Île de la Cité

After the morning market on Saturday and baguette sandwiches and clementines, we felt the rumble under the apartment and realized the No. 8 métro right outside our apartment door was actually running.  We decided we needed to make the most of that and headed out.
The strike over pension reform has been going on for a month now, since December 5th. The No. 1 métro runs all the time because it is automated. Our No. 8 métro is sometimes open on weekday evenings during rush hour. This weekend it was only open from 1:00 to 5:30.
It felt good to be back on the métro and in our familiar surroundings. But we are fortunate to have many bus routes right near our apartment to use to get around the city during the strike. Actually the French do not call it a "grève" or strike. They call it a mouvement sociale or collective action. It involves the subway, some buses, commuter trains and regular trains throughout the country, all to some degree or another. Sometimes the airlines join in.

View of Hôtel de Ville

We got off the métro at Hôtel de Ville and walked across the bridge to Île de la Cité to see how the lines were at Sainte Chapelle. Kate thought it would be nice to see all the stained glass there on a sunny day with blue sky.

Kelly and Kate on the Bridge to Île de la Cité

We did not try to walk down towards Nôtre Dame. It looked like things were blocked off. We wondered what had become of the shops and cafés that relied on all the tourists near the cathedral. So sad.

Evidently everyone else wanted to take advantage of a sunny day at Sainte Chapelle and the line was way too long. So we walked along the Seine towards the southern tip of Île de la Cité to a beautiful and quiet square, Place Dauphine. 

Kate at Place Dauphine

View of la Tour Eiffel from the Southern Tip
of Île de la Cité

We crossed back over the Seine to la Rive Droite and past the beautiful gothic Tour Saint-Jacques, the only part remaining of a 16th century church demolished during the French Revolution.

Tour Saint Jacques

We dropped Kelly off at the métro to head home while Kate and I did a little shopping at the BHV Department Store. Then we capped our day off with some decadent hot chocolate chez Angelina. We made it home on the métro just before it closed at 5:30.