Remember I got a few pots of mums last autumn? Well, they've revived somehow in our front planter! The whole planter is filled with orange and crimson mums! And recently they've been blooming like crazy. :) Pretty, right? I love autumn. :) As for me I've been cozying up on this nice thick sheepskin that my mother-in-law brought over for me all the way from Taiwan! It is soooo thick and plushy. It's been a great spot to relax and have some tea. :)
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I'm in a bit of a posting/writing rut. It's funny how sometimes the words just spill out of your mouth and you have to try to slow them down. And other times everything stays inside no matter how hard you try. :) *sigh.
In my attempt to get back to putting things into words I'll just list things that have happened in the last few weeks and some thoughts. 1) Paris (8/26-9/3) This is a trip we knew would be happening because I coerced David into buying the plane tickets a year ago. I fell in love with Paris back in 2006 when I first visited it. It's funny how you can fail to remember the particulars of something but you just know you had a happy time. Since it's David's first time in Europe, I thought Paris would be a safe bet. And in many ways, it was. Going to Paris for a 3rd anniversary is an absolute luxury. No doubt about it. We've collected a new set of memories and experiences that we can think back to and smile about. But I also came to an interesting realization of how I've changed during and after the trip. I surprised myself and realized that I am no longer as in love with traveling as I was used to. And I realized that the happiest place for me is our little home in Mountain View. 2) Things are impossible until they are done We attended a wedding last weekend and the bride, my friend, asked if I can make her wedding slideshow. I have to admit, I probably shouldn't have agreed just because I've never made a wedding slideshow before and I'm not someone people would go to to make such things. But I agreed purely on friendship alone. Then things got interesting. I got all the pictures 3rd week of August. I had the time to load them all into iMovie but that was about it because I was busy working on the RE Year End presentations that Saturday. Then we jetted off to Paris on Sunday returning the following Monday. I did not anticipate on being super sick afterwards but I was. I remember laying in bed after work, stressed out. I knew I had to finish the slideshow that week because the following week my in-laws are visiting and then it's the wedding. I was so stressed out that I was even thinking I should email my friend and perhaps she can find someone else to do it. But thankfully, I didn't do that to her. Later a friend called me and I told her how stressed out I was because I also have RE to prepare for and with me sleeping at 6pm every night (jetlag + sickness) I really don't have the time. She told me to just take it one thing at a time. And so I did. I decided to focus on RE prep during the week and then focus on the slideshow during the weekend. I also prayed to God to give me the strength to do what I have to do. I really believed God answered my prayers because I basically did the entire slideshow on Sunday. And I didn't even have to make that many tweaks to line up the photos to the music! Praise God! 3. Perspective I've been working on perspective for a while. Many times, the one who screams loudest gets the attention. And it's perfectly natural and logical for that to happen and that's why I find that I have to make the effort to really think about what I'm paying attention to and spending time on. When David told me his parents are visiting us for a week we decided to take a few days off so we can spend more time with them. I don't think anyone would've blamed us or think we're super unfilial if we said we had to work and blamed the lack of vacation days. But at the same time I was thinking to myself. They're visiting us one week out of the entire year. They're taking the time to fly over from Taiwan and I'm sure they're not here to tour Mountain View. They're here to visit us. Work is not always an immovable thing that we always think it is. So it was perfectly clear to me that the thing to do is take a few more days off even after our trip to Paris. I rather have our bosses understand why we need to take the time off than our parents understand why we can't take the time off. After all, parents > bosses. 