Our morning started with breakfast at a cafe around the corner from our hotel. We shared a salad topped with “croutons.” These were toasted slices of French bread topped with a thick layer of soft cheese. The French really know soft cheese. We also had a crepe. It was like a pancake with a potato, chicken, and cheese stuffing folded into it.
It turns out the Metro is running after all, so we have four hours to look at what we can in central Paris. We’ve checked out of our room at the Petite Hotel, but they’re storing our packs while we explore the city.
Notre Dame Cathedral is on one end of an island in the middle of the Seine, which is the river that divides Paris. When we got out of the Metro in the middle of that island, our sense of direction was flipped around. So we went to the wrong end of the island looking for the cathedral.
Along the way we saw lots of architectural and sculptural eye candy. We also got to wondering why no major city is complete without a huge public sculpture of some guy on a horse.
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- A view of the Seine looking toward Le Louvre.
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- This little park in the middle of the Seine is called Saule Pleureur de la Pointe
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- Looking the other way reveals an ancient wall crowned by a monument of someone on a horst.
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- One of the gargoyles on this wall.
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- Each of the gargoyles is different.
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- These cherubs welcome visitors to the entrances to the tunnels.
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- The Sainte-Chapelle Gate is very big, and makes Rozie look very small.
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- It seems that no major city is complete without a prominent scupture of someone riding a horse.
Notre Dame was worthy of lots of pictures, but we had to push our wide-angle lens to its limits.
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- Notre Dame as seen from the plaza in front of the cathedral.
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- The Notre Dame Cathedral as seen from a walkway across the river.
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- A view of the Notre Dame Cathedral from behind.
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- Some of the flower stands along the Seine in central Paris.
The sketch of Obbie done by a sidewalk artist in Paris.
We crossed to the left bank and found blocks of flower stands overlooking the river. On a walkway along the river, a caricature artist “insisted” that Obbie sit for a picture. It cost 10 minutes and FF100, but it was worth it and it was a fair deal for all concerned.
We crossed back over to the right bank, and found a back-alley sidewalk cafe where we drank wine and ate soft cheese drenched in olive oil that we dipped bread into.
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- The little neighborhood where we enjoyed an outdoor meal in Paris.
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- Obbie enjoys some wine with what turned out to be our last meal in Paris.
By the time we had completed that wonderful food experience, we had to rush. We had an hour to find a Metro station, get to our hotel to pick up our packs, and hoof back to the Gare d’Est in time to catch our train to Freiburg.
After lots of rushing and huffing and puffing, we got to the station with 10 minutes to spare. It was enough time to gather our wits, but not enough to gather any decent food for the trip, even though we had just rushed past the massive wheels of fromage (cheese) on display at the station.
Three trains and six hours later we arrived in Freiburg. There was no food to be found at any of the connecting stations along the way, so we showed up hungry. We were also broke, since the Geldautomat (money machine) would not issue us any Deutchmarks, reporting that it was “incapable” of doing so.
So we had no way of buying food at the station, and we couldn’t even make a phone call to Bobber, our friend from Kansas who will be hosting us in Freiburg.
As Obbie was negotiating with the Geldautomat, Bobber and Elena (his Italian partner) showed up and brought us to their place.