Sunday - in a nutshell:
Saw Deux Magots
Tasted cheese from the market man
Walked through good restaurant area, saw HUGE central market near Mobillon (attempted to buy museum pass in metro)
entered tea shop
Walked AROUND Luxembourg gardens
Saw Sorbonne and its Pantheon-- musicians in front, Max danced!
Spotted Luxembourg museum
Saw Senat and policia
Hi, hon,
We are doing really well. Saw Belva in the airport to get last second advice for the trip - she suggested Rosti in Zurich (did it! yum!) and Le Souffle. Will do it! The whole travel time getting to Paris was really long (Zurich was a TERRIFIC highlight-- took train from airport to it's huge train station, got tourist info, made walk to old town, enjoyed the beauty of the cobblestone streets, lots of churches, including Grossmunster, had an expensive "fondue" and spent our last sentime there with nice waitress Susan, then went to stretch out on the quai next to the river... with the SWANS. Sunny and relaxing! Lovely bridges over the river. Went back along the expensive chi-chi shopping street where all the beautiful people were promenading.) Shopped for chocolate in the airport while we completed our layover. Yea for the biggest Toblerones ever. We were EXHAUSTED when we arrived late last night after train and subway adventures (It was the best of times, it was the worst of times) and are grateful tthat we met the young woman who is a business student wishing to get internship in Tel Aviv... funny that a game was letting out at the stadium so those louts filled the train... had trouble getting tix for last leg of journey-- metro part) but our reservation for the hotel was good. Had good sleep with the window open in our teeeeeeny tiny room. Max LOVES the towels!
Internet is PAINFULLY slow and I'm realizing how "web based" your cyborg wife is! I'm still working out details of each day so that we can tour efficiently. When you travel, some things just eat up time while you're figuring it all out... slow internet included. My web site is helping, though, so you can see what our plans are and maybe even what we did each day there. Today we walked about 5 miles to get the lay of the land! We started across the river at the site of the Louvre and the Touileries gardens, now with hawkers. We see sold those little Eifel towers that Gay has so many of everywhere! We found a nice little cafe for a mid-day "breakfast." It's really cold here and was gray all today, but at least it wasn't raining. Back on this side of the Seine we had to "be Dave" and SCOUT. - saw TONS in the Latin Quarter, including my Mecca for the family: La Sorbonne! Glad I have my layers. Max is so easy to travel with and is such a HAPPY, APPRECIATIVE kid. We're making memories for a lifetime, for sure.
Tomorrow we'll get our cheap museum pass and maybe do 2 hours at Louvres before doing some walking around the two islands in the center of the Seine when we'll see Notre Dame and eat at a place you and I took Sam when he was a baby (as I THINK I found it!) They have a reasonable lunch menu. Might get more out of Louvres in late afternoon, but it's okay if we save our patience for museums for other museums later this week.
Tell me all about your time in Florida so far!!! We hope you are having a blast. Don't be nervous if we struggle to communicate a little. We don't seem to have T-mobile on the streets, after all. And we are not in our room much to get the wifi, but we are very well. Bedtime for me! Send us WHAT'S UP!!
It was Palm Sunday and we followed people into the evening mass (leafy branches for sale outside) and heard singing and prayer in 15 century old churc Eglise de Saint Germains. After doing computer work and research, ended the day with a very long bilingual conversation with our hotel clerk of Algerian-French descent. He started the convo, "Trump or Clinton?" Two hours later, I finally went to bed.
Monday:
Intended to get up early for breakfast and hitting the Louvre before a lunch reservation at Nos Ancestres (on ile St. Louis, but much of the day went a little wrong. Overslept till 10:40. By the time we got to Louvre, the line for tickets was much longer than an hour's wait, so we proceeded to L'Il de la Cite to see the Notre Dame. Beautiful surroundings and Max in no hurry, not wanting to rush. He wanted to tour the towers, but the line was very long, so we went on to our lunch. The islands are absolutely exquisite for beautiful park spaces, shops and people watching and bridge appreciating! Locks from lovers on bridges. Keep seeing those gorgeous macaroons for 2 for 5 Euros (laugh!) I thought I'd found a restaurant Dave and I had an unforgetable meal in 20 years ago, but Nos Ancestres was not it-- a disappointment, but glad we'd gone for cheap lunch instead of way expensive dinner. From there we decided to try the Picasso Museum, but arrived to find in closed. Partway there, we decided to go for it and knock out the Pere Lachaise Cemetery where both Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrisson are buried (along with lots of painters and authors.) Saw Chopin's grave, too, and Max recalled playing it. It was really worth it-- such and interesting walk around with so many creatively decorated graves. Jim Morrison's has become a mess with rubber bands and chewing gum votives. Bizarre. Also saw the grave of a recent young female victim of the Bataclan terrorist attack. Sad. Metro's home. We have walked SO much and are really feeling it.
