My daughter left for India at the crack of dawn this morning. If we had known that the airport shuttles pick you up at least 4 hours before your flight leaves and it is only a 30 minute drive to the airport, we might have considered taking a taxi. I have the same thing coming up on Tuesday.
Anyway, after I helped her down to the street with her luggage, I crawled back up my 120 stairs and went back to bed. All this exercise makes me love to sleep!
Around noon, I headed for the Metro down the street and went way south to Montparnasse which is in the 14th arrondissement. I had heard there were some good crepes in the area. Sure enough, after a bit of wandering around, I found a street of crepe restaurants. I chose a very crowded one, La Creperie de Joselin, (later hearing it was "the most famous") and ordered a crepe that had berries in it. Quite delicious. I sat at a table outside and was served right away. Meanwhile there was a line out the door waiting to sit at an indoor table. I could not understand why no one else chose to eat outside, other than that it is kind of chilly out. But still... to avoid lines?
Today was a crazy weather day. It was sunny but cloudy when I set out and for much of the day. But twice a rain cloud swept over and dumped a ton of rain. So much so that you had to take cover for about ten minutes. Then, the sun was out again. The first shower hit me when I was passing an ancient book market, similar to the one I had gone miles to see a week or so ago. I ducked under a tent and pawed through old books while I waited for the downpour to end. When the sun was out again, I cut over to the Luxembourg Palace gardens. It was sort of on my way and is such a beautiful place to stroll through. Not 10 minutes later, as I was leaving the gardens, there was another torrential downpour.
Rain
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| Sun! |
Afterwards, I headed north into the 5th arrondissement, the Latin Quarter. I love all the little streets, and being Saturday, it was bustling with energy. While having my lunch/dinner, a bunch of police cars went by, followed by a HUGE demonstration march. I got a flyer, but I'm not clear what they were demonstrating. My limited French makes me think it had something to do with more equality for jobs for immigrants. But, I'm not clear on that.
After the street cleared I walked down to Rue St. Michel and caught a Metro back to the apartment.
Tomorrow, I am going to head to the Bastille market and then explore the Marais district. On Monday, I check out of my apartment, spend one more night in a hotel, and then head for home.
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| Flower market right after a big rain |
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| Paris has a bicycle borrow system with many drop-off or pick-up areas around the city. |
Googled it: There were 2 major demonstrations in Paris this day...one having to do with their big divide over gay marriage, and the other a worldwide demo against Monsanto.
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