Paris - Day 17

This was our one day to "do" Paris so we got a relatively early start with a quick stop for croissants and a baguette to eat on a bench in a sweet little park right near our hotel. We decided to limit ourselves to the Marais neighborhood and to take the Rick Steves' walking tour. Rick hasn't failed us once on this trip!

We started with a visit to the Shoah (Holocaust) Remembrance Memorial. We thought it would be a walk through but ended up spending about two of our precious hours there. Besides having the names of those from Paris killed in the Holocaust chiseled into the walls outside, it had a tomb where ashes of those who died were buried after the war. Like we did when we visited a similar memorial in Amsterdam last year, we found some Gumpertz names on the wall. We haven't found out if they were related to Rick.

The memorial also featured a museum that documented the history of Jews in France. It was incredibly enlightening and moving to read how Jews were persecuted in France for hundreds of years before the Vichy government collaborated with the Nazis during World War II. It seemed like that in each century the persecution would last for a time and then Jews were gradually accepted into society until another movement started to eradicate them. This cycle repeated itself over and over again. I'm still trying to figure out how people have the tenacity to keep coming back.

We continued on our walk to the Place de la Bastille and then on to the Place des Vosges. We spent some time exploring an apartment Victor Hugo lived in for a period of his life. We made a special trip there because of Daniel's, Alissa's, and my love of the Broadway production of Les Miserables. I am frequently teased by my kids because every time they put on the soundtrack and the song, Come to Me, I cry. I couldn't help humming it as I toured the apartment.

The Place des Vosges was the perfect place to be during a short rain shower. We were able to take advantage of the covered passageways as we explored numerous art galleries. Couldn't help taking this photo for Alissa who seems to have "fond" memories of glass candy she saw when she was in Europe.

We continued through the Marais neighborhood to find several streets filled with people and falafel stands. While the Marais has been somewhat gentrified, there are now pockets where Jews and Muslims live together and there is even a gay district in it.

We walked for about six hours so we headed back to our hotel for a short nap before having our last dinner in Paris. Even though it was pretty chilly we decided we wanted to eat at a sidewalk cafe. They had some nice heaters to keep us warm.

It was time to make our way back to our hotel when we realized we hadn't seen the Eiffel Tower and how can you go to Paris without even a glimpse of it? We decided to walk to it. I had my doubts but Rick said we could take a train back to the hotel. After walking about an hour we finally got a good view of it at Place de la Concorde. The walk wasn't too shabby either as we walked past the endless Louvre and gardens.

It was such a lovely evening that we crossed the Seine to the Left Bank and walked toward Notre Dame. The evening was gorgeous and so was the scenery. We reminisced about the last time we were in Paris and totally didn't notice that we were on our eighth hour of being on our feet!