Gargoyles

We met early at the crepe stand (me: eggs, ham, cheese) (great) and got in line to ascend the mighty Notre Dame towers.  It is a whole lot of spiral staircases.

The view is spectacular, and I really appreciated being able to look at the building up close.  I studied the flying buttresses, which now make perfect sense to me.  The gargoyles don’t, but they are cool too.  There sure are a lot of them.

After the Notre Dame, we went to the George Pompidou Center which is the Museum of Modern and Contemporary art.  Lots of weird stuff that is refreshing after the long, long hallways at the Louvre. 

We all split-up from there.  Lauri when off to see the 2^nd floor of the Louvre, which she had not yet seen.  Diane came back to the apartment to relax.  Greg and I headed off to the Maison Européenne de la Photographie which, it turns out, is closed both Monday and Tuesday.  Instead, we just split; Greg planning to do a long wandering walk through the 4^th and 3^rd Arrondissements. I walked down to the Paris City History Museum, but found it closed on Mondays too.  I just bought a baguette and came back to the apartment for a feast of bread, cheese and black olives.  After that I went to the library.

To night we are planning a seafood feast at Bofinger, which is the oldest Brasserie in Paris .  We are wearing our dress clothes because we hope to have a drink afterward at Hemmingway Bar at the Ritz Hotel (not a “Ritz Carlton” hotel).  Diane and I tried last time we were in Paris and were rather bluntly turned away for being underdressed.  We shall see.

EDIT:

Bofinger was great.  Shared the "Bofinger Royale" seafood platter, which had a bunch of raw and cooked shellfish on the triple decker platters.  Some liked the oysters; others did not.  Same with the snails.  Same with the mysteriously little crawly things with less meat than shell.

I feel like Edmund Hillary except descending Mount Everest within feet of the top.  We actually got into the Ritz Hotel, found Hemmingway's Bar, but learned that there was no room for us.  We waited a bit and finally gave up.  It may be just as well: drinks were 40 euros each.