Advertisement
Published: August 12th 2017
Edit Blog Post
Paris
Boulevard Saint Quentin Our stay in Paris is being blessed by perfect sightseeing weather. It is fine with comfortable temperatures. Other parts of Europe are into very high temperatures while in the United Kingdom wave upon wave of cold fronts is sweeping through.
We’ll start the day by trying out the hotel laundry system. The machines are similiar to those in the Troyes laundromat so it all looks straight forward. We need to exchange money for tokens. Easy. We insert the coins and get the tokens, one for washing, one for drying. Twenty minutes later the wash is finished. Problem. Our other token won’t fit the dryer. These companies have it all their own way. We need more tokens, this time with a groove across them, similar to the car wash tokens in Italy. We know what you’re thinking. We have a left over token from Vasto, Italy. Wrong groove. In goes the money out comes three tokens. One token is inserted, thirty minutes later all is dry. Now we can go shopping in Paris.
Because we only want to travel to specific stations we buy single tickets and buy Metro tickets as necessary. Our destination is Boulevard St Germain. We stop
Paris
Rue de Rennes for a very nice light lunch in a sandwich cafe. Everyone is trying really hard to sell us a plat du jour. We’re not into big lunches that use up valuable sightseeing time. The boulevards are wonderful. Tree lined, busy footpaths with a mix of tourists, shoppers and workers all moving at different paces. There is a polite jostle for valuable footpath space. Outside seating at restaurants are filling with customers enjoying people watching while consuming delightful lunches.
We are window shopping in this alive part of the city. Our list of must-see shops includes a plastics shop. What a bright inviting environment inside this shop. We move from one display to the next. A very obliging staff member takes our selection to the shop counter. We have been in the shop for some time and we have quite a collection on the counter. The credit card is able to cope, not sure about the luggage. More clothes will have to be left behind.
On our last trip we visited a fabulous tea shop. We decided to revisit this shop. It is located on the perimeter of Place des Vosges. Shops and restaurants occupy these grand buildings under
Paris
Place de Vosges an arched promenade. People are enjoying the open space in the grassed and trees lined square. It is all relaxed. Inside the tea shop, we enjoy smelling some of the hundreds of tea samples. Large boxes of tea cover the wall of this shop and the assistants use a ladder to climb to the desired box (reminiscent of the old style grocery shop). The tea is carefully spooned into a container and attractively packaged. We leave the shop and stride along the Paris streets proudly showing off our purchase.
What a fun time wandering around the streets window shopping and flashing the credit card just enough to keep the shop keepers happy. But the feet say it’s time to return to the apartment. We plan our return by Metro. At this time of night we are sure there are more people underground than walking the streets above us. It is an uneventful trip and after a brief supermarket visit we are ready for a drink and nibbles followed by a meal at a nearby restaurant.
Tomorrow is our last full day in Paris before we pack and up and start the long journey home. Our list of “must
Paris
Under the arches looking for tea. do when in Paris” is growing but we will get it all done, we hope.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.258s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 5; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0918s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb