Friday in Paris

Once again, I'm blogging from my old desktop computer, which does not have my photos on it. The photos came from my thumb-drive and are not necessarily the ones I wanted to show you, but will have to do for now.

Our last two days in Paris we did quite a bit of walking. Friday, Cousin Ariel and Evelyn joined us. We took the Metro to Sainte-Chapelle. While Barbara, Jes and I went into the church to see the stained glass, Ariel and Evelyn went to the flower mart on Place Louis Le'pine. When we came out of Sainte-Chapelle, we decided to have something to warm us up at a little corner cafe. The waiter was friendly and it was a great corner for people watching. Unfortunately, Ariel and Evelyn had a bad moment at the flower mart. Apparently, one of the shop owners yelled at Ariel for being in his shop with a child and not buying anything. Ariel said he was everything stereotypical about Paris - a bald, gay, guy, who did not like children or Americans. Although no one else was in his shop at the time, he followed Ariel and Evelyn out to lecture her - saying she should have her child in school and not in public - not to use his store as a school, etc. For the most part, people were very friendly in Paris and more than willing to muddle through our bad French, but now and then we did have a waiter or person not so friendly - not rude, but not friendly. Having lived in a tourist town, I know tourist can be exasperating. But still, if you can't be friendly, get out of the business. Ariel and Evelyn both speak fluent French. Ariel works very hard at fitting in and not offending the locals. Evelyn is a beautiful, well behaved child. There was no need to be ugly to them. I'm really sorry that I was not there to sock the gay guy in the nose.

We moved on and had lunch at a very funky sandwich or terrine restaurant where we shared a table with an older French couple. They loved sitting at the table with Evelyn and took this photo for us. It made up for the rude flower mart guy.
I took this photo of Jesse being silly at the bakery next door - thinking of you, Buck, buying bread for your mother in Paris. After lunch, we bought macaroons and walked to Jardin du Luxembourg gardens.  This may have been one of my favorite afternoons in Paris. I loved the gardens and the people - it would have been cool to see this place on a warm day filled with flowers and people enjoying the park. We settled into chairs and shared our macaroons - taking a small bite each and passing it around for all of us to try the different flavors. Evelyn had a great time throwing pebbles into the fountain and watching a young boy sail his remote-controlled sailboat. It was just a lovely time.

That evening the France cousins took us out to eat in the Rue Cler at the Le Petit Cler. It was a fancy, cozy little restaurant.
The walk to the Rue Cler took us by the Eiffel Tower, and the night was quite nice. If the weather had been warmer while we were in Paris, I would have gotten out at night much more - Beautiful!