Bon Jour Sweet Friends,

Sunday was an unbelievably gorgeous, sunny day in Paris! Temps in the lower seventies and just beautiful, so we took full advantage of it and walked the entire day and well into the night.

We began our tour at the Paris National Opera House and oh my, I have to say it is impressive. It is one of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen. I’m not a huge fan of opera, but I would give almost anything to attend the opera, any opera in this venue. I can imagine wearing a fabulous dress and designer shoes and walking up the grand staircase to our box seats. Ok, well, more likely falling down the grand staircase and just making it to the cheap seats with a bussup knee! But I can dream. 🙂

Next, the center of the French universe, where all roads collide – the Arch de Triumph! We skipped the line with our Museum Pass and started climbing the stairs to the top. It was a magnificent view of the entire city; and it’s a BIG city! I can’t imagine living here, it’s just so overwhelming. And one thing we noticed from our overlook of the city is that everything is a shade of cream. Every building is creamy white, there is no color to the city. Everything just blends together in a sea of cream.

After the Arch, we hopped on the metro (I LOVE the metro!) and made our way to the Eiffel Tower, which BTW is not an easy stop. You would think there would be a couple of trains that stopped there; but no, it’s kinda hard to get to and you have to change trains a couple of times. But, we made it without incident and managed to score an outside table at a café near the tower where we met Doc for lunch. After our salads, we walked to the tower. I was not able to reserve a ticket to the top in advance as it was already sold out, so we took some pix and began our walk towards the Rodin Museum. Note to self: for next trip book elevator to the top well in advance.

We walked down the Champs-de-Mars, a huge public green space, taking a moment to watch some of the French Open on the big screen TV set up in the park. Many people were laying on the grass with picnics either watching the open or sleeping. It was beautiful so the park was crowded but very pleasant. After passing several huge museums, palaces and other monuments and churches, we found the Rodin Museum, a relatively small house that served as his studio before his death. On display was a special exhibit featuring the photos of Robert Mapplethorpe alongside Rodin’s sculptures comparing the similarities. It was a most interesting exhibit that compared two artists from completely different eras who’s love of the human form and all its sensuality is evident in their work. The museum also features a magnificent garden filled with roses and other flowers, fountains, and of course Rodin’s sculptures. We found chairs in the garden upon which to recline and talked and laughed enjoying the sun.

We were scheduled to go to the Orsay Museum, but sadly we ran out of time so we found a street café and had espresso while I consulted my Happy Cow app for a vegan restaurant. We wandered into a local church and enjoyed the stillness and beauty of its quiet interior. It was a church not found on any tourist map, but it was beautiful nonetheless.

We decided to try Le Potager du Marais in the Marais section of the city. This area is a trendy, eclectic mix of people, restaurants, bars, clubs and shows. There is a large gay population in this particular area as well. Le Potager was packed on a Sunday evening, so we waited for a table along with many others. It was worth the wait! The food was amazing!! We started with the buckwheat pancake filled with roasted veggies and beans and a side salad. I had the vegan quinoa “burger” with mushroom sauce and a salad. Rickey got the seitan stew with red wine and mushrooms. The food was very good and very filling and I ended up taking a bag home with me for breakfast. WOOHOO! Another score from Happy Cow!

One thing I can’t get used to in Europe is eating sooooo late! It’s not unusual to see people eating dinner as late as 9 or 10 PM. But, I guess since it doesn’t get dark until 9:30 PM it seems natural. We finished our meal around 9:30 PM and headed back to the Eiffel Tower to see it at night. The tower was completely lit with yellowy-white lights that dazzled in the dark sky!! It was so gorgeous! But at 11 PM, we were thrilled to see the tower come to life with a twinkling light show!! For about 10 minutes, the tower danced and twinkled like a Christmas tree on crack. I have video but I’m not sure I can post it; but I’ll try. Rickey and I found a grassy spot and lay on our backs watching the show. It was most definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

We hopped on the metro and headed back to our  little apartment laughing and reliving our beautiful and adventurous day. We have laughed a lot together and that my friends has made every euro of this trip worth it. For me, laughter cures most anything and I cherish the friends in my life who can make me laugh. You know who you are! 🙂

I hope you have a wonderful day filled with laughter and friends!!! Check back tomorrow for more pix and posts from Paris!

Tip for the day – buy the Visite Paris train/bus pass for the length of your visit. It’s one ticket for 2, 3, 4 or 5 days and you don’t have to keep buying tickets or worry about having one. Well worth the money!