Paris, je t' aime...

Earlyish next morning, we went out in search of a proper French breakfast, none of that usual continental stuff for us. We ended up in this little cafe, both because there were quite a few people in there already and because I fancied the guy behind the counter. Both of those are perfectly valid reasons to enter any establishement in my book. If in addition, food is being served, what more can one want. We had a lovely Tartine, orange juice and the best hot chocolate ever, made with real chocolate, none of the powdery stuff. If I marry him, will he make me one every morning?
Suitably fortified we walked down to Rue Mouffetard...
For a bit of this...
And really, where else do you find displays like this...
I guess by now you have rumbled me, I keep telling you I am quite arty and bookish, but my main priority seems to be food... I am just greedy!
We again walked round there for hours, and in one of the streets running of the Rue Mouffetard found my first fountain of the day, I liked this one...
Coming across little surprises like this is the real joy of just walking around with no apparent aim. We had a good map with us, so even if we did get lost, we were always able to find our way back somehow.
After we had our fill ( see what I did there?) we went up to the Place de la Justice, because I really wanted to see Saint Chapelle. I just love stained glass windows, and even on quite a grey day they immensely cheer me up.
Really, where do you see more impressive gates...
I took this picture because of the man conducting a phonecall in a quite precarious place, but to me these kind of houses just seem so quintessentially French...
From Saint Chappelle we walked to the Notre Dame, where on the square we ate our brioches and drank our tea. It just felt so amazing to be there and it was almost unreal to be able to quite comfortably have a little picnic outside at the end of November.
Inspite of my good intentions, we did not actually go into the Notre Dame, as there was a long queue and by then I had spotted this...
It would have been sacrilege not to enter here. I have read so much about this place over the years, and it did not disappoint. It is ridiculously stocked, overly full, and completely gorgeously welcoming at the same time. I loved it more than I had expected to.
I still had not viewed any bouquinistes though, probably because of the time of year. But when we walked up to the Institut du monde Arabe, there were a few in situ as it were, and I actually found a few lovely little books.
Now, how is this for sun blinds...
This is the most amazing sight, both from the outside and the inside. As it is a real workplace for a lot of people, I was amazed that as a tourist you can enter it as well and go up to the roof. I would find it really astonishing if at work I would enter a lift full of tourist. Nobody here seemed to think that was worth batting an eye lid about though.
And now for my real treat of the day... You all know how much I had been looking forward to seeing the Strawinsky fountain! My friend first took me the Centre Pompidou, which I am not sure about by the way, and then finally what I saw was this...
Trust it to spring a leak when I come to pay hommage to it! Now I know for sure I will have to return, maybe it is a sign.
Even though I did not like the Centre Pompidou much, I do like the area around there, and we ended up browsing quite a few shops. From there we wandered to Les Halles, where in the neighbourhood we went into a gorgeous yarn, beads etc store, La Droguerie, and probably one of the most amazing cooking ware shop, Dehellirin, I have ever seen.
After all that we were exhausted, so we went back to the hotel, put our feet up for an hour and then had a lovely meal in a place near the hotel.
After that, it was straight to bed, this is hard work, all this sight seeing malarkey...

And still there is more to come...