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It is lighter later but also much colder here in North than in Southern France where we live.
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Our Airbnb apartment in area 11 near the Voltaire metro station.
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Since it is cold and late, and we are hungry for dinner we literally choose the first restaurant we see (after McDonalds).
We could have made a better choice. We start with herring on warm potato salad (pictured), and Tomi has veal tagliatelle and Tei andouillette sausages with fries. The sausages smell appalling, and taste the same.
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We spend the whole first day at Roland Garros. It's the Women's Singles semi-final day. The first match is the Women's Legends between Clijsters/Navratilova and Majoli/Myskina.
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Before the first Women's Singles semi-final match we watch Mixed Doubles final and Men's Doubles semifinal matches.
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The first semifinal: Maria Sharapova serving against Eugenie Bouchard.
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The Canadian serving. Sharapova wins in three thrilling sets. It could have gone either way.
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The second semifinal: Simona Halep serving against Andrea Petkovic.
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Petkovic loses to Halep in straight sets.
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On our second day we visit by all the major tourist attractions. First La Place de la Bastille.
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The courtyard of Le Louvre.
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Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel.
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A guy playing on l'avenue Des Champs Elysees.
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Visitors climbing up the stairs.
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After visiting all these tourist attractions briefly (without entering any of them) --- still it took a long time and a lot of walking --- we find this small and charming restaurant run by Romanians(?)
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The food is simple and good.
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It has been a long day and we are tired, and not too hungry because of the late lunch. For dinner we choose the pizzeria La Tomate Rouge.
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We end the evening at a trendy new bistro bar Bones opposite of our apartment, having Deck & Donohue's IPA,
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and MONK, their brown ale.
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A cloudy morning. We plan to walk to Montmartre, but as soon as we are out it starts raining. We consider our options (visiting museums, etc.) but it turns out to be easiest to take the metro to Montmartre, instead of juggling several connections to get to the museums.
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La Basilique du Sacre-Coeur.
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Paris viewed from the top.
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Des Invalides in the distance.
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Pousse Pousse is a tiny organic and living food store which has a pop-up restaurant next door.
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Le Place de la Republique.
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A monument devoted to the Third Republic, designed by Morice brothers in 1879, at Place de la Republique.
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We return to Bones for 4-dish degustation set dinner.
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Autolib' electric cars at the recharging station. This is similar to Velib', a bicycle sharing system that is common in France.
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Dessert beers at Le Fin Mousse.
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Live music at Brasserie Bar Au Bec Sale.
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Quite a challenging renovation project.
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Arenes de Lutece --- ruins of an ancient Gallo-Roman amphitheatre.
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A statue at Le Place du Pantheon.
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Le Palais du Luxemboourg.
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A part of the railing collapsed under the weight of the padlocks the same evening we visited the bridge.
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Forum des Halles is receiving a face-lift and a new roof.
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Le Centre Georges-Pompidou.
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Relaxing at our apartment before going out for dinner on our last night in Paris.
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On our last morning we take the luggage to the Gare de Lyon.
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Le Promenade Plantee, an elevated pedestrian path that goes from La Bastille to Bois de Vincennes park.
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Some of the spaces below the pathway are occupied by galleries, designer boutiques, or artist workshops.
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The pathway is very popular among joggers.
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Gare de Lyon metro station.
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We take metro to La Defense at the west end of the line number 1. It is a business district named after a statue (erected in 1883) that commemorates soldiers who defended Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.
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l'Arc de Triomphe and central Paris are not so far away.
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Glass and steel office buildings and skyscrapers of La Defense.
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We order a Thai burger, and pretty bland chicken fajitas (not pictured).
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Beers at the bar L'Express de Lyon before boarding the train.
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