Just D.I.N.K.ing Around: Wandering the Day Away

Thursday dawned sunny and with not a lot of plans in sight. We started the day off at Cafe Central on Rue Cler for a late breakfast before hitting the town.

While sitting at Rue Cler, we did a lot of people watching and noticed that regardless of the country, the fire fighters still send the cute ones out to raise money. This morning we had two stationed just to the left of our table selling raffle tickets in the middle of the street. It was funny to see that same rules applied here as in the states..... women, no matter the age or who they were walking with would still stop to talk and purchase raffle tickets.

Once we had our coffee and croissants and Kelly and Tari grew tired of watching the fire fighters, it was time to start our day. We decided to make our way to Il St. Louie, the island across from Notre Dame to wander and take in the sites,

Once we arrived on Il St. Louie, one of the first stores we walked by was Laguiole, a well known knife/corkscrew shop. 90% of the knifes/corkscrews sold at that shop were made at or for that shop specifically. Duane being the knife guy he is could not walk away without purchasing a rosewood and ebony corkscrew.

While wandering the streets, Duane showed Tari where he would have gotten her a souvenir the first time he was in Paris (20 some years ago!), if he hadn't gotten the flu. Today, Duane finally delivered on his souvenir. Tari actually got two.... the original and then of course the interest owned on the original.

Once we wandered the streets it was time to people watch. We found the perfect place directly across from Norte Dame that sold wine and gelato! In addition, you can see in the picture that the staff were fun as well.

We had a lovely Pouilly Fume, while Tari went off the grid with a Bellini. As Tari said, the Bellilni was "different". That is usually not a good description for something. It was warm, which is not normal for a Bellini.

The gelato was pretty decent!

Time for Lunch!

After our stop to people watch, drinks and gelato, we did a little more shopping before stopping for lunch.

After circling a couple of blocks we ended up back close to where we started at a local little bistro. We of course had a bottle of wine with our lunch, a lovely little Sancerre.

For lunch we all had a similar meal of Croque Monsiuer, a ham sandwich with cheese. Kelly's was a little different as she had a Croque Madame, ham and cheese with an egg on top. Both sandwiches are a French staple for lunch.

Views of Notre Dame

There is no better place to view Notre Dame than across the river on Il St. Louie. We took many pictures from here of the various sections of the famous landmark.

Once we tired of Notre Dame, we made our way across the river back over to the Paris of today and walked the river front taking in the scenery.

Paris is Alive with the Sound of Davin and Christal Hills

Once we made our way back to our hotel, our other friends, Davin and Christal Hills had arrived in Paris. Our plan was to all go visit the Musee D'Orsay that night as it stayed open later on Thursdays in the summer.

The Musee has one of the best collections of artwork from Impressionism to early 20th Century. They also had a wonderful collection of sculpture and wood working, not just paintings.

The Musee is housed in an old retired rail station, so when in the Musee it does look and feel like a rail station. It even has the old rail station clock still on the wall.

The sculpting work on some of these statues were amazing! We all stood at this one for a while as it was three different types of marble on one statue.

The Gang Is All Here!!!

Dinner Time!

We decided to stop on the way back from the Musee to have dinner. We found a little cafe a few blocks from our hotel on a street corner that worked well for an outdoor dinner.