After a dinner of crepes, I went back to the hotel and Max went for a walk on the Seine. He came home to say he'd gone all the way to the Eiffel Tower! Beautiful sparkly walk on the quais at night!
Looked up Beaux Arts style to learn that it is loaded with sculpture, (sculpture grabbing onto the structure, even) into symmetry and size and ostentation-- basically what all the Parisian buildings look like around the Louvre.
Looked ahead in guide to art in Musee d'Orsay and added someone to my understanding: Gustave Courbet (18-19-1877) who explored "Realism" to the disdain of others. First big painting to get reaction was Un Enterrement a Ornans.
Tuesday-
Everything went GREAT today! Well, almost. Sleep last night was rough-- I woke up in a sleep terror sensing "someone was coming at me" and Max had to wake me up cuz it was just him on the other side of the bed. And he had to wake me for snoring a bit, poor kid. He woke before the alarm clock and, good kid, got up and got ready, giving me the lead to take a shower and get out the door even EARLIER than we planned. Because we had a two-part mission: go to the source of the BEST croissants and bread in the city (Polonier) and somehow get to the Musee d'Orsay to be early in line to buy our museum pass so that ever more we could skip the line. Despite getting a little lost going to the shop and coming away from it, too, we still got on line to eat our croissants while we waited, AND... the sun came out! So, weren't we just perfect planners?! Max was crabby, so we went our own ways in the musee, and it was AMAZING. Sculptures were so well placed, and the masters were in aboundance. New names for me: Carpeaux is a fantastic sculptor and cool painter whose statues are part of so many of the buildings/friezes around these buildings of Paris, and I first snubbed Manet (confusing him with maybe his later period too much??? But Max said he liked him, so I gave him a good look up in the area of the impressionists and love him, too.
We discovered a sandwich/pastry shop where we can get eats SUPER cheap... right by the Musee d'Orsay. Important to have that go-to spot. So if yesterday was the "day of the dead," today was the Day of the Bread. Sooooo good!
Max and I enjoyed coffee as the museum cafe d'Orse named for the statue of the white polar bear by Pompon (sp) which is iconic. We did about 3 rounds and enjoyed every second of it. Then, luckily he had energy to go next to the Rodin museum. So amazing that they have such a large 'estate' with gardens in the center of Paris. Good one, Auguste, donating it the city. His sculptures were devine. My favorite was 'thought of man' there (man tenderly kisses chest of a woman.) There were sculptures of both Balzac and Victor Hugo, so when we got home, I looked up both of them. Balzac was a LIVER and had to write a lot to pay his debts... was a fun conversationalist, too. A realist. Victor Hugo was a writer of the romantic period, basically defined the modern novel for France, award winning for expressing all of France -- all levels of society-- in his prolific writings. He wrote in a tragic way in both HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME and LES MISERABLES.
We've walked SO much and are feeling tired, but have full bellies. Not sure we'll go out for dinner tonight, but the night is young. I have a hankering for French onion soup and salad. A salady crepe like last night might his the spot. I have to hit an ATM.
Today was so great that we could easily head home now and feel so accomplished. But I'm planning our next day now. We are going to Montmartre in the morning. I think we can catch a bus 95 straight outside our door.
Wednesday:
Although we got up around 10:00 I had such nerves about trying to get the info straight for Montmartre that I backed out of that trip and cancelled a lunch reservation i couldn't be sure we would make and getting all the necessary comforting info onto my phone with Max's help for travel offline and seeing how COOL the Dali museum is going to be pushed out lift-off too late to make an unrushed day of it. Max had needed his sleep, and both of us had great sleeps, so it was necessary.
