Yesterday’s prediction of a sunny today – based on the mariner’s ditty that a red sky at night bodes well for sailors – was right on the money, from first light to late afternoon as this is written. The travel guide asserts that the “normal” June high is 75 F, so we’ve concluded that 2005 is an abnormal year. Last night’s TV forecasted high for Paris was 34 C, somewhere above 90 F, we think, and it feels really hot to us. We’ve therefore added another lesson to our growing list of Lessons Learned on this trip: (1) Do not go unannounced to a French Laundry; (2) Never lose touch with your digital camera; and (3) Do your major walking around Paris before noon.
We thought we had found a good routine – stay up late, sleep late, fritter away the morning on travel journal and e-mail writing, have a money-saving lunch in the apartment with groceries from the nearby Monoprix, then head out to see the town. Wrong. The sun really beats on you, as we learned today in our walk in celebrated environs from the Louvre, through the Tuileries gardens, around the huge Place de la Concorde (you don’t challenge the traffic by going “through” the square if you value your life) and up the Champs Elysees all the way to the Arc de Triomphe.
It was a zig-zag route that took advantage of every square meter of shade we could find. The gardens have lots of wide-open spaces, interspersed thankfully with long rows of shade trees. We stopped at the first outdoor restaurant in our path and took a table with both tree shade and an umbrella. Ancient and modern pieces of art are scattered throughout the gardens, and a huge bronze sculpture of a fallen tree lying horizontally in one of the gardens’ many squares seemed like a commentary on the sun's power to beat you down.
But beyond the weather, we found much to enjoy on today’s walk. The Louvre’s famous glass-pyramid entrance grabs your attention as you round the corner from the Metro stop. Half-way through the gardens, a huge Ferris wheel seems out of place next to the weathered façade of nearby buildings. And Lennie especially took note of the retail outlets along the Champs Elysees, where tourists lined up to get in, just as they once did in Honolulu.
So our new routine, to be tried out tomorrow for the first time, is: Get an early start, see the sights before noon (in tomorrow’s case, the St-Germain neighborhood), take the Metro home for lunch and sleep away the afternoon, building strength for the evening’s dining experiences. As of now, it sounds like a winner – our first Saturday night in Paris.
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