Day Five - Le Marais and Jules Verne

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Our last full day in Paris, so felt a bit sad, but it was also our 28^thwedding anniversary, so what better place to spend it!



Had our usual breakfast at Cafe St Regis before heading over Pont Louis Phillip into the Marais. This is my third trip to Paris, but I have never made it to the Marais before, so was determined to do so this time. After a short look at a church St-Gervais-et-St-Protais, we headed slowly up Rue de Veille du Temple until we reached Rue St Rosiers. It was just after 9.00am on a Saturday, but the whole area was deserted. It was lovely to walk along on a beautiful morning with simply no-one around. We loved looking in shop windows that were still closed and just generally soaking up the peaceful atmosphere.



We finally found Musee Carnavalet and spend the next couple of hours there. It was a very enjoyable museum, and from memory, free to get in. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves there. By the time we came out, the whole atmosphere of the area had changed. It was now quite busy with all the shops open and people everywhere. I am so glad we got to see it both ways.



We headed to Place des Vosges for a coffee break and a wander around the square. The park in the centre was packed with children and families, as despite the forecast for heavy rain, it was a beautiful day at this point. We walked along Rue St-Antoine, and had a look at the courtyard and outside of Hotel de Sully. Unfortunately being a Saturday it wasn’t open but we still enjoyed the outside. We didn’t really enjoy being on such a large main street so we turned into a side street and ended up in yet another cute Paris square lined with cafes. We were getting hungry so sat down for a bowl of onion soup and yet more red wine! After lunch we just wandered, ending up in St Paul Village for a bit of a poke around.



We were intending to have a look at Place Bastille, but it was getting late at this point and looking like the rain would come. We had driven past the Bastille a couple of times before and so didn’t think we would be missing too much. We headed back to our hotel, stopping to pick up some of the wonderful raw milk camembert that people have mentioned so often – particularly koloagirl - her trip report made my mouth water talking about cheese, so couldn’t leave without trying it. We also bought a small pack of Poillane bread to eat with the cheese and wine. We spent the next hour in our room, watching the now rainy late afternoon from our balcony, munching on delicious cheese, bread and wine. We had to force ourselves to stop eating to allow room for our anniversary dinner at Jules Verne.



The weather was now so wet that we decided to book a taxi to the Eiffel Tower, especially as I was in a fairly dressy cocktail dress and heels. Our concierge said to allow 40 minutes due to the weather. Thank goodness we did, it actually took 50 minutes to get from Ile St Louis to the tower and cost almost 50 euro!! I had done that taxi ride on a previous trip and it was around 10 euro, so that was a surprise.



I was concerned about how wet we would get going from the taxi to the Jules Verne private lift. Fortunately there was no problem as we were met at the taxi by staff with huge umbrellas who escorted us directly to the lift without us getting wet at all.



We had had lunch here on our last trip, on what was a gorgeous sunny day, so it didn’t really matter that it was so wet. The only thing I really missed was seeing the sunset as it was so cloudy. Paris looked absolutely gorgeous in the rain from the second level, particularly the view of Sacre Coeur – it appeared to be floating in a pale pink sky in the distance. Absolutely stunning.



We started with delicious Eiffel Tower champagne cocktails, followed by more wine with yummy breads and an amuse bouche which appeared to be a cucumber cream type of thing. We decided to eat a la carte as we weren’t particularly hungry after all the cheese in our room and so we skipped entrees and went straight to the main course. I had the saddle of lamb, but requested a side of the delicious soufflé potatoes that they serve with the steak. I had the steak last time, and the potatoes were just amazing. Gary had sea bass and loved that too. We drank lots of wine, had a fruit tart and a tower bolt for dessert and went out onto the viewing platform to have a look. It was a bit too wet to be enjoyable though, so we retreated back inside. We had a wonderful evening and the total cost was €479 which was less than we expected so we were pretty happy with that.



We caught a taxi back to the hotel and with the much better weather and no traffic, it was the expected €10 journey.

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