Au Revoir Paris
You’re Reading Blog 190!
After lugging our bags down the stairs, we took the Métro to Gard du Nord and dropped off our bags at a Radical Storage drop-off business. We then made our way to our favorite breakfast spot: Cloud Cakes on the lovely Place St. George.
Breakfast was amazing as always and we will sorely miss their flaky croissants and pain au chocolat.
One final hot chocolate for Amanda. 😢
Amanda bought a mug so we can always remember our go-to breakfast place.
After breakfast we went to the hilltop views of Montmartre and the gorgeous Basilique du Sacré-Cœur (Sacred Heart) de Montmartre.
I made my way up the stairs while Amanda took the funicular service.
As mentioned in the last previous post, people have found plenty of other places to secure their Parisian love locks.
Reunited at the top of the steps. The Eiffel Tower is just out of view to the right.
Montmartre was positively teaming with people. The line to enter the beautiful basilica wrapped around two sides of the building, so we quickly abandoned the idea of going inside.
Le Consulat is an iconic French restaurant located in the heart of Montmartre.
Once frequented by famous artists like Van Gogh, Renoir, Picasso, Monet, Toulouse Lautrec, and Utrillo, the restaurant exudes history and charm.
We sat inside and made a toast to the ghosts of artists gone but not forgotten.
The name of this restaurant translates as “Feeling Peckish.”
Street artist in Montmartre’s famous Place de Tertre.
It is believed that La Maison Rose became famous because of Utrillo paintings. But Élisée Maclet (sadly forgotten) painted La Maison Rose and Montmartre long before Utrillo.
This iconic spot was frequented by a multitude of artists, including singers who performed in Pigalle and Montmartre cabarets. In the 60s and 70s, film artists, writers, and singers such as Albert Camus, Alain Delon, and Dalida, were clients. Mindy and Emily enjoy a drink and dinner here in S1:E5 of Emily in Paris.
Our final stop in Montmartre was Le mur des je t'aime (Wall of I Love You).
I love you in English above our heads.
The phrase “I love you” is featured 311 times in 250 languages.
Amanda noticed Parisians who had their Métro Navigo cards in their purse and simply touched their bags to the sensor. It was a very proud moment when she successfully mimicked this small Parisian life hack.
Raspberry and dark chocolate sorbet at Berthillon, the iconic tea shop on the quaint Île Saint-Louis, the smaller of the two islands in the middle of the Seine.
La Chaumière and Le Flore en l'Île are two iconic restaurants on the west end of Île Saint-Louis. Luc chats with Emily about Paris life while seated at Le Flore en l'Île in S1:E1 of Emily in Paris.
Standing on Pont Saint-Louis, the bridge that connects the two islands in the Seine—our parting shot of the incomparable Paris.
At Gare du Nord on the travelator down to the Eurostar train that will take us from Paris to London at speeds up to 186 mph and will make the journey in a little over two hours.
Even when you make great use of the Paris Métro, which we did, it is still an enormous city and getting around requires a lot of walking. For our five days in Paris we walked just shy of 36 miles (80K+ steps) for an average of 7+ miles a day (16K+ steps). This is why we are traveling internationally now. Keeping up this pace is a younger-person’s game!
All aboard and headed back to London. In London Eurostar arrives at King’s Cross Station, though sadly not at Platform 9¾. We took our luggage to another Radical Storage so we could enjoy a final dinner at Dishoom, the same place we ate when we arrived in London nearly a month ago. As always, it was a glorious dinner!
After dinner, we retrieved our bags and took a final ride on the London Underground from King’s Cross to Paddington Station. From there, we took the Heathrow Express to Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3. There was no shuttle to our hotel, so we took a famous London black cab.
In our many trips to London, this was our first time in a black cab. It was actually pretty fun.
Our driver may not have been a great photographer, but he delivered us safe and sound to our hotel.
On Friday morning British Airways Flight 265 departed promptly at 11:35 a.m. The Boeing 777-300 landed in San Diego just before 3 p.m. We spent the night with Matt and Erica and the Sianis, and then flew Alaska Airlines to SLO on Saturday morning. It was wonderful to be home, our hearts and minds filled with so many great memories of our adventures in England, Belgium, Netherlands, and Paris!
