2026: 23 March/These feet were made for walking!

My sunset picture from Notre Dame 

Paris

This morning I allowed myself to sleep in.  I finally got up around 9:30, figured out the shower, then went down to breakfast (the booking company included a basic free breakfast with my room).  It was simple--2 slices of bread, a croissant, tea and OJ.  I thought it was buffet, so I grabbed a plate and an orange then went to sit down.  A few minutes later, the guy came out with a little tray with what I was supposed to get!  oops!  The croissants were delicious!!  Plain, but airy and tender!  I brought my book, so I lingered reading while I finished my tea.  Then back to my room.  I packed my travel bag--a bag with pockets and all of the zippers can lock, also one end of the strap can be unclipped and wound through a chair while you are eating.  And the strap has metal cabled sewn into it so that it can't be cut off you.  My usual purse at home is a wallet on a string, so this bigger bag is a big change.  But it's also the reason that I don't use a larger purse; whatever size your bag is, you will bring along enough to fill it.  And I do!  

So I set up my bag with what I would need for the day.  I have the tail end of a cold, so that includes cough drops and tissues.  It took longer to shower and get ready than usual, but I'm still getting used to a different place.  Re-orienting myself.  So I lingered and left around 11:30.  I was looking for an inexpensive jacket to replace the one I lost.  Not waterproof, just warm.  My first look was at a thrift store recommended on Reddit.  It was a long walk, but I love to wander cities anyway, so today was the day for that.

The park area across the street from my hotel

This looks like classic Paris

They planted and are growing a little forest here in the middle of the city

This is about the forest (sorry, it's in French)

More of the urban forest

I found  the thrift store, but the largest size they had was a medium--most were in French sizes, so I had to try a few on.  So I looked online for larger coats in Paris and of course there was a subreddit for that!  It wasn't encouraging--most were department stores or custom couture coats.  One person recommended Monoprix which is a discount department store and there was one on the next street, so I tried there.  They had a few larges and extralarges and some larger number sizes.  So I tried on a few and one fit okay.  So I bought that.  It is fleecy, dark blue, and stretchy--kind of like a sweatshirt.  And it was on sale for $25--$10 off the original price.  Not terribly attractive, but it should keep me warm.  I'll miss my Columbia water resistant jacket.  But the zipper was coming out on the bottom and it wasn't waterproof--which is what I wanted.  It was a pretty dark purple color, though.  Oh well,

This seems to be a community garden in one of the parks--the park paths wind around the plantings.

more of garden--loving the spring flowering flowers!

a bee habitat in the garden--I watched a bee go in!

Pretty flowering tree in front of stained glass windows

Is it a gate house?  Or . . . 

 A pretty pathway

stonework detail--it's thistle which is usually a sign of Scotland

I didn't want to carry that fluffy coat with me all day, so I walked back to my hostel to drop it off.  And I refilled my water bottle.  Did I tell you that there is a water dispenser for filling your water bottles right in the hallway outside my room?  Awesome.  And I decided to walk to Notre Dame to see more of Paris and then take the metro back because I would be tired.  I was super hungry by this time (around 4:00), so I saw a Subway and gave in to an American chain because I just wanted something easy and light.  They have different sandwich choices here and I got a really great one with chicken chunks and melted slices of mozzerella cheese on it (they called it natural chicken so it's probably better than highly processed meat is).  So I ate that while I read more of my book.  I got about 3/4 of the way to Notre Dame before my sciatica was making my back and hips hurt and my left knee started to hurt too.  So I sat down for about 10-15 minutes in the Luxembourg Gardens and read.  Then I headed over to the river and it was right there!  I've seen Notre Dame several times before, but I wanted to see it with its new roof after the 2019 fire.  I got there and saw a public toilet which I was in desperate need of.  I had to wait for the person ahead of me (who took forever!!!!), then it is a self-cleaning toilet so you have to wait for that.  Well, by the time I got back to the cathedral, it was 6:30 and they had just closed the line.  So I took a few photos as the sun set.  The air quality in Paris right now is listed as poor--the air quality map on my weather app is all red for the city with a few yellow dots far out in the exurbs, so no pretty sunset pics--its pretty hazy.  I think that is why the end of my cold is lingering--it is triggering my asthma; I've had a sinus headache since I got here and my cough is worse.  I took the metro part of the way back from near Notre Dame to the Montparnasse station and walked about 20 minutes from there. 

There she is with the rosy glow of the setting sun

There was a new occupant in my room when I got back (and also explains why housekeeping was in here when I dropped off my fleece jacket).  Like the others in my room, we just mumbled a "hi" and then she sat in her bed area until going to bed.  They are not the friendliest of young women.  We have two chairs in our room, so both nights I've carried one over next to my bed sit in it while I type and put my feet up on my bed.  I sit and drink water.  Earlier today I get getting evil notifications from DuoLingo because I used a streak freeze yesterday instead of doing a lesson, so I stopped in one of the many parks and did a few short lessons--I clicked on the button that says I can't talk now, so they were even faster than normal.  Some of the pages took awhile to load, though, because I was using cell service instead of wifi.  Did you know that in Spanish that is pronounced wee-fee? I giggle everytime I say it.  So after I load pics and publish this, I will go to bed with tired feet!  I just heard and saw sanitation services picking up garbage just now--9:50 at night??!!

Other pictures from the day:

Interesting how the front is all traditional and the back is flat and angled

I saw a stone wall and gate, so I had to go investigate--it was a cemetary

Each tells what family it located there.  Some are from the early and mid 1800s.  

This is the family tomb of a sculptor with one of his sculptures on top.  How fitting.

This view just keeps popping up!

This bike lane is separated and made visible with a curb and by painting it pink!