Paris Day Four - Isle de St. Louis and the Botanical Gardens

We began our fourth and final day in Paris in our hotel as usual having a wonderful breakfast from the extensive buffet spread. We still had many places to see on our to-do list and we knew we couldn't see everything but we were going to give it a try. We had seen a lot over the past three days but also knew that someday we would love to make another trip to Paris.

We wanted to explore more of the Left Bank so we walked south of our hotel toward the bridges over the Seine River. We walked through the Le Marais neighborhood using a similar route to our walk the previous day and once more crossed the river near the Cathedral of Notre Dame. We somehow kept getting drawn back to that magnificent structure.

Then we crossed the small bridge Pont Saint Louis on to the little river island of Ile Saint-Louis which we explored the tiny island by walking the length of it down the main street where there were a few shops and lots of pricey homes. We circled around and then crossed another bridge on to the Left Bank.

We walked through the campus of the Sorbonne University and the Latin Quarter and then entered the gardens known as the Jarden des Plantes. This was the main botanical garden of France and was also the national botanical school. The gardens were magnificent and it was an unexpected pleasure. There were beautiful poppies and other late spring plants in bloom. We saw many students tending the gardens and putting in tropical plants and grasses for

the summer. Afterward we stopped at the National Museum of Natural History for a brief visit. We walked around the main floor but we really didn't have time to this spectacular museum it's due. The Grand Gallery of Evolution is in the background of the picture of the gardens here.

We decided to take a boat tour on the Seine which we had passed along the river while going into the Left Bank. The sky was clearing and it looked like it was going to be a pleasant day at last. We started walking back along the river to where we would take the boat tour.