2013-06-25 Exploring Paris

June 25, 2013 - Tuesday

7 hour walk – Louvre, Eiffel tower, Notre Dame;

We started the day by walking down the street to the Café le Saint Gervais, on nearby  Rue Vieille du Temples, to have fresh croissants for breakfast.  There were only 2 left so we had to share.  After that, we went to the Supermarche for a small supply of groceries before going back to the apartment to prepare for our day of exploration.

Our first building of notable fame was the Archives Nationales, which preserves the archives of the French state.  There are 5 centres of Archives nationales with the main centre in Le Marais (although only pre-French Revolution archives will remain here once the new centre at Pierrefitte-sur-Seine is opened in 2013).  The Archives nationales has been located since 1808 in a group of buildings comprising the Hotel de Soubise and the Hotel de Rohan.  Since 1867, it has also housed the Musee de l’Histoire de France.  The oldest document kept here is a papyrus dated AD 625, a confirmation of a grant of land in the city of Paris to the Abby of Saint-Denis issued by King Chlothar II.  Being the superficial tourists that we were, we did not go into the archives.  We were content to admire the buildings themselves, this time from the back street.

We walked across the Seine on the Pont Louis Philippe to the Ile St. Louis before going over the Pont St. Louis to Notre Dame with its distinctive flat towers.




Where we stayed:  Marais Saintonge