Paris - the City of Lights and Rain!

We found a little internet store right by our hotel, so here we are both using a computer with an American keyboard. Bet you may not have even known that there is a difference...we found out in Orleans that there is. The French must use a lot more "q"s than we do and more "m"s - so confusing on the fingers and the brain to have your keyboard revised!

We have had a great day today - getting to be in Notre Dame - which is right across the street from our little Bohemian hotel, the Esmeralda. We have a view of the cathedral on the left side of our window. I love staying down here - everything is so close and we have walked just about everywhere.

After Notre Dame, we walked to the Musee d'Orsay which has a beautiful collection of Impressionist art. We loved being there and I loved getting to share with Alea some of my knowledge of art history. She had asked me earlier in the week if I had any regrets, and really the only one that I could even consider is that I did not major in Art History in college, or choose to do a post-graduate study in it. I love it...in her asking me this question, I wondered, how might my life have been different if I had majored in Art History like my heart was telling me to choose? Funny that I ended up as an Economics major instead! I still joke that I was probably the most un-economic of Economics majors to have ever graduated from Middlebury!!

After the Orsay, we had a French tea of a plate of assorted cheeses. I was silly enough to ask if bread came with that. I am realizing that delicious French bread comes with everything at every meal here in France! The rain let up while we ate, so we then walked over to the Louvre and saw the IM Pei Pyramid. Wow!! We both loved it - it is a masterpiece in and of itself, especially how they used the space underneath to connect all of the Louvre. Funny, but all we really wanted to see was the Pyramid. So we left, and of course again it was pouring with rain. But we decided to walk back to the Latin Quarter in the rain...it was so much fun! We were definitely soaked by the time we got back to our hotel room, but what a great way to experience Paris...in the rain, walking along the Seine. This is such a magical city...we both love it!

Tomorrow we leave Paris and head to Amiens for the 6th sacred site of our pilgrimage. (I am going to write a separate post about the pilgrimage.) And then we get on the Chunnel train in the afternoon to head to England. We get to spend the night with my aunt, my father's 86 year old sister whom I love. I am so looking forward to seeing her and my cousins, Karen and Bruce. I haven't seen any of them in over 25 years - way too long. From there we head up to Scotland to meet Elaine Pascal and her daughters for the 7th and final site of our pilgrimage, the Rosslyn Chapel. I would love to stay in France longer, and I am so looking forward to returning to England...I feel as though I am going home.