Day 5 - Sunshine and Lunch

It is a little colder now than it has been the past few days, but the sun came out this morning and it sprinkled only a little bit.

I left the hotel before 10 and took the Metro to the Pont Neuf stop where I transferred to the #24 bus.  There was a bit of a wait for the bus - there must have been 3 or 4 of every other bus that passes that spot for one #24.  But, it was okay and it was the first time this trip that I have been near the river.

My first stop was the Jardin des Plantes, a park with a small zoo, green houses, and natural history museum.  I was going to the green house.  There is a tropical rain forest in there, so it is a good place to go to get out of the cold. There were lots of kids on school field trips - as usual - it seems like French kids are always on field trips.  There was also a large group of adults doing tai-chi.  Being winter, the garden wasn't at its best, but there were still a lot of people walking around.  They have illuminations at night and I enjoyed walking by the "sculptures" of animals that are lit up after dark.

The big event of the day was lunch at Le Train Bleu at the Gare de Lyon.  Of course, I got there more than an hour early, so looked for a place to get some coffee.  Since most places are for travelers to grab something as they run for a train, there are not many places with seating except...wait for it...Starbucks.  I got a latte and sat there listening to Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett for nearly an hour. I swear I have never been to Starbucks so often in Paris before.  Heck, in the past 5 days I've gone to Starbucks more than I have in the past 2 years at home.

It was pretty hard to find the restaurant as it is in a really large train station, but it was worth the search as you can see from the pictures.  As a solo diner, I was treated very well.  The service was very good, the decor was over-the-top, and the food was good and expensive. Possibly the most expensive lunch I will ever have, but it was my one splurge for this trip.  When I got there I felt like something the cat dragged in, but a lot of people were obviously coming or going by train, dragging suitcases and looking travel-worn, so it was okay; and, when I finally looked in a mirror, I found I had done a fairly decent job of finger-combing my hair.  Several times the uniformed doorman came into the restaurant and would sing a song, then talk about the decor - in French, of course.  He really has a good voice, too. It was a very enjoyable and delicious lunch.

After lunch, I got back on the bus to go to Bercy Village.  Bercy is an area that used to be warehouses but now has a lot of modern but austere apartment buildings.  Bercy Village consists of a couple of rows of old wine store houses that have been converted to shops and restaurants.  Many of the shops are familiar chains, but some are interesting concept stores.  I wouldn't go out of my way to go there except that it is close to Gare de Lyon and I had not been to the area of Paris before.

I rode the bus all the way back to the hotel, transferring just once.  It was a nice ride, a lot of it right along the river and past major landmarks.  So nice to see my two favorite bridges without the ugly "love locks." It was about 4 when I got "home."

12,700 steps today, 5 floors of stairs.

No dinner tonight.  Still full from lunch, but I do have some snacks if I get peckish later.