Goleta The morning was dark, gloomy, and raining pretty hard. Mike headed out to the small bakery down the street and brought back croissants for breakfast.
We had a few errands to run, so off we went to the grocery store with our parapluies and our apartment’s rolling shopping cart, our first stop. We all decided that the Franprix close to us is much less desirable than the G20 located just across the street. We picked up a few essentials, hoping to get a roast chicken for dinner. Mike volunteered to take our purchases back to the apartment.
Next stop was the Rambateau Metro station where we renewed our NAVIGO passes for next week, beginning Monday. We were unable to get weekly passes for Carol and Shoe until Monday, even though I negotiated in my best French. By now the sun had come out, so we strolled down rue de Rivoli toward the WH Smith bookstore. However, the store didn’t open until 12:30. So we crossed rue de Rivoli to Tuileries to sit in the sun under bright blue skies.
The Eiffel Tower from the Tuilleries! Notice the bright blue skies!
Around 1, we crossed back over to WH Smith, but it had not opened. We walked up to Place Madeleine to have lunch and pick up some macarons from LaDuree. Then back to WH Smith, which had now opened so Shoe and Carol could pick up a map of Paris, but, alas, Shoe was unable to find interesting reading material.
Mike’s lunch!
Carol and Shoe headed over to the flower market on Ile de Cite, while Mike and I tried to find a roast chicken. But, by now, they were all gone! At Place Vendome, we passed a photography session of a wedding party. The bride’s gown was over the top and so was her make-up! Each of the bridesmaids’ gowns was different and elegant – it actually made me wonder if it was a magazine photo shoot not a weeding. Â However, I was too self-conscious to take photos. So we headed back to the apartment and would meet up with our traveling buddies at Pere Tranquille! However, before our planned meeting time, they showed up at the apartment. Turns out – the plant/seed shop was closed today.
After a respite at the apartment and at an appropriate time for dinner in Paris, we headed out for moles and frites, after all, as you are very aware, we travel on our stomachs! Mapping our routes on GoogleMaps, we figure we clocked about 5 1/2 miles today!
