Sunday in Paris

Yesterday we took the train into Paris and visited Notre Dame and the Tuileries Gardens.  It takes us about 10 minutes to walk to the RER station from our house.  And then it's just a 30 minute train ride into the city, et Voilà!


First stop, a French vending machine!

We didn't climb up to the top of Notre Dame this time, but of course we will next time.  It wouldn't be a trip to Notre Dame without pictures of the stained glass windows, gargoyles, and flying buttresses.  So, here you go...

Beautiful stained glass windows

Flying buttress action

Gargoyles.  Did you know that they are called gargoyles because when rainwater drains through them, it makes a gargling sound?

Bonus: Beautiful statue of Jean d'Arc (Joan of Arc)

Also, in case you did not know, they began constuction of Notre Dame in 1160, which makes it 850 years old.  To learn more, you go here:

http://www.notredamedeparis.fr/-English-

I'm pretty sure I caught the main priest walking in.  At least, I assume it's the man in charge.  Why else would he be wearing such a large white hat?

Look in the doorway in the bottom center of this picture and you will see him.

One thing I remembered and was looking forward to was the crèpes that they sell across from Notre Dame.  Gaius and I split one filled with nutella.

Notice I am wearing shorts in this picture.  On my birthday, I noticed that the only person wearing short shorts was a woman from Italy.  All of the French wear long shorts.  The men wear mainly knee length shorts, but I have seen them wear even longer "shorts."  It kind of looks like they are wearing capris, which in my opinion looks ridiculous.  But what do I know?  I am only a short-term visitor in the Fashion Capital of the World.  Anyway, since Fall is fast approaching, I figured I'd wear my favorite shorts to the city while the weather is still nice.  The worst that could happen is that I'd be mistaken for an Italian.

After Notre Dame, we headed over the the Tuileries Gardens.  We heard there was a really good playground there.  Gaius loved it!

We met a nice family there from Alexandria, VA.  The dad was holding a rugby ball and he was clearly from New Zealand.  I talked to them about "Invictus" and how intimidating the New Zealand rugby team was in that movie.  Little did I know that the husband was actually a former player and is currently the owner of a business that makes tasty New Zealand-style pies sold at Whole Foods.  I found this information about his company online after we got home.  Funny, I typed in "New Zealand Rugby Player in Alexandria, VA" in google and his picture came right up.  Who knew there was only one!  http://www.kiwikuisine.com/

Update:

After speaking to our landlord, Jean about the cost of leasing a car for 8 months, he explained to us that we would get a much better deal if we just purchased a car.  To complicate matters, I am insisting on getting an automatic.  I have driven stick shift before, but really, with all these round-abouts and new rules of the road, I'd be less of a hazard to others if I could just concentrate on the roads and not on my driving.  Apparently, only "les vieux" (senior citizens) drive automatique here.  And, actually, when our new friend Janine drove us home the other day from the expo, her car was an automatique.  So, the fact that I want an automatic increases the price of the car and also makes it more difficult to find one.  BUT, Jean emailed us ads for 3 automatique cars yesterday, all reasonably priced.  One is a VW golf, and I kind of like it.  So, now we just have to wait for our bank transfer to go through and hopefully, this will put us on wheels.

Also, while we were visiting with Jean, he hooked us up to satellite tv, so now, in addition to all of the French channels, we also receive CNN, CNBC, BBC, something called Luxe TV (sounds promising) and for some reason we also get GERMAN QVC.  Update:  the power went out a few hours ago for about 5 minutes.  Just long enough for me to lose all of the French channels AGAIN.

Today is Christopher's first day at work.  I just spoke to him and apparently the cantine at CNRS (Centre National de Recherche Scientifique) rivals that of Ikea.  For €3, he got a terrific piece of fish that actually looked like a fish (whatever that means).  And yes, they serve wine there.

More tomorrow.  À bientôt!