Paris: Night 3

My original plan for Friday evening was that after attending the veneration of the Crown of Thorns, we would do the Louvre, since it was open late and would be the least crowded. However, since we had actually done a lot more walking and sightseeing in the morning than I had planned on, we thought the Louvre might be a bit much for us! Instead, since it was a gorgeous day, we decided that we would do the Seine river cruise that night. There are a lot of different river cruises, but I'd heard good things about the Bateaux Les Vedettes du Pont Neuf, and I had an internet coupon for a discount, so we went with them. We were really lucky, because the timing was just perfect! We had just the right amount of sunlight for most of the trip so that we were able to snap great pictures, and then we got to see the sunset for the return part of the trip. It was a gorgeous ride! Rebecca really loved being on the boat and seeing all the sights (she especially liked pointing out the Eiffel Tower again).

We went by the Louvre...

...past the Pantheon...

under the bridge at Pont Alexandre III...

...then we got fabulous views of the Eiffel Tower. (I'm sparing you all. I took no less than 40 shots of the Eiffel Tower from the river. This doesn't count all of the ones I took when we were actually AT the Eiffel Tower. )

Then we turned and cruised back down the river again, passing Place de la Concorde (where they guillotined many people, including Marie Antoinette, and a river of blood ran into the Seine, staining the river red). We passed under a lot of bridges, almost all of which were ornately decorated or adorned with statues that I found interesting or amusing.

Our cruise took us past the Musee d'Orsay....

then past the Hotel de Ville...

...right beside Notre Dame...

By this time, it was becoming bad light for taking photos, so I just enjoyed the ride past the Rodin Museum and some of the cool architecture of modern Paris. It was a great ride that helped us acquaint ourselves better with how the city is laid out. When we headed back to Pone Neuf, the sun was really setting and the view of the river was so beautiful.

After the cruise, we set off in search of dinner. We ended up in the Latin Quarter, in St. Michel's Square.

There are hundreds of options for dinner in this area, and they were all quite crowded on a Friday night! It was very lively, with music and street performers everywhere, and just a really fun atmosphere. We ate at an outdoor restaurant (as always - I think we only ate inside for one meal our whole time in Paris), and we were seated quite near the tables to our left and right. On one side of us was a table of two ladies who were chatting. Each of us noticed them looking at Rebecca, but we didn't think too much of it. I mean, really, who wouldn't look at this cute thing?

Then we noticed the ladies surreptitiously taking pictures of Rebecca. After watching them for a few minutes, I saw that they were sketching the outfit she was wearing, which is a Wanda Preston original.

Apparently they realized we were on to them, because then, they asked if they could take a picture of her dress and told us they were designers! They made a sketch of the design of the dress and closeups of the fabric. You can't tell from these pics, but it is a toile with Eiffel Towers in aqua on a lime green background, and it has her monogram in the middle. So if you see this outfit on the fashion runways, you'll know it came from Rebecca's inspiration!

We wandered and sauntered and ended up finding dessert (surprising!). I had the best Nutella crepe ever! Of course, my mom had another apple tart (she had at least one every day in Paris). I think Rebecca probably had more ice cream. We were exhausted! The thought of taking the metro and having to change was met with groans, and I thought that we should try out the bus system. Fortunately, there was a bus that took us directly from the Latin Quarter to our stop at Saint Paul, without any changes or need to go up and down the stairs of the metro stations! I personally thought the bus was better because you could see more, it wasn't so loud (Rebecca abhorred the sound of the metros), and you didn't need to go up and down the stairs of the metro stations carrying either a 3-year old or her stroller! We all fell asleep as soon as we got in that night!