I'm back with more tales from Paris. This post has some of the most beautiful places I've ever seen from churches to palaces not to mention delicious food, art and quirky things, but first let's start with a visit to Paris's most iconic symbol, the Eiffel Tower...

DAY 4



It wouldn’t be a visit to Paris without a stop at the Eiffel Tower. 


Mr Daisy and I arrived extra bright and early in the morning to beat the crowds but found that everyone else had the same idea and the line was ridiculously long. It was the Easter weekend and I guess many people flock to Paris to spend the holiday there. We looked at the line of bustling tourists and then we happily admired the tower's lacy ironwork from the ground and wandered off on our way.

Our next stop was one that I'd never heard of. Mr Daisy had read that it was a place worth seeing. It ended up being one of the most buildings I have ever been in.

I wrote this on my instagram about our visit.

"Sainte-Chapelle is a 13th century chapel on the Ile de Cité, in the heart of the Royal Palace.
On approach you admire the gothic architecture, once inside you marvel at the big stain glass flowers and ornate detailing.
Then you climb a skinny spiral staircase and pop out in a room that takes your breath away. A room full of stained glass windows reaching for the sky. Thousands of glowing scenes from the Bible.
It could very well be one of the most beautiful things that I’ve ever seen.
Photos don’t do it justice but they’ll give you a hint of what it was like."





We admired the stain glass windows and the painted ceilings and all the trimmings, felt the holy feel of the place and we were impressed.  We thought that was it, but as we were leaving we noticed people were going up a skinny staircase, being curious we followed too.

Upstairs was a whole other level!! Physically and figuratively! Even more intricate stain glass windows reaching for the heavens.

It really blew my mind to think about the people who designed and created this building of beauty and how they achieved it. The craftsmanship of it all!! It still blows my mind when I look at these photos. I recently read a description that described St Chapel as an example that anything is possible.
Breath-taking!!
Awe-inspiring!
Mind blowingly amazing!
Beauty in every corner!


It truly is the sort of building that would make angels sing!

There were ornate floors as well.


Glorious with extra glory!


After the experience of St Chapel we just felt like walking to let the magnificence soak in. We  strolled along the Seine.


You can see from the photos that it was a beautiful warm sunny day,
a perfect day,..
...to go hunting for ice-cream!

A friend ( thank you Brenda!) had mentioned Berthillon was the best ice-cream shop in Paris and we thought we should go and see if it lived up to its reputation. It was great to have a destination that took us to another part of the city.

I had Pumplemouse (grapefruit) and orange sorbet and it looks as though Mr D went for something along the chocolate and hazelnut theme. And Yes, I can assure you Berthillon did live up to its reputation.

Fuelled up on ice-cream and a mission to fit as much as we could into our days we headed off to Rodin's museum.

After being outside walking through the hot streets the cool building was a relief.  

I added another photo to my "Phil Looking At Art" series.

We admired Rodin's statues...

and the beauty of the house...

and strolled through the leafy gardens.

This wasn't a Rodin sculpture, I think it was one that he had collected, it was there in the house and it made me smile. 

It had been a full day so we wandered back to our apartment.


We stopped at this supermarket to stock up on goodies for dinner.

The range of cheeses made us swoon!! 

 We were in France at the right time for giant asparagus. 

Gorgeous gateaux! 


We always ate out and about for our lunches, so most evenings for dinner we would visit a supermarket or deli and pick up a selection of simple fresh ingredients, and a bottle of Rosé because no one makes Rosé like the French. We'd set up indoor picnics in our apartment, baguettes with salad and delicious cheeses. We'd take it in turns to have the one wine glass, another curious quirk of the apartment. The weather was warm so we'd open the windows to let the breezes float through and nibble and chat about all the wonderful things we'd seen that day. It's those dinners that Mr Daisy and I fondly recall as favourite meals from our trip.

Another foodie treat that is a must-try in Paris are the macarons in every flavour you could imagine. Instead of Easter Eggs on Easter Sunday we had a box of these colourful treats. I didn't get to the box fast enough for a pretty photo, i guess that shows how good they were.


On Day 5 we went to the Palace of Versailles, the main Royal residence of France from the 1600's until the Revolution in 1789.

We travelled by train, on and off trains in the subway, This isn't a glamorous photo, but I had to take a quick snap of this station named after Andre Citroen who designed one of my most favourite cars of all time, The Citroen DS,

The beautiful entrance of the station that took us to Versailles. 

We were early when we arrived so we thought we'd have a coffee and croissant to set us up for the day, and when we came out again the line had grown by a billion people and went forevvvvverrrrrrr. Crikey mikey!! I guess Versailles is a popular destination on Easter Sunday. We smiled our way through, entertained ourselves with people watching and knew we'd laugh about it one day. I think in the end it took us about 3 hours to finally make it inside the palace. 

At least I had lots of time to take photos of the entrance.




Dancing shadows...


Gates that look like Ric-Rac! 

Once inside we walked through beautiful room after beautiful room, it seemed each one was more ornate that the previous. 







Beautiful painted ceilings in every room.


I mentioned earlier that it was Easter Sunday, well maybe it was the thought of chocolate eggs that made me think that this bust of Caesar looked as though it was made from chocolate. Yummm. 

The Hall of Mirrors.

Here we are, a selfie in these famous mirrors that have seen so much.


Golden lillies that looked so real, as though someone had dipped real flowers into gold, or maybe they had been touched by King Midas.
Then there were golden flowers on the curtains.

So many beautiful wallpapers and textiles caught my eye
















For most of my photos I try to keep a sense a space and stillness by not having too many people in them, but this photo gives you an idea of how crowded it was. 

It was all a bit much and we were quite worn out from the jostling and feeling over crowded so we decided to skip the famous gardens. We'll save them for another day. 

When I was leaving Versailles I looked down and saw this little tissue paper heart. An angel's smile.

Seeing as we missed out on the gardens at Versailles we made our way to another famous garden. Stopping to admire some street art along the way.


Jardin du Luxemburg, the grounds of the Luxemburg Palace is the perfect place to be on a warm Sunday afternoon.

Lush green trees provide cool shade for those below.

I didn't take many photos but there was a bandstand with a band playing swinging jazz, another area had a a large patch of grass where people were having picnics, the large pond was full of little remote controlled wooden sailing boats, at one point Mr D said it would be nice to have an ice-cream and then an ice-cream seller appeared. We sat sat for a while and watched pony rides go by.

Afterwards we strolled home to our apartment, looking in shop windows as we went. You just never know what weird and wonderful things you'll see in Paris. 

Fancy shoes in bell jars. 

Très chic cats.

A chair full of swans.

The wonderful woven chairs you see in all the cafes around Paris. 

Some graffiti that made me laugh. 

A little couple with clothes made from shells, I particularly like the little man's Whizz Bang pants. 

And always, amazing buildings, statues..

and ornate, intriguing doorways.

Day 6 
Our last day in Paris, We were up early, while the city was still sleeping we bundled the suitcases down the stairs and ordered an Uber. When the Uber arrived the driver said it was "impossible to fit in all the suitcases!".  Travelling with suitcases full of quilts certainly adds an element of adventure at times. We weren't going to argue with a french Uber driver so we ordered a 2nd car. I jumped in the Uber with 2 cases and Mr D ordered another car and was soon following behind me. 

Off we raced to the station...


That was it.. our time in Paris had come to an end, and we were now on our way to the fair city of Nantes, where Pour L'amour du Fil was to be held. The Festival of the Thread was getting closer every day.
Stay tuned for the next exciting adventures of The Daisys in France!