petite dejeuner. I proposed a tour of Montmartre and it was agreed upon.
We took the Metro to the Moulin Rouge and yes, I made Lyle, Richard
and Christine pose with their legs kicking high.
After that we hiked high up the hill through the streets of the
neighborhood, filled with the locals doing their food shopping. Stinky
cheese, fresh seafood, butcher shops, chocolatiers and patiseries
abounded. Just for my father, I snapped a photo of snails available in
mounds by the pound (fine Kilo, but there's no rhyme in that) just
like shrimp.
We continued up to Place Dalida and on to Sacre Couer. Even after the
forced hike, we all still had the ability to climb to the top of the
Sacre Couer dome. It is my favorite view of Paris and it gave me
immense pleasure to share it.
We left Sacre Couer with the plan to go to the flea market. We walked
down the hill to catch the Metro and go three stops to the market.
Just seeing the mass of people around that stop had us all pause and
reconsider our plan. We all agreed that we were not up to that kind of
mosh pit crowd surfing and digging through stalls and bins of junk
while carefully monitoring our wallets and cameras warding off
potential pick pockets.
So we went to St Germain Des Pres. Bonjour Louis Vuitton! In this
vastly different neighborhood we found ourselves caught in the rain
and ducked into a bistro for a bite. Fois gras ravioli, turren du
canard, steak with fois gras on top and a duck breast sauteed in
mushrooms and cherries were some of our dishes. See how I worked that
little pun in? We ducked in to eat duck, duck, goose and goose!
A little more rain landed on us and at this point we split into pairs.
Richard and Christine headed for home while Lyle and I just wandered.
Christine's knee was starting to bother her and in a perverse way this
validated that I was making sure she was seeing EVERYTHING. My brother
has a saying, "you may work out, you may train for weeks, but nothing,
NOTHING, prepares you for a vacation with Jim." I'm not saying I take
joy in breaking my tour partners, I'm just saying they won't go home
sorry they missed something.
Lyle and I went through the Jadin du Luxembourg and headed towards the
Sorbonne. We saw the Sorbonne off a side street but were distracted by
the Pantheon (oddly, things we'd never come across previously). We
wandered more, passing a piece of the ancient city wall that was still
standing, 8' wide and most impressive. We headed home by way of the
Isle St Louis.
Last night, Lyle woke up and said he'd had a nightmare. I asked if in
his nightmare he'd gone to Paris and on his first day he didn't even
have a pastry? Because I'd had the same dream... no wait, that
actually happened to me!
On the Isle St Louis I rectified that situation and got my first
pastry of the trip. I came home a happy man!
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