Last day in Paris started with another lovely breakfast in our apartment. Then down our old stairs to the street.

We made our way to Notre Dame via the Right Bank, where we noticed, not for the first time, older men in suits on electrics scooters without any hint of irony.

Our plans for today were to see the inside of Notre Dame and the inside of the Musee d’Orsay. We succeeded! The lines at Notre Dame were not long and moved very quickly; we were in in about 10 minutes. There was some question as to whether Kristine and Athena would be allowed in because of the unchristian amount of shoulder they had exposed. Thank God, they passed scrutiny!

Inside, it was busy: so many sinners and saints. The lighting was lovely in places but dark in others, and there were many ostentatious artifacts of power and faith. Promptly at noon, a whiskered veteran of the business took to the pedestal to implore the gathered to cultivate a personal relationship with God ( French mass translation provided by Athena). From my viewpoint, it appeared as if this wee white-robed man levitated about two feet off the ground while giving his sermon. Perhaps I was the sole witness to a modern miracle and can provide the evidence for the canonization of a new saint!?! (Send the private Vatican jet if you need my testimony!)

After our close call with the saintly, we were nearly fleeced in the gardens of the church by the Roma ladies who surround you with clipboards and pens where one of them implores you to take seriously some sort of petition while the others try to relieve you of your belongings. As a family, we formed a phalanx and they were no match for us.

We crossed the Pont de l’Archeveche with our souls and our belongings intact, and ventured into the Latin Quarter in search of a cool place for a refreshing beverage. After a few long, hot streets, we landed at the The Odeon Cafe, Place de l’Odeon. No tourists except us were at the cafe, and we sat under umbrellas with France’s finest for a quick drink.

We then soldiered on through the heat of the day to revisit [Eglise Saint-Sulpice]. We had watched a little of the Da Vinci Code over breakfast, and we realized that some scenes were shot there. We were also interested in the brass line in the church, referred to in the movie (fictitiously) as the rose line. It is, in fact, a Vernal (Spring) Equinox line used, back in the good old days, to determine Easter. The actual Paris meridian, also featured in the movie, was conflated with this equinox line, which we still enjoyed walking. There is an Francois Arago memorial set elsewhere in the ground of Paris denoting the refinement of longitudinal meridians.

We left the church and headed for the Musee d’Orsay. Happily, the line was not long there either, and thankfully the security lady did not find my Swiss Army knife! Inside the gorgeous museum, it was a cool, air conditioned delight. We immediately went to the second floor for the Van Gogh exhibit. This museum is rich with masterpieces and we easily overwhelmed ourselves with stunning sculptures and paintings.

We pushed on knowing that this is a chance of a lifetime, and we did not quit till we saw the lion’s share of the art. I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling that visiting a museum is hard work. It is physically and intellectually exhausting, but we gave it a full effort. I can’t say I liked the death march back to the apartment in 35C temperatures, but the wine, cheese and baguettes we bought on the way comforted our weary selves.

Leaving our apartment for dinner, we waded through the 3 large outdoor music parties all within a block of each other. Solstice parties, I suppose.

We made our way to Ile Saint-Louis, for dinner.

After dinner, my family indulged me by going back to the Louvre. On the way, we saw many parties.

My goal at the Louvre was to look for the Arago Medallions. It was like an urban geocache adventure.

Tired, we headed home at midnight. Much to our surprise, on a Wednesday night at midnight, there were still parties going on just outside the apartment. I suppose the solstice is as good a reason as any to party all night long.

Another day in Paris begins with a trip to the boulangerie. I think I spotted some sympathy in the eyes of the cashier for my lack of French. Happily, I had my lovely daughter with me to do the heavy lifting with regards to making the order. Quiches, butter croissants, croissant aux amandes, and, of course, a baguette got us off to a rolling start.

Today, our first destination was Le Jardin du Luxembourg. We made our way across the Pont Neuf and into the 6th arrondissement. We made a point of stopping often for a break in the shade. We traversed a lively area with many cafes, theatres, and bookstores. When we got to the Jardin du Luxembourg, we checked out the Medici Fountain which had some interesting people around it.

In the park, we stopped for iced tea and iced coffee at La Pavillon de la Fountaine.

We then wandered the grounds of the Jardin looking at the many statues of women from French history. Parisians seem to love it here, as the Jardin du Luxembourg was full of people sitting in the shade eating lunch with their friends and family.

After the Jardin, we stopped at the Church of Saint Sulpice for no other reason than we were there, and then wandered into the antiques fair on the grounds of the church. The antiques fair was fun with lots of very French characters in their booths full of unusual artifacts.

We then made our way to the shopping district on Boulevard Saint-Germain with the goal of finding a watch store so Triumph and Athena could spend the money given to them by Columba. We spent a good deal of time looking at many brands of watches while being helped by a lovely older lady with almost no English. This was not a problem, of course, because Athena led the way. Both kids settled on (almost matching) Daniel Wellington watches. I think that these will be terrific mementos of their trip to France.

