Well we were up at 0800 after a good night's sleep....shutters outside of the Windows kept the light and traffic noise to a minimum. Natalie prepped a very nice French breakfast: warm baguette, croissants: regular as well as chocolate, home made jams, yogurt, cheeses, fresh fruit, and wonderful mini crispy cream filled little eclairs... Lots of juice and cafe au lait.....yummy!
We walked across Pont du Pierre to Quai Richelieu and walked all the way down the river bank past Place de Bourse, past Esplanade des Quinconses where there as a market, past the river cruise boats(3 of them), past the Outlet shops at the Quai de Bacalan where I bought some Kuzmi tea for Catolone and Cathy, then to Ru Noter Dame in the Chatron...an old wine merchant area which has now become an antique and and art district..
At Place de Bourse we saw the flat Miroir d'Eau, and at Esplanade Es Quinconces we saw the ornate Monument aux Girondins with its wonderful fountain.
Then we walked through the Botanical gardens to the Golden Triangle and past the Grand Theater with the Interconinental Hotel with its David Ramsey restaurant. We found 2 other recommended places to eat....Any Tea in Passage Darget and Comptoir Cuisine next to the Intercontinental.
Then down St Catherine's to Galleries Lafayette but there was nothing I really wanted at the Euro prices.....further down the pedestrian street are a lot of the high end stores which are fine to check out...we stopped Pl. St Pierre and had a couple of glasses of wine Bordeaux in the sunshine....it was quite windy and cold when the clouds rolled in but nice when the sun was out...
We then went to the Basilica St Michel and wandered around the area...medieval with many very narrow lanes....we walked back and through the city gate with the Grosse cloche which used to be the city clock in the Middle Ages. It's still keeping time and rings on the quarter hour... Rue St James is a fun boutique street running back towards Porte Caihau...lots of indecent boho,hipster type places..then we went to see the Cathedral of St Andre which was built in the 12 and 13 century and was one of the Royal Churches of the Middle Ages.... They have restored quite a bit but it still looks very old..we sat at an outside cafe beside the Cathedral in the sun and had another glass of white Bordeaux until 1900 when we walked back to Rue St Remi to Cafe Paulette...a very cute, simple local cafe with plain but yummy food.. Wonderful warm baguette, leek and potato soup, streak and frites and apple cake for 13.90... A pichoux of redGrave wine and Expresso coffees completed a very nice meal.
We walked home across the bridge again... A total of 14 Kms of walking today so I'm a bit tired tonight.. Tomorrow we will explore wine country a bit.