A Sunday in Paris? Don't Mind if I Do!

Hello all!  It's Sunday, it's warm and I'm in Paris.
Got up quite late for once, and had a nice breakfast.  My first croissant here.  The first one is always the best one, isn't it?
We leapt on the metro and bimbled along to the Panthéon in the 5th arrondissement.  This is in the Latin Quarter and I'd really planned to go here another day, but actually it worked out really well.
I've been dying to see this building (pardon the pun, just realised) as so many famous people have been interred here.  But as usual, because it's french, the architecture itself is pretty stunning, too.  Look:

Statue of Voltaire

We also saw Marie Curie (Sklodowska) and her husband, Pierre, as well as Alexandre Dumas and Louis Braille (which was, oddly enough, written in Braille!) 

I was absolutely thrilled to see this on the wall:

I was no idea it was here.  I have a copy of le Petit Prince in French and English.  So lovely.

We turned into another corridor in the crypt and were suddenly met with an inscription, which I believe is called The Just (don't mind at all if I'm wrong, just leave me a comment and let me know please) which honours all those french people who aided or hid Jews during the war.  Obviously it's in French, and as I read it out to John in English I could barely get through it without a lump coming to my throat.  John actually turned away before I'd finished reading it and I thought, 'he's not interested,' but actually it was because he'd got his hankie out.  So sad.

During these blog posts I'm going to stick to the facts about where we're going and what we're seeing, but there will be posts afterwards where I can go into more detail on certain things, and this will be one of the topics I'll elaborate on.

Had lunch in a nearby café.  I had an enormous galette, with an egg in the middle.  It was so filling I could hardly move afterwards.

The Luxembourg Gardens weren't very far away, so we decided to go and explore.  It was really warm and sunny actually, which was lovely.

People really were sitting around having picnics, reading, drinking coffee and playing with boats on the pond.  This really is a beautiful place.

Who wouldn't want to sit here on a Sunday afternoon, soaking up the sunshine?

There are pony rides here, tennis courts and a lovely café.  I so wish I could live here and I'd come here all the time.

John and I love exploring when we go on holiday.  We followed the map and soon found the beautiful church of St Sulpice.

Bear in mind that we've been to Paris before, so on this trip we aren't planning on going up the Eiffel Tower, inside Notre Dame or the Louvre as we did all that last time.  Just Google those if you want to have a look.  I really wanted to see as much as possible that we'd never seen before, and this is definitely the sort of thing I had in mind.

Another beautiful church.

After this we went to the church we'd planned to worship in today.  I was nervous as we approached as I wasn't sure what it would be like, but it was brilliant.  Lots of Americans, Chines and Japanese, and many others, all worshipping God together. 

The website is here:  http://trinityparis.com/  

 It was an english speaking church but one of the worship songs was in French, though.  I had that amazing feeling again, that only comes from worshipping God in a foreign language when your brain understands the words - surreal! I love the realisation that I am part of something massive. I took notes of the sermon, which started off in english but ended up in french.  Okay then...

We set off for Notre Dame afterwards but never made it.  Got side-tracked by the Place de la Sorbonne and then found a side-street full of cafés and restaurants.  We looked at all the prices and found a three course meal for 10 euros, which seems like a bargain to me.  I had moules marinière (because you have to, at least once, don't you?), l'escalope de dinde and mousse au chocolat.  Gorgeous.

It was lovely in there while the owner was there, but once he left and the other waiter took over, he was being horrible to the other waiters, it was quite strange.  John drank cidre.  He says it's part of his five-a-day.  Who knew?

I'm going to bed now, because I'm very tired indeed!

More tomorrow folks!

Jane x

Off To Paris... Again!

For the last few days I've actually been feeling sick with excitement!  You know the feeling you get in the build up to Christmas?  Like that... only worse!
Just a side note that I normally pack my suitcase a week before we leave.  How else do you get time to make sure you've got everything you need?  You might need to wash and iron something, right?  John, on the other hand, likes to pack at the very last minute, so the washing machine was hard at work at midnight before we were due to leave.  You have to ask yourself sometimes, don't you?!

We jumped in the taxi and sped to our local station and got on the train to London.  We had a fair wait there so went into Le Pain Quotidien on St Pancras Station.  We checked in for our trip on the Eurostar, which takes a bit of time, I didn't realise it was the same as going through an airport check-in.
We'd decided to go on the Eurostar because I hate flying, and all I want to say about the train is that it's absolutely awesome.  It was so relaxing and easy, I would definitely do it again and would highly recommend it to anyone.  I did have a moment of wondering if I'd like actually going through the tunnel, but to be honest, I was absorbed in a magazine and didn't even realise we'd done it when suddenly John said, "We're in France!" and that was it.
I'd checked before on how to get to our hotel from Gare du Nord and it didn't take long at all.  Our hotel is a bit of a disappointment, the room is very small (and the walls are very thin!)  There isn't even a bath, only a shower.  Hmmm.  We're also in the 20th arrondissement, which is a bit far out of things, but I don't mind.
We dumped all our stuff (tiny wardrobe, so I am living out of my suitcase!) and decided to go out.  Last time we came to Paris (two years ago) I know I was ill, but we were so tired when we arrived we fell asleep for two hours, so it was lovely to hit the ground running.
I did a lot of research before this trip and have made a massive list of things I want to see.  I thought, to save walking too much, the best thing to do would be to make a list of every single thing I want to do, then group everything into arrondissements so we get to see as much as possible without too much time on the metro or walking (I'm not averse to walking, but I'd rather be walking around inside a museum, not the outside).
After a lengthy discussion, we decided to jump on the metro and get off at Les Halles and go to St Eustache and look around.  It looks like this:

We were actually very fortunate as there was a special service going on.  The singing was amazing.  This is such a beautiful old church, and we've never been here before.

This is outside, and the main reason why I wanted to go:

 I just love it.  I could quite happily sit here (with a coffee!) and stare at it for hours.  How sad am I?  The other thing is, if you look up St Eustache in the guide books, it shows loads of grass in front of it, whereas in reality it is still surrounded by the building works for Les Halles station, just like it was when we came in 2003.  Les Halles will look fabulous when it's done though.

Notre Dame Cathedral isn't far from here, so we decided to take a walk.  We'd actually come on a mission to buy a Chat Noir umbrella and we found one practically straight away, for 13euros, so we were really pleased.
Off out to find somewhere for dinner now.
Back tomorrow 
Jane xx