It was good to sleep in - it's a while since we've done that and since we had decided we would have buffet breakfast at the hotel this morning, and it went until 11am, we didn't feel we needed to rush. But we did need to rush, just a little, well, I did, because my BigBus ticket from yesterday was good for this morning - the beauty of the 24-hour ticket.
I wasn't sure what time I would be back so I had gone out to get a sandwich for Sooz (to supplement our provisions) in case I was later than intended - but most things were still shut in our neighbourhood. I'm thinking most of Paris doesn't have an early start on a Sunday.
I need to know the term for when the weather is a little more than 'dreary'. It was when I boarded the bus near Notre Dame, and there were even some very light drops of rain. I put the camera away and took out my phone - just to be on the safe side. And to be even more on the safe side, I tethered my phone to my camera strap just in case it decided to go for a tumble over the side while I was trying to capture a shot.
I sat on the other side of the BigBus today and it was a good choice except for the two annoying people sitting in the seat in front of me and across the aisle from each other. At each landmark they would stand up and take photos of each other and then take some more, and some more, and some more. It was a relief when they finally took themselves off for a closer look at the view over to the Eiffel Tower.
We took a slightly different route on the BigBus today - I think there are road closures as Paris gets ready for tomorrow's Armistice Day celebrations. A huge flag had been unfurled in the Arc de Triomphe since yesterday and barricades (not the French Revolution kind!) have gone up in various places around town.
I saw things today that I missed yesterday - including Shakespeare & Company (that is one busy bookshop) and the giant tulips in the park (somewhere) and the top of the Eiffel Tower.
Dinner tonight was going to be at one of the restaurants highly recommended by Les Frenchies - Le Jacobine. Even though we were in the line at 7pm, we were told they wouldn’t have a table available until 9.30pm at the earliest. So, we booked for 7pm on Tuesday and took ourselves off the La Buci, also in our neighbourhood. We shared duck foie gras for starters and then Sooz had steak and I had beef bourguinon (read: stew). Alas, it was too much for us and we decided we would be doing it a disservice if we were to have dessert. Next time I’m planning to assert my adult rights and have dessert first so I don’t miss out.