Take 2: We decided to make today with its late opening a day for Le Louvre. But ahead of that, we searched out a breakfast eatery in the Mabillon metro area. Somehow, it's way closer than I originally thought. I think it's because the main roads BEND here and I'm still getting oriented. But after Max figured out where to hit an ATM, the place we found --PAUL-- was an awesome bakery to get a "take away" breakfast and eat it on their sidewalk cafe tables. WONDERFUL deal right in the heart of the eating area of Mabillon. From there, we went to the Delacroix museum. "There was no one bigger than Delacroix and Ingres in the 1850's, each representing different ends of the spectrum." (Later learned about Ingress with a new fondness for his bathing women-- beautiful!) Anyway, Delacroix bought his place in the Mabillon area "so that he could be close to his works in St. Denis Sulpice church" and his studio and home where he spent his dying days with his constant support Jenny as well as its GORGEOUS cloistered gardens are kept by his devotees today. It was small, easy to get around and see all, and a good practice for my French reading. It's pretty surprising how much I can actually read.
When we got to the Louvre next, we decided to give each other space to go wherever on our own. Before we'd left the hotel, I'd forced Max to view the slide show of 15 things not to miss in le Louvre, but had to twist his arm to tell me which one he'd try not to miss (Winged Vicory statue.) I picked the one always associated with Liberte, Egality and Fraternite with the draped breast-showing woman. Max wanted to see sculpture; I wanted to see paintings. Off we went making 7:30 pm our meeting time back at the hotel, leaving the possibility open to Max going UP in the towers of the Notre Dame cathedral which he wanted to do the other day. (The museum pass we now have offers that.) Max is making a big deal out of "not making his trip about seeing the named, iconic artwork, so I thought it was reasonable to only ask for ONE target from him out of the 15 on the list. ANYWAY, as night fell and we met back to the hotel room, it turns out he saw ALL the things but one on the "15 not to be missed" list, and somehow I saw only ONE OF THEM. Ugh. Didn't even see my target. (I'm not terribly upset because I enjoyed very much seeing all I did see.) But in fact, Max thinks he saw the whole Louvre. He was definitely exhausted ... (or else in a sugar coma from the eclair and macaroon he had on the way home.) As for me, I did spend lots of time in the gorgeous airy cloistered spots showing pleine aire statues... and got a little obsessive about taking photos of some of the works without also getting my white cuffs or red scarf in the reflection. And today was my day to appreciate Rembrant and his copiers. I sat and read some of the nice fixed fliers the museum now has. Learned that Rembrandt was the first (or at least noted and copied) artist to depict the light coming from the left and leaving lots of mystery/shadows. I think I just fell in LOVE with his philosophy and meditation that was copied by a late artist... i took notes on that one for all the symbolism in it. Learned about Ingres for the first time. Somehow saw only one Renoir "The Lecture" which I had to photograph because it's two beautiful girls reading a book, and saw tons of "objets d'art" that belonged to Louis XIV and his followers on the throne, including Napoleon's blue throne. "Pill boxes are us."
Max was too tired and stuffed to go out to dinner, so I picked a nearby creperie - Creperie des Castinettes-- and had a spinach and roquefort, walnut crepe. Divine! Plus, that street off Rue de Four has lots of dinner spots to choose from-- new neighborhood for me.
I think we're good to go for tomorrow on Montmartre having transferred all the info from Frommers, etc. web sites about walking tours, and gathering coins for the metro and having hit the ATM. So my goal tomorrow is to be at the Dali museum by 10 am. I have a lunch place picked out (Au Relais) but won't make a reservation because it's off the beaten trail (probably won't fill up) but I don't want to be nervous about getting there when the Dali museum looks like it has a lot to it. I really appreciate how much Max is getting out of the art museums because we definitely haven't exhausted them yet. I hate the idea of rain coming Friday and Saturday and need to look into our situation with the bombing that happened to Brussels airport. Will there be delays? Was it enough to close the airport for one day? I've investigated the transportation back to Charles de Gaulle airport from the hotel. It's way too early to take the train, so taxi it is. Uber is still too untrusted here.
We understand that Brussels airport was closed all day to address the terrorist bombing there yesterday. Flags were at half-staff around Paris today and we saw on the internet (if not actually in person) that the Eiffel Tower had the colors of Belgian Flag shining upon it.
PS: I have to show you my Nike sneakers when I get back. I have soooo worn them out! Brought all my BOOTS along to be more stylin, but wearing them was crippling me, so I look "like a tool" as Max says--tee hee-- but I'm so glad I brought the sneaks... which were on his advice back when we were packing anyway. This is their dead last trip! Gotta find black sneakers for travel....