4. Cheerful Giver So I've been working on this Cheerful Giver thing this year as inspired by 2 Cor 9:7. At first I was thinking I don't have to go to Cerritos church on the Saturday before the wedding because there should be plenty of people helping out. But later I realized the bride actually expected me to be there to help out. I'm usually a person who hates it when people sort of expects me to do something I wasn't expecting myself to do, but then I thought to myself: be a cheerful giver. So I asked David if we can go to Cerritos after church to help out. Thankfully I have a husband who is a rather cheerful giver/helper so it helps. But it's quite interesting how a mindset can be so powerful. I smiled a lot to maintain a cheery attitude and also asked people a lot for their opinions because hey, it's a quick death to cheerfulness when people feel like slaves to a taskmaster. So I learned an interesting lesson that day. Cheerfulness starts with love, of course. But it's also something that can be practiced. 5. A Return to Normalcy I know, I'm a bit bold to be quoting Harding's campaign slogan for post WWI America. My encounters are definitely on a different scale compared to the WW. But how wonderful it is to return back to a state of routine and normalcy! We came back from the wedding on Sunday night. We took Monday off to recoup. And like magic, I was half healed of my sickness on Monday. It's been kind of a crazy past couple of weeks, which thankfully is filled with good crazy. But oh am I glad things are back to normal. Although I do miss my jet lag just a smidge because I can't seem to get out of bed in the mornings. Oh well. You win some and you lose some. I think we woke up at nearly 10 am that morning. Goodness, we must've been super tired. I think I finished off the last macaroon from Pierre Hermes. Sad. When I woke up this morning, I felt really homesick for some reason. We then walked over to the Louvre because guess what? It's free museum day! Apparently we weren't the only one in the know about this because the entire courtyard was a huge long queue for the museum and the queue actually went out one of the arches and continued! David convinced me that it wasn't worth standing in line for. I felt so sad because I was afraid he'd actually leave Paris without going into the Louvre. So I kind of convinced David to have breakfast/dessert at Angelina. Angelina came highly recommended to us by Justin and Tina last night and they said it has the best hot chocolate. They also recommended some desserts. Here I am standing inside the little store of the restaurant that sold goodies and teas. I was again expecting a long line but happily there was only one other couple in front of us so we were seated in no time. We both ordered the hot chocolate. It came in a pouring cup along with some whipped cream on the side. So you pour the chocolate elixir into your cup and add some whipped cream and stir! I remembered my first sips were heavenly. The chocolate is quite dark so it has a little bitterness to it but the whipped cream is a good contrast. It all felt really thick, though and by the time I finished the cup I was desperate for water. We ordered the Mont Blanc, their signature dessert (the swirly looking one in the picture below). We also ordered the millefeuille, which is sort of like the thousand layer cakes. I'm sorry to report that both of these desserts are way too sweet, difficult to eat (we basically squashed the millefeuille trying to put a fork through it) and not worth the price. They are especially impossible to eat along with the also sweet hot chocolate. I guess we are to blame for ordering all these super sweet desserts but I was seriously expecting better use of sugar at this fine looking establishment. Oh and I forgot to mention that we had to flag down the waiter 4 times to get a pitcher of water! And we both downed the water so fast that I was hoping for another pitcher but didn't dare to ask. The saving grace was David ordered a plate of overpriced omelet and it was sublime and delicious! So ironic for a place that hails as a sweets place! Oh well. :) It was an interesting experience overall but I really wouldn't come back again. The desserts are too sweet, prices too high and the service was horrible. That said, at least we were on a semi full stomach so we decided to head over to Musee l'Orangerie. It is a free museum day after all, right? So we headed toward the Jardin de Tuileries since it's situated on the other end of it. We totally forgot to take a picture of the museum building but the line was super short! We got in in like 15 minutes, I think. The museum was really nice inside. Very bright with clean lines. Again, no photography inside so that's that. The museum famously have 2 rooms that were built to house eight of Monet's water lily paintings. It is amazing and I highly recommend this if you like Monet or impressionism. Must see! After leaving l'Orangerie, we decided to give the Louvre another try. Thankfully the line was much shorter and we started at this sign that says the wait time should be 1 hour! Yay! We took