Notre Aventure Française, 2013: 9th November, Paris Day One

We awoke today to a market set up directly opposite our apartment selling fish, meat, fruit and vegetables, cheese, flowers (we bought a bunch of roses for the apartment), an assortment of clothing, Persian rugs and Moroccan dishes. We couldn't resist it and bought provisions for the next couple of days. It operates Wednesday afternoons and Saturday mornings.

The area our apartment is in, the Marais, is renowned for its shopping for European fashion in individual and stylish boutiques, restaurants, cafés and bars, and the Rue de Rivoli (our street) is home to the Musèe du Louvre about 500 meters west (not 100 as we thought) and it is one street removed from the Seine and the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris across the river.

So today's adventure was devoted to exploring the immediate area to the west of us, along the Rue de Rivoli, past the huge Hotel de Ville (the Paris Town Hall), over the Seine, along the Rue d'Arcole and its numerous souvenir shops to the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris. There were long queues waiting to get inside the Cathédrale, so we settled on an external circumnavigation of it on foot. Its construction commenced in 1163 and its 850th anniversary was celebrated this year. It is huge.

We walked further west along the left bank before crossing over the Pont Neuf and heading towards the Musèe du Louvre.

We passed by plants and garden markets and shops on both sides of the river with multitudes of bulbs and seeds and potted plants available. They appeared to be targetted at the apartment dwellers to grow their flowers in their balcony gardens as we can't see any household gardens unless they are secluded behind the apartment blocks.

Wow!! As soon as you turn into the Rue de Louvre it is there. Big and inviting through its Eastern portal and on through to the Pyramide and all of the time surrounded by these incredible buildings, which house the collections, and which were the former palace of the Kings of France - and then on through to the gardens. It all covers a large area and I am sure would require a large portion of our week in Paris to really explore it properly. We did though visit the area under the Pyramide with its ticket booths, cafés and a "souvenir" shop of some really fine articles and where you could really put the credit card through its paces.

Lunch, as always, is a serious affair in France as far as the food goes but today's was a fun day as we interacted with our neighbouring table diners. They were two Italian businessmen in Paris for an Expo, and with a mix of English, French and Italian we shared an enjoyable hour and a half together.