Our First Full Day in Paris, Friday

Another hot night followed by a hot day.  We did more laundry.  We are becoming quite expert on the use of laundromats around the world.  We are thinking of writing a book, "You and Your European Laundromat: A User's Guide."

Early Morning View from our Window

We caught the number 85 bus to St Michel and walked down the boulevard to Virginia's favourite bookshop, Gibert.  Now this is a bookshop, one of the great ones!  It has five different stores all within a compact area and services the Sorbonne.  It has more books in English than most book stores in Australia.  The problem, of course, is weight.  If we bought all the books we wanted we wouldn't be able to pay for the excess baggage and shipping them is quite expensive.  So, it becomes a process of painful elimination deciding just which books one must have but Virginia bought several books to help her with her ongoing French language acquisition.

Fountain at St Michel

 To recover from  the psychological and emotional strain, we went to a cafe for coffee.  That and a "Pain au Chocolat" helped us back on track.  Of course the view from the cafe was pretty spectacular.  To our left were the booksellers on the banks of the Seine and to our right Notre Dame.

Book Stalls along the Seine

View of Notre Dame

We then headed over to Shakespeare and Co., one of the English language book stores and an institution in its own right.

By this time we were ready to have some lunch and went to the bus stop in order to return to our "quartier." Most Paris bus stops are quite good in that they display the amount of time until the next bus of a particular number will arrive.  So, there we were waiting for the number 85 and watching the display.  When we arrived it told us we had 17 minutes to wait.  Then 14 minutes.  Then 8 minutes.  Then 34 minutes.  Huh?  It actually makes sense since if there is a delay it will let you know.  Unfortunately previous experience had taught us that the 85 is often delayed so we decided to take the Metro.

We got off in one of the seedier sections of Paris and walked back to our flat.  Lunch was a bit of a disappointment but immediately following our meal Virginia went off to her hairdresser.  Yes, Virginia has a French hairdresser and whenever we are in Paris she goes to get her hair cut.  At least that is her story.  One of the teachers at his children's school did an exchange to Australia and has interested the children in the flora and fauna down under.  To keep the children's interest, Virginia sends them postcards with pictures of our native plants and animals.

Later we went back up to Sabot Rouge for a drink, going up to the Place du Tertre via the funicular and looking out over the wonderful view of Paris.

The Funicular looking down from Sacre Coeur

The View over Paris

We returned to our flat and  finished the day with our supper of baguette, pear, Roquefort and wine.  On the way to get the various things we needed for supper we passed one of my favourite houses.  It always reminds me of Ludwig Bemelman's wonderful poem which begins:

In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines, lived twelve little girls in two straight lines.

 We bought our baguette at the officially selected baker of the best baguettes in Paris.  This is no small honour as the winner of the competition receives both a financial reward and is selected to provide the baguettes to the Elysee Palace, the official residence of the President of the Republic.

The Winner!!