advantage of the time we were in line to take more pictures with the Louvre. And in about 40 minutes we were inside! The thing about the Louvre is that it is always filled with people. When you get in you are dropped in this huge room that has 3 elevators that lead to the 3 sections of the Louvre -- Sully, Denon & Richelieu. And we, like all the other tourists, headed right over to Richelieu for the Mona Lisa. I really don't care much for the painting, but it's one of those things you simply have to do once. There were ubiquitous signs pointing you to her. I warned David to have really low expectations of the painting in terms of ease of viewing as well as size. And here is David standing in front of it. Well he's really standing like 10 feet in front of it since there's a railing that prevents you from going any closer. Not to mention it's house behind a thick panel of glass. It pretty much impossible to see the painting up close. After the Mona Lisa we were wondering what to see. Honestly, nothing really appealed to me. There were French & Italian painters, Renaissance, Egyptian art, etc. None were really my particular favorite, but we hung out in Richelieu for a while mainly because we couldn't seem to find a way to the other wings. Here I am with the map in the hall that houses Italian & French paintings. I also sat down about every half an hour or so. I think my legs were begging me to just stop walking. We then decided to go to the wing that is called Napoleon Apartment. As we entered the exhibit, we saw these literal bunny slippers. Oh my, they really grossed me out a little. Poor souls. Of course the "apartment" was rather sizable and was filled with velvet and gold tones. Not my particular taste, but whatever floats his boat. The apartment basically is a mini Versailles of sorts. Floor to ceiling paints gilded with gold trim. Huge crystal chandeliers. Velvet and other thick fabrics. I feel it's all a bit visually overwhelming and over the top. How does one feel quiet and peace in this house? Although I thought this dining was done a little bit more tastefully. At least the chairs were not gilded in gold tones and the table cloth was simply white. The chandeliers, I must admit, do add a nice touch. I was a bit hungry by now and we saw a cafe when we were going into the apartments. Unfortunately it was closed. So we headed to the statues rooms. This is probably my favorite area of the Louvre even though I don't recognize any of the statues. But the room is very bright, large and airy. Lots of visual space here and much calmer than the rest of the Louvre. Justin mentioned last night that if you spent 10 seconds on each painting in the Louvre, it'll take you 2.5 months to view it all. For me, it's completely overwhelming and I would go to the d'Orsay or l'Orangerie any day over the Louvre. We then dropped by the cafe near the entrance to have a snack because I was just so hungry at this point. We got a thing of panna cotta and yogurt. Then we left the Louvre and headed toward the Opera House to get another box of 15 macaroons from Pierre Hermes. Here is the Opera House, the most opulent one for sure in France and probably in all of Europe. Then we went back to the flat and I konked out. David tried to wake me up several times so we can take the boat tour along the Seine but I just couldn't wake up. And that was our final full day in Paris. It was a lovely day but I was really ready to go home at this point.
It's Saturday, which means it's the day for visiting Paris Church. We didn't make any other plans for the day so in the morning we went to another nearby bakery, Julien, to get breakfast since Gosselin is closed on Saturdays. We must've been starving because we spent 10+ euros here on a torte, 2 chocolate croissants, a brioche and a sandwich. Then we went back home and David fell asleep. Before we left for Paris, I emailed the church and a brother kindly told us that during July and August, the church is on "summer schedule". Which means there isn't service until Saturday afternoon starting with prayer at 1:45 pm and afternoon service starting at 2pm. We checked the RER A schedule and saw that we only had to leave home at 12:30 to make it for the 1:45pm prayer. And what's even nicer is there would be a church "shuttle" that picks members up from the Noisy Champs RER A station to go to church so we wouldn't even have to take the 220 bus! So David slept in while I uploaded/sorted photos and puttered around the Internet. Well! It occurred to me at around 11am that Saturday happened to be September 1st! And as I reread the brother's email, he said the summer schedule was for July and August! Oh no! I woke David up and we scrambled out the door and headed to Les Halles station to get on the RER A. It turned out to be the perfect