Paris

What a wonderful city Paris is! Yesterday we spent 9 hours exploring it. We didn't leave our room until noon due to sleeping so late and blogging - which takes some time. I find editing the post very difficult. It's not user friendly at all! Any who.....

Dave went to the tabac (store) to buy bus tickets. We took a bus to Notre-Dame. It was a little challenging to make sure we got off at the right stop. The names of the streets are hard to understand and start to sound the same. Notre-Dame is hard to describe. It's very beautiful and yet rather cold. It feels more like a museum than a church. We spent about an hour in it. The signs say no backpacks or taking pictures. No one obeyed either sign. I was able to overcome my deep sense of guilt and started taking pictures. We've been here 2 1/2 days and I already have over 70 pictures. Amanda, I want to come to your house to sort through them/edit them.

We then wandered along the Seine River and bought postcards from a street vendor with a booth on the edge of the river. The postcards were mailed this morning (Tuesday) - finding and buying stamps was an adventure itself. Everything takes extra effort but that's fine because we don't have a time table to follow. We slowly walked up and down many narrow streets crammed with shops and outdoor cafes. The pace of life here is much slower than we're used to. People sit in cafes for long periods of time. We're getting good at it too! We ate lunch (at 3:30) at an outdoor cafe and the waiter spoiled us by giving us free food. I guess he felt badly that I didn't order a bigger lunch. People here don't hide their emotions/responses. When we placed our order, it was clear he didn't approve of what I ordered.

We bought gifts for all the kids and grandkids. Then we boarded another bus for Sacre-Coeur. Notre-Dame is beautiful but I prefer Sacre-Coeur. It has totally different architecture. It felt like a church. It was warm and welcoming. We considered going up into the dome but it was 300 steps - one way. We do so much walking here, I didn't think I could make it up and down and continue our day.

After dodging the Jamaicans, who try to tie something around your hand so you're committed to buying it, we stopped for a drink. Here too people can walk around with beer. (Remind me to tell you about the bike bar which we saw in Amsterdam.) We found the bus we needed to get to take back to our hotel - it was after 8 by then. The bus let us off at the end of the line. We then had to walk for 30 minutes or so. By this time we were very tired and were walking very slowly.

It was a really wonderful day. This morning we went to the corner pastry shop and had breakfast. The streets are always filled with people. People watching is popular. People sit in rows in the cafes so they can watch the road. Laura, I'm taking a picture of bread that looks like a turtle for you. Amazing!

Everything is very expensive here. A ham and cheese sandwich was $25 (US) and gas is $12/gallon (US). Not much you can do about it!

One thing I learned today - the French see cheese as a dessert
One new thing I experienced today - being on a bus that was hit by a car - a minor hit but still a hit!
Most powerful moment of the day - the evening mass at Sacre-Coeur
One pleasurable experience - having a waiter tell Dave that ladies go first , so he had to move so I could go in front of him. :)