Day 3: Winter Tour of Secret Covered Passages and the Paradox Museum

My mom and I both agreed neither of us got a good night’s rest last night. My body was so cold it took me hours to get warm and my mom heard every noise you can imagine through the walls (coming from other apartments). I went to bed an hour after her at 2:30am and we got up at 7:15am as our 1st activity of the day is the Winter Tour of Secret Covered Passages now with Marianne through Airbnb experiences. My mom made breakfast sandwiches and we packed it to go as we headed out to catch the train.

Since we arrived to our tour stop about 50 minutes early we decided to look for a cafe that we could get a drink from and sit down and eat our breakfast sandwiches. We found Boulangerie Patisserie where we ordered some baked goods and hot chocolate. This was the best food we’ve had so far in Paris because everything was so good. We gave ourselves 10 mins til 10am to start walking back to the tour meeting spot. We walked back and saw Marianne waiting off to the side and she recognized us once there.

We began our passage tour which I thought was underground but they were just covered (I was not expecting us to be outside for this activity). So for another 2 hours we were out and about walking the streets, passages, sidewalks and gardens of Paris. It ended up not being too cold today thankfully (low 40s) and at one point the sun even came out and it felt amazing. Marianne was very knowledgeable in some historical places in the city and 1st she took us to the oldest chocolate store in the city (the candy in there was pricey). As we began going through the passages by the 2nd one I had a feeling we weren’t going underground.

We passed by a Free Mason Museum and began at the oldest passage Passage Verdeaū built in 1799. Inside you typically find shops, restaurants and hair stylists. We learned that the 2nd, 9th and 10th districts have more passages and that there are about 30 passages in Paris. As we walked around town Marianne pointed out building designs and gave history as to some backstories of what used to go on in Paris. An interesting fact is that prostitutes had a tier like system: 1st you have the swallowers…, 2nd you have the beavers who live onsite by basically settling in and 3rd you have your chickens who come in and scoop up who they want and lay…

Since we were near the Louvre Museum (which we’ll visit on Wednesday) Marianne actually showed us the secret entrance from the inside so we don’t have to wait in the longer line outside. Also underground were some shops, a food court and the metro. We bid Marianne goodbye and did a little bit of shopping. We were hungry and wanted to sit for a while so we went to a restaurant on our list of places to try for lunch via the metro. The lunch was ok and for me takes 2nd place to the bakery so far as far as food.

We headed towards our last activity of the day which was the Paradox Museum. On the way there we opted to visit the terrace of Galeries Lafayette (which is a mall) where you can see a great city view from the top. The sun was out and there was no fog so today was a good picture day. Afterwards we headed to the Paradox Museum where we took some illusion and wacky photos. We had a good time going through and interacting in the different rooms.

Once done we headed back to our Airbnb but not before we stopped at another nearby grocery store to get a few more things. We got in pretty early tonight (around 7:30pm) and we’ll eat some leftovers and relax for the rest of the night. With only one activity tomorrow we can hop around the city a little bit more freely and sleep in a bit as our activity begins at 11am.