“In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language” - Mark Twain

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After some croissants and tea in our little apartement, Mom & I walked along the Seine and crossed onto Ile St. Louis, one of the two islands in the middle of the river (the other being Ile de la Cite, where Notre Dame is - this reminds me that I need to learn how to put accents on this blog, but alas, another day.) It was so beautiful! I think it might be my favorite section of the city so far; tons of little shops with chocolate and cheese and ice cream and wines. We had lunch at a little creperie... For dessert, Mom had an apple-spice crepe and I had one with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce. Heaven. Then we walked across the bridge to the other side of the Seine and through Place des Vosges, a beautiful little residential square with a park in the middle. It's supposed to be one of the prettiest in Paris; the architecture is gorgeous and there are four matching fountains in each corner of the park. There were tons of French school kids sitting on the grass talking. Even the prepubescence seems graceful in Paris! After sitting in the grass and reconsulting our maps, your favorite dorky tourists navigated our way to the Musee Carnavalet, which is an old mansion that's been turned into a museum on the history of Paris. It was enormous and really beautiful... They organized the sections of the house by century and it was absolutely filled with furniture, paintings, china, sculptures, etc. In the middle of it all, there was a big courtyard filled with gorgeous flowers and climbing ivy. The sun was incredible today - it was a bit chilly & windy, in the sixties or so, but the light was perfect. You'd think from my pictures that I actually knew what I was doing, when in fact it was the divine intervention of Mother Nature that made them beautiful today. I think my favorite part of the museum was how they painted the rooms - each one was a different color scheme (if you can imagine - there had to be at least a hundred rooms, probably more.) They all head incredibly detailed molding and the paint was exquisite. One room had flowers all over the walls - three-dimensional roses and trellises - and someone painted the whole thing in about eight different colors with very glossy, watercolor-esque paint. Indescribably delicate; I wish I had taken pictures, but there were guards in almost all of the rooms. Le sigh. After the Carnavalet, we stopped for coffee because I was on the verge of falling asleep in the museum. Perked up, we decided to head toward the Champs de Mars (the area around the Eiffel Tower) because we hadn't really checked it out in daylight. We realized about halfway there that we desperately needed bathrooms thanks to the strong French coffee, and it took us almost 45 minutes to find bathrooms, no joke. We wandered around the Champs Elysees and ended up in the ritziest shopping district in Paris, where we realized it would not be very polite to run into an expensive restaurant, use the restroom, and peace out. It took an aggravatingly long while, but we finally found a movie theater and then we were happy campers again. Paris needs more bathrooms, in my humble opinion. I have few criticisms so far, but that's one. Anyway, following said escapade, we found a Belgian restaurant for dinner and enjoyed mussels and frites (the French word for French fries, humorously enough) with beer. MMm. Then we took a long detour home by way of the Eiffel Tower because the other night when we had gone we missed the sparkling. It was fantastic, and I even managed to take a couple of pictures that almost do it justice - you really have to see a video, or better yet, the real thing, though, to understand. It's a bit over the top, admittedly, but I managed to shush my deep hatred of sentimentality and enjoy the romance of it. On the way home, we got horribly lost. For most of the trip, I've been doing the photography while Mom handles the cartography. I'm beginning to think we need to share some responsibilities... 😊 Anyway, home at last & we've made ambitious plans for tomorrow's touring, so I should probably try to sleep. Bon nuit.

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Photos

Cremerie a L'Ile St. Louis
A creamery - cheese shop - on the little island. It was covered in adorable places like this.

Les Fromages
Cheeses in another cremerie's window on St.Louis.

Fontaine a la Place des Vosges
One of the fountains in the square at Place des Vosges.

Les Jardins a Carnavalet
Part of the gardens at Musee Carnavalet -- from a window inside the mansion.

Une Rose de Paris.
A rose in the gardens at Carnavalet.