Sunday 24 June - Second morning in Paris - the Bateaux Bus and Gypsies

Margie and I got up early, 5:15, and we were out the door by 5:45 am. Sneaking around so as not to wake up Maureen but the door out of the apartment needed to be oiled terribly. We hoped that she got back to sleep. Walked to the end of Isle de Louis and down some stairs to the river.  We were both very excited to be in Paris! We saw some ducks and couldn't remeber the french word 'cannard' so we just called them Le quacks. We were just being silly but it was fun, hanging out in Paris with my sister.

All along the river on both sides are walkways, down by the river and up above along the roads, with benches  and trees on both levels and with stairs every so often connecting the levels to the main roads. There were some odours that were unpleasant but not too bad mostly and there was a fair bit of garbage in the bins that we saw. But we also saw the cleanup crews washing down the walkways and bridges and picking up the garbage. I think they must do this every day as there was almost the same amount of garbage yesterday morning when Maureen and I walked along the river but it was gone by noon. Where does the garbage come from? 

We went back up the stairs and around the road to the end of the island to a lovley little park with a great statue. The park was locked and probably not opened until later. Odd that they would lock the parks here, but they did in Ireland and Spain too come to think of it. That is one way to deal with people sleeping in the parks.
We continued on across a bridge (Pont Sully) pausing to take pictures, and then on over to the left bank. It was a 'La vie en Rose' morning. The sunrise made the sky pink and fluffy.  We followed the river back towards Notre Dame. It was a beautiful morning. Rose colored sky and so excited to explore!
The side streets, and some of them were major streets, were very cool, 4 and 5 story apartment buildings with shops on the ground floors. Little bakeries, gifts and clothing and grocery shops. There was little to no traffic at that time of the morning except for the occasional taxi.

We walked following the Seine, towards Notre Dame passing the Pont Tournelle with its large statue of Saint Genevieve. I will have to find out who Saint Genevieve was.  Wikipedia says : She was born in Nanterre and moved to Paris after meeting Germanus of Auxerre and Lupus of Troyes and dedicated herself to a Christian life. In 451 she led a "prayer marathon" that was said to have saved Paris by diverting Attila's Huns away from the city. WhenChilderic I besieged the city in 464 and conquered it, she acted as an intermediary between the city and its conqueror, collecting food and convincing Childeric to release his prisoners. Impressive lady

There are so many bridges in Paris and each one is different.  The only reason I know the name of that bridge is that its name is right on it.  I am going to make a page just for the bridges and so learn all of their names. I hope that there are not hundreds of them.
There was one that had a wire mesh below the railing (Pont Archeveche I found out later) and all over the wire mesh were padlocks of all shapes and sizes. We did not understand this but thought it was cool anyway.

The upper walkway along the river is very cool. There are locked green wooden boxes sitting atop the stone walls of the walkway. We wondered what they were for. Fishing Tackle? Maybe later they would be open and we could find out.  The sky was clouding over as we passed some more bridges.

Margie knew that the Bateau bus place was at the Dorsay, so we were going to walk down there to see if we could find it. A recce of sorts so that when the time came to get our passes we would know where the place was. We continued down the river walk with its large trees shading us in the early morning . There were a few people out now. Down the path there was a headlight coming toward us. At first I thought is was a motorcycle on the sidewalk but as it got closer I relalized it was a bicycle with a very bright headlamp.

We were not sure exactly how far away it was but looking at the tourist map we had it did not look that far. There were lots of interesting buildings and doors and streets. By 6:15 we were were starting to think about getting a cup of tea/coffee. We had seen lots of cafes and restaurants  but not any that were open.
We finally saw some action at the Le Depart Restaurant on the corner by a bridge. Which Bridge I will have to find out) It was full of young party goers ending their night. Maybe some of them were the bouncers and people who worked at the clubs as they were not inebriated. Actually  even the ones who looked like they might have had a little too much were well behaved and quiet. 

The Matre’D was a good looking Shafty kind of man who treated us very well and flirted ever so nicely. He actually said that his name was Shaftner and he did remind me of the guy in the movie "Shaft". Margie had a coffee and eggs and I had my first Pomme Frite and tea, both were very good. The service was slow but the restaurant was interesting enough, an art deco decor,  that the wait  was not so bad. We were seated next to some stairs that we found out later went down to the washrooms. After our (it turned out very expensive) (approx. $50.)breakfast we used the washrooms which turned out to be an experience in itself. 