storm of sorts. We got on the RER A successfully and arrived at Noisy Champs station at a little past noon. We were then looking for the 220 bus as we exited but saw a couple of other buses like 320 and 312, but not 220! I took out my notebook to see the notes I took. I clearly wrote Bus 220. Did I write it down wrong? We checked the greater bus map and saw that Bus 220 does exist and it does not connect with Noisy Champs station (the one we're at currently) at all. It connects with the next station. We were really confused at this point. Why did the brother tell us to get off at Noisy Champs and not the next station if the bus doesn't connect? It just made no sense to me. At this point we decided to wait at the station until 1:30 to see if the church shuttle would arrive. We were thinking we can just look for congregation Asians. To our dismay, there happens to be a ton of Asians in this area for some reason! If the shuttle doesn't arrive, the opposite exit has a sign that points to taxis and we can just take it to the church. I wrote down the church address before leaving, thank God. So 1:30 pm came and went and there were no congregating Asians and there were no shuttles. So at 1:35 we decided to head out the opposite door for the taxi. Sure enough, there was a sign for taxis but there was not a taxi in sight. After waiting for a few minutes, I decided to ask the information desk. The lady was nice but said that she hasn't ever seen a taxi there. Oh great. What now? We wandered around a bit and headed towards a street that looked busier in hopes of flagging down a taxi. We saw some payphones but again didn't know how to make calls because it required some sort of special pin card. In our complete desperation, we dropped in a nearby hotel, Hotel Ibis. We asked the man at the lobby whether he can help us. I showed him the address to the church and he checked the map and couldn't find the street name. Hmm. That can't be good. He then said the address city is too close to here and taxis there don't make trips that short. That's when I thought we were going to head straight back to Paris because we didn't know how to get to church. Then we asked him how we make calls using the pay phone since I had the church number written down, thank goodness. He ended up making the call for us through the hotel phone. And Hallelujah! Praise and thank God a church sister answered the phone in 2 rings! I told her with my miserable voice that we were at Noisy Champs station and somehow we didn't see the church shuttle and we don't see the bus 220 and we are at a hotel nearby. She told me to stay put and a brother will come to pick us up in 10 minutes! And...that's how we arrived at Paris church nearly 2 hours after we got to the train station. *sigh. Really thank God we made it. I felt so dumb for not realizing it's September and at the end I realized I wrote down the church address wrong so no wonder the man couldn't find it on the map. Anyway, a series of oddly coincidental mishaps left us in the worst predicament ever. But thank God. We made it at the end in time for the opening hymn singing of the 2pm service. And here's the sign that says "True Jesus Church" in French that everyone takes a photo with. Only half of the members were present because the other half were still on vacation. Apparently during the summer, people would travel or go home for months and that's why they have special summer schedules. At church we made friends with Tina, a Korean sister who is studying in Paris. She just returned from NYTS and her English is impeccable! She was really nice and gave us a tour of the church. At the end I think she convinced Justin to hang out with us after service. :D So the two of them took us around Paris. Justin grew up in Paris so when he heard me say macaroons, he immediately knew he had to take us to Pierre Hermes. Pierre Hermes is a macaroon specialty store. He said it's the best macaroons in Paris so we got a box of 15 to share. And my oh my. This was definitely THE. BEST. MACAROONS. EVER! The "cookie" part was soft! Not hard. And the ganache was so good. The flavors are delicate and sophisticated. The other macaroons we had earlier in our trip was NOTHING!!! Here we are eating the jasmine flavored macaroon. Mmmmm so goooood. Justin ordered this specialty macaroon dessert called Ispahan. It has rose, strawberry and lychee flavors with fresh raspberries! It was absolutely the best dessert I've ever had. So fresh and fragrant and not at all saccharine. This particular dessert is only sold in 2 stores in Paris. If you go, please just get it. You won't be disappointed. Afterwards we were deciding what to have for dinner and settled on Pho! Haha, I know. Pho in France? Well, Vietnam was part of France at some point so I'm sure the Pho would