An early start for Heather, Ewan and ourselves when we took the 7.30 a.m. flight from Glasgow to Paris this morning. What a day it has been!
On arriving at our old favourite, the Hotel Artus, we left our luggage at reception and had lunch in a nearby restaurant Café du Marché. There are plenty to choose from! I had Oeufs Mimosa which are devilled eggs; I haven’t had these for many years and they were very tasty. When I paid the bill and included a tip, the waiter rang a bell above the bar and there was a murmur of appreciation from nearby staff. I asked him why he rang the bell and he said that he rings it when someone gives a “bon pourboire” - a good tip! I have never heard of this custom until today.
We then walked down to the Seine; the left bank was busy with tourists but as we crossed the Ile Saint-Louis the streets got a good bit quieter. We walked about half an hour to Bastille where we climbed a staircase to the Coulée verte René-Dumont, also known as the Promenade plantée. It is a 4.7 km elevated linear park built on top of an obsolete railway in the 12th arrondissement. Andrew had recommended it to Heather and Ewan and we were very glad that he did because it is delightful. It is similar in many ways to the High Line in New York (which we visited in 2016); in fact it pre-dates it by about fifteen years, having been inaugurated in 1993. Its trees (lime and hazelnut) and climbing plants and roses are more mature than those of its New York relation, some have been left wild and some are more landscaped. It is really pleasant to walk along it, ten metres above the streets of Paris. It passes above several little parks into which you can take steps down, in one of them we saw a drinking fountain that dispenses both still and sparkling water! How very Parisian!
The Coulée Verte then descends to ground level and continues through some tunnels and paths before rising again to an elevated walkway. It gets a bit more complicated here with several walkways diverging; we descended to the Michel Bizot Metro station and thanks to James and Ewan’s expert navigation we were soon speeding back to St Germain with only one change of train, and we checked into the Artus Hotel for a much needed rest before dinner.
Dinner was rather special. In line with the French Revolution theme of our holiday, thanks to Ewan’s expertise on the subject, I had booked Le Procope, which is in Rue de l’Ancienne Comédie, not far from our hotel. This old restaurant, founded in 1686, claims to be the oldest continuously run restaurant in the world, which is a bit controversial because it spent a few decades as a shop in between its restaurant incarnations. But who’s quibbling? It’s exciting that in the early 18th century Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot discussed their Enlightenment ideas while dining here. And in the 1780s Marat, Danton, Robespierre and other revolutionaries ate here too. And then Napoleon came here too, and one day left one of his hats in lieu of payment for dinner. It’s still on display in a glass case on the stairwell. The place is steeped in history. Most importantly both the food and the company were absolutely excellent. Drinks in a little bar in Rue de Buci completed a marvellous day.
On arriving at our old favourite, the Hotel Artus, we left our luggage at reception and had lunch in a nearby restaurant Café du Marché. There are plenty to choose from! I had Oeufs Mimosa which are devilled eggs; I haven’t had these for many years and they were very tasty. When I paid the bill and included a tip, the waiter rang a bell above the bar and there was a murmur of appreciation from nearby staff. I asked him why he rang the bell and he said that he rings it when someone gives a “bon pourboire” - a good tip! I have never heard of this custom until today.
We then walked down to the Seine; the left bank was busy with tourists but as we crossed the Ile Saint-Louis the streets got a good bit quieter. We walked about half an hour to Bastille where we climbed a staircase to the Coulée verte René-Dumont, also known as the Promenade plantée. It is a 4.7 km elevated linear park built on top of an obsolete railway in the 12th arrondissement. Andrew had recommended it to Heather and Ewan and we were very glad that he did because it is delightful. It is similar in many ways to the High Line in New York (which we visited in 2016); in fact it pre-dates it by about fifteen years, having been inaugurated in 1993. Its trees (lime and hazelnut) and climbing plants and roses are more mature than those of its New York relation, some have been left wild and some are more landscaped. It is really pleasant to walk along it, ten metres above the streets of Paris. It passes above several little parks into which you can take steps down, in one of them we saw a drinking fountain that dispenses both still and sparkling water! How very Parisian!
The Coulée Verte then descends to ground level and continues through some tunnels and paths before rising again to an elevated walkway. It gets a bit more complicated here with several walkways diverging; we descended to the Michel Bizot Metro station and thanks to James and Ewan’s expert navigation we were soon speeding back to St Germain with only one change of train, and we checked into the Artus Hotel for a much needed rest before dinner.
Dinner was rather special. In line with the French Revolution theme of our holiday, thanks to Ewan’s expertise on the subject, I had booked Le Procope, which is in Rue de l’Ancienne Comédie, not far from our hotel. This old restaurant, founded in 1686, claims to be the oldest continuously run restaurant in the world, which is a bit controversial because it spent a few decades as a shop in between its restaurant incarnations. But who’s quibbling? It’s exciting that in the early 18th century Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot discussed their Enlightenment ideas while dining here. And in the 1780s Marat, Danton, Robespierre and other revolutionaries ate here too. And then Napoleon came here too, and one day left one of his hats in lieu of payment for dinner. It’s still on display in a glass case on the stairwell. The place is steeped in history. Most importantly both the food and the company were absolutely excellent. Drinks in a little bar in Rue de Buci completed a marvellous day.
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