After the shopping, we went to Athena’s brand new alma mater, Sciences Po, for a quick look around and swag-buying opportunity. This, of course, is the Paris campus and not the Reims campus where she has been for the last two years, but it is the address that will appear on her degree.

We then took a break on Boulevard St. Germain for a late lunch where we watched well dressed French people and a couple of seemingly stray twin dogs wander the streets before we went to the Musee d’Orsay. (We now believe the dogs belong to a nearby brasserie).

Unfortunately, when we got to the museum, it was closing in an hour, too short to get a good look. So we promised ourselves to return tomorrow, took a break in the shade by the Seine and then over the Pont Royale, (amazed we didn’t lose our lives crossing the street on the other side) through the Jardin de Carrousel, back through our “hood” (the Louvre) and back to the apartment for a shower, glass of wine, and a rest.

It was kind of comforting to buy that wine across the street and know the woman selling it; she is also the concierge of our AirBnB!

Out into the night, we crossed the Pont Neuf bridge and made our way to the Latin Quarter for dinner. We had no destination planned, deciding to see what fate would throw our way. We found an old town squared peppered with restaurants and chose Foxia near the impressive Fontaine Saint-Michel. We sat in the courtyard enjoying the warm night and lively spirit.

After dinner we wandered the Latin Quarter and happened by Shakespeare & Company again. There was a small revolution and the book nerds were victorious.

After buying some hefty philosophical tomes we were back on the street.

We crossed the Pont de l’Archeveche to see the back side of the Notre Dame and then across the Pont Saint-Louis to catch a glimpse of the good life on the posh little island in the Seine. As it was getting on midnight, we were flagging, we headed for home on the Right Bank and were surprised by how lively the river bank was with young revellers. All the way from Pont Louis Philippe to the Pont Neuf, there were parties, small and large, along the riverbank.

Second day in Paris started with a lovely breakfast in our apartment. Kristine and Athena went for Paris Brest, Baguette, Brioche aux Pepits, and some fruit, and we had a leisurely morning feasting.

The Louvre is our closest significant location and seems to be where we start our days. Today we went through the Louvre courtyard and past the pyramids on our way out way to The Jardin du Tuileries and its amazing statues. It was hot and sunny and so we stopped often under the shades of trees. Each shade tree had a cohort of shade seekers and we join on such group of young French people. I commented to Kristine that she looked lovely in her linen dress and not at all like a tourist. Apparently, the young French were eavesdropping and had a laugh at my expense (Athena was working for me running counterintelligence) but I am happy to be a tourist in this lovely town.

We went through the Jardin and out onto the Champs Elysees. There were so many people on the street today, and it was very exciting. However, we missed the real excitement with the police and some guy with a Kalashnikov and some gas canisters in his car. Instead, I had the distinct European experience of having to pay to pee, but at 50p, it was apparently a deal. (I did get free attitude from the gatekeeper when I told her the hand dryer was broken). There were many tempting shops along the way.

At the top of the Champs Elysees, we lingered at the Arc de Triomphe and were delighted to see reliefs of Pallas Athena on the Arc de Triomphe. We stopped at an Italian restaurant with a view of the Arc to fuel up for our trip to the Eiffel Tower.

We set off through the beautiful and posh Chaillot district, and stopped in a park under a shade tree. Look who we found.

At the Eiffel Tower, we endured a long line (but it could have been worse) to buy tickets up to the “2nd floor” view point. Boy it was busy up there. Of course, the views were lovely with Montmartre being the most prominent landmark in the near distance.

We left the Eiffel Tower and went through the Champ de Mar gardens. We took guidance from some children and took a break to cool our heels.

We decided also to take guidance from our sore feet and take the metro at Ecole Militaire. As you might expect, the metro was packed during rush hour.

After some downtime, we went to a fully vegetarian restaurant very near our apartment. The food was great but the service was meh.

To round out the night we went to see the Louvre by night. It was lovely as were the Asian brides having their pictures taken at 11PM at night.

First day in Paris started with the requisite stop at the boulangerie for Paris Brest and croissants. We ate them in the shade in the court of the Louvre. We then did quick a walk around the glass pyramids and went back to our apartment to change into some cooler clothing. Man, it is warm! I took a catnap, and then we were off again.

We walked through the Louvre grounds again on our way to the Seine. We crossed to the left bank and then crossed a bridge to the Ile de la Cite and made our way to stare at Notre Dame. Not sure if there were more tourists than pigeons or vice versa. The line was too long, the sun was too hot, and the bellies were too empty to go inside.

While on the Left bank, we went to Shakespeare and Company for the book nerds among us and had lunch at the cafe beside it. There was a young man sitting at our cafe doing his best to channel Hemingway.

We came back to the apartment for some downtime and to freshen up for dinner.

In the evening, we walked to Le Marais and had delicious vegan burgers at Hank Burger near the Les Archives.

Finally, we took a bottle of wine to Pont de Neuf and watched the sunset on the Seine.

Not a bad first day, despite the jet lag.

I am setting up this blog for sharing our experiences of France that my family will have starting June 17th.