Ile de la Cite

After eating the giant crepe I walked across one of the bridges that connects Paris with the 2 small islands in the middle of the Seine. The larger one is Ile de la Cite and this is where Notre Dame is, as well as Sainte-Chappelle (of the amazing stained glass) I walked down Marche aux Fleurs which is a small street that is filled with flower stalls, greenhouses and everything "garden related" that you can imagine. On Sundays, oddly enough, it is also a bird market...not for eating, but for pets. The cages are piled everywhere and filled with doves, parakeets, little yellow canaries, quails and pigeons. Hmm, maybe they are for eating.

I then crossed the bridge that connects this island with the smaller one, Ile St-Louis. It's very tiny and you can walk around the whole thing in less than 1/2. There is one main street (pictured here) that runs through the center, and it is filled with exclusive and amazing shops and boutiques, as well as a few cafe and the world famous Berthillon ice-cream shop. I had heard a lot about this place, and how people line up for hours to get an ice cream. There was no one there when I walked by, so I stopped and got a kiwi strawberry cone. Mmmm....it was like gelato. Later when I walked by again, there must have been 150 people, or more, in line.

I thought that this little island was charming and fun. You can walk to the end of it, where there is a little park, Square Barye, and stand at the edge and gaze down the Seine. I felt like flinging out my arms and hollering: "I'm King of the world!", but I figured that: #1. That's been done. And #2: I didn't want to look like a total idiot. That's when I missed Nicole because I think she would have done it.

This picture isn't particularly good, but I find it amazing that you can stand at the end of a island that is in the middle of a river that runs through a huge city. And what's more, it's been that way since the a tribe of Celts called the Parisii settled here.