Day 5 in Paris - By Jess
We both woke up feeling slightly less chipper than usual, but after some coffee we made our plans for another day in Paris. We decided to do some shopping today after visiting Notre Dame and then visit the Montparnasse tower for some photos and dinner, so after dallying a bit we headed towards Notre Dame, Antique book markets and BHV in the old DeVille building.
We arrived at Notre Dame and first visited the interior of the church. There were some beautiful stained glass windows and statues, though as it's a 'real' church there were parts where we couldn't go right up to in the alter. Then we decided to climb the towers and see where Quasimodo lived. Notre Dame was one of the few places in Paris that our passes wouldn't allow us to skip the line, so we waited for around 45 minutes in the line to climb the towers. The climb was very long up a seemingly endless marble helical staircase, but it wasn't as bad as we were expecting, and when we finally reached the top between the two towers the view was breathtaking. The gargoyles and other gothic details of the building are truly exquisite, and we spent quite a bit of time taking photos and enjoying the brilliant view. We made our way across the roof section to the second tower where we had another long and even narrower climb to one of the bells. the view from the very top of the second tower was even more spectacular and it was lovely seeing the interior oak structure of the bell tower and how it supported the massive bells. Once again we took our time before our long, but much easier, descent. A really fansastic start to our fifth day.
We then headed to HMV where we spent some time looking at clothes and so on, and also tried to start finding presents for people. We eventually tracked down some nice silk hankies which were on special (as everything is horridly expensive) and Andrew found some shirts. After shopping for a couple of hours, we decided to head for the famous Shakespeare bookshop and explore the antique book markets on the edge of the Sienne on the way. We must have looked at hundreds of antique books, as well as comics ad nick nacks and I found two more books that were reasonably priced, both from the 1700's. We were once again nearly thwarted by the impossible Parisian streets and we spent quite some time looking for the bookshop. We enventually found it, but only after first giving up and heading back, at which point we stumbled across it and were able to spend some time browsing English books for a change.
It was now time to head to Montparnasse and get our night photos of Paris. When we arrived at the tower we were disappointed to discover that the restaurant at the top where we had intended to have dinner was undergoing renovations and was closed, so we just caught the very fast lift to the top and spent about half an hour taking some amazing photos of the city at night. It was freezing cold, and so once our photos were done we decided to head back to our hotel to pack up and get some food.
By the time we made our way back to the hotel it was getting a bit late, so we quickly packed our bags and then headed to a restaurant in Montmatre which had good reviews. It was completely full, so we wandered around for a bit and then found the 'oldest hotel in Montmatre' where we had our last dinner in Paris. It was lovely. I had a first course of escargot (snails), which were quite nice, followed by duck and finally creme brulee for dessert. Andrew inadvertantly ordered three courses of cheese. For entree he had a baked camenbert cheese on pear slices drizzled with honey, followed by chicken in cheese sauce and a cheese platter for dessert. All the food was lovely, as was the wine, but we were cheesed out by the end of it. The creme brulee was probably the best dessert I had had all trip. We headed back to our hotel at about 1am, very full and looking forward to our last day.
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