Tuesday 28th May: Weather: 11°C to 19°C: Overcast with showers on and off all day
Paris: 12k Walk to Madeleine Decathlon then walk to Pace de Nation Appartement
Accommodation: Air BnB 20 Place de Nation
River walk past Notre Dame
At Decathlon to exchange back pack
Eiffel tower seen from everywhere
Le Louvre on a cold wet day
Lounge view across Place de Nation
Pork, mushrooms, onion, zuchinis
Balcony view over Place de Nation
Dinner in Haussmann appartement
Absolutely the highlight today was arriving at our AirBnB at 20 Place de Nation in the 12th Arrondissement of Paris. This wonderful 70 sq m Haussmann Apartment had a fabulous outlook over the tree lined circuit and was so much better than we had expected.
We’re both awake at 4.30am and have a Jetboiled cup of tea, trying to make the gas explosion sound like a gushing toilet. After a few hours of emailing, blogging and googling, we’re off for a pre breakfast walk along the Seine. We would have done this walk regardless, however my junkie Decathlon mini back pack started to fall apart at the seems with less than an hours use yesterday, and I wanted to exchange it for a new junkie back pack.
It was a cold 11 °C when we left the hotel at 7.30am and briefly stopped at the local Patisserie to buy an apple croissant and Olive bun. It’s a 6k walk along the River Seine to Place de Concorde and we try to pick the sunny not too windy side of teh Seine as it’s very cold. We’re caught in a cold shower of rain as we pass Le Louvre, and hurry on to Concord where we turn left to get to the Decathlon at Madeline. We arrive at 8.45am and it doesn’t open yil 9 so time to huddle out of the wind and devour our fresh buns.
When Decathon eventually opens, it only takes five minutes to exchange my torn back pack for a new one, which also looks roughly made and probably won’t last the week. Then back along the south bank of the Seine. Ian liked my apple croissant so much we had to stop to buy hime one on the way home. The hotel room was a welcome warm and after a hot cup of coffee and apple croissant we pack to walk the 1.2k to Place de Nation. Using the codes to get into the building and front door, we take the lift to the 4th floor where we’re welcomed by Nathalie who shows us around the appartement. It’s truly magnificent. We’ve always likes a dining room/lounge room with an outlook and this place surpassed all the photos on the Air BnB website.Nathalie also has a house in teh country to the West of Paris where she stays whilst her appartement is let to Air BnB guests.
The appartement is Haussmann style. Haussmann's renovation of Paris was a vast public works program commissioned by Emperor Napoléon III and directed by his prefect of the Seine, Georges-Eugène Haussmann, between 1853 and 1870. It included the demolition of medieval neighborhoods that were deemed overcrowded and unhealthy by officials at the time; the building of wide avenues; new parks and squares; the annexation of the suburbs surrounding Paris; and the construction of new sewers, fountains and aqueducts. The draconian specifications, the architecture of this period had to obey extremely strict parameters with more than 40,000 homes built in this period, these buildings now represent about 60% of the buildings in the capital.
The Pace de Nation is also of historical importance. Widely known for having the most active guillotines during the French Revolution, the square was renamed Place de la Nation on Bastille Day, 14 July 1880, under the Third Republic.
So here we are at the Place de Nation in a Haussmann Appartement. And it’s fabulous. Sitting in the lounge and absorbing the view, it’s time for a quick baguette and cheese for lunch whilst checking out the TV to make sure we can see the French Open. It’s raining, stormy and cold outside but by 4pm the sun is out and it’s time to do some shopping at the local Casino, just 50 metres Supermarket further around the circle. We’ve planned a dinner of pork fillet, mushrooms, zuchinis and onions, but the Casino doesn’t have the pork fillet, our favourite meat in France. We return to the appartement, dump our shopping and walk further around the circle to the local Monoprix. No pork Fillet! So we settle for a roll of pork roast.
Back to the appartement for a warming red wine left as a gift by Nathalie. And then it’s time to cook our dinner with thinly sliced pork roast tossed into the vegetable mix in the frypan. So nice, especially while watching teh French Open on TV.