July 16 – Sainte Chapelle and a Chocolate Tasting Tour (Yum, Yum)

Yesterday we booked some tickets for today to visit the Sainte Chapelle…a beautiful gothic chapel that is loaded with stained glass.  We visited here a couple of weeks ago when we visited with Charlie, but Liam has never been and we never tire of it.

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Video in Sainte Chapelle
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The crowds were pretty heavy but with our timed ticket it didn’t really take too long to get into the chapel.  Liam liked it very much but didn’t need to stay long.  Once he was in and looked around he was pretty much done.  And he had no interest in the gift shop. 

More wandering around Paris.

Late morning we headed out to locate our tour – Chocolate and Dessert tasting in the St. Germain de Pres area. On the walk Liam decided he was hungry.  We hadn’t planned on eating as we figured we’d get enough food on the tour.  However, we found a nice place (called Atlas) and we all had something to eat.  They served Berthillon’s ice cream so we had to have some of that. 

We met the tour at La Maison du Chocolate (House of Chocolate) and had our first tasting of the day.

Then it was on to Poilane’s, which is supposed to make some of the best breads and desserts in Paris (supposedly most of the places we are hitting today are “the best in Paris” at what they make).  More samples – bread and a pastry of our choice.  Paul had an apple tart and Mary had a shortbread cookie with chocolate filling.  By this time Liam was full and passed.

And there was more:  Pierre Hermes, which had exquisite macarons and many exquisite desserts (more samples).

Maison le Rous for salted caramels (and more samples).

And a last stop at an ice cream cart for more Berthillon’s ice cream.

There are good eats everywhere in Paris.  We stopped at a nearby shop to get some water and even they had some gorgeous looking pastries. 

What a tasty way to eat one’s way around Paris.  Needless to say, we didn’t have dinner that night.  Boy was the food good…and we were all stuffed.

That evening we headed over to the Eiffel Tour for our Skip the Lines visit.  We met our guides at an intersection not far from the tour and walked over.  

There were about 15 or 20 of us with the timed tickets for entry.  The guide took us to the tour and helped us find our line to get in…there were lines everywhere.  We took the elevator up to the second floor where we joined the crowd.

The views were great…

and we had a nice sunset.

Some vendors near the Eiffel Tower had illuminated replicas of the tower.