Day 20 Sunset on the Seine

On a lovely sunny afternoon (about 8 degrees) and after attending the contemporary service at the wonderful American Protestant Church of Paris (1.30-2.30pm -an odd time by Sydney standards but it seems to work here) we decided it was a perfect afternoon for a stroll. The church is located on the Left Bank of the River Seine quite close to the Eiffel Tower. We walked across the beautiful Alexandre III Bridge. It is the bridge that has the lovely golden statues on each of the four corners and noticed huge crowds of Parisians queued outside exhibitions at the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais. We didn’t feel like joining the queues so we walked a little further and sat in a park and enjoyed a chocolate crepe bought from a near by crepe seller. Children played in the park and waited excitedly for the next performance of a Punch and Judy Show at an old puppet theatre near to where we were sitting. The sign said that there had been a puppet show there every Sunday for over 200 years.

We walked back to Place de la Concorde, past the Ferris wheel that we had ridden a couple of days ago, and wandered through the Jardin des Tuileries, which were wall to wall with Parisians enjoying the afternoon sunshine. You can tell who the locals are because they are almost always dressed in black. We headed down towards the river and noticed people walking along a cobbled path that meandered beside the river (you are probably familiar with this path if you have ever watched any movies set in Paris) so we thought we would join the parade and see where it led. By now it was about 3.30pm.

We walked and enjoyed a perfect late afternoon winter’s day in Paris. The locals were loving it and the few tourists lucky enough to be there felt like locals. We continued to walk with the river on our right and Notre Dame in our sights. The cobbled path ran out after a couple of kilometres and gave way to what appeared to be normal traffic lanes. The normally busy road along the river had been closed off to cars and had been taken over by pedestrians, the odd jogger and quite a few roller bladers. We continued walking past Hotel D’Ville with Notre Dame on the river island to our right. As we walked surrounded by centuries of history we appreciated a city that closes roads to cars to reward those who are willing to walk, dream, ponder and reflect at a slower pace.

After walking for quite some time we discovered that we were at Place de la Bastille and at this point Richard had a crazy idea. After looking at the map he suggested it might actually be possible to walk home from Bastille! An hour or so later after a fascinating meander through Bastille and the backstreets of outer Paris’s east side we did indeed make it all the way to Rue Monti Christo and our humble little flat. It was now about 6.30pm and the sun had set over an hour ago.

We had just about walked from one side of Paris to the other and had clocked up about 13 kms on our pedometer. A very pleasant, though slightly exhausting, walk home from church.