We have a great sleep and wake up ready to see Paris. We start with a coffee and head toward Luxembourg Gardens that is a five minute walk from here. We step outside and our bodies, that have grown accustomed to the temperatures in Greece, shiver. It is cooler here. I don’t think it is really cold, just we are not used to these temperatures.
We get to Luxembourg Gardens and marvel at all the active people there. Jogging, walking. So many people just moving. 
Apart from the general running inside the gardens there is a running event happening today. Les Courses Du Luxembourg, a 6 or 10 K run around the 6th Arrondissement. Lots of activity here.
These drummers were beating out the pace. Very entertaining.
As it is cooler here we think we need to do some shopping as we did not pack long pants. So head in the general direction of the Champs-Élysées.
As we arrive at the obelisk at the Place de la Concorde we notice that there is no traffic along the Champs-Élysées. Only buses, taxis and police vehicles. People are walking down the middle of the street.
We are amazed and surprised and happily join in the crowd strolling, literally down the Champs-Élysées.
There are people sipping wine in the middle of the street.
Children playing Connect 4 in the middle of the street.
We find out later that this is the first and long fought car free day in Paris. Pretty historic and we were part of it!!
Even though the sun is shinning and warm at the moment, we stop at The Gap on the Champs-Élysées and Stu buys a new pair of jeans. Probably not French jeans, probably the same jeans they sell in Canada, but they will be warmer tonight. 😉
Continuing on we reach the Arc de Triomphe and purchase tickets to go up for 9.50 Euros each. The woman asks if we are OK with the stairs. I think she thinks we are old. HA! We climbed the stairs to the Castle in Leros, twice!. We walked from Fira to Oia in Santorini. We climbed the stairs from Amoudi Bay to Oia in Santorini. I tell her we are old, but we are strong!! She smiles and says “excellent”.
We climbed those stairs, a spiral staircase that seemed to never end. They were much different from the stairs to the castle or up from Amoudi bay. They were uniform and you didn’t have 3 to 5 steps between risers. Just one after the other, so you can get a good rhythm. We made it to the top with only a couple rest breaks. We sat on the benches provided and cheered on the people following us up.
It is a beautiful day and the views are lovely. We can look down the Champs-Élysées and see all of the people enjoying the walk without cars. We feel privileged to have stumbled into this experience. WOW. The first time that this has happened in Paris!!
We walk back down to earth. The spiral staircase in the other pillar takes us down quickly and almost mesmerizingly. Soon we are on the ground once again. We make our way to the staircase that leads to the tunnel to take us back to the streets of Paris.
We head in the direction of the Eiffel Tower. We wander through streets that were not touristy at all. We arrive at the tower from the opposite side of the Seine. Again the day, the iconic scene ahead of us, gives Stu so many shots to take. He is in a different candy shop today!! Variety, the spice of life!!
We walk along the opposite bank of the Seine to the next bridge, the Pont de Bir-Hakeim. We cross over here. There are 3 wedding shoots going on on this bridge with it’s great view of the Eiffel Tower.
Stop for a beer and bite to eat at a place we know we shouldn’t. In a too touristy area, but we were having too much fun to stop before and we are now pretty hungry. Oh well! Expensive and not very good.
We are going to walk back to the Eiffel Tower as it is in the direction of our hotel. It is a pretty busy place, but I do remember long lines snaking diagonally from each leg in 2007 when we were here before. But it could be a time of day thing.
Moving south we come across a lot of activity in the open space there. Not sure if it is related to the car free day, but there are all kinds of physical activities going on. It looks like you can try anything you want. Cycling obstacle courses, rollerblading, soccer, etc. Seems to be a free family event.
We make it back to our neighbourhood and stop at the corner bar/restaurant for some wine and just watch the people coming and going. We pay a bit more for the wine, but the people watching is priceless. We see many, many young woman, girls really walking by with the cute little paper bags with handles that you get at higher end shops. The bags have “Love” in white script on a dark blue bag. We are speculating what kind of shop this is 🙂 Some of the girls are quite young, so I don’t think Stu’s idea is correct.
Heading back to our hotel we see a line up down the street. Checking it out I see this shop. The line goes down the block and around the corner. The “Love” bags are coming out of this shop. From what I see from across the street, just regular clothing. slacks, tops etc. Must be good deals though.
After a bit of a rest we head out in search of dinner. We see a grocery store and go in looking for a bottle of wine for later. He says he doesn’t sell alcohol, two streets down, turn left on Rue du Montparnasse. OK. we head that way checking the menus along the way. We turn on the street and see a Creperie. And then another. Checking the menus we see that they sell savoury crepes as well as sweet.
We decide on Creperie Chez Jeanne. We order our meal and ask the server why there are so many Creperies on this street. Most of the restaurants are Creperies.
He tells us that crepes are traditional foods from the Brittany area of France. In the early 20th century the people of Brittany were very poor so many of them came to Paris to work building the Metro. The men worked on the Metro and the women opened Creperies in the area. Quite an interesting bit of history.
Our meal was great, the restaurant was tiny, we enjoyed conversation with the young man and didn’t feel that we were in a tourist trap.
Another wonderful day!
