Another day in Paris

Yesterday was a great day visiting the 5th floor of Musee d’Orsay to see the Impressionst Collection. After I hired a cyclist to take me to the Champs Elyses.  On the way back I stopped at the Macdonalds there, bought lunch for Laura and I.  The taxi had me back at our place while the burgers and fries were still warm. Laura was delighted.  She’s twisted her ankle at the Louvre a little and decided on a day off.  

Today we both felt great passing our antigen home kits. Her ankle was back to normal. I had a good sleep dreaming of being with Madigan.  We stopped at the Pharmacie and the lovely lady there said, 

“Yes, yes, we do the test right here.  A day before you fly out. No appointment. 25 euro.  Just come by tomorrow.”  I liked her a lot.  So here we were with a home negatives and a test spot a block from our hotel.  We certainly didn’t want to be quarantined the day we were about to return . 

We had bought more refridgerator magnets. Laura was carrying them in my grocer bag. I carry a bag with my lap top.  Every urban European carries a bag for such.  I thought Laura would look better in another purse.

There’s an special orange fashion colour that has  just appeared.  “ I said, “I think it would carry the magnet swag better than my grocer bag.” 

“I’d love one,” she said.

The sales girl agreed  “They just came in yesterday,” She unwrapped one and Laura put it on, filling it with fridge mag swag and giving me back the my grocer bag

A cafe with convenient seats appeared.  I love French cafe’s.  The waiter, another delightful young man, arrived.

“Dieux cappuccino, “ I said.  

Laura not speaking french looked through the menu and leaped at the word ‘omelette’.

“I could have an omelette, “ she said .  “It comes with salad but I’d rather fries. I could just have fries.”

The waiter came back and I ordered dos omelette and pomme Frits. 

“You want Omelette and fries.” He asked

Yes,

So one omelette and one bowl of fries came. 

“I really just wanted fries,” Laura said, enjoying the mayonnaise and ketchup condiments that came for dipping.

I had the ham and cheese omelette that tasted so good.  It’s so true. The food tastes better here. The air or sunshine, street life, being on holiday and of course great chefs. The French treat their chef’s like rock stars.

While we ate we watched the ever present street fashion show. I love Europeans because they care how they appear in public.  We saw this in Italy, in Edinburgh and of course Paris.  We saw a sweater in Laura’s new orange and some high end boots.  I loved the mini skirts. Laura pointed out some goth boots.  

“I love that dress pattern. I’ve been seeing similar all week,” I said to Laura, pointing to a lovely lady walking by. 

“That’s the pattern and colour Kate’s been wearing”. Laura said.

“Kate?””

“I guess Duchess Kate. You know the one you like. Kate of Kate and William.” 

‘Oh that Kate’.

“Yes, the women here all wear long wool coats too.” She said. “   My friend said she’d never go out without her coat. Make up and coat and she could wear pyjamas under that to get milk or whatever she needed before rushing home to her apt when lived in  Paris.”

“I know. I see a lot of the wool coats.” I said. “  The guys have 3/4 length wool coats a lot too. I suspect it works well with the climate here.” 

We finished lunch and coffee and gathered up our stuff to leave. There’s no pressure. We just wanted to move along.  

Our next stop was a luggage store. We’d planned to check in a bag but had yet to get one. I could have got a cheap duffle bag but instead bought a French made leather over the shoulder bag that will go well with my Vespa.  I still haven’t seen a Harley here.  The biggest bikes are BMW’s and not the biggest.  The most common are the scooters 100 to 600 cc.   Bicycles are most popular with lots of electric styles.  They also have these electric skateboards.  

We saw a grocer and I loved that they had a fresh orange juice making machine that took oranges like a coffee bean grinder and squeezed our the freshest juice.  We bought more baguettes as well.  I suspect there’s a Baguette Anonymous meeting here. 

Then I showed Laura why we’d taken the longer way back. There was the Norte Dame Cathedral.  She was so pleased to see it and wanted a picture of herself with the baguettes. “That’s a perfect Paris picture, ‘ she said.  “Me with baguettes in front of the Norte Dame. I love it.” 

It was 2 pm when we returned to the rooms where Laura opened the window immediately enjoying the sunshine, fresh air and cooing of the pigeons.