France and Switzerland 2014 - Day 3

We woke-up and breakfasted at a more vacation-like hour of 10am. I love the way Susan and Werner have taught me about traveling. It's a cross between relaxing and planning a few highlights for the day.

Today's highlights included a "hop on hop off" bus tour for Susan, Kyle, and I, while Werner and Rick explored an exhibit about the liberation of Paris after World War II. The weather was perfect for our open-air, quintessentially touristy excursion. We mostly hopped on and viewed the ubiquitous sights.

We did hop off to find a restaurant for lunch that Kyle had heard of near the Arc de triomphe. After walking a mile through a beautiful residential neighborhood we discovered that the restaurant was closed. Go figure, it was 4 in the afternoon! We quickly found a sidewalk cafe that was open. We started lunch outside but soon were inside due to a thunderstorm. 








We had tickets to a concert at Sainte Chapelle and were supposed to meet Rick and Werner there at 6:30. Time moved too quickly and after a flurry of texts with Rick and instructions from our waiter, Susan, Kyle, and I decided to brave the Paris subway to get there. Long story short...we arrived a minute after the concert started at 7:01! It was a great adventure though.


The concert was a string quartet playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Rick and I had

experienced this during our first trip to Paris in 2002. It was exquisite and we were so glad we could share it with the others. This time was even better than I remembered. Between the stained glass windows of the chapel and the theatrics of the performers it was quite lovely.

As it was still light after the concert, we decided to explore one more sight and took a city bus to Monmartre and the Sacre-Coeur. After getting of the bus, Susan, Werner and I hailed a taxi to get up to the top while Kyle and Rick walked. We didn't expect to find a party-like atmosphere of tourists and locals sitting on the steps to

greet the sunset! Between the street performers and the guys walking around selling beer from a case on their shoulder, it was quite a happening. It was also stunning to experience the city below from our perch.

We took the funicular partway down the hill and then found another cab to take us back to our neighborhood. It was 10:30 and we hadn't eaten dinner so I pulled out my iPad in the back seat of the cab and quickly found a Rick Steves' suggestion in the Marais. I called to be sure they were open and our cab driver raced to get us there before their 11:00 closing. We had another "RS" winner! Since we arrived at 10:45, rather than dinner we had dessert. A delightful end to a thoroughly incredible day in Paris!