Paris

We arrived safely in Paris late Saturday morning, Paris time.  After collecting our bags, we next set out to find the shuttle to the hotel at which we staying, which is very near Charles de Gaulle airport.  That (finding the shuttle) turned out to be a bit of a challenge, but we finally found it and set off.  We had reserved a car, but decided it would be best to get our bags to the hotel before we tried to deal with the car rental.

Having successfully checked into our room, we headed back to the airport to pick up the car - only to realize when halfway there that we had neglected to bring our passports (which we needed in order to rent the car).  So we had to stay on the shuttle and go all the way back to the hotel, run up and get the passports and convince the driver to wait a couple of minutes while we did so.

Passports in hand, we headed back to the airport yet once again, locating at last the Hertz counter.  We fortunately worked with a very helpful assistant who spoke fluent English.  She arranged for us to go up and look at the type of car we had reserved, and we quickly deduced that it would be too small; but we saw another Peugeot that would work just fine, and we were able to reserve one of those, to be picked up the next day, Sunday afternoon.

Place Saint Michel

That done, we then headed into Paris, arriving at Place St.-Michel at about 4:30 p.m., local time.  By then, we were ravenously hungry, having not eaten anything since breakfast aboard the plane.  We went to a brasserie just off the Place St.-Michel.  The weather was beautiful:  cool, underneath a brilliantly blue sky.  It was the perfect early fall/late summer afternoon.  We sat outside on the sidewalk, in the true Paris tradition, and imbibed the atmosphere of Parisians enjoying a late Saturday afternoon.

Even though I was tempted to order one of the specials of the day - a cheeseburger - I knew my first meal in Paris could not be American.  So I ordered Salade Nicoise, while Mark ordered an omelette.

After finishing our meals, we walked the short distance to the Seine, crossed the bridge and headed up to Notre Dame, just a block away.

I had been to Notre Dame several times, both before and during my mission.  Mark had been there several years ago, but it was closed at the time, and he was unable to go inside.  We took a walk around the interior of the church but elected not to (pay to) climb the stairs to the upper level.  Instead, we took a stroll around the exterior of the cathedral.

Me atop Notre Dame while on my mission

From Notre Dame, we started walking toward the Louvre and discovered a bike rental facility just a short distance from the cathedral.  So we decided to rent bikes so that we could experience cycling across Paris.

Riding up the Rue de Rivoli was a bit of an experience.  But it was fun.  When we reached the Louvre and the Jardin des Tuileries, we discovered that renting the bikes was easy, but finding a stall to which we could return them proved somewhat challenging.  After finally locating one that had a couple of empty stalls, we were able to then walk back to the Louvre and take a nice stroll through the gardens and the courtyard of the museum.

Late afternoon sun over the Jardin des Tuileries, the Eiffel Tower in the background

Children sailing rented boats across a fountain/pond

We next walked to Saint-German-des-Pres, an area Mark had visited in 2009, but which I had never seen.  

Crossing the Seine on our way to St-Germain

In the Place de Saint-Germain, we sat outside at the famous Cafe de Deux Maggots and shared a sandwich and a couple of glasses of wine as we again soaked up the atmosphere of the sidewalk cafe.  Across the square from us was the 1000-year-old Tower of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

By the time we decided to head back to our hotel near the airport, it was getting dark.  We enjoyed strolling back to the Place St-Michel, stopping along the way to purchase (delicious!) crepes from a street vendor.

The next morning, we had a lazy start and headed back into Paris in late morning.  Our destination was Versailles.  Along the way, however, we stopped at the Place St-Michel again for a bite to eat.

Then it was on to Versailles.  It was another gloriously beautiful afternoon.  We toured the inside of the chateau, then headed out into the gardens.  We didn't have a lot of time to see very much (as we had to get back to pick up our rental car, then put our bikes together), but we enjoyed our time there.

Me (far right) and fellow missionaries at Versailles, April 1985

Back at the hotel, putting together our bikes

Next:  On to Germany!