I woke up under the weather and knew that I needed more rest. I made myself a cup of tea and lay on the couch with a magazine. Samer decided to visit the Marché Bastille. He took the hotspot with him, and I decided to force myself to feel better. The Marché Bastille is a large, famous outdoor market located in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, France. The market is open every Sunday. The Marché Bastille offers fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses, seafood, baked goods, and flowers. Samer sent me photos of how lovely it was, so I gave in to my fear of missing out and ordered an Uber to meet him.
When I arrived, I needed the internet. I texted Samer before I left the apartment, but he was carrying our hotspot. The market is massive, so I could not track him down, and I later found out that he was not checking his phone. Finally, I sucked it up, went off airplane mode, and accepted the 24-hour international charge. We finally found each other and did a little shopping, but I was tired from illness and frustrated with myself. Samer bought some bread, cheese, and fruit for the house. He also got this excellent rhubarb soda from Les Vergers de Picardi, a French producer. Having that in the house over the next few days was very nice.
After dropping off our market goods cache, we met others for a walking tour. I arranged the tour through Guru Walks and chose the Historic Paris Walking Tour. This tour was undoubtedly better than our tour in Athens, but Paris was already becoming miserably hot. We met at the Hôtel de Ville, and the tour took for about 2 hours. Much of it is through the Île de la Cité and ends at the Palais-Royal Garden. Samer and I both laughed at our lefty tour guide, who smelled. The French men really traffic in stereotypes. His body odor was palpable.
We did not spend much time at any one monument, but walking past the book stalls of the river Seine is something out of a movie, and you cross back across the river to cut through the grounds of the Louvre. These were as impressive as I had imagined, but the heat kept me out of the sun as much as possible.
After our tour, we headed to an art market that only happens on Sundays. It is called the Marché de la Création, and I read this is a great place to buy art in Paris. I was very disappointed. Half of the stalls were empty, and none of the art was of my taste. I was looking for something with a bit more edge, but there was not one thing I cared for; however, this excursion led us to a street of Breton cafes focused on crepes.
We found a place called Crêperie Port-Manech, which specializes in the buckwheat galette (savory crepe) from Brittany. Brittany is known for its cider, so we ordered a bottle of their driest cider with lunch, and we were a little confused by the cups. I assumed cider could be served in an ordinary glass, maybe a wine glass, but wide-mouth ceramic tea cups were put on the table when we ordered the cider. I later read that in Brittany, cider is traditionally served in ceramic bowls (or wide cups) called bolée rather than glasses. The food was excellent, and whenever I get a chance to get a galette from Brittany in the future, I will make sure that I do not pass it up.
We decided to escape the heat and return to our apartment to nap and recuperate for a few hours. Once we rallied, we agreed to spend the late afternoon near the Seine. We walked to the Île Saint-Louis to get an ice cream from Berthillon, a famous ice cream maker in Paris. We walked down to Square Barye and back to the right bank along the Voie Georges-Pompidou. This is a beautiful pedestrian-only path in Paris. You can people-watch as much as you like. It is absolutely lovely. We saw people dancing, people taking modeling photos, lovers snuggling, friends drinking, and people enjoying their city.
My understanding is that this was a reasonably fast street for cars in the recent past, but the Socialist Mayor of France made Paris as unfriendly to cars as possible. Now, the city is bike- and pedestrian-friendly, and there are great spaces like Voie Georges-Pompidou where you can enjoy the water and the sunset at the end of the day. I should not compare Philadelphia to Paris, but seeing a city willing to change is lovely. The mayor said Paris would be better with more walking and biking. Sorry, drivers, but figure it out. And guess what? Paris feels fantastic to visit.
We left the bank and walked up to the main road of Quai de Desvres to see the Eiffel Tower light up. Reader, if you have not seen this, I insist that you make a plan to do it. A million videos are online, but they do not do it justice. It’s truly magical.
Even though the sun went down, it was still hot, so we returned to our room for the night to rest and enjoy some of the treats from the market. It was a quiet Sunday night, but we were exhausted and had a big week ahead.
Next: France – Day 3