TGIF

I can't believe it's Friday night already...one full day left in Paris..Grace is a little sick so she is ready to be home.. I love Paris but I will be happy to get home too.. Today we tried to 'take it easy'. We slept in then headed to the Left Bank- we tried going to Ste. Chapelle but we got there when it was closed for lunch. So we had lunch at a cafe across the street- Grace had a grilled cheese sandwich (it had melted cheese on top and a slice of unmelted swiss cheese in between the slices of bread..) and I had the roasted chicken with frites (almost everything comes with frites/a.k.a. french fries although there is never any salt on them!). Then we walked to the Notre Dame. It is a magnificent cathedral. It is free to go inside so we went in and sat for a bit and said a prayer for our safe journey home and for our Cousin Bob's continued recovery. Grace decided she didn't want to go up to the towers (and there was quite a long line for that) so we didn't get to see the gargoyles up close or catch a glimpse of Quasimodo (but we also missed climbing all those stairs!).. I took out my telephoto lens to try to get some photos of the gargoyles. I like this one the best. Behind the Notre Dame there is a little park and in the park is the Memorial des Martyrs de la Deportation- a memorial for the 200,000 French who were deported to Nazi concentration camps and never returned. It is a moving experience. The French woman who job it was to make sure everyone was quiet (no cellphones, etc) and respectful was trying to tell me something about Grace- I think she was saying something to the effect that she was too little ('petite') to understand the significance of the memorial. True, she doesn't know about the Holocaust, but I do think she was able to appreciate the power of the memorial. From there we walked across a bridge to the Ile St Louis- under the bridge we saw a pair of swans so we walked down the steps to get closer to the water and fed the swans (and seagulls, ducks, and pigeons) some burnt toast and leftover bread from lunch that we had packed just for the occasion (Grace is easily entertained by feeding the birds). A man walking his (wet) dog walked by- the dog was so cute- he put his paws up on the edge and was looking down at the water just like Grace. The man said something to me in French- when I told him I spoke English he said his dog was "Entirely trustworthy". I thought that was cute- in the U.S. we would say "Don't worry, he won't bite". But I like "Entirely trustworthy" much better. After we ran out of bread we went in search of the famous Berthillon Glace (ice cream)- I chose White Chocolate and Grace chose Mango.. Tiny little scoops, but oh, so delicious. Then we walked down the street window shopping. Behind a glass door of a restaurant we saw a beautiful Siamese cat! (he is only the 4th cat we've seen this whole week...compared to countless dogs!)..We headed across another bridge to the Latin Quarter and walked along the Seine where there are vendors selling used books and prints and postcards. I finally found something worthwhile to buy as a memento of this trip- I like to find a small painting or piece of art to bring back but so far I hadn't seen anything that I really liked. Today I found a small etching of a cat (I know, it has nothing to do with Paris but I will remember where I bought it) and it was only 5 euro! The biggest bargain of this vacation so far! So I am pretty content and now we don't have to go to the world's largest (and I'm sure overwhelming) flea market tomorrow! We stepped into the Subway restaurant across the street to use the bathroom (which cost 50 cents and the toilet paper was on the floor). Grace wanted a sandwich so we sat down and ate. There was a very friendly asian Canadian girl in line behind us and some trendy young Americans at a table next to us. It was strange hearing English being spoken.. Then we walked to Place St Michel where there were African drummers playing. We walked through a few of the streets of the Latin Quarter- very narrow cobblestone streets with restaurants (mostly gyro places or traditional French restaurants) and souvenier shops. By this time we were both quite tired of walking so we headed back to the Metro..Instead of getting on at St Michel we walked to the Chatelet station and took the train to Hotel de Ville. Then changed trains and got off on the next stop (Rambulet). We did a lot of underground walking between trains..I'm not sure in the end it saved us any steps! We hung out at home for probably 2 hours- I addressed postcards and uploaded photos while Grace started on her homework assignment (she wasn't really in the mood for it though). Then we went out to find some dinner. We walked by the restaurants that were suggested by the man who rented us the apartment but they looked too fancy. So we ended up going to a cafe that is pretty unpopular (most of the cafes on Rue Bretagne were packed tonight) but the man speaks some English and is nice (we had dessert in there once before) and we had the place almost to ourselves- Grace had an omelette, tomato salad and hot chocolate. I had a club sandwich and Diet Coke. We stopped in the grocery store to buy some soda for tomorrow and outside the store was a young man bundled up in a blanket selling little things made out of wire. Sitting next to him was a gray persian cat! So in the store we bought a container of Sheba (cat food) and Grace gave it to him (along with a few Euros) and he let us pet his cat. The young man who was talking to him at the time happened to speak English (he was French but said he lives and works in London now)- and he said that the cat was very nice (which he was).. Then about 15 people dressed in costume (from the Roman Empire) walked past us- this was very exciting to Grace- she wished she could follow them! She is sure they were headed to a show somewhere.. Now Grace is sleeping (which is good because it is past midnight)..and I should be too...