Our first full day in Paris began at the early hour of 10:00 after some much-needed sleep, but we made up for this “late start” by hurling ourselves sore feet first into a 12 hour and 14.3 mile day of absorbing Paris life.

With our newfound expertise using the metro, we ventured out to the mall (Forum des Halles) to buy some fresh clothes, only to find it closed for Sunday. But, ever determined to make the best of our situation, we changed our course to explore an unexpected cathedral - Le Paroisse de Saint-Eustache. As this was the first church we visited this trip, we spent more than a few minutes admiring the extensive rib vaulting and intricate stained glass windows accompanied by the foreign words of a French mass.

However, our stomachs got the best of us and we headed off to find food, meandering first through a bustling side street market (where it is apparently a near-crime to photograph fresh strawberries) to then find nourishment in a small cafe. Unknowingly, this stop began our almost perfect record of eating just sweets that day. When in Paris, right?! We also here drank the best chai latte I have ever had.

After a few wrong turns, some backtracking, and a few more wrong turns, we found caught our first glimpse of Notre Dame (the sighting of which we greeting with squeals of delight.) More serendipity than good planning, we happened to enter the massive marvel in the middle of mass and were greeted with the deep bellowing tones of the organ. Different than any organ music I have every heard, this melody reminded me more of a cinematic chase scene than a hymn. To round out our day of cathedrals, we headed to Saint-Chapelle (in the most round about way possible, apparently), but arrived to a long line of foot-tappingly-impatient would-be visitors and decided to come back when it wasn’t Sunday. As it was just beginning to sprinkle and we had no change of clothes, we decided to grab a quick srreet vendor crepe and then duck inside Shakespeare and Company. Both bibliophiles, this proved enjoyable, particularly reading the board's sonnets in his titular shop. We also enjoyed how the books were organized. Wanting a souvenir and being who I am, I got a children's book about a cat being the king of the house.

The only real research I did into what to do in Paris was looking for the best of the best dessert shops, and Pierre Herme was just such a place for macarons. My Infinement Rose, Rose et Coing, and Chocolat et The Earl Grey macarons were every bit as uniquely-flavored and complex as advertised with the Rose et Coing being the close winner. On the first Sunday of each month, entrance to the Musee D’Orsay is free after 16:00 so we rushed to the top of the museum where resided the Impressionist Galleries, with only an hour to inspect the vibrant brush strokes forever depicting fleeting moments. It is this brisk narrative quality of the Impressionist movement akin to my own photojournalistic style that continually draws me to the period. A longtime fan of Pissaro, I discovered a heretofore unknown to me painting which may now be my favorite Impressionist work: "Paysage a Eragny." Only too quickly, the museum began to close and we left slowly, enjoying the narrative sculptures and building architecture as we went. Our final mission of the day was to find me an outlet converter as my recently-purchased, never used one is somewhere in (hopefully) Philadelphia in my suitcase. The route to our destination led through the Tuileries Garden and then along the Seine; both so entrancing that we kept getting distracted. We never accomplished the mission, but we did finally find new clothes in the way of a Champs-Elysees shopping trip at H&M. This experience in itself felt very french as they had one female-only dressing room which held a handful of women trying on clothes together all at once. We could wait no longer to change out of our now ripe clothing and stole into a 50 cent toillette to change; walking out in different clothing as if the heroines of a spy movie. As it was late Sunday evening, few restaurants were open, so we enjoyed some sushi and a house cocktail (gin, campari, sake, fruit juice and grenadine syrup) before turning in for the evening.

As my laptop is now dead, I am currently transferring my favorite images via my camera’s wifi onto my tablet to edit and share. Hooray for technology!

More adventures to have and stories to make tomorrow,
X A happily sleepy traveler