Tags
Arc de Triomphe, Arche de la Défense, Café Verlet, Champs Elysée, Grande Arche de la Défense, Jaime, Louvre, Marais, meals, Mesopotamia, Sargon II, Temple of Ishtar, Ze Baar, Ze Restoo
We got a bit of a late start, in part to help Jaime recover from jet lag. By the time we got going it was nearly time for lunch. I tried to guide us to a cute little tea place that Jason and I ate at (Café Verlet, 256, rue Saint-Honoré), but I overshot it (perhaps because the street numbers on opposite sides aren’t synchronized) and we ended up at a Basque place a few blocks further along. This suited Jaime fine since his ancestry is Basque.
Jaime with an authentic Basque lunch.
The weather threatened rain so after lunch we headed to the Louvre. I had been there with Jason but there was no problem finding new things to see — in fact I spent the whole time in Mesopotamia while Jaime sought out the greatest hits.
Androcephalus figures from Sargon II.
4,400 year old figure from the Temple of Ishtar.
My Louvre photos from several visits are at this link: Paris-Louvre Photo Set
When we emerged from the shopping center that has sprouted beneath the Louvre’s garden Jaime spotted the Arc de Triomphe off in the distance. From Place de la Concorde it looked as though we could see the Grande Arche de la Défense almost filling the opening of the Arc de Triomphe. I initially had trouble making sense of the geometry of this, but I subsequently realized that the Grande Arche is much bigger and is on a much higher hill than the Arc de Triomphe. In any case we strolled up the Champs Elysée to the Arc de Triomphe and took the métro back.
We foraged in the Marais for dinner and ended up at “Ze Restoo“. We had a nice meal there, then repaired to the adjacent “Ze Baar” for a drink. We found it very neighborly and friendly, unlike the Eagle the night before.
