The City of Light

I finally seem to have shaken off the funk that has been hanging around (not sure about Diane).  Paris was magic this evening and it seems like the last two days of nasty rain can be forgiven. 

It is amazing how the city sparkles when it is wet and how the slippery leaves, now stripped off the trees and plastered to the sidewalks, look glamorous.  Diane went rain hat shopping this evening and I wandered the left bank around the Boulevard Saint Michel / Saint Germain area.

This morning we continued Walk #14, finally completing it.  It was cold and windy, but it only drizzled until we got onto Avenue des Champs-Élysées.  Once on the Champs-Élysées, we could duck into shops to dry and warm ourselves as the rain worsened.  The Renault Car Dealership / Museum was good fun.

Walk #14 is really about the fancy fashion stores and, besides being great to warm up, they are good places to spend a lot of money.  I was surprised to see that the Louis Vuitton store actually flew a pirate flag.  Appropriate.   

We had some great mushroom soup and a baguette today for lunch at the apartment. 

We went in the late afternoon to Mariage Fréres tea salon for afternoon tea.  The list of teas is 6 or 8 pages long.  We both had the waiter recommend based on our description of what we wanted.  Very pleasant and very old fashioned (and warm and dry).

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