Paris October 7 Notre Dame

This morning we managed, the the help of an alarm clock to get up on time. We even beat friend one into the breakfast room.

I haven't yet described our room. You enter our room off the lobby. Room number 1, is ours. We have an anteroom which is also the dressing room. . Then through another door into our chamber. We have twin beds that are pushed together at one end of the room and a lovely red velvet settee and chairs with a round table and small desk at the other.

The bathroom is floor to ceiling white marble, with a footed tub and two sinks. No bidet, thank god!

After our breakfast we took the RER to Jardin des Plantes. Wevhad a bit of trouble with the machine trying to get our tickets. The machine did not like any of our cardss and would only take pieces, no paper money, we finally managed to scrap enough change up among us to get the necessary tickets and as soon as we got off the train we bought tickets from a live person who had no trouble running our cards.

The process of getting onto the RER took about 20 minutes and the ride was about 15. When I had used my Metro app on my phone it gave me arouse by metro that would take about 33minutes. Friend one knew that the train would take less time so that is how we travelled. But with all the trouble we had, we about broke even.

From the Jardin we walked the Seine to Notre Dame. We walked past the Ile Ste Louis and overeat the Ile de la Cite. We stopped briefly at the Deportation Memorial. A very somber memorial to those who were removed from France by the Nazis during the second world war.

Then we walked around to the front of Notre Dame. We shuffled through with 10,000 of our closest friends. The stained glass is magnificent. I lit a candle for Nors mom and mine and then shuffled on out. Do you get the feeling that I didn't get the feeling of awe and beauty that I have had before? It is true. With all the tourists and cameras and posing in front of statues of saints it was hard to get a sense of peace or reverence.

We next went across the river to the rive gauche. We went into a book store to true to find some books friend one wanted. We did find some of them but she is still thinking about them. We walked on to a small bistro for a light lunch and an orangenia. Then on to place Dauphine and the tip of Ile de la Cite.

This evening we again dine light with an eye toward the Eiffel Tower and then perhaps dessert on the Champs Eleyesses.