A gentler day today. We walked down the St Martin canal then up to Parc de Belleville.

The canal disappears into a tunnel at this point, remerging by the Seine.

The park was constructed in the 60’s and is now starting to look a bit forlorn:

But the view of the Eiffel tower from the top was good:

There was a nice cafe at the top:

Then we wandered back down through the gardens:

From there, we walked back to the canal for a very pleasant beer:

And decided it was so nice, we’d have some Antipasti for lunch:

We then collected our bag from the hotel and walked to Gare du Nord to catch our train home:

Usual chaos with French passport control and security, but at least it isn’t 40C in the departure lounge like a previous occasion!

The rest of the journey home went reasonably smoothly. A good weekend.

We decided to return to the same place that we’d eaten on Friday night:

Friendly staff, excellent food and nice beer, together with ‘pub’ prices – what’s not to like!

We had an excellent Steak Tartare and a Norwegian Salad with prawn, salmon, avocado and soft boiled egg.

And good fries….

Another lovely day, so it’s back on the Metro to explore more of Paris.

First stop was Gare de l’Est to “recharge” our tickets, then to Opera station and a walk to the Jardin des Tuileries:

From there, we walked past the Palais and Louvre to the Palais Royal metro station and got a train to Place Monge:

It was a short walk to the Grand Paris Mosque:

After all that culture, it was time for a coffee and another Metro to Parc Monceau:

An interesting park with many ‘structures’. Next was the Metro to St Denis, well north of Paris. All very suburban but had a nice pedestrian square where we stopped for a beer:

Right by was the Basilica, so we enjoyed that – particularly the stained glass windows that look far better in reality than in the photos:

After a bite to eat, we got a tram then a Metro eastwards to Porte de la Villette:

We walked through the Parc de la Villette, which turned out to be more of an expo centre and playground than a park:

Nice canal in the middle though:

From there, things were a bit greener, but very crowded:

Yet another Metro to Laumiere and time for another beer:

We then crossed the road to Parc des Buttes Chaumont, famed for the Temple de la Sibyll:

It was very crowded, and many of the paths were shut, so we didn’t see as much as we had intended:

From there, we got a final Metro back to Gare de l’Est and walked back to the hotel.

An exhausting but interesting day!

Then it’s pizza time!

We decided to explore some lesser known parts south of the Seine. We took the Metro to Liberté then walked through Bois de Vincennes – a pleasantly quiet wooded area:

Chateau Vincennes was at the other side:

And more importantly, a café:

From there, we got two more Metros from Vincennes to Place D’Italie, which was on our list but we couldn’t remember why!

After a bit more research, our intended destination was Butte aux Cailles, a quiet and interesting area full of shops, bars and restaurants. So time for a beer:

Then another Metro from Corvisart to Raspail:

After grabbing a sandwich for lunch, we explored Montparnasse Cemetery with surprisingly varied tombs:

We then walked to a very busy Jardin du Luxembourg:

Then on to Luxembourg station and a couple of RER trains to Pont de l’Alma, by the Seine:

Nearby was the Paris Sewer Museum. Not an obvious choice but very interesting, complete with real sewers running beneath our feet:

On our way to the Metro station, we could see the Eiffel tower, which has saved us visiting it again!

Finally a very crowded Metro train from Alma Marceau back to Republic station and a walk back to the hotel.

A nice day, but a lot of walking!