Paris, je t'aime! Part 8: Paris After Dark

In Part 7 of the Paris posts, we took a day trip out to Versailles and spent some time roaming around the famous, fancy gardens in a golf cart!  Classy!


We woke up from our post-Versailles nap feeling relatively refreshed and after getting changed into our evening clothes, we were ready to hit the town!  We didn't have any solid plans this evening, but we wanted to take a Seine River cruise at night to see everything all lit up, and this fit into the plans quite well.  On the way to the metro station (most of the cruises leave from the Pont de l'Alma, not too far away from the Eiffel Tower), we stopped at a nearby establishment we'd glimpsed a few nights prior.

When we initially saw this spot, the BrewDog sign outside convinced us it was the Paris location of BrewDog, the largest and most famous Scottish brewery currently in operations.  However, upon wandering in we found out this place was actually called The Pure Malt, and it was the only Scottish-run bar/brewery in Paris - the bartender/owner was from Aberdeen!  We enjoyed a few pints - I tried one of their own brews and Chris enjoyed a BrewDog IPA that was on tap.


It was a fun place,
and we give it a hearty "aye!"
It did throw me at first when I went up to order,
queuing up my French,
and the bartender responded back in English,
with a thick Scottish brogue.


A noble sacrifice

After our pints were drained (and after a quick trip to the toilette, which was down a narrow flight of spiral steps OF COURSE), we headed to the Saint Paul metro station, stopping briefly at the Savannah Cafe, the "American" restaurant in town, to snap a picture of the menu, just for funsies.


It's always fun to see what "American" food
looks like in other places.

We took the metro to the general Pont de l'Alma area, stopping first at Les Grands Verres, a hip restaurant/cocktail bar inside the Palais de Tokyo, a museum of modern and contemporary art.  We each enjoyed a few craft cocktails, and we noshed on crudites with homemade ranch dressing and burrata with toast while being entertained by our 20-ish year old bartenders, who were having a great time ragging on each other in English for our benefit.  I didn't take any pictures, but here's a shot from the world wide internets:


We'll absolutely come back here,
if it's still open the next time we visit Paris.
Apparently, the Palais is cool, too,
and it stays open until midnight every day,
so there's plenty of time to see the art.

It was around 8:45, so we figured we should make our way to the Pont itself and see if we could snag a ticket for an evening boat ride.  We had no problems grabbing two seats for the 9:30 boat, and while we waited to embark, we loaded up on food and drink (mainly drink) at the concession stand.  


Four Tsingtao's, a short can of original Pringles,
and a Twix bar.
Second dinner of champions.


Almost time to go!
There are a few different companies that offer tours on the Seine,
but Bateaux-Mouches is one of the largest.

After waiting just a bit longer, it was time to hop aboard!  Okay, so.  About the following photos.  I took the big camera with me, and while it's exceptional at taking great day shots, it tries to give you professional-level night snaps as well, which means the shutter speed is pretty slow.  The boat didn't ever stop moving, so couple that movement with the normal vibrations you get from being aboard a watercraft and then add it to the pint at the pub, the two craft cocktails, and the Tsingtao's, and you get a lot of shots like this:


It's hard to put into words just how stunning this is.
That's the Eiffel Tower,
in case you can't tell.

When Toni and Robert visited us after this trip, she showed us a few portable tripod options she got for their vacation to Hawaii, including one of those monkey pod things, and for our next big trip, we'll absolutely look into one of those.  Feel free to use your imagination when looking through the shots below, and know that the scenery was absolutely gorgeous all lit up at night, and that you should really do a night cruise on the Seine, should you ever find yourself in Paris.  Please trust me on this (as another note, I completely understand many of these shots are 100% terrible, but I included them anyway, in the hopes they'd make everyone chuckle).

Away we go!



Our seats aboard the boat - 
the guy on the right was face-timing his girlfriend
through the entire 90 minute ride.
She got pretty bored and kept fake yawning,
but he didn't ever get the memo.
I became very invested in their relationship
as the ride progressed, and the Tsingtao's dwindled.




The boats pass right under all of the bridges on the Seine, and it seemed like a pretty close fit at times.


The 8 or 8:30 boat, coming back with its group


Everybody duck!




I like this one, personally.
"Sir...they've gone plaid."


The intrepid photographer at work.
Yes, the pinky makes a difference.


About halfway there!



Face-timing with the girl back home!
At this point, I started to realize how painfully
crappy these photos might be,
so we just started amusing ourselves.

Truly, the cruise was really cool.  We saw all of the major sights on the Seine all lit up and looking gorgeous - Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Tower (of course), and so on.  We also saw a lot of folks hanging out on the banks of the River - it was a Friday night, after all.


The D'Orsay, I think


Not sure what this was,
but I have a lot of shots of it.


The towers of Notre Dame - 
we were up on top of there!


The beautiful back side of Notre Dame.
Breathtaking.


A Friday night crowd along the river


No clue.
Probably something famous.


Part of the Louvre


Modern art.


Chris actually got some decent shots with his iPhone - 
it snaps things quickly, so they turn out 
pretty well at night.
This is heading back toward Notre Dame,
after we'd made our turn for home port.


The Eiffel Tower and Pont Alexandre III


Even he had some challenges, though.
Man, I hate it when your famous landmarks
suddenly shift to the left.


Cheers!

The boat returned to port, and we capped off our night by taking at least 800 more pictures of the Tower, all lit up and sometimes sparkling.




It really is an incredible piece of engineering.


They also have a silver t-rex at the boat office,
which obviously I had to grab a snap of.

After the boat ride, we were fully tuckered, so it was back on the metro once again and to Les Tournelles.  Tomorrow, we'd tackle the artist village of Montmarte, but for now, it was time to sleep!

Later!

Amy

P.S. - FitBit step total for this day was 21,030 steps (roughly 10 miles) - would have been a whole lot more without the golf cart!

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