A Perfect Day

Today, the magic happened.  A great day.  There were so many “small” experiences today that felt like we were Parisians.  We are connected to a flow of time now, part of this place that has been here for 2,000 years.

I woke early and felt like a walk.  I was curious too about that weird silhouette that “appeared” in Diane's photo yesterday.  I walked down to the Notre Dame (about 5 minutes from our apartment), solved the mystery of the silhouette and went into the cathedral.  There was not a single tourist inside.  There was a congregation of about 20 or 30 people conducting mass.  They were singing and chanting.  The sun was rising and the stain glass windows were lighting up.  I could walk wherever I wanted and look at the church at leisure.   I guess I can’t describe the experience.  It was sublime.

I returned to the apartment area and had my pain au chocolate at the boulangerie.  Diane was awake and we left soon thereafter.  We went to the Hotel du Ville Post Office to get stamps. Queued in line with the rest of the Parisians.

Diane has overcome her shyness about trying to speak French.  She is now disappointed when she does not have opportunities to practice. 

We bought me a scarf today.  I like my new scarf.  Absolutely everyone wears one.  Urban camouflage.  They are very comfortable.  We got it at C&A for 10 €.  This is a lot better than the other one I liked at Galleries Lafayette yesterday: it cost 290 €.

Diane tried to give my old scarf to a homeless person, but that person wouldn’t wake up, so Diane just lay my old scarf  on top of him/her.

We didn’t eat lunch today, instead we picked up a couple of crepes avec Nutella at a kiosk on the Ile de la Cité.  We were following Walk Number One in the Frommer’s book “24 Great Walks in Paris”.  We walked the walk.  It was kind of fun following along.  It was also humorous to see other tourists with the book, walking the same path.  The tourist path is so narrow.  One of our goals this trip is to walk all 24 walks.

One of my kooky goals here is to get a Paris Public Library card.  We went to Bibliothèque Fourney, which is about 3 blocks from our apartment.  Diane figured it out (in French) and we both now have cards.  All you need was photo ID (we used our California Driver’s licenses) and an address in Paris.  It is a beautiful building with lots of interesting books.  My goal was to get a library card, but I may actually take some books out.

Diane likes watching T.V.  We get about 50 channels in the apartment but none carry the shows that Diane wants to watch (Modern Family, Oprah, Glee, Gray’s Anatomy, etc).  Today I set up a VPN connection on Diane’s laptop which makes it look like she is connected in the U.S..  This is necessary to watch stuff on-line.  She has been happily watching her shows.  I can't get Netflix "On Demand" to work yet though.

Since the apartment is small, I also went down to FNAC (like a Best Buy or Future Shop) in the Montparnasse District and bought a headphone extension cord so that Diane can watch T.V. without me having to listen.  They were also quite hospitably regarding letting me try camera equipment. They had lots of nice stuff that I want.

I made dinner tonight; big salad, cheese, bread, olives and a bottle of rose wine.  Good.  After dinner we have just relaxed together in our little apartment.