Lucerne to Paris – Christmas in Europe

Today’s travel from Lucerne to Paris was a long journey and although we were glad when we finally hit the outer ringroad to Paris, we weren’t too excited about being based in Bercy.  In the 1880’s, Bercy was known as the “cellar of the world” with wine arriving by boat.  Today, it is a bustling commercial center with lots of high-rise office blocks, apartments and hotels like the Sofitel Bercy where we stayed for the next couple of nights.

Tonight we intended to have our traditional moules & frites meal and we established that Ligne 14 from Cour Saint Emilion takes us into town.   We got off near the top of the Champs-Elysees and as we got onto street level we were amazed at the Christmas decorations and street lights.  Paris, city of lights and city of romance, it sure was.  The Champs-Elysees was so absolutely beautiful that lots of people got to the centre isle and started taking shots, not worrying too much about the traffic. 

After the photo-shoot we walked down the street and luckily Tony roughly remembered where Leon-de-Bruxelles was.  There was a large queue waiting to get in and we were a little disheartened.  Luckily, a pleading smile to the waiter and we were beckoned in and shown to our table.  Our moules came in its traditional iron-cast pot with a bowl of chips.  It was delicious.

Helen