be different. :) Here are our kind friends, Justin & Tina. And here's their pho! The broth is definitely different and the noodles are a bit wider. The meat is also a bit thicker. I was surprised the first sip. It's different, but still good. And honestly, it was really nice having a nice salty, soupy broth after a week of French food. :) Then the conversation went something like this. Justin: Have you guys seen Paris by night? David & Jen: Umm... the latest we stayed up was last night when we went to the Eiffel Tower. All the other nights we slept at around 6pm. Justin: Umm have you seen the Eiffel Tower at night from the Trocadero? D&J: The Trocad..? Hmm...I don't think so. Tina: Maybe they have and they just didn't know it. Jen: Oh! Is it that grassy field thing with the curved building? Justin: Yea! Jen: {relieved} Oh! Yea then we have. Justin: Have you seen the Eiffel Tower from Concorde? David & Jen: Umm...where's that? Justin: You have seen the Louvre at night right? David & Jen: {embarrased} Umm...no. Justin: Okay, I have to take you! And that's how we got ourselves a tour of Paris by night. :) No wonder Paris is called City of Lights! There is nothing like having a local to take you around! We got to Concorde Plaza and walked toward the palais which is a beautiful building with a glass roof. Justin told us a really interesting of the palais! During the WW, Hitler ordered a general to destroy Paris. But when the general saw how beautiful the building was, he didn't have the heart to destroy it. Instead, he cleverly blew up only the roof of the building so when Hitler saw it from the plane above he would think that the building was destroyed. Later, the French put a glass roof on the building. So basically a German fell in love with Paris and that's why the palais was preserved. And the view of the Eiffel Tower from Concorde was of course fabulous. The bridges were all lit up, too. The whole place just felt somewhat magical and peaceful. Justin says postcard pictures of the Eiffel is usually from this view so we took some photos. It's very beautiful with the Seine in the foreground. There are these batobuses that cruise the Seine. These batobuses have a full row of lights on the roof to shine on the surrounding buildings as they go by so the passengers can take pictures. Well, David made use of that light to take the following picture. And this one, too. This is the light shining up on these trees. It made the tree look like it was glowing gold it was so pretty. Then we went to the Louvre at night. It happened to be full moon. Isn't this picture really lovely? We took way too many pictures of the louvre that night but can you blame us? At the end we found a place to put our camera so we can get a group photo. :) Le Cafe Marley has front row views of the Louvre and looks like an incredible space. In the guide book it says you have to book months in advance for dinner. Then we strolled around looking for a cafe to have some dessert. We were even willing to go to McDonald's but it closed at 11pm even though we got there at 10:57pm. Oh that's Parisians for you. We passed by this Michelin starred restaurant called ETE 2012. I took a picture of the menu just for laughs. Not sure if you can see the numbers but each dish is basically 100+ euros. Crazy. And that ended a very lovely evening. It's so nice to hang out with church youths and we had a very wonderful evening laughing and chatting with them. :) But we were definitely way past tired by the time we got home at around 11:30 pm and again we showered and just crashed.
Little did we know when we stepped out the door on this 4th day that we would be blowing away our step count record. So far on this trip, we've been walking around 15,000-20,000 steps per day. Just to give you perspective on how incredible that already is, we typically walk like 5000-6000 steps a day at home. No wonder Europeans all think of us as lazy, sedentary Americans! We started the morning by taking the metro to Pigalle to try the highly rated KB Cafe. We got there nice and late at 8:30 am and fully expected the cafe to be open. And surprise, surprise, it wasn't! I think if I didn't have jet lag, I'd actually like living in France since I'm definitely not a morning person at all. We sighed, then decided to head over to Sacre Coeur first. Sacre Coeur is the basilica that you need to walk about a bajillion steps to get to. Thankfully, they have the funicular that carry lazy Americans like ourselves up. :) And thankfully, it's free for us because we can just reuse the metro ticket! Once we got up, we still had this one flight of stairs left but no one is complaining. Here it is! The day is already promising to be just beautiful. :) We got to Sacre Coeur at around 9 am and it was pretty quiet. Not many visitors yet