After touring the Louvre, we decided to walk over to the Pont des Arts Bridge, which we saw during our glass boat dinner cruise. This is a bridge where couples write on a lock, lock it on the bridge and throw the key into the Seine river to show their commitment to each other. It doesn’t look like locks on the bridge from a distance, the bridge just looks very shiny and glistens in the sun. SO beautiful. I wish we had a lock with a key when we went, but maybe next time!
Here I am enjoying the bridge!
All of the locks were so interesting, and we just looked at a small portion of them on the bridge. I took several pictures… they were all just so interesting.
We went back to the hotel and rested, and I called the kids… I did this before dinner on most nights in Paris, because it was only 12:30pm usually at home in STL at that time! We went to La Ferrandaise for dinner, to try some Authentic Paris food.
This was a place I found on TripAdvisor, and we thought we would try it because it had really good reviews. The seating was very intimate (as most Paris restaurants are), and we sat next to a couple from New York and chatted with them quite a bit. They had lived in Paris for a couple years way back, and had come back to visit.
A lot of the places in Paris that we ate at served baby radishes and bread before our appetizer. They were really good with the unknown spread that they served them with.
This restaurant was pretty easy on us, for one, they had an English menu, and secondly, their dinner was sort of a trio with one price (with multiple selections)- a starter, main course and dessert. For my starter, I had cucumber gazpacho (with egg trout, pickled red pepper and glasswort)… it was DIVINE!!!! (Like I said, I love gazpacho, and they serve some GOOOOOD gazpacho in Paris!)
For my main course, I had pork tenderloin, in a stew pan of new potatoes, green beans and carrots. It was the best pork tenderloin ever, so tender… could cut every piece of it with my fork. No knife needed. People are not kidding when they say France has some of the BEST food!
For dessert I had a creamy green tea, raspberry chocolate ganache. YUM!
After dinner, we decided to check out the Luxembourg Gardens since they were across the street, it was a royal palace of Louis XIII’s Mother, but now it houses the French Senate (and its a park!). We saw this when we first walked in, so peaceful… I also saw a lot of runners at this park, wish I would have brought my running shoes!
The gardens were beautiful here, and they had a huge field that had a rope around it (so you couldn’t walk on it) with flowers all around it. They did have tables and chairs and a pathway around it so you could sit and take in the beauty.
Closeups of the building
A perfect backdrop to my ring! hee!
Love how they do the flower beds in Paris, rows and rows that go on and on of an assortment of flowers
Closeup
Back of the park
It was SO funny and a little weird, but at 8:30pm (SHARP!) the park closes, and the Senate guards start walking briskly around the park and they sound their whistles and quickly usher you out of the park when it closes. Never have that here in St. Louis! ha, ha!
Another photo of our hotel on our way back in. And, that sums up Day 3 in Paris! Two more days to go! This is taking forever to blog about, I just took so many photos!
