Trying to stay awake

I'm back in the office and I was going along swimmingly until about 11:30, when I started to fade. Only 45 more minutes and then I'm out of here, and I hope to get a good nap in on the bus. We'll see if my sciata cooperates.

So, Paris was lovely even though the weather wasn't the best. We arrived on Tuesday morning very early and after getting to the hotel, we went to the local cafe for some hot drinks and a croissant. It was very chilly and overcast, and it's a good thing we brought fleece pullovers, because we needed them. We waited at the hotel for our room to be ready and then laid down for a nap. Ed slept, I didn't. We hit the cafe again for lunch/dinner, and then hung out until it was time to try the sleeping thing again. It finally worked for me!

Originally on Wednesday we were planning to go to Versailles, but we decided we didn't want to be on a schedule the first full day. Once we got up and had breakfast in our hotel (included in the room rate), we headed to the Metro, bought our tickets and returned to Notre Dame. As you may recall from last year, the cathedral was mostly closed when we visited because of a service taking place so we couldn't walk around. This time we wandered through the entire church and saw all of the stained glass windows and carvings. We headed outside to see the flying buttresses, and then headed over to Ile St. Louis for some delicious gelato. Too bad it was only about 55 degrees, overcast and windy. The gelato certainly didn't warm us up. We then headed to the Luxembourg Gardens, which were at about the same blooming stage as at home (daffodils and tulips finished, peonies blooming or about to, rhodendrons in full bloom). The park was full of people despite the cool weather. We then walked to Cafe de Flore, one of the oldest cafes in Paris, and had lunch. Then we took the Metro back to the hotel. We wandered around our neighborhood for a while since we were having dinner in one of the Eiffel Tower restaurants that night at 9 p.m. Dinner was decent but way overpriced and the service was terrible. No more tourist traps for us.

Thursday was a beautiful day, the best of the trip. It was sunny and warm, probably in the low 70s, and it turned out to be the perfect day for our visit to the Rodin Museum. Outside of the museum is a lovely garden containing about 20 of his sculptures, so we enjoyed wandering around, looking at the flowers, and soaking in the sun. After that we headed past the Invalides and stopped at a local travel agency to purchase the train tickets for our trip to Chartres on Friday. I was amazed that we were able to manage that transaction! We had dinner reservations at a small restaurant about 10 minutes from our hotel, but first we had pizza at a local cafe and watched in amazement as a woman sat at a table with her tiny dog sitting in the opposite chair. We relaxed and stretched out lunch as long as possible. Dinner was delicious (I had lamb, Ed had steak) and we made plans to go back to the same restaurant for dinner on Monday night.

Friday we had a wake up call for 7 a.m. as we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to negotiate our way to the train station for our 9:34 train. We managed to find our way there in plenty of time and spent an hour people watching. When they finally announced our train, we managed to find seats (the train was packed because it was a three-day weekend) and weren't thrown off the train despite the fact that we didn't know you had to validate your ticket before boarding (why is so much in French???). When we arrived in Chartres it was overcast, windy and downright cold -- I would guess it was barely 50. We toured the cathedral and then did the trip around the outside to see the carvings and flying buttresses, but after lunch we headed back to Paris. It was simply too cold to spend more than a few hours there -- and no more warm inside the church than outside. We had pizza again at the local cafe since we were booked at "real" restaurants for the remainder of the trip. It was a chilly but interesting day.

On Saturday we went shopping. We walked about an hour to find a recommended shop for Ed's fruit candies that he enjoys. If I had known exactly where it was, I would have figured out how to get there via Metro, but it was relatively comfortable (perhaps in the mid 60s) so the walk was pleasant. On the way back, we stopped in a little garden and checked out the flowers while resting our weary feet and backs. We didn't do anything else that day other than window shop and eat. We found a cafe near the Eiffel Tower park and had a delicious meal there, and our dinner was fabulous. We ate in a little restaurant about three minutes from our hotel with room for about 30 people, and the food was excellent. I had lamb and Ed had veal and every bite was wonderful. The wine was good too. Once I get my pictures off the cameras, I'll have to post the photo of my dessert. It was huge -- and delicious.

Sunday started out beautifully. We walked across town to an open air market where they sold bread, cheese, flowers, vegetables, fruit, fish, meat -- everything you would need for your weekly meals. We decided afterward to grab something to read and a sandwich and sit in the Eiffel Tower park to enjoy the sunshine. Well, by the time we got back to the park, it was windy and cool again.

to be continued...