Day 9 was a FULL day. Weren’t they all?
- Angelina’s (on a whim!)
- Arc de Triomphe
- Trocadéro
- Musée D’Orsay
- Rosie’s Smokehouse
- Sainte-Chapelle
The first thing on our agenda for this day was Arc de Triomphe. As it was a beautiful day and we mostly chose to walk over taking the Metro, we started off in the direction of the Arc…taking Rue de Rivoli almost all the way.
We quickly remembered that there was something along Rue de Rivoli that we were itching to experience…ANGELINA’S! We had yet to have the melted hot chocolate drink Paris is so well known for. Actual chocolate, as opposed to the powdered sachets most North Americans are familiar with.
Leave space for spontaneity in your days! We were so glad we had the time to visit this iconic restaurant!
We opted for the petit dejeuner…no sense NOT having a bite to eat while we were there. It was delicious!
Soon after Angelina’s, we found ourselves on the Champs-Élysées! Sidenote: This is French for Elysian Fields, the place for dead heroes in Greek mythology. Sidesidenote: Elysian Fields was the street that Stella & Stanley Kowalski lived on in A Streetcar Named Desire. But back to our day…
It turned out that, for some unknown (to us) reason the Champs-Élysées had become a pedestrian road for the day. Maybe they knew we were coming, so they planned it in our honour? Nope…as much as I would have loved that to be the truth, it is frequently closed for this purpose. I believe mostly on Sundays. Sidenote: In 2021, around 64,000 cars traveled down the eight-lane avenue each day. So for us to have it to ourselves to walk on was quite a special event. Where those 64,000 cars went to on this particular day, I don’t know!
Next, we were headed for Trocadéro. My third trip to Paris, and I had never been to Trocadéro.
After Trocadéro, it was time to walk over to one of my favourite Paris museums. Musée d’Orsay! We were really making the most of our Paris Museum Passes. If you go to Paris and you only see one or two museums, make sure d’Orsay is among them. It’s the cream of the crop. Beautiful architecture and gorgeous exhibits.
The d’Orsay is such a perfectly curated museum. Every piece is a wonder. Some of the world’s greatest works reside there…
There’s a wonderful window in d’Orsay that looks out onto the Seine. It has a clock in it, but you can look through the clock onto a wonderful vista of Paris…
They also have one of the most beautiful Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec paintings in existence…
Our next stop for this day was for dinner. This wasn’t spur of the moment, but it was a place that wasn’t on our radar when we were back home planning. We first walked into Rosie’s Smokehouse needing only a drink a few days earlier. We picked it at random. The staff was nice and the atmosphere amazing. And the beer was cold.
After two stop-ins, we had decided to give their food a go…so this was our third time there. It did NOT disappoint…
After dinner, it was a short walk over to the Sainte-Chapelle neighbourhood. I had purchased tickets for a Sainte-Chapelle concert for Michael’s birthday…a belated present. First, the tickets came with a glass of champagne served at a restaurant across the street from the church.
After our champagne, complete with an ice cream dessert, we headed over to the chapel for the concert…
But first a little sit-down by the river…because no matter how well we planned things, there were always a few extra minutes here and there that we wanted to fill with magic!
We had great seats! And, if you ever have the opportunity to go to a concert at Sainte-Chapelle…DO IT! It was pure magic. The setting, the acoustics, everything! Just stunning…
So ends another day in the City of Light! With a quick late night stroll back to our hotel, we were done with another of our quickly disappearing days. A walk back across the river on one of its beautiful bridges, filled with music and the sights and smells of Paris, and we were ready for bed.
KEVIN CRAIG 