Thursday:
Got up early to go to Montmartre which was much easier to conquer than I thought it would be. It's not hard if you follow Frommer's directions to get up the hill past Picasso's house (Bateau Lavoir) to Place Tertre, though if you wander, you can see much much more, such as on Rue Lepin, the moulin gallette, and then VanGogh's house (when you go down hill), and in back of the churchthe new location of the Musee Montmartre which was where Renior and he lived, Place Tertre with sketchers, vinyard of the Abesse, a beautiful view of the city and very beautiful view of the butte and route up the hill to the Sacre Couer. Before we left, I learned about what Sacre Couer relates to, and St. Mary Margaret who gets a light shined on her there. We did lots of metro'ing, the Lapin Agile and surrounding neighborhood
Sacre Couer is, I think, prettier in person than in the pics. Failed to go inside, but we were on a mission and will save that for the next trip.
It was a day of metro'ing, but Max helped get us there. Crabby us had a nice cafe breakfast (croque madame and omelette) off of the Place Tertre. Cute to see chef aprons for sale. I let Max do the Dali museum while I went down the hill to the fabric (tissue) center and got my "French scarf" momento and some fabric for pillow covers and a skirt-- all for less than 10 Euros. The hill leading up to the basilica was green and beautiful with brightly colored flower beds.
After going around the neighborhood and off the beaten trail (a bit) we decided to go to thePicasso Museum across town. Two metros and a walk later, we had a nice visit through there after a cafe in its cafe.
I'd had enough modern art, but Max was into it, so we separated. I walked back across Il St. Louis to see the sun set at Notre Dame. My arrival found a procession that might have included the archbishop enterring (all police protected and cordoned off.) But after waiting on line a bit (when I helped a "lost" boy get reunited with his parents who had him in sight the whole time but wanted him to realize he shouldn't run off) inside the Easter week ceremony was on and it was BEAUTIFUL inside at night! I kept thinking that the "big deal" about seeing the Notre Dame was about OUTSIDE at night. But I'm glad I enterred, because it has to be about what's INSIDE at night. You can't imagine how beautiful it is! Ceremony included the archbishop washing the feet of others, including parishioners. Lovely ceremony and choir.
Walking home was magically lit. Had to ask what the Place de St. Michel was-- yet another fantastic place... and kept passing so many beautiful HUGE buildings I'd not quite seen yet along the scene, and watched boats go on the river cruises below me. Such pleasant walking.
Back at the hotel, I stressed about the communication about our flight back to the US and worked with Dave over the email. In the end, Max finally came home. He was overwhelmed by the beauty and EXPRESSION of the modern art (including performance art with a gray painted naked guy) at the Ctre. Pompidiu. He also said he joined a running club of Paris and ran four miles (in his SHOES) so he's blistered but pleased with himself and it was worth it. People thought he was nuts. He lives for that and for the experience. I finally went out for a late dinner at the Creperie of the Smiling Clown and it was lovely-- crepe with roquefort, walnuts and letuce. YUM.
Starting to feel like I OWN THIS TOWN. I CAN even understand when French people give me directions-- names of streets, etc.
This trip has packed so much in an has been just marvelous in every sense of the word. Tomorow is our last day wth the museum card, so off to the l"orangerie. With the new flight that Dave got us, we get to have a normals sleep and leave Paris midday to ICELAND on WOW airlines. Still home by dinner.
Off to sleep. Max can't stand my typing anymore.
Max also went to Ctr. Pompideu for more modern art
Mom went to Notre Dame service AT NIGHT
Didn't: Au Relais lunch
Mom dinner:
Max ran with French running club
Friday:
Here was our plan for today-- too much, right?
