Paris, France
04/02/2023
The next day we started off with some fresh French pastries, once more from our favourite bakery “Pains d’artisan“. We had different sweets and some freshly topped baguette as we walked northbound towards Musée d´Orsay.
The weather had gotten quite cloudy with occasional drizzle, but we got to the museum dry-shod.
Once inside, we explored the main hall for a while and took many pictures.
Most of the art in the main hall consisted of statues of different sorts, one of them bearing a strong reminiscence with Gibbs from Pirates of the Caribbean.
Next we continued upstairs to the special exhibitions and famous clock window. The area before it was quite crowded, but I zoomed in nicely above people’s heads and was able to capture Sacré-Cœur in the background.
A couple of hours later, Nasti and I had seen enough of the paintings and figured we would walk towards Opéra Garnier, the old opera house from 1875. On our way we came past the Louvre again and took some portraits there.
Despite being quite big, Paris really is readily walkable. Especially for the tourist sights in the districts in the center and assuming some basic endurance. It therefore was not too far to get to the opera.
We took a good look at it from the outside and then continued to a nearby cafè, where we met a friend of Nasti who lives in Paris. We enjoyed some snacks and drinks for a while and by the time we left the place it had already gotten dark, leaving the opera house well-lit against a dramatic sky.
Of course, we did not miss that picture opportunity. Nasti had the wonderful idea to take some portraits in the middle of the street. To do so, we repeatedly waited for the traffic lights to permit us to take some pictures before returning to the traffic island.
We then walked the Parisian streets looking for a place to eat when we saw “Pizzeria Popolare“, a nicely decorated restaurant where we decided to have dinner. We had a great time and Nasti loved the pizza bianca, which had a rather unorthodox topping of potatos, cinghiale (wild boar) as well as pistacchio.
Wanting to get a glimpse of the nightlife the city had to offer, we walked to L’Épicier, a little supermarket where one of the shelves is a secret entrance to the bar in the back. The line was quite long, but for once I agreed to wait to get in. After an hour of people walking past the cue and wondering what was so special about the supermarket, we got in. While I didn’t take any proper pictures of the entrance, you can find tons on the web. The place was quite touristy and full of internationals, but that did not hurt the atmosphere. And they made a wonderful pornstar martini, of which I had 3.
A couple of hours later we were good for the night, so we returned back to the hotel.
À bientôt!