We woke up a little earlier today and had a light breakfast of yogurt and coffee before heading out. Our first stop was the other croissant bakery I had found and wanted to try. We were a bit late in the morning and to my dismay they were already out of croissants. We made up for it though by trying a few amazing things that woudn’t have originally made our list. There were little rolls stuffed with all sorts of yummy savory filings, and a couple of pastries made from the same dough as the croissants.
We then made another attempt at Notre Dame. The line to see the cathedral was a little shorter and moving fast so we waited for entry there. The cathedral was beautiful but the crowds inside did make the experience a little less magical.
The line to the top was still longer than we wanted to wait in so we jumped back on the metro and headed to the catacombs. The catacombs are tunnels under the city full of human bones that have been relocated from cemeteries. the line for the catacombs was really long but we decided to give it a try. We pulled out our books and stood in the sun. After having moved about three steps in 10 minutes a man from the group in front of us returned from a little expedition he had taken to the front of the line. Turns out the person in front had been waiting for over two hours. We decided it just wasn’t worth standing for so long in the heat so we grabbed some sandwiches from a bakery across the street and headed all the way across Paris back to our apartment to enjoy a wonderful simple lunch, some down time, and a nap.
After a little packing we reqlized we needed to print our train tickets. We found an Internet cafe and after about 15 minutes of fighting with login verifications etc we managed to print them.
We were in the neighborhood of the Pompidou so we wandered around there for a while. There were tons of bars and restaurants full of people. Kelly bought the worlds most amazing headband from a local artist who showed her how to tie it. We grabbed a few snacks and enjoyed them in a park with our “backpack wine”.
Our final Paris evening ended with a climb up the Arc de Triomphe, an ice cream at McDonald’s and a walk to the illuminated Eiffel Tower and Trocadero.
There were people everywhere even though it was late. We even saw about fifty couples doing the tango under the stars to music from a portable speaker. It was another magical day. Tomorrow we get to rest up on our train to Barcelona.