Today we slept in again later than intended which meant a slight change in plans. I had penciled in the Picasso Museum for today, but the benefit of being here for so long is we have time to be flexible (plus, after five hours at the Pompidou yesterday, I was happy to not do another museum today).

Instead, we decided to do Rick Steves’ audio tour of Historic Paris. We so enjoyed his tour when we were in Rome and he once again did not disappoint. The first stop on the tour was Notre-Dame. Because of the fire a number of years ago, we couldn’t get terribly close (I was hoping to recreate a photo from when I was here in high school of standing on Point Zero (the marker from which all distances in the city are measured) – I was told back then that if you stand on it, it means you can return to Paris one day – and here I am!)

One of my favorite stops during our walking tour was at an intersection in medieval Paris – which also happened to have hot chocolate and choux buns! It was a charming little street with winding roads shooting off of it and a lovely view of Notre-Dame – with Santa!

This tour also taught us about how cool some of the alleyways are! Lots of less-busy, less-touristy, often old, cobblestone neighborhoods lay right off of the main drags in these cute little alleyways. So that’s how we spent the majority of the rest of our evening – wondering around the streets of the Left Bank, ducking into cute little streets with shops and restaurants.

As we meandered our way towards home, we stopped for a Nutella waffle and Vin Chaud (hot wine) at one of the Christmas Markets in Place St. Michel – yum!

Finally, we made our way to L’As Du Fallafel – one of the highest-rated falafel places Ray could find. By this time it’d begun raining so we were a little wary of waiting in the loooong line. But the guy in front of us told us it was the best falafel he’d had – and he’d spent time in Israel and Lebanon! So we decided to stay and ended up chatting with the guy, Jackson. He and his girlfriend are from Nashville and are planning to go skiing in Paris (the recent ban on travel from the EU means it’ll be pretty vacant) and on a wine tour with one of his clients – Oh la la!

Admittedly, it was very good (though I lost three of my falafel balls to the street!) – so good I neglected to take any photos! After scarfing it down and saying good by to our Nashville friends, we headed toward home, stopping for some more groceries along the way.

Now, to get a good night’s sleep that doesn’t eat into our daytime plans!