Sunday in Paris

 

Sunday 4/30

Basilica de St. Denis, opens at 1215 Stade de France Tour 330pm Dinner:  maybe Le Bois, Pop’s  We had stayed over a Sunday in order to have brunch at Le Manufactures Alain Ducasse but it closed down on us, so sad. We loved that place. Since the plane tickets were set and the Airbnb booked, we had to find a way to occupy our Sunday in Paris.  We decided to tour the Basilica de Saint Denis which we’d been to once in 2015. I also found a guided tour of the Stade de France and booked it for 330pm.  We got to the basilica around 1230 (left around 215). Some construction and renovations going on outside marred the view a bit. But what has been completed looked lovely. The main part of the basilica is free to visit but the Tombs have a charge. The free pamphlet is not very informative but they do have an audio guide, which we didn’t get.  We wandered all around and took lots of pictures. It’s so worth the trip. It’s quiet, beautiful, and fascinating.  Husband was not feeling any of the eateries in the vicinity of the basilica so we decided to walk to Stade de France. It was an easy walk, everything was clean, and closed up. We got to the bridge toward the State de France and were hungry. Husband spotted Quick and in we went for a burger, fries, and drinks. It was actually pretty good.  We entered the Stade de France around 315 for our 330 tour. It was a little confusing to know where to go. And I wish we’d done some shopping before the tour started since we didn’t go back through there. No matter, the tour was excellent! We were taken into the stands, down to the field, into the Presidential Suite, onto the road inside the arena, into the locker rooms with some player’s jerseys on display. The guide had very good English and was kind and accommodating. Very good tour! He saw us sitting outside after the tour and asked us if we needed help or directions. Nice man.  We took the metro to Louvre-Rivoli intending to stop into Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois, which we did for a minute. Then we walked over to La Samaritaine to see how it looked after years of renovation. It’s lovely. And very expensive as opposed to when we first visited in 2003 and 2005. We made our way to the top floor and got a table in the bar. Very nice one, at that, overlooking the Yayoi Kusuma statue in front of the Louis Vuitton store. Her special edition purses were cute, but the only pattern I would have wanted was the white with multi colored dots and that was not readily available. Too bad. It was fun to see the statue from the street and from up high.  We walked around the Samaritaine area a bit after our drinks. It’s a lovely part of Paris with big shops, haussmann buildings, and lots of people and traffic. We somehow decided to have our last dinner in Paris at the HD Diner. And it was OK food in a fun setting. Lovely day!