Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Il pleut and other adventures

Our Paris adventure continues today with a brisk walk to Isle de la Cite and Notre Dame Cathedral. As we have settled in here, we find that we eat at strange hours. Because it is dark until 8:30 am we rarely awake before that time, then enjoy a leisurely petit dejeuner here in the hotel. We are quite spoiled as we have a suite of approximately 400 sq feet that includes a large, marble salle de bain with soaking tub and heated towel bars, a separate toilette, a living room with sofa, desk, table and 4 chairs, and a sepaparate bedroom. Needless to say, we can loll about reading Le Figaro and watching the news in French (amazing how quickly it comes back) before heading out for the day.

Today we set out for Notre Dame at around noon. Dark clouds surrounded us from time to time, but nothing happened until we left the cathedral in search of a bistro at about 2. All of a sudden, the heavens opened up as we were standing near a very nice spot at the corner of Rue Victoria near the Chatelet metro stop. We enjoyed a nice, leisurely lunch and watched as the sun slowly returned.......but not for long.......bam! Another downpour hit as we were thinking of leaving which made us reconsider walking directly to the Louvre. Caterina and I convinced Geoff to hop on the Metro, something he had been avoiding, and we headed back to our hotel so Caterina could switch out her contacts for glasses. As it is raining again and the Louvre is open until 9:45 tonight, we are relaxing again, planning a late evening at the museum. It is our understanding that Wednesday night has no crowds, no lines and is when the locals visit. I will let you know if that is true!

So, we are hitting on those places we want to see at our own pace, eating some great food, drinking some good wine and just enjoying Paris. This is exactly how vacation should be. Au revoir until I post our Louvre adventures.

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