but there were these policeman who were carrying AK-47s. I think it was probably better for me not to know why. Here's the view down from the basilica. I feel for the poor souls who were scaling those stairs below. We quickly went through the interior of the basilica (really, all basilicas/churches start to feel the same after a while) and looked for the entrance to the top of the tower. Here we are on the other side of the basilica. It's a really tall and beautiful building. We found the entrance but unfortunately there was a sign that said ticket offices won't open until 9:30 even though the tower is open at 9am. Interesting. There were, however, these ticket dispensing machines outside that you can buy tickets from, but unfortunately they all require credit cards that have a chip, which most American CCs don't have. We saw a middle-aged Japanese couple who were struggling to use the machine. Since we read English, we were able to help them out. They then offered to buy tickets for us through the machine! Of course we happily agreed and handed them cash. With ticket in hand, we started to climb the seemingly never-ending spiraling steps. Sorry if I sound a little lazy in this post. Just thinking back to how my feet felt at the end of the day makes me shudder. :) We basically had the entire tower to ourselves with the Japanese couple. And here is the view out. Breathtaking, no? Can you spot the Eiffel Tower? After hanging out on top for a while, we started to descend. I loved the details on the roof. It's really incredible the great lengths they go to beautify buildings back then. Especially considering that everything is done by hand, it really is unfathomable to me. We pause to take a picture. Not sure what we were laughing about in this picture. Maybe we were laughing about how fake our smiles were in the last 5 attempts to take a decent picture that didn't cut either of our faces off. :) David took this gargoyle picture and I just love the composition and colors. Here David makes fun of me because I always put my hand up like this whenever we are about to take a picture of ourselves. You know, so he'd know the location of his head. Well! I think I get the last laugh here since I have a blog. Muhaha! And we are back on the ground again! We took the many flights of stairs down and took this photo. This was the best one we've got and you can just imagine that I'm wearing Sacre Coeur as a hat on my head. Doesn't this look like it can appear in a travel brochure? :D We then took a pretty touristy street down to the very bottom to head back to the cafe and saw this shop that was selling sweets. And yes! Those are macarons! And yay! The cafe was open! Actually the inside was completely packed and there was no place to sit at all so we just ordered to go. Mmm. Really good cafe au lait & cappuccino. If we go back to Paris, I will definitely stop by this cafe again! We then went back to Pigalle metro station and headed over to Arc de Triomphe. A kind stranger offered to take a picture for us so this is the only picture we have of the two of us with more than just our heads! Thank you, stranger! Here is David with the Arc. We took the underground passageway to the Arc itself and bought the tickets to go up to the roof. Here is the view from there. Here is the famous Champs Elysees, which leads straight to the Arc. In fact, there are twelve streets that all lead straight to the Arc de Triomphe so it was a pretty incredible view. Champs Elysses is the famous one and is lined with super expensive brands like Louis Vuitton. And here is the Eiffel Tower. Goodness, the weather was so nice that day. Thank God. Otherwise we would not be able to see anything either here or at Sacre Coeur. After hanging out at the roof for a while we took the steps down to ground level again. Here we are underneath the Arc. The underground passage way takes you from the Arc to the streets like Champ Elysees. I really like this sign that showcases different French national monuments. The logos look so cute. Here I am pointing to the Arc de Triomphe. We then set out to walk Champs Elysees. Honestly it was more just to say we've done it because were're not that interested in this type of shopping. Here David poses in front of the most profitable McDonald's in the world. Here I am posing in front of the flagship Louis Vuitton store. We then grabbed lunch at a cafe on the street then headed to the Franklin D Roosevelt metro stop to go to Ile St Louis. There are two Islands in Paris, both on the Seine obviously. The bigger one, Ile St Cite is the one where Notre Dame is situated. Ile St Louis is the smaller one right next to it. Berthillon is a very famous ice cream store there so we got a scoop. Then there are a couple of store, but other than that it's an upscale but