Friday, 1 October. The day was mostly cloudy and there even was a brief rain, but it generally was mild and pleasant. The buses left for the city tour at 9:00. The 115 people had been divided into three "color coded" groups, each assigned to a different bus. Our original group of 27 from the "pre-tour" was now the blue group, augmented by about ten newcomers to even out the size of the groups. The bus tour took us by the Luxembourg Gardens to the Latin Quarter (so named because Latin was once the only common language among the university students who came here from all over Europe). We rode by the Sorbonne, the Pantheon, and the ruins of the Roman Baths of Cluny.
We then crossed the Pont St. Michel onto the Ile de la Cite and past Sainte Chapelle, the Concierge, the Hotel de Ville, and Notre Dame. Leaving the island, we followed the Left Bank, lined with book stalls, past the Musee d'Orsay and the National Assembly.
We stopped at the Hotel des Invalides (1670) for a 40-minute visit and rest stop. Known now mostly as the site of Napoleon's tomb and the Army Museum, Les Invalides was built (1670) as, and is still used as, a veteran's hospital. The guide took us into the Church of the Tomb, but not to see Napoleon's tomb itself. We did not mind because we had seen it a couple of times before, but there were others in the group who had never seen it.
Back on the bus, we drove by the Ecole Militaire, where Napoleon came as a youth, and the Eiffel Tower before crossing the Seine and circling the Arc de Triomphe.
We continued down the Champs Elysees, past the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, to the Place de la Concorde.
We drove past the Madeleine and circled the old Opera Garnier in heavy traffic. (The new Opera Bastille is a modern monstrosity.)
We went through Place Vendome
with its tall brass Austerlitz Monument. (We had stayed in a small hotel right
around the corner when we visited Paris with Elderhostel in 1999.) Passing the
Opera Comique, we arrived at the Louvre. Some of our group wanted to be dropped
off here instead of going back to the hotel on the bus.
The bus got the rest of us to the hotel at 12:30. Jane and I had lunch with another couple at a small brasserie near the hotel. The food was terrible and the waiter went out of his way to be rude. This was the only incident of rudeness (or bad food) on our entire stay in France. We walked another block to a small supermarket and bought some water and fruit at very reasonable prices. | |||||||||||||||||||
