There were a few things that I wanted to do in the city, so I set aside a day for these.
We live only 4 stations away (but I still got my directions scrambled once we reached the suburb) so our first trip today was to the Marché Aux Puces De Saint-Ouen, the biggest antiques and 2nd-hand market in the world. There are 14 different areas, with over 1700 merchants, but we only went to one, and I didn't find anything that interested me.
So back on 2 trains to the Arc de Triomphe. In 2008 I didn't get
the chance to climb. David went up while I was chasing an ATM (they
didn't accept a card back then), and he
was down again before I came back with the money. So this time I did
the 284 steps, and enjoyed the view. There were lots of lights etc set
up ready to broadcast tomorrow.
In
the visitors' area just below the roof they had a slide show with
Arches from around the world, and guess what we found? HOME!
Lunch on a bench, then it was 2 more
trains across the Seine and a walk to St Sulpice's where I had a couple
of shops to visit. They have a spectacular organ, and often have concerts, but there were none this weekend. We did hear the organist rehearsing in the crypt, and there were lots of African people bringing food for some gathering.
Then we walked down to the river and the Isle de la
Cite. We had seen pictures of Sainte-Chapelle when we were at the Arc, but there was a queue, so we didn't wait. Only later did we realise what it was, but it was too late. Instead went straight to see the poor Notre Dame, now hiding behind a big fence, but crowds are still coming to take photos. We had planned to go to a concert there tonight, but of course didn't.
By then we were getting tired, and
walking in circles, so at last we found another train to take us home.
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