paris:love as feet:aching

After our leisurely morning, we headed out to see what Paris had in store for us. First stop,since we were passing by, was Invalides with the tomb of Napoleon. We could have used Grandpa Howard or Dennis to tell us the whole story, but there was no shortage of glory to Napoleon in the tomb. We walked to the Orsay museum, stopping at a familiar at the time sounding place for sandwiches. The Orsay has an amazing collection of Impressionist and post-impressionist art, and we took in all the Monets. Manets, Cezannes, Van Goghs, Degas and Emma's new favorite Maurice Denis. We figured we had come half way to the Ile de la Cite so we walked the rest of the way along the Seine, stopping for a caffe au lait and an ice cream on the way. We pulled a Mom, as Emma now calls it (I always liked hat kid!), remembering a tip from some guide book about avoiding the long security line at the Ste. Chappelle by going through the Department of Justice line and whisked our way into the chapel. I bought a museum pass at the train station,and it has paid for itself already in being able to go to the front of the line at all major museums. The girls are free at all museums. Sweet.

We headed to Notre Dame, but the long lines dissuaded us from going in or going up the bell tower today. We'll try again earlier another day. We thought we'd save our feet and take the metro back to the apartment, but we were thwarted on our first attempt because the station where we needed to transfer was under construction and our transfer was unavailable. So it was on to plan B, which would have been better if the connection had actually been a connection. Small print on the maps, don't you know. The third time we got it right but then took a wrong turn out of the unfamiliar metro station. It did bring us to the Rue Cler, however, where we bought fixings for our spaghetti alla carbonara and salad dinner before heading home. I don't think we saved our feet at all, but it was a cool walk. We snacked on a brie-like goat cheese with baguette before dinner. Ooey and gooey and oh so yummy. After dinner, we managed to rouse Julia from what she swears was not sleep to check out the lighting of the Eiffel Tower at 10 pm. It was about a 10 minute walk to the park to see the tower lit in flashing,sparkling lights. Quite a delightful spectacle.

Then home again to finish our salad and get ready for bed. Tomoorrow is an early call for the train to Versailles.