Musée Carnavalet and l'Open Bus Tour

I hurt my ankle the other day, so walking has been very painful the last couple of days. We decided to spend the morning at Musée Carnavalet, figuring that I would be able to walk slowly and stop often. We also weren't too fussed walking outside with all the talk of the gunman at large in Paris.

The layout of the museum was very confusing, constantly up and down different sets of stairs and in and out of no exit rooms and narrow corridors. I found the Revolution displays fascinating, especially the collection of things Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI and family took into Le Temple (their prison). These included the dauphine's tiny toy soldiers, and locks of each person's hair within rings and lockets. It brought back to me the reality that these weren't fictitious characters in a history book, they were true human beings. The painting of Louis' destraught family saying goodbye before he was taken to the guillotine was another sombre reminder of the fate of these people.

We picked up some fresh food for lunch and headed home to put my aching ankle up.

The Open Bus Tour in Paris is a fantastic way to see a lot of Paris easily, and being able to hop on and off at any stop is great for getting photos (I may have taken 250 in 4 hours...). We hopped on to the green route at the Notre Dame, and nabbed the front seats up the top for brilliant views - but boy was it freezing! There is no roof on the top, or sides, so we were vulnerable to the biting wind. Luckily we were prepared; I was wearing long johns under my jeans, and two woolen layers under my puffer jacket, and a beanie and big scarf. Even so, I was cold by the end! The sites we saw were text book Paris: La Tour Eiffel, Les Champs Élysée, Printemps, Palais Garnier, L'Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, le Louvre, le Musée d'Orsay, L'École Militaire, Les Invalides etc. I got very excited and very touristy, snapping away with my camera and grinning from ear to ear. PARIS! The Paris I remember from our week-long stay in 2006. The only place we got off was at Trocadéro, the stop just before la Tour Eiffel for premium tower views - a little secret mum has learnt from her many trips here.
And wow, what a view!

We were asked for directions in French, which I managed to reply to in French, yay! (A French person asked me for directions the other day, and I had two reactions: 1. thrilled that she thought I was a local who knew their way around Paris, and 2. disappointed that I had to spoil the illusion and plead ignorance).

That sea of cars is supposed to be a clear intersection
- note our green light and inability to move!

We stayed on the bus for the rest of the route, and had a great view of the atrocious Paris traffic. We were stopped at one intersection for a good ten minutes, because cars from all directions were sitting in the middle of it, all yelling at each other, each refusing to let the other go first. It took a van full of police to break the traffic up and we finally squeezed through, with some daredevil motorcyclists dashing across the front of us and behind another bus, in a gap no more than 1m and a half wide! A smart Ka even attempted it. I swear, I will never drive in Paris.

Printemps

A bonus of finishing at that time was we got to fully appreciate the lovely Christmas lights lining the streets, shops, and sprinkled through the perfectly
manicured trees.

Finally back to Notre Dame, by now lit up in the deep blue night sky. We walked (I hobbled) as fast as possible to try and thaw our feet and warm up our bodies.

Hot chocolate has never tasted so good.