I have kept quiet up to this point, but I discovered early in the trip that we had a stow-away in our luggage. He has been traveling around with us this whole trip. It is time to come clean about it. He first appeared, remarkably, at the Lufthansa Lounge in San Francisco. By the time we got to Istanbul he had already changed his name from Flat Stanley to Flat Zeki. The guy is a mover. He has certainly been a lot of places now, and because he is smaller than the rest of us, he can do a lot of cool stuff that most of us can’t do, such as crawl on the cannons in Normandy. I am assured by Diane that Flat Zeki is going to leave us to visit her 7 year old nephew immediately after we return from this trip. He has made a good book mark, I won’t deny that.
Today, Diane and I did walk #6, which starts just across the river from us and is a tour of Ile Saint Louis. There was a lot we hadn’t noticed on the island, despite it being our major route to the Left Bank or the Notre Dame. The massive Rothschild estate is currently being renovated; poor family.
We returned to the apartment for lunch. After, Diane went hat shopping and I took the Metro to the Place Monge stop and walked back from there. It was a nice long and pointless stroll. Perfection.
For dinner, we strolled the temporary “Winter Wonderland” kiosks along the Avenue des Champs-Elysées and bought baguettes stuffed with meat and vegetable shish kabobs (there is a fancy French word for these things, but I forget it). They just slice the baguette, lay the shish kabob inside and pull out the skewer. They were great. We shared a waffle with Grand Marnier for dessert.
My camera is starting to complain about how many times I’ve pressed its button. I think it is nearing its design life. I am going to replace it when I get home. I don't think I should trust it any more on major travels. It’s been a great body (a Canon Rebel XTi) but it shutter has probably been tripped 40,000 times already. It is starting to squeak.
So, time marches forward relentlessly now. It is moving at the pace I remember before the start of the vacation: … fast! Too much to do and no time left to do it.
All is well at home. We have received sufficient intermittent email from Tom to confirm that he is surviving “house sitting”. We "chat" with the kids intermittently. Jen is chugging away at school; Kate is juggling 3 jobs but successfully self-sufficient. We do look forward to catching up more thoroughly with everyone: friends and family.
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