Paris

August 21, 2009 Friday
Paris

Made a mistake and forgot to set the alarm this morning. I had another “CCBA night” (couldn’t sleep) until about 3am. Well, Don must have been really tired too because he poked me and asked me what time it was and when I got my wits together and looked at the clock, it was 12:19pm!!!!!!!!! It appears that we aren’t over our jet lag yet! LOL We hauled out of bed and got ready to go to Sacre Coeur. But first we needed to eat and Don wanted BREAKFAST. I tried to explain that this as not going to be easy to find and maybe we should just stop in a bakery and get a croissant and some juice. After walking all around town and checking out every restaurant (which are really bars) and every café (which are also bars) he finally decided that perhaps I might be right. We went to a bakery and he asked the guy for a sweet roll. Poor fellow didn’t have a clue what Don wanted so I spotted a pastry that was loaded with chocolate chips and pointed it out. Don was happy and we each got one. Then we carried it up the street to the café and got coffee au lait and that was breakfast…at 1:00pm.

Finding Sacre Coeur was quite easy and it was fun to ride the Metro and watch all the people. It isn’t nearly as hot today as yesterday and I’m MUCH happier. The church is a huge tourist attraction and there are tourist shops everywhere you look. With lots and lots of people buying all sorts of junk. We saw a street “vendor” (I use the term loosely) who was running a shell game and he had three pieces that he was moving around and for € 100 you could guess where the one with the white dot was located. He had his shill and his mark and we watched the shill collect € 100 and the mark lose € 200. YIKES!! I wonder if the game is legal over here or if we just happened on a shady business!

When we finally got up to the church we were both winded in spite of taking the funicular for a bit of the climb. Don said to me that this church was not made for 80 year old men to attend!! Inside the church was pretty typical of all large cathedrals but the ceiling in this one had a huge picture of Christ painted with his arms spread open and the way it appeared on the ceiling, it made you feel like you were being embraced by him. Now this is not my usual take on religious things and I was surprised at my reaction but it was very real.

There were hundreds and hundreds of candles lit all over the cathedral. The large ones were € 10 and the small ones were € 2. Don said to me, “I wonder why the Jews didn’t come up with this plan to make money.” I told him that they knew how to make money in other ways and he promptly said that he bet the Jews were the guys who sold all the candles to the Catholics. Aye-yi-yi!! I picked up a small bookmark from the cathedral for Chris, my catholic friend.

I saw a really cute handbag that I think Kathy would like but it was being carried by a tourist and I couldn’t very well swipe it from her so I looked and looked to see if I could fid one but no luck. We sat on the steps of the cathedral and listened to a young man play his guitar and sings lots of familiar songs. He wasn’t very accomplished as a musician but he had lots of charm and he put his all into his performance and so it was well worth the time (and donation) spent. There was also a street performer who stood on top of a small concrete square and bounced a ball on his feet, arms, head and tossed it up in the air and caught it with his foot and rolled it around his back, etc. He was pretty good…kind of the Tiger Woods of the soccer ball.

We stopped at a street vendor and picked up a couple of delicious oranges and now we are back in our room, cooling off and resting after our big outing!! LOL I’m getting anxious to get on the road and get into Scandinavia. Paris is lively but it is not the purpose of this trip and I want to get on with it.

Last night I got attacked by a giant sycamore leaf (I thought it was a maple leaf). I was eating dinner and all of a sudden something went smack against my neck and it was this leaf that was at least 6 inches across! Scared the heck out of me!