Left Bank Paris & a Boat Ride on the Seine

13 OCT -- MONDAY
After the bus tour I went to a nearby restaurant and had lunch. Afterwards I found Shakespeare and Company - although we're told this is NOT the store owned by Sylvia Beach and shut down by the Nazis (because she refused to sell a copy of Ulysses to an officer), but another store which has simply kept the name alive. Still, I was happy to see the place.


I walked along on the Boulevard St. Germain until I found Les Deux Magots. I went inside and ordered 1/2 bottle of San Peregrino and a dish of rasperry sorbet. After the waiter took my order I walked around, looking at the photos of some of the intellectuals and writers who met there. When I found a photo of Sartre and de Beauvoir which showed where they sat in the restaurant I was so tempted to move to "their" table, but I decided that would be a little too queer, so I went back to my table and made a total tourist of myself by shooting this photograph. (These are the two "mah-go" - or Chinese commercial agents.)

I paid 16.50 Euro (about $25) for the privilege of drinking a bottle of water and eating a bowl of (delicious) rasperry sorbet. This was a total indulgence and I'm thrilled to have had the experience.

Afterwards I went across the street and took a quick stroll through the church of St. Germain de Pres, noting that Descartes is buried here. (The church is all that remains of an enormous Benedictine monastery whose lands once stretched right across the Left Bank. It is one of the oldest existing buildings in Paris - a Romanesque structure that dates back to the late tenth and early eleventh centuries.)

Then it was a quick 15 minute stroll over to the Metro station near the Musee D'Orsay, a quick ride to the Metro near the Eiffel Tower, then down to the quai to wait for Carrie so that we could buy our tickets for an evening boat ride on the Seine. We got on the hour-long ride that began at 8 pm. Of course the ride was lovely - it was fun to travel under all of the bridges, noting all their varied styles.

An extra bonus was the fact that the tour boats docked right under the Eiffel Tower. Just as our boat was leaving the shore, 20,000 white lights began blinking on the Eiffel Tower, and the crowd gave a collective oooh!. And they "ooohed" again when our boat pulled up to dock at 9 pm.

In the year 2000 the city lit the Eiffel Tower as part of their millennium celebration; however, it has been such a hit with tourists that they have continued the practice of lighting the lights every hour. In addition, the Tower sports 11 golden stars and is lit in blue (a replication of the flag of the European Union) to celebrate the fact that France currently plays the leadership role in the EU. I loooove the blue - it reminds me of the old blue "Evening in Paris" perfume bottles, which totally dates me, of course.

Please forgive this unforgiveable photograph (my camera does not take good night shots, or rather, I don't know how to take good night shots with it).