Paris: Two seasons in two days

I flew from Munich to Paris, arriving in Paris in the pouring rain at 9pm. I was supposed to change metro lines at Notre Dame for one that went near my hotel in Saint-Germain, but I couldn't work out how to get where I needed to go, and there was lots of stairs and no escalators or lifts. So after dragging my suitcase up and down several flights of stairs I gave up and walked to the hotel in the rain. It would almost have been poetic if it hadn't been so bloody miserable... walking along Boulevard Saint-Germain at night in the rain carrying my leopard-print umbrella. What the poetic image doesn't show is that my umbrella kept threatening to blow away, I was dragging a suitcase with one wheel that doesn't cooperate with the others, and at times I was almost ankle deep in water because the 'streets' had turned into rivers! Not romantic at all really...

But I found my hotel, and because I'm a sucker for punishment I dumped my bags and went straight back out to do some laundry because I hadn't done any since Poland...

I had felt the headache coming on that day and started taking some preventative pills to ward of the migraine that threatened, but I had a pretty miserable night anyway. I think that 4 weeks of non-stop travelling are starting to take their toll. I'll probably fall apart completely for the first couple of days when I get home... But after a sleep-in I took more meds and made myself head out for a gentle look around anyway. I had the most expensive coffee of my life €6.50 (or AU$9.30), and it wasn't even a good one! I found an amazing food market that was kind of like a supermarket but full of delicatessens. There was every kind of deli food you could think of (and some you probably couldn't), and each section had a cafe part as well. I bought a ham and cheese pastry thing and some fruit and headed back to the hotel to wait for my sister who was turning up that afternoon. We went for a bit of a wander through Saint-Germain and around the outside of Notre Dame. Then we took a metro to Champs-Elysees. It was cold and windy and not good light for taking photos, so we found a restaurant and I shouted her the birthday dinner that I couldn't for her actual birthday in January (because we live on opposite sides of the planet)...

The next day dawned bright and clear and we were ready for some real sight-seeing! We started in Luxembourg Gardens, which were very pretty and starting to look like spring.

Luxembourg Palace

Luxembourg Gardens

After enjoying a coffee in the gardens we moved on to the Paris Pantheon. Unlike it's ancient Roman counterpart, this Pantheon is only about 250 years old, but still very grand.

Then we did the beautiful Notre Dame Cathedral, outside and inside...

I'll save the rest of this day for another post because a) it's bedtime, and b) the speed of the internet in this hotel is killing me (slowly)!