First full day in Paris!  And it was BEAUTIFUL outside.  I went early to the bakery and brought back wonderful pastries and croissants; we each effectively ate a stick of butter for breakfast.  We hit the streets and wandered up to Notre Dame cathedral.  But the line to go INTO the cathedral was ridiculously long; we got kind of a late start.  So we admired the outside, then promised to return another day that week EARLY in the morning to see the inside (SPOILER ALERT:  we NEVER made it back to Notre Dame).  From there we walked a few blocks to the Conciergerie, a former prison that housed hundreds of prisoners during the French Revolution, many of whom went from there straight to the guillotine!  The kids were naturally FASCINATED by the guillotine.  The Conciergerie also held Marie Antoinette as she awaited her ultimate fate.  It’s a fascinating place to visit and learn about the process during the Revolution; it was a rather paranoid period in French history!  [BTW, the last execution by guillotine in France was in…..1977!]  C’est horrible!

After the Conciergerie, we crossed the river back into our neighborhood, and wound our way through the quaint but bustling streets….

[ASIDE:  The thing that struck me most profoundly about Paris during this time back was this:  all the stereotypes about Paris, all the movie scenes, all the caricatures…. they’re all TRUE.  Paris is REALLY LIKE THAT.  There really ARE old men on the street corners playing accordions.  There really are countless pairs of lovers embracing on the banks of the Seine.  There really are sidewalk cafés every 10 feet, where people slow down and sit and drink wine or coffees and watch the ladies ride by on their bicycles with baguettes sticking out of the handlebar baskets.  And it’s not a show – even off the beaten tourist paths, these things exist and reflect a way of daily Parisian life that we’ve all imagined.  And there’s a comfort in that, a familiarity…..an unexpected speed with which you, even as a foreigner, find yourself falling into the daily rhythm being played out around you.  So even though I’m sure the Stumbos stuck out like sore American thumbs to the natives around us, WE felt like we blended in, right from Day 1.  I ordered breads and pastries at the local boulangerie with the refinement of my high-school French.  We bought groceries, we lingered at cafés, we reclined on the grass in the park and read.  We stopped HURRYING.  We SAVORED; that Parisian practice that I treasured most of all…..]

We strolled through our neighborhood, stopping first at for crêpes from a sidewalk vendor near our street.  We split along sweet/savory lines – some ordered ham and cheese (jambon et fromage) and some ordered NUTELLA.  Our intention was to meander in the general direction of the Luxembourg Palace and its wonderful gardens.  I, the master navigator, was sure I was headed correctly.  LouAnn begged to differ.  “Nonsense,” I replied, “I know exactly where we are.”  Well, I could waste a lot of words and space here elaborating, but suffice to say LouAnn was RIGHT, and we walked many more miles that day than we needed to, and after we finally righted ourselves at her direction and entered the gates of the Gardens, I was still getting quite an earful from the better half.

The Luxembourg Gardens are wonderful.  In the center, behind the palace, is a huge, shallow fountain filled with small toy sailboats that are rented nearby.  We sat and watched them.  We also walked over to see the ancient grotto.  By this time, we were hungry for dinner,  so we headed north again towards our apartment and wound up at Relais L’Entrecote for some WONDERFUL steak frites, the only thing on the menu.  Our waitress was so cute; she loved the kids and kept bringing them extra fries.  After stuffing ourselves with steak, fries, and towering desserts, we wandered back towards the apartment.  I went back to rest, and LouAnn took the kids to see Pont des Arts, where all the lovers have hung their locks.  A trip which included, of course, highland dancing alongside a dashing young bagpiper.

In front of our apartment.

Look, kids – Notre Dame!

Inside the Conciergerie

Our local crêperie!  She was a master!

And they had DR. PEPPER!!!

Following their fearless leader!  In the wrong direction.

Giorgio and me.

Playground in the Luxembourg Gardens

Luxembourg Palace

Steak Frites!

Our sweet waitress.

OBNOXIOUS desserts!  (this was after I head left to go back to the apartment to rest)

Cappuccino selfie

Pont des Arts