Day 8: The day a slice of banoffee pie changed my life.

Day 8 was greeted with showers and grey skies, as we had expected. Addy and I had a bit of a sleep in, leaving the hotel at around 0930, which soon became apparent that that was still early by French standards. We crossed the river and headed south with no real goal, just looking for a place to stop off on the way. Many cafes and shops had only just started opening up. We found ourselves walking through quite a culturally rich area; the street was lined with numerous galleries and art spaces. We eventually ran into a bakery which had our names all over it.

The bakery had a brilliant glass display with many different pastries in it. We started with a croissant and double espresso each, and I also got a scone with some rich raspberry jam. While we digested our rather small breakfast (at least by this holidays standards), we perused more of the goods on sale and saw eclairs, tarte tatin and banoffee pie. I just had to try a slice of the banoffee pie, and boy was it magnificent!

The pie!

We had loose plans for the day and decided that, with the weather turning, we would try check out the museums of which Paris had many. Addy had two which took her fancy, Musee d'Orsay and Musee De l'Orangie, both within walking distance. En route to Musee d'Orsay we chuckled at a motorist who was parked in the middle of an intersection, berating a police officer who had cordoned off a road quite poorly (apparently some red and white tape tied between a post and your car counts). The closed road was the one we needed to take down to the Museum but they weren't stopping pedestrians. As we progressed down the road, I got the feeling this was an unusual practice, and soon I spotted a beefier police van blockade down the road. I took to the internet to see if anything was up.

This is fine

While I was searching for news, we arrived at Musee d'Orsay and found the line snaking out into the rain and not moving at all. Despite we had our big coats on, standing in the rain for that long was not enticing, so we decided we'd go check out the next museum instead. On our way to Musee l'Orangie we realised that the police blockade was for the 'Yellow-jacket' protests who were demonstrating against fuel taxes at Champs-Elysee and at the Arc De Triomphe, which we had seen on the news in London the week before (Side note: they were wearing yellow jackets, as by law in France you must have a yellow hi-vis jacket in your car). The blockade was to stop cars going near it and to stop people getting in easily.

The empty streets actually made our walk to the other museum easier (and our road crossings probably safer with the French drivers off the road LOL). We shortly arrived at Musee l'Orangie and after a brief security check, walked right in without any line. Musee l'Orangie is well known for having Monet's "Water Lillies" on display, and I was impressed when I saw them. They were much larger than I had expected, and were beautiful. Across two rooms they have one on each of the four curved walls. The experience was only slightly spoiled by some bratty kids rolling around and making a lot of noise (how dare they not appreciate the subtle intricacies of French Impressionism!).

Photos obviously don't do it justice

The museum had a raft of other displays on show downstairs, including some Picasso pieces I am glad I got to see in real life. They had a feature on by an artist who also had some rather interesting (read: scary) interpretations of nursery rhymes.

We left the museum after our healthy dose of culture with not much of an idea to do next. The Arc De Triomphe and Champs-Elysee were on my Paris to-do list, but that was obviously off today, so we took another walk through the Louvre's gardens and made our way to Notre Dame to see that.

Around the corner from Notre Dame we stopped for a snack. Adelaide had a croque monsieur and I had my daily crepe. Crepe holding and delivery systems could use some work, I managed to get chocolate all over me again (can't take me anywhere nice).

Arriving at Notre Dame, it seemed every other tourist in Paris had the same idea as us, and the line to get into Notre Dame stretched the length of the forecourt. We went up to the building and checked the outside out, then headed for Shakespeare and Co. Shakespeare and Co is a famous bookstore just over the Seine from Notre Dame, built into a very old building. I entered with Adelaide but quickly decided to leave as the entire store was packed. American accents seemed more common there than the French were...

Addy left empty handed but satisfied. There was another book store, The Abbey Bookshop, a few blocks away and so we headed there. This book shop was far more lowkey, so nondescript we actually walked past it without realising it. It too, was built into a very old building, but this time it was crammed with books instead of people. It was definitely the most dense bookstore I've ever been to; you couldn't get past a person in an aisle. The shop had a strange mix of new and second hand books in both French and English. While Addy checked out the shelves, I found a book on the behind-the-scenes of the Thunderbirds I was very tempted to buy.

By this stage in the day our feet were starting to get sore, so we headed back home for a siesta and a read as there wasn't a huge amount else we could do with the riots on. While back at the hotel for the afternoon we heard maybe four other protests go by the main street, not sure if they were related to the Yellow-jackets or something else. The French do love a demonstration.

Once the sun had set we started getting peckish. As last nights dinner had been great, we decided to try and make it two for two and headed north once more, and opted to check out Rue Montgueil. PV had put me onto a beer bar called 'Hoppy Corner' down the far end of the street, and we had our pre-dinner drinks there. As we most hipster beer places, Hoppy Corner was packed and basically printing money. I had a dark sour ale while Adelaide had a American Pale Ale. We were lucky and managed to seagull chairs off a leaving group so we had another round (I had a Belgian beer while Adelaide had a lime tea pale ale). All the beers were delicious!

The list of beers at Hoppy Corner

We left there and wandered down Rue Montgueil, eventually running into a French restaurant whose selling point was beef bourguignon, which I wanted to have before we left France. Adelaide settled in for sizable lamb shank. Dinner was good, but I think the David Manfield beef bourguignon is superior.

Hopefully tomorrow we will be able to get out and see more of the city again!

Cheers!
D+A