Paris walking

I actually slept reasonably well the first night and didn't wake up until 8. And off I went for my usual morning walk. Our hotel is a very pleasant little place that's on a mostly residential street close to a school. I walked through a sea of little kids on scooters with their parents on may way toward the school and once I walked past, though a line of adults walking and wheeling empty scooters.

Gotta tell you, the scooter thing is pretty out of control here. People ride them on the sidewalks and it's not just kids, who are hazards just by their nature, but adults as well. They go really fast and some of them have scooters with electric motors, or even worse, these single wheel things that are sort of like Segways without the part you hold on to. I remember when we were in Barcelona, the only thing that scared me on the streets was the plethora of motor scooters, but at least they were contained to the street. These scooters are everywhere, and it's like having people ride bicycles on the sidewalk. I actually saw a motorcycle riding on the sidewalk with two kid-loaded scooters next to it. Understand too that sidewalks here are pretty narrow compared to the US. It's not pretty.

The walk was kind of random and just took me here and there without anything super interesting, but it's just nice being here. I did see a bunch of Jewish men going to Rosh Hashanah services. Some of them wear kippot but many of them wear baseball caps. Our French friend suggested that this might be because it was (is) not really well thought of to be wearing a kippah in Paris. I got back to the hotel and we had what the French laughingly refer to as breakfast, which is essentially bread and butter and coffee. I mean, it's good but we both knew that we weren't going to be feeling great in an hour or two. We then went to St. Germain, a very nice shopping area, where we did some clothes shopping, and by we I mean Ronnie with me in the store too. It was a successful trip though, and we came back happy. And by we I mean both of us.

Later, we met our friends for lunch and then went to an area called Le Marais, Marais means marsh, though there is no indication that this area ever was one. It's been built up for 1000 years or so. It was at one time a center for the Jewish population. Not anymore, but there are remnants. There's a nice photography museum there, and we saw some really interesting stuff.

Above and below from "Acrobatics" by Hicham Benohoud

From "Ghost Stories," by Liu Bolin (he is costumed and made up to blend in with the packages)

There seemed to be a general difference among our Parisian friends as to how much walking is okay, but with a reasonably small amount of debate, we set off toward the Metro line that would allow us to return home without having to change trains twice. That route took us across the River Seine, which we ultimately ended up crossing multiple times. We stopped in a café by the side of the river for a drink, and were treated to a nice jazz band that started right after we sat down. We stayed for quite a while and just chatted and had a good time.

As we continued to walk south forward the metro, we crossed onto the Isle St. Louis

and behind the Cathedral of Notre Dame, which is in its own way just striking as the front. The sun was getting low in the sky and it was very beautiful.

Eventually we got over to the fifth on the small and got on the Metro home, where we had a nice dinner and then to bed. A nice day by any measure.