The MacD's arrived Thursday afternoon on a train from Germany. Glen recently returned from Iraq, an occasion for celebration here in Europe and the United States I might add. It was long overdue in the opinion of this writer and his daughter and wife would, I think, agree.
They now have the chance to spend some serious quality time together as family and what better place to get started than in Paris! (photo: Miss K and her entourage.)
Susie was still at the shop so I took the no. 5 metro from Saint Marcel and met them at the Gare de l'Est and the four of us headed back to our neighborhood on the no. 5. We got off at Saint Marcel, an easy 5-minute walk to their hotel, which is only a block or so away from our apartment. (They stayed at the HotelGrand Gobelins: they had a small room, which they were aware of in advance, but it was clean, the staff friendly and breakfast OK.)
I waited in the lobby while they checked in and dropped their bags off and then the four of us walked (the block-and-a-half) to our apartment. We had no sooner left the hotel than Susie called and said she was on her way so we decided to stroll up rue St. Hilaire and meet her; we caught her just coming down from the Mosque. All of us all walked to our apartment where we just relaxed until about a quarter to eight when we walked over to the Cafe des Isles just five minutes from our apartment. We had eaten here once before -- it is the sister restaurant of another favorite of ours that is even closer to our apartment -- and so felt confident of its reputation. The restaurant was pretty quiet while we there and Miss K handled the evening with dignity and grace. We all of us had fish of one sort or another -- Kiera being the singular exception of course -- and after a leisurely evening we walked GC and Miss K back to their hotel. (photo below: Glen and his daughter, the world-renowned Miss K.)
The following morning began overcast and pretty much worsened through the day. Nevertheless our guests, after they arrived at our apartment were eager to see Paris no matter what and after a leisurely morning of coffee and fresh pastries (from a nearby favorite patisserie) we headed off for our "power walk" of Paris.
Oneof our favorite walking routes: from our apartment we walk up rue Sat. Hilaire to the Jardin des Plantes, entering through the south gate and walking the length of the gardens to the Seine. We stroll along the Quai Saint Bernard, appreciating the musee de sculpture en plein air, the museum of open air sculpture overlooking the river, and walk along the left bank all the way to Notre Dame, gathering on the spectacular views of both the Isle Saint Louis and the Isle de la Cite. We pass through some fairly serious flooded areas along the way -- indeed the river has been rushing during that past couple of weeks and water levels have been quite high in this area.(photo below: flooding of the Seine over the left bank quai.)
We leave the Quai at the Pont Archeveche, crossing onto the Isle de la Cite and then to the Memorial de la Deportation. Once out of the Memorial we stroll over to Notre Dame, and from there walk length of the island along the Quai des Orefevres to the Pont Neuf, crossing to the right bank and strolling along the Siene past the bouquinistes to the Louvre. We crossed into the cour caree, the courtyard of the original fortress, which, we were recently informed, should be seen at night with the lights on. turn left through the entrance into the central "courtyard" of the Louvre where you can find with little difficulty, the glass pyramids.
Skirting the pyramids and the tourists queuing to get inside, we walked to the Place du Carrousel -- with a possible diversion into the huge underground complex of shops, restuarants, theaters that lie just a few meters beneath the place. Here you can find great bathrooms, food to go, a huge Virgin megastore, Metro connections and another entrance to the Louvre museum.
Normally we would have continued on toward the Arc de Triopmhe but the wind and rain just kept lashing us and so we cashed in our chips at the Place du Carrousel and took the metro back to our apartment. The MacD's went back to their hotel and relaxed for a couple of hours and then joined us back at our place later that afternon.
Of course this being Paris the sun came out later in the day and since we were all determined to make the best of it we put our coats back on and headed back out, this time for a short stroll over to Pascal's where Susie introduced everybody (although Pascal himself is on vacation) and of course the MacD's had to pick up a few samples to take along!
After leaving the shop we walked to the rue Mouffetard, just to give our guests a sense of one of things that makes Paris truly special: food and wine, food, food and more food. In fact we had to stop and take a pastry break -- our guests were dying to get their hands on the stuff from Pascal's.
That evening we ate at home and everybody turned in fairly certain that life was, for the moment, pretty good, hoping that tomorrow would be even better.
We wouldn't be disappointed.
Wish you were here,
Steve
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