It feels like it's been ages since we visited Paris when in reality it has only been a few months. Recently, our lives became quite busy, and time seems to be passing faster. We only spent 4 days in Paris, so you might think that our itinerary was full as we didn't have a lot of time, but we simply enjoyed the city and didn't stick to any fixed plan. Of course, we wanted to visit some parts of the city that we didn't see before, but we kept our schedule open, and it was worth it.
We started our last day in the city walking along the river Seine in the 7th arrondissement. We had our breakfast close by, so we decided to give it a go. I was expecting many people as it was a more less sunny day, but it was not too bad. We were supposed to meet our friends for lunch, and we had enough time to explore our surroundings. From afar we saw The St. James tower, and we decided to have a look.
At first, we wanted to cross the river through Pont des Arts, but we continued to Pont Neuf instead. Pont Neuf or the new bridge is the oldest stone bridge in Paris. It's dating back to the 16th century, and I must admit that I'm not sure why it's called the new bridge, but I assume that all older bridges used to be wooden.
Even though it's not the only bridge that crosses the Ile de la Cité I found this one the most interesting as you can see one end of the island from the bridge. This being said, I am sure that I didn't cross all the bridges though.
It looks like a warm day with people sitting along the river and enjoying the weather, but it was cold, and I was lucky to take a winter coat with me. It was windy and the weather was changing constantly. You wouldn't have said that it was end of April already. We had a bit of sun, then a strong storm, then sun again, some rain, and all over again.
In the middle of the bridge is The statue of Henry IV, from the beginning of the 17th century, who was assassinated only a few years before this statue was built.
There are many smaller statues along the bridge and I've noticed the love locks on many of them. I understand the locks on the iconic Pont des arts, but this seems to be a bit random to me.
There were so many sightseeing boats that it looked like they were queuing...
I found this area charming, so I returned back from the bridge to take some more photos before continuing to the St. James tower...
Those clouds make such a dramatic scenery...
And we finally reached the tower!
It's called Tour Saint-Jacques in French, and it's the only remaining part of the church called Eglise Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie which was destroyed at the end of the 18th century. You can climb more than 300 steps to get on top and enjoy the views of Paris, but we opted not to do so because of the wind. And furthermore, it will also serve us as an excuse to visit the city again when it's warmer.
I feel like it's a great place to go when you want to avoid crowds as it seemed to be empty when we walked around even though it was on Sunday. I don't know how far you can see, but I can imagine that it's a great feeling to stand there nevertheless...
We continued walking around and we came across some interesting places.
This motto which means 'Freedom, equality, fraternity' is part of the French national heritage. It first appeared during the French revolution.
There is so much art in various forms...
Could be the stairway to heaven accompanied by an orchestra...
We admired the typical French buildings with French windows in every room...
And some historical gems peeking from behind the buildings...
I've never seen any other place with so many fake flowers decorations. It's so off that it's somehow pretty. It can only happen in Paris 😊
We enjoyed the old part of the city, but we were craving to see more, so we walked towards the Canal Saint Martin which is a new trending neighbourhood. There are plenty of bars and restaurants on both sides of the river, and you can either take a boat or discover the canal on foot. We chose to walk.
The canal is almost 5 km long, and you can find there many parks, a few outside gyms, and way too many people jogging. We were laughing that people of Paris really are in hurry. Even though we were feeling a bit guilty seeing all those people working out, we didn't let that impact our mood and we continued leisurely walking along the river stopping from time to time for yet another cup of coffee and a bathroom break 😊
Paris is full of statues with busts of famous historical figures, but this is not the reason why I took this photo. I really like the symmetry of the garden surrounding it.
We have watched a boat passing through the canal, and we noticed that it's the same system like they have in Amsterdam. There are multilevel chambers opening and closing to let the boats pass. While we were watching the boat we saw the police on a boat saving a duck that was stuck. We were all cheering them when they managed to get the duck out of the pipe.
When you walk further down the canal you will notice that the architecture changes and there are more and more new buildings. This area is popular among younger generation.
This is where we turned around as we were meeting our friends in a very different place and had to hurry up to be on time.
Is this some kind of a dinosaur? No idea...
A buddha fountain seemed out of the space...
This is the typical Paris for me...
I loved the mural of a girl with her colourful afro...
People started gathering in bistros for lunch...
And we reached the East side of Paris where we planned to have lunch. You can't make a reservation in many restaurants in the city, so it can happen that you have to wait outside for people to leave, and therefore you should plan for longer lunch breaks. Or just go to a place where you can reserve a table in advance.
We also saw one of the 4 arches in Paris called L'Arc de la Porte Saint-Denis inspired by an arch in Rome. It is a triumphal arch in honour of Louis XIV. And yes, the street was wet, and we were too.
I like it more than the more famous L'Arc de Triomphe which is crazy busy and its visit will drain all the energy out of your body. I am not exaggerating.
I hope you liked those fake flowers as there are more coming 😊
This is one of the cutest streets that we saw...
I don't think that this photo really needs a comment although have you noticed the bird?
Does this look like a normal building to you? What you see are painted windows on a façade. When you're there it takes a moment to realize what you're looking at. There are a number of such buildings along Paris, and mainly they serve to hide ventilation systems from the subway, however I don't know for sure if this is the case for this one.
When you look at The Hôtel de Ville or the city hall of Paris you know that the Olympics is coming 😊
The Hôtel de Ville was our last stop before heading back to the hotel to collect our bags and rush to the train station not to miss our train back home. I think I don't need to mention that we slept all the time in the train 😊
Happy travelling and see you next time!
