This morning we slept in until about 9 a.m. Eric got up and sorted through the pictures from yesterday to post on Facebook and also posted my blog from yesterday that I was up until 2 a.m. typing. After breakfast we decided we would go across town and see Père Lachaise Cemetery.
We followed Rick Steves’ tour in his Paris 2014 book and made our way through the cemetery. It is an amazing cemetery. It is hard to believe people erect such magnificent monuments to be buried in—some of them are so large and ornate they look like small churches. It is like nothing I have ever seen in the states.
Some of the sites we visited in the cemetery were Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, Gertrude Stein, Molière, Jim Morrison, Frédéric Chopin, Héloïse and Abélard, Colette, and Rossini to name a few. We also visited Communards wall (Mur Des Fédérés) and some of several emaciated statues remembering the victims of the concentration camps and Nazi resistance heroes.
After making our way through the cemetery we headed for the Rodin museum and garden. Originally we were just going to visit the garden, but we went ahead and bought a ticket to get into both. First we headed for the café in the garden as we were starving. It was an appropriate weather day for a visit to the cemetery (cold, cloudy, and rainy), but maybe not the best weather for visiting Rodin’s garden. However, we made the best of it.
We had our lunch at the café, which was really good. We had their plat du jour which was some type of chicken with gnocchi and salad, plus we ordered a separate larger salad with rolls and a chocolate muffin.
After getting some food in our stomachs we headed into the museum to get warmed up a bit. The museum was not as big as I was expecting. It is only two floors and not very many rooms. After that we headed out into the gardens, which were very pretty. Many of Rodin’s pieces, like The Thinker, are actually out in the garden. We wandered around the garden for a bit and decided to head back to the apartment to get warmed up.
Before we got back to the apartment we hit an ATM since were running low on cash. On our way back to the apartment we came across a Gelato shop, so of course we had to stop in and try some. Then we made our way back to the apartment to decide what we wanted to do next.
We decided we would have some more bread and cheese for dinner before our deux Chevaux car tour tonight at 10 p.m. We also wanted some fresh strawberries to go with it, so out the door and down the street we headed. We had seen a couple produce markets the other day down the street that had really good looking strawberries.
Down the street meant about a mile or so, but I figure we were burning off the calories first. After buying our berries, we strolled along the other side of the street looking into the various store windows. By the time we got back to the apartment Jody and Guy had gotten back from their day out and about.
We had some time before our car tour so Eric and I did some reading and relaxing and the old people (AKA Jody and Guy) took a nap. At around 10 o’clock we headed down for our hour long tour of the city by Deux Chevaux. They are driven by French students who speak English and are happy to show you the sights of their wonderful city. Jody and Guy were in one car and Eric and I were in another. Each of our guides took us on a different tour. I am sure that have all created their itineraries they like to follow with their “secret spots” for the best views of some of the popular sights.
An hour goes by in a hurry and before you know it we were back at our apartment. We were all pooped from our day of wandering about the city again, and of course it was almost midnight, so we all headed off to bed.
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