Paris Day 2: Sacre Coeur, Arc de Triomphe, Louvre, Selfies, and L'avant Comptoir a 2nd time.

We woke up early and I got some pastries from "Bread and Roses." While I took 3 years of French in HS, I was completely inept at ordering in French at the cafes. But I always said a "Bonjour Madame/ Monsieur" when entering any business. - it's the basic good of being polite that opens doors and creates smiles.

We took the subway to Sacre Coeur and walked up many many stairs. The metro station near this Basilica is a shit show. I kept my purse very close to me.
It was swarming with tourists inside and out. We even walked around inside it which was nice and peaceful.

We re-created some before and after photos on the steps.

And one of me from 2002/2015 standing in a similar spot.

The area around Sacre Coeur reminded me of the market area in São Paulo- but just a little less crazy.

We walked all the way to the arc de Triomphe because it was a super nice day and we needed our quota of steps on Fitbit. Lol

We went to the top because I believe it has the best view in Paris- even better than the Eiffel tower.


We recreated a photo from when I was there in 2002. I am surprised I don't look all that different- minus the blonde hair. Large shiny sunglasses, check! Hair pulled back, check! Holding the gate with the Tower in the background, check!

I really love the view from here. There are almost 10 roads that all intersect at a roundabout that goes around the Arc. It's super fun to watch the traffic merging together.
Spiral staircase up and down.

We walked down the Champs Elysee and were very hungry so we went to cafe Paul. We had what seemed like a Croque Monsieur hot dog sandwich and a lemon tart. I also had an Orangina. Delicious.

We walked hand in hand all the way down the Champs to Place de la Concord and saw the Obelisk.

And the famous fountains.

And kept walking to the Jardin du Tuileries.

And eventually made our way to the Louvre.

And we took some selfies.

And more selfies on self timer.

Then we started walking back towards the hotel and crossed the bridge which has all the locks attached to it. Most of the segments were boarded up to prevent people from locking more locks to the locks on the bridge but there were some exposed parts.

We stopped by the famous Les Deux Maggots cafe for some rose wine. If this place was good enough for Hemingway, it was certainly good enough for us!

We got back to the hotel after a long day, cleaned up and headed back out for dinner.

I really loved just walking around Paris and seeing the narrow streets.


For dinner #2 we went back to L'Avant Comptoir. It was that good. This time we had salami and a nice chunk of stinky soft Camembert- the king of cheeses.

After dinner we walked around and I saw this street vendor. I'm no fan of chocolate, but I absolutely love sour gummies and gummy bears. I got 6 euros worth and we walked back to the hotel.


I really need to map out where we walked to see how far we went!

I love Paris.