Marais exploration

Today started with Moet for brekky as we had half a bottle left from last night and of course we forgot to pack one of the essentials, a champagne stopper. Funny how it was not on the extensive 3 page list of things to pack that we downloaded off the net. Hit the streets at about 10:30. Not like us to get an early start, especially after broken sleep due to jet lag, city noise and bin truck morning.

A picture of our street Rue Moliere on the right. Mr Moliere was famous for something. I will google it when I have a minute. We had decided to explore to the east and walk to the Place de Voges in the Marais Arrondissment and have a picnic. This is the area known for a multicultural influence and full of bars and brasseries. We had looked at a few apartments to stay at in this district.

The first place we literally stumbled upon was the Royal Palace just 200m from our abode. The number of palaces and monuments is unreal. It's like everybody who was anybody (or regeme) in Paris over the last 1000 years has built something to mark his name. It is fantastic seeing all the fountains working wherever we have been. A far cry from our drought stricken Ballarat.

After lots of exploring and browsing in shops tucked into all sorts of arcades and lane ways we were in the Marais and started looking for cheese and freshly baked bread. As is common despite passing many such shops and a nice produce market, as soon as we needed the right type of shop they were nowhere to be seen. Also a toilet was nowhere to be found so we stopped at a Brasserie for lunch. To Kate's relief we got an English speaking waiter which made it easier.

I read about this lovely little garden just off the Place de Voges and it took a bit of finding but it was worth it and turned out to be a peaceful, quiet place. A bit of rain also kept the crowd down. Glad we brought our spray jackets.

On the way back we stumbled upon this church at Les Halles. Inside it is the most impressive church I have been in since the Ag Sophia mosque in Istanbul. No photos from inside in respect of the worshippers. The exterior of the church does not give away the grandeur of the interior. We almost passed by, but something told us that we needed to enter.