sleepy island. This store sold all sorts of kitchen ware and random things, including this very thoughtful Sudoku toilet paper. You know, in case you need to sit for a while. We then headed to the Right Bank of the Seine and stopped at Pompidou to take a picture. Pompidou is a multicultural center and houses a library, the center of modern arts, etc. The building is of course an icon because it is so modern and such a contrast to the rest of Parisian architecture. Here is the other side of the building. Across from the building is the mechanical fountain. The objects move, spin and spew water. Then after that I think we rested our legs for a bit a home before heading out for the Eiffel Tower. Yes, the day is still young! We got there at around 6pm, expected to stand in line for about 2 hours so we'd be up on top during sunset. Here is the long line. The sky was a little bit overcast at this point. Fortunately or unfortunately, within an hour we got our tickets for the elevator up to the top the tower! Here's a video David took of the ascension. The sky really cleared up by this point! The top of the tower was really windy. We were fully expecting that already so we brought clothes accordingly. I really felt sorry for the women who weren't wearing enough. The views from the tower was amazing. Here is the famous Champ de Mars (Field of Mars) that leads up to the Eiffel Tower. One level down from the very top of the tower is this observation deck. Here is David next to the window. We tried to stay on the top of the tower to see the sunset but that meant we'd have to stay up for another hour. Our legs were kind of killing us at this point so we decided to just head down and find some food. It's about 7:30 pm by now. From some reviews, we decided to try Les Cocottes, which is really close to the Eiffel Tower. The restaurant is headed by Christian Constant and I think is featured on Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. We got there at 7:30pm, fully expecting a huge long line. Happily, we had a 20 minute wait and we were sitting down by 8pm! For appetizers, David ordered a melon soup and I ordered the crab salad. I was really craving soup because it was kind of chilly outside so David ordered it for me. The soup turned out to be cold! Oops. It was still good and refreshing, though. Then for the mains I had cod while David had lamb. The lamb was absolutely delicious! All in all, it was a really great dining experience and if we were to return to Paris I would definitely go back. We finished eating at around 9pm or so and we were just so tired at this point. We haven't stayed up past 6pm since we got to Paris so we were already troopers for making it to 9. We declined dessert and headed home. But of course, we took some night shots of the famed tower before saying goodbye to it. We got home and basically showered and crashed. And that concludes our 27,000 step count day. Crazy, huh? :)
A disclaimer on today's post. This is a guest entry by Jen's husband so this might be slightly different. After yesterday's journey to the countryside, we decide to have a "light" recovery day touring the sights around where we live. The goal is to have a nice breakfast, visit the islands, and maybe venture to the latin quarter just south of the islands. Once again, we wake up bright and early at around 4 am. The guide books recommends a bakery that supposedly has one of the best baguette in Paris. We head over the metro and ride over to the Latin Quarter. They say that a french baker has to either major in pastries or breads in culinary school. The bakers from Boulanger de Monge must've chosen the bread route; our baguette is soft and chewy on the inside and crunchy on the outside. Too bad they didn't minor in business and offer some coffee and a place to sit. We hunt down a nearby cafe, but only Starbucks is open. It's interesting how many of the french cafes don't open early. Maybe it has something to do with the 7-hour work days in France. One of the recommended walks in the Latin Quarter is Rue Mouffetard. It's one of the oldest streets in Paris. The cobble stone road was supposedly built by the Romans. Along the street are all sorts of fresh produce, seafood, cheeses, and meats. The shops and fruit stands are just setting up for the day when we arrive at nearly 9 am. Even though Paris is not near the coast, the sea food is supposed to be fresher than most villages by the sea. The reason is that the fish caught in the English channel goes straight to Paris, and is then distributed to the other towns. We plan to walk to Jardin du Luxembourg, but accidentally went the wrong way. Jen spotted a huge park/museum complex and we strolled in. Here's Jen eating a fish. We discover ourselves near the Jardin des Plantes. It's a beautiful day. A lovely