More CHURCHES !
and La Conciergerie
This medieval palace is on the island with Notre Dame, along with La Sainte-Chapelle.
Carol's WONDERFUL guide book (THANK YOU AGAIN to Carol's co-worker, Marianne for such a great gift) said that a combo ticket for both was slightly reduced in price AND the line to buy tickets was almost always short at La Conciergerie and VERY long at La Sainte-Chapelle.
PERFECT information. People were standing in an hour long line to buy tickets at Chapelle. We walked half a block past them to the other ticket booth and had our tickets in 2 minutes. THEN we got to walk past all those people waiting to buy tickets and walked right into the Chapelle.
FINALLY - a church where we were allowed to take pictures. Most of these were taken by Andrew. "Great Job, Andrew!"
Tom and Casey joined us for the tour of the Conciergerie.
Again this picture is from the web because somebody in authority decided to clutter up the biggest medieval hall left in Paris with an art exhibit.
Here's some "street art" on a fountain statue.
Tom had a favorite Thai restaurant he wanted to take us to, so off we went on the Metro. Tom speaks passable French. The young waiter spoke French and Thai. Tom ordered a soup that the menu said included "boules de boeuf" in French or "ลูกชิ้นเนื้อวัว " in Thai. He was convinced that the kids were going to get a really exotic dish with beef balls. When the soup came, I knew they were not authentic because they were about 1" in diameter. I kept trying to tell Tom that they were simple meatballs made of beef because they were so small. The young waiter insisted that they were what Tom thought. Gotta give everyone - except Carol - credit. Thinking they were what Tom said, everyone - except Carol - tried one. I finally convinced Tom to ask the owner, an older Thai lady. At first she said, "Yes. That's what they were." But when I asked Tom to just say, "Testicles." she laughed out loud and said, "oh, NO NO NO. These are not that. Way too small. Just ground beef." When Tom said, that was not what the waiter said, she laughed harder and said that he loved to kid the customers. Tom asked if there was a restaurant nearby that served testicles and she said, "No. But two blocks down is a restaurant that serves penis." We all decided that we were too full to try something else.
On one of walking tours we had gone through the major book shop area of Paris and the kids wanted to go back to Shakespeare and Company.
Of course. We're in Paris - FRANCE - let's spend the afternoon in an English bookstore. It WAS fascinating, just check out the link.
But I thought I'd seen enough English books during our two weeks in ENGLAND. So I asked for a FRENCH bookstore. Specifically children's books because a dear friend had asked me to get a child's book or two for her. She had even given me the lists of titles with the ones she already had marked off.
First section on the first floor - I picked a couple. Then on to the third floor. There was a BIG banner which I couldn't read, but I knew what it meant ! There were most of one of the series my friend wanted, marked down as much as 80%. Some were so old the original price was in Francs. And France went to the Euro in 1998 ! So I bought a bunch.
Another walk to an Italian restaurant that had guys on the street offering "specials with this coupon." Cheap (for Paris) meals and a free drink. Andrew ordered a "personal pizza".
Our meals weren't quite as over sized, but close.
Wall art in the restaurant
Upstairs they had not put away all their Christmas decorations.
Easy Metro ride home.
One more day in Paris.
Life is so good.
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