The loss of our digital camera had softened by this morning, aided by Lennie’s cheery observation that the old digital camera was just that – old. Ancient, even, purchased in December 2002, with “movies” limited to only 15 seconds! Surely some good will come from having lost the old camera – or so the rationalization went.
So after going on-line to investigate possible purchases, we set out for a store called Darty, which was recommended to us by the staff at Oh! Duo, the restaurant where we dined last night. Darty is a blend of Sears and Circuit City – a place to buy large and small appliances, computers, printers and digital cameras. We bought a Sony, with so many options built in (including looong “movies”) that Doug is still sorting through the instruction manual. While waiting to pick up the camera (first you buy, then they deliver from a back room), we witnessed a big verbal confrontation between a man who wanted to return a computer mouse but didn’t possess his sales receipt and the store’s staff. Lots of shouting and no backing down by the female manager, who gave as good as she got, and then some. After security was called, the disgruntled customer slammed the mouse on the floor and stomped on it. Lots of sheepish grins by the Darty staff when they noticed our obvious interest.
The effects of the 12-hour jet lag were just about gone today, and we headed back to the Eiffel Tower vicinity again to catch the light show that we couldn’t photograph the night before. The Metro ride up to the Ecole Militaire at the end of the large open space fronting the Tower (Champ de Mars) was our first; as everyone says, the system is so convenient it’ll be the preferred way to move around Paris.
Dinner was in a restaurant near the Champ de Mars and was timed to allow us to get back to the open space before 10, when the nightly light show begins. We are still amazed at how light it is at that hour; Hawaii isn’t on Daylight Savings Time and is at a much lower latitude than Paris. We estimate that the 10 p.m. June sky in Paris is equivalent to about 7:30 back in Honolulu. The walking to and fro is what we hope is offsetting the effects of all this great food and bread and desserts and wine; the pedometer on Doug’s belt registered 7 miles today.
We’re still learning how to shoot photos with the new camera, but we think the first batch came out OK. You be the judge.
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