Strolling around Paris

Today's adventure saw Cate and Tim heading out to visit some sights collected from a nifty adventure planning guidebook that Cate had bought Tim some months ago.

Birgit very kindly drove us to the station at Rueil-Malmaison because the local station is closed for track repairs (several stations along the line to La Celle St Cloud are closed). The station at Rueil-Malmaison is on a different line but also 15 minutes away by car, rather than a 15 minute downhill walk.

First streetscape

We managed to navigate/negotiate the RER A-line train ticketing, etc. and flawlessly travel to Chatelet-Les Halles, where we ventured out through the four levels of a shopping mall to get to the street. Tim was immediately struck by how pleasant the Parisian streetscapes are. Both of us are huge fans of the old Parisian architecture and love the ambience it gives to the city's streets.

We walked along Rue Rambuteau to the Centre Pompidou. A magnificent piece of modern architecture and a huge museum. Closed on Tuesdays! Unbelievable, except, of course, we hadn't checked and so basically deserved it. We had a coffee in a little bar facing the Pompidou Centre and checked our plans for the next stage. Cate bought some souvenirs for friends from the lovely little shop next door to the bar. Tim was torn by what to get for whom and ultimately didn't commit to buying anything!

Centre Pompidou (Closed on Tuesdays!)

Opposite the Centre Pompidou, where we had coffee

We continued to walk along Rue Rambuteau to the Rambuteau Metro station where we checked that we could carry out our plans with the information desk woman. It was good that we checked because our target stop - Republique - was closed on that metro line (11). The woman advised travelling on to Goncourt which was "only 5 minutes walk" beyond Republique. The map confirmed that her suggestion was not going to make it any more difficult to get to our actual destination, the Canal St Martin. It turns out, it was a downhill walk 'back' to the Canal, so it was probably the better option than Republique.

The beginning of Canal St Martin
(actually, where it goes underground)

Canal St Martin

Classic French Architectural streetscape,
beloved by Cate and Tim

We wandered along the Canal up to the Jardin Villemin, admiring the beautiful cityscapes around us and revelling in the beautiful summer weather (some light cloudy patches, but otherwise sunny and ~25 degrees C). We rested in the Jardin Villemin for a short while and planned what more we might do. There hadn't been the expected (by Tim) cafes and restaurants surrounding the park and looking out over the canal. We decided to travel down to visit the Institut du Monde Arabe, which as luck would have it involved a single Metro ride from the Gare de l'Est that was just on the other end of the Jardin.

We walked through the Jardin seeing Parisians siesta-ing in the perfect summer weather, families and groups of friends out having picnics, a kindergarten class out on an excursion. Absolutely classic Paris park in the Summer! We stopped at a cafe/restaurant between the Jardin and Gare de l'Est, named (we think) East Bunker. A lovely waiter helped us our in English without being asked and we had a lovely lunch looking out over the Gare de l'Est plaza.

Jardin Villemin

East Bunker Cafe, view of Gare de l'Est plaza

We found the Metro entrance after lunch and got on the M11 train to Jussieu, the closest station to the Arab museum. When we popped out of the Metro station at Jussieu, we discovered that what separated us from the museum was a campus of the Sorbonne. Tim thought that we could short-cut through the university campus, which lay between the Metro and the Institut so we headed through the security gate check and wandered through the campus of the Sorbonne.

Tower in the centre of Sorbonne campus

More of the Sorbonne Campus

The university was in recess, so the campus was very quiet. We saw some poster presentations, some academics sauntering between buildings, and a few isolated students studying in the libraries. What we didn't find was a gate at the end of the campus closest to the Musee. It turns out that there was only one gate operating on the campus! So, eventually, we walked back out through the gate that we entered and walked around the boundary of the campus to the Musee.

The Northern End of the Sorbonne campus, from which we could not escape!

We were visiting the Institut to see the building, which is a striking piece of architecture. Cate has previously visited the museum and was content to wait outside if Tim wanted to 'have a quick look around'. Tim was of the view that one cannot have 'a quick look around' a museum. We rested outside the museum for a while, enjoying the summer weather and the passing parade of Parisians.

Institut du Monde Arabe (from the Sorbonne)

Institut du Monde Arabe

In good time, we strolled across Pont Sully to the Sully-Morland metro to get the Metro back to Chatelet, then a bit of a long walk to Chatelet-Les Halles to get the RER A-line back to Rueil-Malmaison.

Notre Dame, from Pont Sully

The Seine, from Pont Sully

Birgit kindly collected us from the station and showed us where to catch buses to the Palace of Versailles and then from the bus station back up to Avenue Lily at the end of the day, in anticipation of our plans for tomorrow. We've had a (relatively) early dinner tonight to be finished before the start of FRA v BEL in the semi-finals of the World Cup. (Go France! [Of course])