walked us through haunts and homes of famous creatives such as Oscar Wilde. It also took us to an old coffee shop called La Procope, although it's now ran as a higher end restaurant. This joint played hosts to the likes of Voltaire, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin,  and Napoleon (rumoured to still have an unpaid tab). I was really tempted to walk in for a coffee and be enamoured with the historical decour, but we were edging towards dinner time and I felt my shorts and t-shirt wouldn’t go well in there.

We then visited Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, is the oldest church in Paris and was once one of the richest in France until the French Revolution. Afterwards we strolled over to see St. Sulpice church that looked very similar to St. Paul’s in London before landing at the Luxembourg Gardens. Olivia had fun running around the wide promenades and attempting to make friends with Parisian children (although being rebuffed). At some point the day began to wear on Olivia and we needed to get dinner.

I found a nice place nearby called Boucherie Roulière. Our waiter was very friendly to us and patient with a cranky Olivia. This would also be our first time noticing that children are rarely seen at Parisian restaurants, which made it more awkward when Olivia would jump around or cry. The dinner itself was fantastic and possibly the best we would have for that leg of the trip. I had the steak and frites with peppercorn sauce while Janine had the roast duck. Olivia had, but didn’t end, a cheese ravioli dish in a cream sauce. After dinner we made a fruitless attempt at getting diapers only to find that all drug stores close at 8pm and the one that would be open till 9 had moved elsewhere, so we made our way home and got back at the late hour of 10.