Breakfast:
Les Antiquaires 13 rue du Bac
Musee de l'Orangerie for impressionists
Place de la Concorde
View Miracle Mile from Arc de Triumphe
Eifel Tower
Hotel des Invalides
Dinner:Escapade at 25 Ave Duquesne
last day of museum pass
Likely Rain all day
Louvre open til 9:45 pm
Well, it would seem too much, but we did awesomely, and had only minor changes. We loved our breakfast place (oh, the croissants, fresh bread and preserves, and Max's jasmine tea!) It had such a lovely feel, and Max staked it out as a dinner spot (which it was on my list, too. A good find with such a cheery staff, and the waiter took the best pics yet of Max and me.) Then we hit the trail! L'orangerie was magnificent and manageable. I learned of two new artists to love: Utrillo (gotta love that he was born to a model and grew up on Montmartre, and his mother got him painting to try to keep him from his debilitating drinking. I loved his scenes of Montmartre. The other "find" for me was Chaim Soutine-- such energy and bright vibrant colors in his paintings. His "whites" are actually so multicolored and his portraits were charicatures to love. Took lots of photos. They had wonderful renoirs and Cezannes, and on the upper floor were the huge room surrounding meditative water lilies in the richest darkest purples.
From there we were right on the Place de Concorde to begin the Mirical mile. Although it was supposed to rain all day, it really only spritzed us a couple times in the morning, so we were incredibly lucky. The Miracle Mile to the Arc de Triomphe was not too difficult to walk. I had good energy. Then, after taking some photos, we climbed a bazillion steps to the top of the Arc and were surprised by how much space was on top in the interior. They had an interesting photo exhibit of the various "unknown soldier" uniforms from the Great War, and an AWESOME bust of a soldier bravely calling courage to others on the way into battle-- a huge piece. UP on the roof, it was so cool to see all the avenues extend OUT from the Arc in all directions. It's such a view-- such a PLAN for a city!
Max wasn't sure it was a good plan for me to see the Eiffel Tower during the day "go at NIGHT mom, it's so much prettier" but I was afraid I wouldn't get to that, so I told him I was dragging his ass to the Eiffel Tower and to the Hotel Invalides (Museum of the Army) and that was that. With earplugs and good new music, he was happy to go. Long walk to the Eiffel, but we approached it from the side that had a sort of magestic (but surrounded by tacky touristos and scammers) "gate." I got my little Eiffel tower there for super cheap. Then the walk DOWN to the Seine started to get green and nice and full of touristy energy-- including an army of Segways with "staff" in red shirts! The Seine has all of its river boats stop there, and we could actually descend stairs to sit and watch the river and the boats for a bit. Very peaceful, all in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.
We eventually quickly passed through the legs of the Eiffel Tower and saw the MASSIVE LONG LINES of tourists waiting to ascend it. A lovely walk through a park followed, and we eventuaally straightened out our route to get over to the Invalides. Stopped to get a savory crepe and found ourselves at a cafe seated next to about 8 girls-- mixture of Parisians hosting California girls. One girl explained her coursework at the American School of Paris. (I have to look up the location, because Max was too cool in sunglasses and hair for me to strike up a convo.) Max was not too into it, but on the last day of our museum pass, we took on French military history-- target: Napoleon's tomb... the rest would be gravy in that ENOURMOUS structure. Max asked for the briefest background on "so tell me about Napoleon's place in history." Napoleon's tomb came first-- beautiful surroundings and dome, enormous crypt but in disappointing rose granite. We squabbled as Max was getting into dissing French position in world affairs today taking me off the track of trying to tell him the little I know about deGaule and Mitterand's attempts to recapture France's glory. So we split-- he went to the medieval arms part and I went to a lot of French Rev history without actually getting past 1850 which I'd hoped to do. Just ran out of time.
Given that it was 5:20 and we had exhausted legs, I hoped to give Max "the notre Dame-- AT NIGHT-- so that he might realize what I saw the night prior because if it's Easter Week, maybe they were doing such glorious evenings each night. So we took the metro over to Chatelet. We arrived to find a GINORMOUS line to get in and Max wavered. He did NOT want to spend an hour on the line. But I told him to plug in earphones and that they guys in front really know how to move us through. So it was only about a 30 min wait and when we entered it was still light outside. I thought that was the reaons, perhaps, why the inside was not lit up much yet. But we listened to a singing liturgy that went on and on and still the inside spotlights that show off all the arches NEVER came on. We were there forever waiting, but it just never lit up, and I finally noticed that all the votive candles were dark, too, so maybe the message of the service tonight (I have to look up "vespers") is (2 days before Easter) that the world grew dark after Jesus was killed, and maybe there won't be light again till Easter. Still, Max got something out of it and I let him call our departure. He was willing to stay a long time and later explained that he's never much been to church so seeing how it goes is interesting. This before he flew into a tirade about how RELIGION lost us so many years of forward movement and if we hadn't had the Catholic Church, we'd be colonizing other planets by now.
