Another Day in Paris...Wednesday

We had another lazy morning! That feels wonderful.  We left home at about 9, I think.  We went to a bakery for our delicious breakfast of croissants and some other croissant-ish thing with chocolate chips on it.  We ate sitting by the fountain (still turned off) in front of our apartment.

We decided to take the advice of my friend Suzie and go tour the Opera house.  We took the train over there.  It is right near the office of the bus tour company, Paris l'Open.  We needed to stop there to get a refund since we got charged for our tickets twice.  (Should be all worked out by now!)  We walked over to the Opera house, and the ONLY sign we saw said it opens at 11:30.  (Can you tell by my caps that something will come of this later?)  It was only about 9:45.  We went back to the bus stop and got on a different line.  (The tour buses have 4 lines).  We did one that went to Montmartre.  We figured we could make the loop, see the sights, then come back to the Opera tour.  Well, I now realize that this new-to-me area of Paris is NOT my favorite.  If I had stayed in this area before, I doubt I would have fallen in love with Paris!  It was way too scandalous for me over there.  One sex shop after another, strip clubs, more and more and more nastiness.  I could not even take a picture and post it of things that were in the windows of these stores.  *blushing*  Can't imagine if we had ended up here with our girls and Brad's mom before!!! oy. It was also very....I don't know the word, modern? It didn't have the charm of Paris.  So many ads and giant signs everywhere.  Honestly it was just an ugly part of town.  I wanted to at least get a pic of Moulin Rouge with that iconic windmill, but it was way across the boulevard and we flew by it.  I thought the bus would go back by it, but we didn't.  Then we hit so much traffic.  More than the usual amount, which is a lot. We spent a lot of time just sitting in traffic not moving.  By the time we got off the dang bus, I was ready to scream.  Really didn't enjoy that 1-1/2 hours!!  Saw a few sights worth photographing, though.

Look at that sky!

We got off that stinking bus ride and walked back to the Opera house.  Now there was another sign, not there before, that says "Sorry, no tours today!"  WHAT??? We just wasted half our day.  I was not happy.  I also had to go to the bathroom so bad!  I was gonna go in there after we bought our tickets!! Brad became even more my hero by googling public bathrooms.  There were none close by, so we jumped on yet another tour bus and headed back to Notre Dame. There are some underground ones there.  Those were decent, because you have to pay to get in, and they have an attendant and are very clean.  80 cents each and we were on our way.  haha. We went back near where we were yesterday because we had found these super narrow little alleys with shops and restaurants.  We wanted to try a Döner.  We love these in Germany!  Here in Paris, they are chicken instead of turkey.  Still excellent! We had ours on a baguette.  Of course.

YUM

We shared it, like yesterday.  Paris is expensive!  So to share a 6 Euro meal...we are rock stars!

We walked back to Notre Dame to get on the boat again.

Such a beautiful day!  All those pics are just as-is. No filters or edits.  The sky was THAT blue!  It was a little chillier today, about 55 degrees.  Glad I brought a couple of scarves!

The banks of the Seine are very old and cool.  There are people everywhere!  Except in this shot. haha

This was back at the Louvre!  It's so pretty.

It's like a dream.

In the maze of shrubs

We headed back home to take a little break.  There is so much walking here.  I know I have not mentioned that before.  So. Much. Walking. And. So. Many. Stairs.  Brad had a couple of beers and I had an Apfelschörle.  That's German for apple juice with sparkling water.  I don't know what it's called here or back home! haha.  We have saved a few more bucks by buying snacks and drinks at the little grocery store, rather than a restaurant.

We decided to take a walk to find the tower - Tour Saint-Jacques, that is near us.  We found more adorable, narrow passageways.  So charming!

Found it!!!

It has a little garden surrounding it.  Very cute.  There were a ton of people sitting all over...on benches, on the ground, just everywhere.  And most were on their phones. Turns out there is free wifi in the park! Ha.  That explains it.  When we were in Europe 3.5 years ago, cell phones weren't that popular.  Now they are in everyone's hands, every minute.  Just like home.  Except that we have no data here!  So we are the ones without.  Here is the tower and park.

He got mad at me about something.

He got over it. 

We found some more public bathrooms.  I cannot begin to tell you about this one.  I REALLY hope that was water on the floor....

Kept walking.  Found a fountain!  It was on, unlike ours.

It was much more charming in person. It was also Egyptian themed.

This was the top

More walking walking walking.  We have fun doing this in new places....just wandering around exploring!

This was a huge courthouse

Found some dinner!  Just kidding.  #shrimpfest

Food on a spit.

My purse was getting heavy.  My hero, again.

This church had clothes hanging inside...no idea.

We found our way back home! Wondering why didn't explore a little sooner, we could have avoided lots of trains! We are only a few minutes walk from Notre Dame, the Louvre, pretty much everywhere we like to be.  We decided to eat at O'Tacos again, and try different fillings! It was REALLY good.

It's right downstairs.  Our square has a ton of places in it! Everything needed is a few steps away.

We had discussed seeing the Eiffel Tower at night, but we are wiped out.  And it's far from here, so I don't know how to get there.  It would not be fun at night to find our way around.  We are sitting here watching some Netflix and will probably fall asleep pretty early tonight!  Our day started off kinda crappy, but ended up great!

We have just a half day left here, then back to Germany.