garden. Too bad the sprinklers are on so it makes it a little more interesting walking down these paths. All the flowers are in full bloom. This picture doesn't show the nice blue of these morning glories. The French like to trim their trees into blocks. It's nice, but must take a lot of effort. I wish the paths were not just gravel. It makes it really dusty, but I suppose that's why they have the sprinklers. Here's a slideshow of Jen's flowers. Aside from a few joggers, we pretty much have the place to ourselves. It must be nice sitting on these benches reading a book. I drag Jen into a botanical garden. Apparently, the Chinese aren't the only people struggling with English. Later we find out that this might be only a problem with Parisians. They rarely use English here. Even so, all of the Parisians we've met so far know way more English than our level of French. They should really use Google translate next time. The greenhouses are nice. They feature flora from the French colonies around the world. Near the botanical gardens is a small zoo. It is the the oldest zoo in the world. Now they specialize in working with endangered species. We don't go into the zoo, but stroll outside a wallaby exhibit as part of the gardens. Here's a wallaby and its joey. We decide its time to head over to the islands. Walking along the Seine we see Notre Dame. It's really amazing that they spent around 200 year building this cathedral. I still can't imagine those medieval architects and workings building this 10 story tall building without computers, machinery, or any modern construction tools. The most important innovation is the use of the "flying buttresses" that distribute the weight. This allows them to place large stained glass windows since the walls are not sustaining the weight of the building by itself. This is located on the larger of the two islands in the middle of the Seine, the Ile de la Cite. The two islands are the oldest settlements of Paris. This island formerly housed a palace, the parlament, a holding cell for Mary Antoinette, and currently a court of justice. The bridges over to the islands are nice. Lots of street musicians. Sea gull bowling anyone? :-P This is the side view of Notre Dame. It's funny that all this time I didn't connect the name with Mary the mother of Jesus. Tall ceilings. I wonder if they ever have to go up there to fix a leak, change a lightbulb, or dust off cobwebs. I would hate that job. This is the front of the cathedral. It's around noon now. Jen in front of the pretty door. This relief shows Saint Denis, the patron saint of Paris. He was the bishop of Paris after his head got lopped off by the Romans in the 3rd century. According to the story, he then picked up his head and walked 6 miles while giving a sermon all the way. When it was an opportune time, he met his Lord. Just outside Notre Dame is a statue of Charlemagne (Charles the Great). Doesn't he look like a Nazgul from Lord of the Rings? By this time we're a little tired and hungry, but there's nothing but super touristy places that don't look that good. While walking in search of food, we spot the line for Ste Chapelle. This is one of the few things that remained from the old palace here. The reason it got saved from demolition is because of its stained glass windows. Each one of these windows tell a Bible story. Hence the name "poor man's Bible". The rose window here describes the entire book of revelation. In the center is Lord Jesus with a sword in His mouth. It goes in a spiral covering the churches, the seals, the beast, and finally the new heaven and the new earth. It's nice that they tried to make the Bible stories and parables accessible for the vast majority of peasants who could not read. It's just a pity that today this is purely a commercial enterprise. The first floor is a souvenir and gift shop. Even the walls outside are adorned with Bible story reliefs. Here's one of Noah's ark. Heading back, we pass by the Square du Vert Galant. Lots of people are picnicking. The day's just gorgeous. Here's the view of the Seine from Pont Neuf ("New Bridge"). This is actually the oldest bridge in Paris. There's a guy on a horse. Of course I have to get a picture with a guy on a horse! Jen graciously obliges. Later we find out this is Henry IV of France. It's weird that France would have a king with a name like "Henry". We get back home and immediately collapse on the bed. By now our feet are throbbing in pain. Propping them up like this is the best feeling ever. I think we blacked out. I don't remember. We wake up at 10 pm. Fortunately the Brasserie near our place is still open. The shrimp and lamb are good. Thank God for another wonderful day.
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Current ProjectReupholstering & Tufting 2 Benches |