Le Falstaff and Le Marais

Monday, 1/5/09

View from our hotel, the Hotel Jeanne d'Arc, and an alleyway:

alley

Our first lunch was at a brasserie in Place de la Bastille, during which we met two of our three guides, Sophie and Emilie.  The brasserie was pretty classic, and we ordered accordingly - omlettes, croques monsieurs, and onion soup.

With the food keeping jetlag somewhat at bay, we walked around Le Marais with Emilie. She told us the history of the quartier, an area that has seen times both bad and good, but that was undeniably once a marais, or swamp.  Teeth chattering, exhausted from the flight, we drank in our first glimpses of Parisian beauty. 

K.B.

Street scenes in le Marais:

balloons in street