Hello Friends and Family,

Today is Monday and I need to catch up from the weekend. I left off with doing nothing on Saturday and that is not the whole truth. We actually went to a party at Jill's apartment. She lives on the ground floor and here it's the floor 0 not 1, but that's not the point. She had a lovely party with great food and home made egg nog. That is not something you can just buy in the milk isle during the holidays.

There were about 20 people and we all stood in a teeny tiny apartment. I thought Lisa's was small but Jill's is HUGE in comparison. Jill's kitchen is a 2' by 2' square where all you do is turn around and you're at the sink or the other way to the fridge. Actually, all you have to do is twist your body and your feet can remain stationary. The stove (luxury item) is down the 1' wide hallway across from the toilet, you can sit on the potty and check your cooking at the same time. I have yet to see a full size fridge in Paris. It's pretty amusing to me but once you get the hang of shuffling around each other, it all works.

Anyway back to the party. There were two men and the rest were female so it was a very nice party. Calm and chatty. I of course could not understand anything anyone was saying except the occasional "Typical American" I was being made fun of right to my face. Funny. Those of you who know me well know this does not phase me, in English or any other language. I just smile and nod. I enjoyed my egg nog and watched PJ flirt with a 5 year old boy. At about 10:00 Lisa was done and so was PJ so we went upstairs for night night. About an hour later I heard American male voices and was tempted to go back down but I resisted and drifted off to sleep.

The next morning was Sunday and we wanted to go to church and not just any of the many beautiful churches but we decided to go to Notre Dame. We had to figure out the bus line and we had planned to do the 11:00am mass. I have never seen a real mass. I have only been to Catholic weddings. Stand up, sit down, kneel, stand up, pray. I figured I could follow along. But as it goes even the best laid plans tend to fail. PJ and I slept till 11:00am. Tee hee vacation, vacation! We had our breakfast and headed to the bus. We missed mass but we toured the amazing church.

Our bus ride was through the city I took pictures of everything, the tiny cop cars packed with big guys. The bus and train stations, the museum, random office buildings. All through the bus window.

We met a nice lady who (in French) told Lisa we should exit the bus early and walk by the Louvre on the way to Notre Dame. I am so happy we did that because we ended up doing more than we planned to do that day. We walked through the back entrance of the Louvre where the military was housed. This area alone is amazing. The architecture and statues and "huge-ness" cannot be put into text. WOW. PJ and I both collected rocks (she calls them treasures) from the grounds and I have video of the back side and then the main courtyard where the pyramid and the fountains sit. There are not many tourists so we wandered slowly through and headed down the Seine river to Notre Dame.

When we arrived at the church we were chilled and we all had to go potty so we sat at a cafe right next to Notre Dame. PJ had hot chocolate and Lisa and I had a hot mulled wine. My friend Lisa not only brought us to this fabulous city but she is an amazing tour guide. There was a long line to get in the church but she led us through the exit door. She said just be French and push through. It worked well, we got right in and nobody said a word...perfect. Lisa also knows a lot about the history of Notre Dame, and being a recovered Catholic she taught me about the why and what of the entire place and of the candle lighting and confessionals and the dead people buried there. In my future posts I will talk more about the building itself. It is amazing and its Christmas so the nativity scene (minus baby Jesus until Christmas) and other wonderful decorations throughout. It was something I will always remember.

After the tour and many photos we went down the left bank of the Seine river. This is what I picture the streets of Paris to be. Tiny streets with vendors and restauraunts all trying to get the "tourists" attention. If I lived here I would go there regularly and sit at a different outdoor cafe and watch the world go by. The lights were strewn from building to building, the little truck with 800 baguettes of bread was there to deliver to each restauraunt. There were 18 shops all selling the same trinkets. We bought some souvenirs and a fresh Baguette and meandered through this wonderful part of Paris. It began to get very cold so we headed back across the Seine and tried to find the right bus stop for our bus. For first timers we did great. PJ's stroller does not fit through the front door of the bus so we were forced to take the back door as the other passengers got off the bus. This means we also "forgot" to pay for any or our bus rides that day. Again compliments to my tour guide. Lisa made us a wonderful dinner and that was Sunday. What a busy, wonderful day.

Au revoir,
K&PJ