We commuted from the country to the city yesterday. We left our country home early to make the 2.5 hour drive to return our car on time. We were glad we did because we were the victim of a 45 minute delay on the highway – either there was an accident, or as the car rental person opined, it was a manifestation (a protest) by taxi drivers that shut down various roads around Paris.

Driving in Paris is not for the faint of heart and my cousin Greg did a marvellous job of getting us to the car rental at St. Lazare station. What we didn’t know before our drive is that this station is the oldest train station in Paris (built in 1837), one of the 7 main train stations in Paris and the 3rd busiest station in all of France. It is right in the heart of Paris but close to our apartment in the Clichy area. We might have chosen a different drop off point with this knowledge, but hey, who doesn’t want to live dangerously every now and then?

The Clichy district is home to the L’Oréal and Bic companies as well as a hugely residential community. After finding our apartment and depositing our stuff, we quickly found a cafe to restore us. It worked well enough that we decided to venture into Paris proper and do some sightseeing. We knew we would never get into Notre Dame without a reservation but decided to go and take a look anyway. We were correct. The “drop in” line was huge and moving quickly, but it was 32 degrees Celsius so we decided to explore the exterior and check this iconic structure from our list.

Despite being a showpiece for the Olympics, there is still a lot to be done and work is ongoing. The parts that have been restored are mainly at the front of the church and inside the main part where the Olympic Festivities took place. There is still obviously years of restoration work to be done.

We enjoyed looking at some of the gargoyles and grotesques around the church. I am not sure if this fellow is quazitmoto but I want to think it is.

The famous gargoyles are still in front of the church, spouting water off the roof as they were intended to do.

We were hot and tired and considered it a good idea to explore the archeological museum of Paris that is located below the cathedral. It was cooler but either we were really tired or it was a really boring museum so we didn’t linger. We made our way back to our apartment, mastering how to buy tickets to the Metro/RER system. We stopped at the bakery next to our apartment for baguettes and then the grocery store across the street for wine and finished our day with a wonderful cold dinner of ham, veggies and cheese – oh and butter, the French butter is fantastic. I could eat it like cheese, and I did.