Paris Day 3 - Rainy Day with a Hint of Sunshine at the End

Whenever I dream of Paris I think of walking to the local patisserie and getting wonderful pastries for breakfast. This is exactly what we did today. There was a wonderful patisserie shop a few blocks away from the flat and we picked out a coffee eclair, a raspberry filled beignet, and a raspberry mousse pastry. I have to give props to Le Cafe de Paris in Boise, as the raspberry mousse pastry was very comparable to a dessert they have at Le Cafe de Paris. The treats were heavenly and everything I had hoped they would be. Have I mentioned that I made a point of having dessert at almost every meal in Paris? I needed my Parisian dessert fix!

Out of all of the days in Paris it rained the most this day. It would rain off and on in 30 minute intervals for the better part of the day. We took our goodies from the Patisserie back to the house since it was raining and a park didn't sound like the best idea. After 'breakfast' we decided to do some more shopping at the local stores. I didn't find much but Cole was able to find a few very nice French style button up shirts. Cole was disappointed though when he realized that European sizes are smaller than U.S. sizes and so he had to get a size 'bigger' than he would have had to in the states. We decided to try our luck at finding another H&M besides the one on the Champs Elysees. We walked quite a ways to get to where the store said it was located but we had no luck. We did get to see some more of Paris, and ran into a Socialist Party movement in a square. We didn't take much in the way of pictures though due to the rain.

We had scheduled a night bike tour that was to meet at the Eiffel Tower so we decided to grab an early dinner before heading to meet the tour. There was another Cafe near our flat that we hadn't tried and since it was still pouring rain we opted for this since it was close. It turned out to have a FABULOUS meat and cheese plate that included over 6 different types of cheeses, pate, and other meats.. The brie on it was the creamiest I have ever tasted in my life.

In true European style we lost track of the time and realized we needed to haul to the Eiffel Tower so we wouldn't miss our tour. We got to the cafe just a little after 4 and didn't leave until after 6. We were supposed to be at the Eiffel Tower by 6:45. We hauled to the metro and then ran to the Eiffel Tower. We made it just in time. However just as Cole told me, even though we were there right before 7 we ended up standing around a while because they waited for late tourists. So, we didn't have to run after all. :o)  

On the way to the Fat Tire headquarters where the bikes were stored they had an exhibit that local students had done with interpretations of the Eiffel Tower. I thought they were fascinating and snapped a few pictures of some of them.

The bike tour was one of the highlights of the trip. The weather which had been uncooperative all day, finally cleared up and didn't produce a single drop the rest of the evening. My bestie Meagan recommended it after going last year and I was ready to go rain or shine (she went when it was raining and still had a fabulous time). We started at the Eiffel Tower and biked to Notre Dame via the Latin Quarter (Rue St. Germain). At Notre Dame we stopped for world famous ice cream at Berthillion. This ice cream is only made on the island that Notre Dame is on and is out of this world. We had a scoop of mocha and a scoop of the chocolat noir. The dark chocolate ice cream was rich and absolutely divine. While eating our ice cream we learned how the black spire that sits on top of the Notre Dame was left as a reminder of just how dirty the whole church was before laser cleaning came along to clean all of the pollution, acid, and other chemicals off of the church. Below are a few pics from the beginning of the bike tour. Also included are a few pictures of the oldest church in Paris (even older than Notre Dame).

After Notre Dame we headed off toward the Louvre. The ironic part of this bike tour, was that most of the places we went with the exception of going down the Latin Quarter on the bike tour and not going down the Champs Elysees, were all places Cole and I went on our 5 hour long walk the day before. So it was sort of amusing since it took A LOT less time via bike. Below are some more pictures of us a the Louvre. These are some of my favorite.

After the Louvre we headed out for the next part of the tour, a Seine River evening boat cruise with all you can drink wine. We had lots of fun on this and got to talk so some of the other people on our tour. We met people from Melbourne, Australia, London, California, and more. Cole drank quite a bit of wine as he buddied up with the tour guides. We got some more pictures of the Eiffel Tower at night. After the boat cruise we headed back to the Fat Tire headquarters on our bikes. We went out to a locals bar with our new found friends from the bike tour and stayed out until just before the metro closed then headed back to Montmarte. It was a fabulous ending to a rainy day.