Day 17, June 14 - Lockets of love

We got started a bit late this day, but we decided to go hang out in the Latin Quarter of Paris. We got some brunch at a not-so-touristy restaurant called Pot du Lait. I say this because they did not speak ANY English. Luckily. I studied the basics on how to order food in French, so we were set. Scott got a chocolate and banana crêpe while I literally just pointed at the menu. I ended up getting what was called La Super Complète. It was a galette with ham, cheese, and fried onions. It's just like a crêpe, but made from buckwheat or something. It was delicious! And while we were eating, we had a cute puppy begging at our feet. Kinda made it feel like I was back home with all my animals begging at my feet.

After our brunch, we walked to go see the Mosquée de Paris from the street. It was built in 1926 in an ornate art deco Moorish style. We then headed back and walked down rue Mouffetard, which is an old Roman road that is filled with market stalls, food shops, and bars. We picked up some fresh strawberries and some chocolate from a place called Jeff de Bruges Naturellement Chocolat. We are those as we walked along the street. We did a little shopping and just poking around. We then turned left onto rue Clovis to run into Église St-Étienne du Mont. This contains Paris' only surviving rood screen, separating the chancel from the nave. Other rood screens were removed during the late Renaissance because they prevented the faithful in the nave from seeing the priest celebrate Mass. Soon after walking past that, we saw the Panthéon on our left. It was under some serious construction, covering the entire dome unfortunately. However, we were still able to go in. It was originally built as a church, but it now is a mausoleum for Frnace's finest intellectuals. We went down into the labyrinthine crypt, which contains around 80 residents, including Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and the first woman, Marie Curie. 

Once we left the Panthéon, we went to the Jardin du Luxembourg. We strolled around and enjoyed the music and beautiful weather. We walked to a museum called the Musée de Cluny -  Musée National du Moyen Âge, which is a Middle Ages museum. We stayed in there for a short time, since we were itching to get to our next destination: Pont l'Archevêchè. This is the Lover's Lock Bridge, which I'm sure everyone has heard about. The railings are so filled with locks, you can't even see it anymore. There a locks that are locked onto other locks and on and on. We found a spot to put our lock on, locked it together, and threw in both keys into the Seine River at the same time. It was really cool doing that, even though it sounds super cheesy. We then decided to go see Notee Dame again, but we found Point Zéro, which is the point where all of France's distances are measured from. We then found the crypts underneath Notre Dame on which it was built on top of. It is all the remains of structures built on this site during the Gallo-Roman period. 

After that, we walked to a cafe which had happy hour from 3-10pm!  We got some drinks and watched the Colombia and Greece soccer game for the World Cup and killed time until dinner. Once we got our fill, we walked up and across the Seine and walked on the north bank and found the bridge that is shown in the movie " Something's Gotta Give". The bridge was called Pont d'Arcole. We walked over that bridge and then over the St. Louis Island to have a nice outside dinner at St. Regis. There was a man playing a piano in the middle of the street which was really nice. After a two hour dinner, we went back to the hotel to put on some warmer clothes because the temperature dropped a bit. Then we wanted to go see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night, so we took the 10 minute walk from our hotel. We checked it out and then also saw it sparkle around 11pm. That was absolutely beautiful to watch that, and it was perfect ending to another long and exciting day.