We left there around 7  and headed west down the street to find the Bateau bus. Lots of very interesting buildings and of course more bridges. We made it as far as the justice hall? and the Ponts des Arts which is another bridge with locks all over it.  As we were crossing it we encountered the two young men sitting on the bench in the middle of the bridge. I said good morning and wasn't it a nice view. One of the young men said 'it is a f***king great panorama'. Well I laughed,  agreed and said have a great day. They were both fairly intoxicated and pretty much holding each other up.

We went back up the river on the other side after taking a few photos of the bridges both up and downstream of the Pont Des Arts. Found out they were the Pont Neuf which connects the Ile de la Cite with both both banks of the River up stream and the Pont Carousel  down stream. 

We decided that we had gone as far as we  were going that morning and so turned back. we were coming back later to get our Bateaux Bus passes so we would know not to dally taking pictures when we came back.


Margie and I worked our way back up the river seeing, from the other side of the river, the buildings that we had been walking beside just a while before.  There were some cool buildings. the one that they kept Marie Antoinette in before the chopped off her head was much prettier on this side of the river. We crossed the Pont Neuf to the Ile de la Cite. It is the oldest bridge in Paris. Standing since 1601 that makes it over 400 years old. Very cool. There is a statue of Roi Henry on his horse in the center area of the bridge which is on the island. There was a park with steps going down to the river walk at that end of the Island but it was locked so we thought maybe we would go back at another time. 

We wandered back down the Ile de la Cite to what appeared to be a main road and past what we found out later was the police station ( at least we thought it was the police station as there were two police men standing outside guarding the gate). Yes it was the police station and the way to get out from Saint Chappelle. All fancy gold and wrought iron. Maureen had told us that the flower market was there so we wanted to see that too. It was supposed to be around there somewhere. 

We found it  just after we saw the entrance to the Metro ( on the island?) and the bicycles that you can rent. They have places all over paris where you can pick up or drop off a bike for only a few euros. what a good idea. They don't seem to worry about people stealing them, of course, they are rather distinctive looking.

The flower market was next with vans backed in and vendors setting up their booths. There were actually less flowers and more birds than anything but maybe Sunday is different from the rest of the week. There were some birds that were your normal canary, finch kind of birds and there were some that I had never seen before like the pygmy doves with the orange eye rings. 
 There were also other goods that one could buy for the house. We walked around there for awhile and then headed back to the apartment via  the outside of Notre Dame Cathedral. so Many cool features. Gargoyles, statues, spires.... I could go on and on. We went over the little bridge ( Pont St Louis) that connects Ile de la Cite to Ile Louis and saw swans on the river. slowly working our way back to the apartment, down our narrow streets peering into all of the shops still closed up as it was Sunday.
Maureen was awake and making coffee when we walked into the apartment. We chatted and made plans to meet at the restaurant by Notre Dame around 1130. That would give Maureen time to have her breakfast and go to church and us time to get to the Bateaux Bus place at Dorsee, pick up the passes and get back. Around 930 Maureen headed off and Margie and I checked out TV channels. About 1010 we headed off and we went straight there not stopping to take pictures or anything. 
An hour later, during which time we: (1) discovered that the green wooden boxes on the walls along the walkways above the river were actually book stalls and (2) were approached by a gypsy doing the ring con, we were at the Museum D'Orsee in Line C to get in and pickup the passes. Yes it did take us awhile to figure out where to go to pick up our passes but at last we were successful. i loved the bateau bus!

It was a fairly short line and we enjoyed looking at the statues that they have in the courtyard. By the time we went through security and found the information booth it was already 1130 and we were in the short line. When we got to the information booth no one was there. We went to another information booth and they knew nothing about the bateaux bus passes. One gentleman helped us giving us directions to a kiosk on the pier? across the road. The whole pier is called the D'Orsee.
 We got our pass by 1145 and caught the next bateau bus to the Notre Dame stop and discovered that Bateaux Bus is not the quickest way to get around Paris but it is way easier than walking and we saw lots of places that we had walked earlier. We met maureen at 1210. Obviously we were later than we had planned but we didn't know where the place was. It was not our fault, and anyway Maureen is always at least that late so now she nows how it feels waiting for people.
We figured out where to catch the next bateaux bus and rode it around. It was starting to rain out but that did not dampen our spirits. we saw alot of bridges. we had accomplished our goal for the morning by getting the passes and gong on the boat ride. Yea Vive le Boat ride!