We grabbed the metro which was really a full sized underground double-decker TRAIN from St. Michel over to Musee d'Orsay to give Max his promised 3-course dinner at the same place we had breakfast because it was a sure thing and promised Max a great dinner to meet his dreams. The wait staff recognized us and welcomed us back. He hasn't had dinner the past couple nights, and wanted real French cooking. We started with foie gras and Merlot, then Max had rack of lamb and I had tuna. Absoulutely delicious and nice to get away from eating baggette sandwiches and crepes as we've been doing most of the week. And Max was so excited to get something so French sounding-- creme broulee. It was OUT OF THIS WORLD and the staff was so friendly and smiley to see us back. He keeps saying how much he has GOT to learn how to COOK. We left with full bellies, aching feet, and a dim idea of how we'll spend tomorrow. We'll split up and let the days unfold. We really are blessed to get one last day without an agenda because WE'VE DONE IT ALL. Max is going to do some hanging at cafes. Who knows, maybe I'll circle back to see what he was so wild about with the Modern Art Museum at Ctr Pompidou, but more likely I'll head to Montmartre to enjoy that even more and go inside the Basilica. It was wonderful and had so many shops to explore in the side neighborhoods, plus I might just take some reading and let myself learn more from the Architecture book I brought with me.
In all, we've just had such a marvelous time-- it's been such a super full week and tomorrow will be a pleasant unrushed "cap off." It's probably a great thing that the museum pass is expired so I don't feel it pressuring me to cover more ground. We did really well in all the museums.
Oh, and it was supposed to rain much of today. I forgot to write that as we hit the Eiffel Tower, the sun came out blazing and made it a GREAT daytime hit that it wouldn't have been otherwise. Talk about luck.
Sleepy lady going to sleep. Where's the sleeping pill? Key to life as we struggle with my snoring.
Saturday:
We got up with the loosest of plans for our "do whatever we want separately" day. I went out the door with a vague idea of possibly going to Montmartre for another breakfast and chance to visit the church. But I packed my book on architecture of Europe 1750-1890s and decided to start out at the church in our neighborhood which was where Delacroix's important work was-- the reason he settled here at the end of his life. So I went into the Church of Sulpice, read about his paintings, then carefully circled the whole church (very dark and neglected, though quite large and with a very large plaza in front of it.) I circled back to the readings/posters area only to let it sink in that the posters were there explaining WHY the paintings were inaccessible. Sigh. At least I recognized the "sacred heart" of Jesus when I saw it based on my reading for MOntmartre....
From there, I decided to go to the Sorbonne. Just to go to the Sorbonne. I got to its gates and asked the nice guard if I could go in to see its library. Not possible without a university ID, but he kindly let me go into the peaceful courtyard. It's amazing how when you get to the courtyard/interior it is so much quieter than the streets are! Very quiet, took a couple photos.
Around the corner was the Pantheon which was my inspiration to do some reading and wondering. Louis XV made that church his way to show devotion to God and peace... though after a time of being dedicated and named for St. Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris, it was secularized and came to be the burial place of Victor Hugo, Marie Curie, Voltaire, Emile Zola and Jean Moulin (I had to look up the last one-- resistance leader who was first buried in Pere Lachaise. BEEN THERE!) My architecture book studies the importance and engineering challenges of the Pantheon in its opening chapter, so I decided to make it a big focus and first read on the benches in the plaza in front of the Pantheon where Max danced to the band our first day of Paris, then I walked all around the neighborhood of the Pantheion-- very studenty. I noticed that the originlly planned windows of the church were filled in-- too bad. I wonder when that happened? Sorry Soufflot! Was sad to see an 8 Euro charge for entrance to the place and the photos were pretty good in my book, so I never actually did the tour. However it did impress upon me the engineering challenges that the experimental Soufflot was up against and overcame and why this building set a new mark for churches by reconciling the cruxiform (just made up that word) with a basilica-like dome.
