Big night tonight.

Thursday 12^th September.

Well due for a bit of rest time, we don’t rush to get going today, plus, we’ve got a big night tonight, so don’t want to wear ourselves out trying to do too much this morning. I had planned a walking tour of the Latin Quarter, where we’re staying, so I thought that might be a good thing to do, as well as explore our neighbourhood. Just up the road is the Arenes de Lutece, a Roman ruin of an amphitheatre built in the 1^st or 2^nd century BC that held up to 15 000 people who came to watch plays, gladiator combats and wild animals fighting. We took a picnic lunch up there and despite the drizzly rain, found a spot to sit and eat and enjoy watching 2 fellas playing petanque.

These apartments look over the Arenes de Lutece

Not far away from there is the Paris Mosque where you can go into the Hammam and get a good scrubbing down and hose off. Thanks, but no. Heading west along Rue Censier we pass a pretty church, Saint Metard, and then get to Rue Mouffetard, blocked to vehicular traffic for a long stretch and home to many fruit stalls, and yummy food shops. It is also where Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce lived back in the day. When we reached Place de la Contrescarpe we decided that we had to sit at a sidewalk café and have a drink, just to say we had. Not wanting to wear ourselves out, we checked the map and found we could cut across Rue Clovis and be home shortly. I looked off to the left and spotted yet another lovely looking church, I think they’re the French equivalent of pubs, there seems to be one on nearly every corner! Found out later it was the Eglise St Etienne, at the back of the Pantheon. I didn’t realise we were so close!

So, back ‘home’ for a bit of blogging and relaxing before getting ready for our big night out at Paradis Latin, dinner and a cabaret show. I was more curious than anything else as to what we would see and I must say, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t just a ‘girlie’ show. Of course there were the bare chested ladies, who all looked half starved, but there were male dancers too, as well as a performer who did an amazing balancing act on a high unicycle and another fella who performed on a high trapeze, above the diners. These 2 were literally breath-taking and I couldn’t believe the things they did. We signed up for dinner and show, with half a bottle of red wine and ¼ bottle champagne and water each.

The meal was the least expensive, the Festival menu, and it was a restaurant quality meal. The costumes, yes there were substantial costumes at times, were fabulous and the whole show was just absolument magnifique. Sorry, no photos allowed here either. We chose this cabaret because it was walking distance from our flat and coming home late at night was no problem. In fact, it was still quite busy. Weary from our day and a little too much wine, we fell in to bed.