WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27, 2012

PARIS, FRANCE

We got up very early today to pack our bags and return to Paris. I hate getting up in the morning and I was not ready to leave Nice so it wasn't a great morning for me!

We gathered everything up and walked to the train station. When we arrived a week ago we took a taxi from the train station to our hotel and it cost 17 euro. We thought that was expensive for an eight block ride! I'd rather spend my money in Paris so we walked and it was fine.

The train was very nice and clean today. I reserved our seats in a car they called a "serenity" car because they do not allow children, cell phones or basically any noise. It was pretty cool. Most of the passengers slept which is what David and I did off and on. It was a 5 hr. and 45 min. train ride.

We didn't have any food so I made a trip to the train "restaurant," and I use that term loosely. It was a snack bar. But they had pretty good pre-made sandwiches, yogurt, drinks and, get this, PRINGLES! We had a great brunch en route.

The train arrived in Paris at 1:15 p.m. and there was a very narrow passageway into the train station so it took us forever! We decided to take the Metro to a station close to the hotel and then walk to the hotel. We followed the directions on the hotel website but the Metro station where we got off was too far to walk with luggage. We hailed a taxi and arrived at our hotel pretty quickly.

This part of the trip we are staying at the Hotel Saint-Louis en I'Isle which is a sister hotel to the hotel we stayed in when we first arrived in Paris and it's only about two doors down the street. We checked in and walked up a spiral staircase to our room and it's beautiful! Larger than many European hotel rooms and it has a great bathroom and shower! The shower has one of those rain shower heads and it is wonderful. We are very happy here and want to live here forever.

We unpacked and then headed out to walk around. Of course we had some of the famous ice cream, Berthillon, and it was delicious. We wanted to see the inside of Notre Dame and during the day the lines are very long. When Diane, Sue, Carol, Linda and Sandy were here they went over early one evening just before dinner and they walked right in so we tried their tactic. We were just a few minutes late -- they closed at 6:45 p.m. Oh well, we'll try again.

It was time for dinner and we were hungry for pasta so we went back to a restaurant we had all eaten at on our previous visit, Sens'o. I had the lasagna which was fantastic and David had spinach ravioli with ricotta cheese in a cream sauce. He loved it. For dessert I had an ice cream sundae and David had a chocolate torte in a vanilla cream sauce. Amazing!

We returned to our cool hotel and went to bed early because we knew we were going to have a big day on Thursday.