There is a cafe just to the front/stage left of the Pantheon and I got an outside seat under the heater right next to the transparent tent thing-- perfecto! for my reading and continuing to reference the building. When I looked to the left, it brought in a downhill view of the cafe I was in and the street that leads to the Eiffel Tower. Perfecto to hang for a while! I read a ton more of my book on architecture and had a croque nordique (why the basil sauce??) and a creme cafe. I finally left and thought it was around 5:30, so considered bolting to the Musee Moderne at Centre Pompidou for a super fast blow through (or at least blow-by for it's intriguing architecture) since it's Max' favorite and he kept urging me... but shoe stores caught my eye, and truly I was going to have to turn around and come back at the same moment I'd arrive. Instead of being able to wear my slightly heeled books (2 cute pairs! I brought with me to be more stylin') I have worn OUT my 10-year-old nike sneakers with the yellow "live strong" emblems. Worn them OUT. So with some shoe sales on, I went in search of lace up shoes. Struck out in several places, but scored in the fourth with a very nice wait staff. I now am the proud owner of Max-inspired euro looking black Chelsea boots and brown laced flat shoes. LOVE THEM! I felt like a million bucks in them compared to the Nikes!
From there, I went through St. Michel to walk along the Seine, thinking it was later than it really was. But two clocks told me I had at least another 90 min before I needed to meet Max back at the hotel for the appointed 7:00 rendez-vous for dinner. So I enjoyed a pedestrian bridge view of the Seine, the touring boats, even the gardens at the tippy point o the Ile de la Cite. Lots of people and families were walking the bridge and enjoyig the two accordian players providing French ambiance. I sat and read a lot more and referenced the buildings around me, including the Institute de Monae (the Mint) that a chapter mentioned. When one of my accordian plyaers moved down the bridge, I tracked him down to tip him and enjoyed him some more. The one drag was seeing for a very long time an abandonned black backpack that I moved well away from. An hour later I guess its owner reclaimed it.
Back at the hotel, Max reported a day of really just kind of "hanging out" at cafes. He loved another Croque Madame and eclair, etc. WE made it our mission to do dinner in potentially 3 spots. First, we'd need Soup Onion and we did that at Cafe de Abaye near Paul (bakery.) Next we went to ___ which Max spotted for steak tartare, ravioli trouffles for me, and Bordeau for us both-- moan-worthy. They provided 3 mustards-- one dijon, Max was WAY WAY WAY into his steak tartare, eating it so slowly I thought he was going to barf. It hink the jury was out for the first 3 bites, then the carnivore took over and he was just really into it. The texture was what you would expect, so only one bite for me. We were seated next to a very kind and gentile Portuguese couple on one side with whom we chatted a bit. The Portuguese man said you just have to not think about it, the tartare, and just enjoy it. Max compared it to sushi, in a way. The Portuguese man said capers were mixed in.
We were too stuffed to get our last course, though nominees were creme broule or a crepe with ice cream.
Back at the hotel, I checked us out. There was temporarily some confusion about cost, but it ended up as good as I'd thought I'd arranged. Drat Booking.com for not providing a decent paper trail... something to write in about since the details I'D seen were not breaking down the more expensive weekend days. It all averaged out to the good price, but I don't like math late at night.
Max is a superb packer, rolling up and packing lightly. We had seen signs that the hour would change forward one hour, so I arranged a wake-up call with the mission being to get up at 7:00, in time for my in-room coffee, his tea, my shower, and his RUN to the croissant shop (dreams of a croissant, a pan chocolat and a ham sandwich. He returned without sandwiches, but with an additional item he thoughtfully thought was almonds for me. Not, but good. He was able to trouble-shoot when he original destination was still closed on this Easter morning.
Our trip to the airport used the shuttle (only 3 Euros more than metro plus train and so much easier.) Pleasant drive with a couple from Toronto and a fellow from Mexico.
Now we're in the airport (very basic, but Max's white Tobelerone and his "bueno" are both bueno!) We are waiting for our flight out. We got here early to avoid any issues with security since there's been tellatubby action. Interesting that Max keeps getting stopped and double-checked at security. I"m trying to tell him that his log hair and beard are either "celebrity" or "drug dealer...". He seemed alarmed when I told him Greg Moncada, once bearded, got the full body cavity check. Ahem.
Paris, je t'aime! Looking forward to continuing to watch movies related to Paris. We should make it a month. Not sure I mentioned it, but Max got late night news early in the week that he was accepted to JMU. Night before last he learned that he was not accepted to UVA, but Cohen got wait-listed. Interesting.
Plan: reconfirm flights