Saint Mary of the Stairs

Once again I proved I'm determined to run Grandma into the ground, she dubbed herself "Saint Mary of the Stairs" after one of our many journeys through the metro tunnels- she'll be in top physical condition by the time I'm done with her!

We started our day at the Arc de Triomphe, where we and about 500 of our closest friends paid our respects to France's Unknown Soldier. Quite a stunning piece of architecture.

We walked all the way along the Champs-Elysses from the Arc to the Place de la Concorde, considered stopping in the Petit Palais, an art gallery, but were deterred by horrendously long line.  We really need a museum pass. We did also take the time to stop in the Louis Vuitton store, have some pizza for lunch, and pass by the Toyota dealership, where we saw my dad's next vehicle. Motorcycle? Powerchair? Jetpack?

Lunch, while overpriced, was quite delicious. It was a little awkward to eat pizza with a knife and fork, especially when the pizza doesn't come already sliced. Grandma made me promise that I'd include that I managed to launch my fork across the restaurant. Twice. The couple sitting next to us was amused. The waiter brought Grandma some horribly sweet fruit juice nightmare instead of the rose she'd ordered, so he brought us little tiramisu mousses :) Yum yum!




I then took us on an (admittedly roundabout) journey through Ile de la Cite to Notre Dame. Poor Granny. But it was definitely one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen. Packed with tourists obviously, but I managed to get some good pictures. My mom will appreciate this one: Supposedly spirits or ghosts will show up in pictures in the form of "orbs". Look what happened as soon as I stepped into the chorus of the cathedral:
and every picture I took in the chorus had at least one or two orbs in it. But none of the pictures in the ... other bit... had any. Tres interessant!

After Notre Dame we decided we needed some energy, so we went to a cafe right across the street that Grandma went to last time she was in Paris, before she went to Mass and Notre Dame. I am really starting to enjoy cafe espress, and Grandma's going to have to learn because her cafe americain cost about three times more than mine! On the way home we got some tartes to save for dessert, and some bread and cheese. Tres francais! We're resting before dinner now (I'm pretty sure Grandma fell asleep) so that we can eat at a more french hour than last night.

The French is coming along nicely, I haven't managed to make a total fool out of myself, though I did have a bit of a deer-in-the-headlights moment in the boulangerie. I wasn't quite prepared for the accelerated velocity at which the woman was speaking, and the lady in line behind me had to come to my rescue. But then I managed to sustain a short conversation in French, so I didn't seem like a complete clueless tourist!