Day 43–Sunday, Once Again, Seems to Happen Every Week

Our seventh Sunday here. Surprisingly, many shops, the marché, the gym, etc. are open. The gym was even crowded at the latish 10:30 when we sauntered over there.

Were having a later lunch at Café de la Mairie when Sandy noticed Alain Cornec and a friend, one of the IAML lawyers we know here, just sitting down near us. We hailed them over and caught up. They had just been to the Luxembourg Museum and he said they just as easily could have found a café closer but decided to head to Saint-Sulpice instead. What are the chances?

After grabbing more, excellent pastry from Gérard Mulot, we took them to the Jardin du Luxembourg for a walk around and a seat in the shade. Ran into a young woman from my class at Alliance Française. (Again, what are the chances?)

The flowers, particularly the tulips, were amazing (Barbara, I hope you like the photos even though I don’t think my little digital camera do them justice) and this, being April in Paris, throngs of people were in the park, reading, snoozing, contemplating. We saw an officious policeman barking at some kids in English and then took their soccer ball away, clearly impressed with his authority. Seemed to me that whatever they did, didn’t deserve that and I hope he later gave it back but we didn’t wait around to find out.

Came home, had tea, Sandy worked and I finished “Foreign Tongue,” self-described as a novel about ‘Life and Love in Paris’ by Vanina Marsot. She says in a spot on You Tube that “everyone has their own version of Paris,” however long they are here. I agree.

Went to a lovely dinner party at Jackie and Paul’s place in their beautiful apartment in the 9th and stayed up way past our bedtime. Paul made a lamb curry which, while itself delicious, was a welcome change from 6 weeks of French cuisine.

One of the other guests told us that while we think Parisians are très elegant, in fact, if you want elegance you should go to Rome. And it does seem to be true, the elegant Parisians, such as there are, take taxis or drive places, they don’t take the Métro.