Have I mentioned yet that I’m really happy to be here?

Calli and I had the best of intentions this morning, and yet, we still were not awake until 10:30. After some discussion, we made our plan. Get ready quick, and actually try to have some coffee & croissants somewhere. A real, Parisian breakfast.

At noon, (see? The best of intentions…) we found ourselves at Cafe Carette, across the street from the beautiful park at Place de Vosges.

As we sat at Cafe Carette, a photographer sat down for lunch. He is the very essence of a 50 year old French photographer— chin length salt & pepper hair and and beard, a white button up paired with a tan linen vest, a gold watch on his wrist, and a camera hanging from his shoulder.

He turns around and takes a picture of who I can only assume is a stranger to him. The stranger is an Indian man who I noticed was speaking English & had lots of questions for the waitress about the menu.

The stranger kind of grumbled at the photographer first. Then he picks up his knife, points it at the photographer, smiles, and laughs. The photographer took his photo again. Then he joined their table and took more photos of the Indian man’s grown son & daughter sitting with him.

After a couple minutes he returned to his lunch; steak-frites and the biggest glass of rosé I have ever seen.

It was a random and insignificant moment that I will never forget.

When we finished brunch (I had a smoked salmon sandwich and Calli had a salad, we both enjoyed iced coffees with milk), we grabbed chocolate croissants and macarons from the café’s patisserie. We walked across the street and enjoyed some of our sweets in the park, we sat on a bench under the trees—which, by the way, the branches are cut extremely low to provide ample shade. I’m only 5’7” and they were skimming my head a little when we walked.

From the park we got on the metro and headed to Sacré Cœur Basilica. There were lots and lots (and lots) of steps involved with this adventure, so I was really thankful that at least it had clouded over. We enjoyed the view from the base of the church, and toured through the inside. Before I left I sat in one of the pews and prayed a Hail Mary in French— it seemed like the thing to do.

We walked along Montmartre some more, and I think my favorite part was the whole pavilion where local artists were selling their work. It reminded me a lot of An American in Paris. I even saw some of the artists sketching tourists portraits, the detail and accuracy was incredible. It makes me want to laugh at all the artists that I’ve seen drawing caricatures in the states.

At some point I heard an adult choir practicing an acapella rendition of Champs-Elysées inside a building across the street. I mean… how perfect, cliché, and cinematic is that? It was the highlight of the day I think.

The clouds got darker so we decided to head home before we got poured on, but not before stopping into Monoprix again to buy some groceries for dinner tonight. When we got back to the Airbnb we relaxed for an hour or two before Calli strolled into my room and asked if I wanted to go get gelato. Despite the fact that we hadn’t even begun making dinner yet, I said yes.

We got our gelato at Glace Room and enjoyed it on a bench by the Place de la Bastille. We walked along the Port de l’Arsenal where we discovered a beautiful park just beyond the bridge. We made our way home and Calli started dinner; spinach and ricotta tortellini with chicken.

She realized that we had absolutely no seasoning for the chicken, or any wine, so I was sent back to Monoprix. When I was there I noticed that the place was actually packed with people all around my age getting dinner supplies. Now I’m kind of curious to go back there again around the same time and see if that was just a coincidence or not.

Now I’m thinking that’s kind of dumb. Of course it wasn’t a coincidence— I might be an American but I’m still in my twenties. If someone hasn’t made a plan for me, I’m not thinking about dinner until 8:00 at the earliest.

Calli cooked everything to perfection, and we watched Gilmore Girls again. We’ve now reached the beginning of Rory and Jess’ train wreck relationship. Poor Dean…

Well. That’s all for today. Time to get an earlier nights sleep, hopefully, and get up a little earlier tomorrow. Hopefully. We’ll see.

Jusqu’à la prochaine tasse de café!

- Ken