Down and out in Paris

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The Rue de Ecouffes, Paris, nine in the morning. A sucession of furious, choking yells from the street. Madame Monce, who keeps the little hotel opposite ours, has come out onto the pavement to address a lodger on the third floor. Her bare feet stuck into sabots and her grey hair streaming down.

Ok, I might have bought a book today and that paragraph might be inspired/plagarised from the opening paragraph of George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London.

The Marche Bastille were closed today so we chose to meander along the Seine. The drapes in our apartment are as thick as a Parisian beret and we sleep in til 9 and don't eat breakfast til 10. Strolling in the direction of Notre Dame we hear the midday chimes. We cross Pont Loius-Philippe to Ile St Louis and browse a few shops. The bloke from L'Occitane has a olive oil and tapenade shop and if the samples are anything to go by he's onto another winner. Ile St Louis was originally two uninhabited islands and converted to a single Ile and subdivided into the current elegant and exclusive apartments and boutiques.

Parisian architecture is an assault on your visual senses and it's hard to decypher the "sites" from the everyday. We cross Pont St Louis - one of the lovelocked bridges. A trend of lovers engraving a padlock with names and messages of love and locking them to the bridge as a sign of eternal love before casting the keys into the Seine has evolved and the bridges are covered in these things. There is literally no room on the bridge and it gives them a golden tint.

We visited a memorial to the 160,000 Jews deported and murdered in Nazi concentration camps. The Tomb of the Unknown Deportee is simple but a powerful reminder of the atrocities committed only 60 years ago. We walked behind a group of fundamental Jews as we left le Marais - a traditional Jewish quarter that apparently was also the location of the Kosher SuperMarket attacks on the day of the Charlie Hebdo attacks. Je Suis Charlie is tagged on the wall of our street.

We circle a few blocks before finding the Shakespeare & Co bookstore and I'm so glad we persisted. It was described by Henry Miller as a Wonderland of Books and it is so much more than a bookstore. The smell of paper, stone and wood hits you as you enter. Thankfully a staff member monitors numbers at the door to avoid overcrowding. Downstairs is a bookshop selling new releases and classic literature and upstairs is children's literature and the owners own library. It is floor to ceiling of timber shelves stacked with books and their are worn couches and nooks to settle in and read any of the books. In one room is a piano and a fellow customer puts down her backpack and plays a few classical concertos while we peruse. This takes the mood of the place to another level and we could stay there all day. Jules and Milla are reading on a seat in the corner and Deaks has climbed a mobile bookshelf ladder to reach the upper shelves. It's a maze of books and an amazing collection to behold.

We continue back across to Ile de la Cite where Notre Dame is dominant. Paris was born on Ile de la Cite in the 3rd century BC when the celtic Parisii tribe settled there. We aborted our Notre Dame visit due to a ridiculous queue and we came upon the Marche aux Fluers (Flower Market) and sniff our way through row after row of fresh flowers.

Further along the Seine we reach the "most romantic garden in Paris" - Square Du Vert Galant - in the shadows of Pont Nuef. Not particulalrly romantic but an amazing spot for a cracker and a choc chip cookie. Deaks was reclining on a park bench doing his best to attract romance but even in Paris he couldn't pick up. We did get a few waves from the people cruising down the Seine on the constant stream of boats. Jules and I held each others hands breifly and that's about a sromantic Paris will be this trip.

We crossover on Pont Nuef. Named the New Bridge though it is the oldest and most famous bridge in Paris. Others that pre-date it and appear in maps from 1500's must have since been demolished and replaced. We cross this and appreciate the amazing view of Paris. The serenity is peirced by a girls scream. Has someone fallen from the bridge while posing for a photo? No, Milla has spotted the Eiffel Tower for the first time and is beside herself! She, for some reason, is infatuated by the Eiffel Tower. We will head there tomorrow and take on another perennial queue.

We continued our meandering through the Jardin des Tuileries toward the Place de La Concorde. We stop for an ice cream and enjoy the spring sunshine. The Place de La Concorde may now be the site of a curious 3300 year old pink granite obelisk from Egypt but was once the site of the guillotine that beheaded King Louis XVI and his later his queen Marie-Antoinette during the French Revolution. Deaks is quite interested in the French Revolution and informed me that it wasn't just the king and queen but hundreds of people were guillotined.

We combine a photo of both of the kids favourite monuments and hear another squeal of delight as Milla spots the Arc de Triomphe. We have smashed the 15,000 steps again today and catch a sneaky Metro back to le Marais. The kids have a quick carousel ride outside St Paul metro, I grab a couple of Kronenbourg 1664s and we head home for a home cooked meal and a movie.

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