Jour 1.5

Paris is undoubtedly home of world-class museums and unparalled architecture, but the most amazing thing we've seen yet is a grown woman zigzagging around the Marais dressed in a pair of white and blue children's pajamas while wearing a red clown nose! You'd think I was making this up, but I managed to snap a picture of her sitting on a park bench while reading an upside down magazine in La Place Vosage. So much for the fancy Reniassance architecture...I was fascinated by this nutball who seemed perfectly at ease amongst all the civilized French women and men on a lovely sunny Sunday afternoon!


And if that wasn't weird enough, we snapped another picture while on Ile St. Louis of a street performer's accessories comprising some rope, a mask and a very large cucumber - those crazy French!


Alas, Paris...too much for the senses, that's for sure! We made it without incident from the airport looking like pros thanks to Sohela's excellent directions. I even requested the two bus tickets in perfect high-school level French (I got a C in the class)! Although I'm sure the ticket collector was just being kind like everyone else here - they all speak perfect English and are very nice about humoring my bad French. The flat we are renting is lovely and quite spacious on a quiet side street a few blocks form the Louvre (that damn museum is HUGE!).

After ditching our bags, we wandered over to the markets on Rue Monturgoile (sp?) and bought a real baguette and few other items. Then we walked all the way up the Champs Elysees despite being totally jet lagged. I tried to get into the Hotel Crillon, where Lance stays when he's riding the TDF, but the bouncer threw me out when it was obvious I wasn't exactly checking in. We made it to the top of the Arc de Triomphe and watched amazed at all the tiny cars swirling around the traffic circle (my VW bug looks like a semi-truck compared to the tiny cars they drive here). We wandered back via the Rue St. Honore which was a truly humbling experience in terms of $$. After stumbling up 4 flights of stairs, we collapsed into bed where I slept for 14 hours straight!

Sunday afternoon (I slept the entire morning through!) found us wandering La Marais watching crazies and eating yummy falafel. We also found Hotel Sully and Hotel de Ville and even took the time to wander through the photography museum (Dennis liked it - I was bored and tired with all the weird modern art!). We made our way to Ile St. Louis and finally Notre Dame (at least the outside; we'll go inside when it is less crowded) and finally inside the St. Chapelle where I was rendered speechless (no really!) by the expanses of stained glass windows. Totally unprepared for the beauty! A quick powerwalk through parts of the Latin Quater to gather provisions for a picnic along the Siene under the Point Neuf at twilight rounded out a very lovely but footsore afternoon.


Wandering back towards the flat found us in the couryard of the Louvre where we stumbled onto a quartet playing one of my favorite concertos inside an archway. The acoustics were amazing and even shut me up so we could listen in awe as we watched twilight settle through the glass of the Pyrimide. It doesn't get much better than that...



So now it is getting to be 9:30 PM and I'm wide awake!! Time for bed though because the nosy caretaker is coming at 8 AM tomorrow to make sure we haven't trashed the place. Which reminds me, the one thing I really want to bring back home is the wall-mounted towel warmer in the bathroom!! It is the coolest thing ever and I've even warmed my aching back on it to try and relax my spasing muscles!

Bon soir!