More msscullyred photos!  As I said in my earlier post, we went to the catacombs, which are behind a green door across the street from the Metro station.  On the one hand, no souvenir sellers or other signs that it is a tourist sight.  On the other, it is a very strange thing to make a tourist sight of in the first place.  But here are some steps in the dark where we walked, it seemed forever,



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A friend of Red's came to visit and took us out to see some parks.  Well we were looking for a market that wasn't there anymore,  and we stumbled on this amazing park (Belleville Park) in our subsequent wanders



More under the cut, and the usual--bigger picks with the clicks

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Here are just a few pics from our shopping in Paris.  Well, not the shopping really.  We went to the main Printemps and Gallerie Lafayette on Haussmann Blvd, and they were amazing--three or four buildings for each department store, and they are sort of next to each other, so between them they are a small city of shopping right there in the heart of the Paris.  We couldn't afford to shop in them because they were mostly haut couture--I thought that was sold in little shops, not huge department stores, but there were sections for Dolce and Gabana and Nina Ricci and lots of really expensive names that cost more per piece than my monthly rent.  I was kind of amazed that they could have so many floors of so many really expensive things.  But we had lunch at Printemps, under the amazing dome--



Here we are, in the elegant restaurant.  The table was mirrored in the center, so msscullyred took our pictures in the mirror.

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Here are some more msscullyred  pics from out trip to Normandy (click for bigger image).  in previous posts (May 14 & 18), I posted pics of Giverny and Gaillard.  Later, after Gaillard, we stayed the night on the Seine in Normandy,



in a small apartment resort next to a mill that had been turned into a quaint inn.  ( More pics )

I'm home!  I will be posting some of msscullyred's great pics tomorrow, but today I am going to try to stay awake until 9 tonight, then fall into bed.

Biggest shock so far--the weather.  It is ten degrees hotter here.  Grabbed some dinner at Bugambillas, a nice, authentic Mexican restaurant down the street and now I am ready to fall on my face.  But looking out my window at the bridge and thinking, there is no bad here.

In about an hour and a half the cab will be here, and I'll be heading to the airport for home.  msscullyred and I wandered the town yesterday, picking up the last of the souvenirs and stopping at cafes along the way.  Then we sat up until two in the morning sorting photos and downloading her terrific pics into my computer.  I'll be finishing the blog this weekend, with plenty of pics of Rheims (yes, we did go, on our own!) and Notre Dame and Fontainbleau and Versaille.  But for now the suitcase is packed and it is time for the computer to join it.  A last few chores around the house here and I'm heading home.  It will be nice to see friends and family and my own favorite places, but I will sorely miss the favorite places I found here!  Goodbye tree outside my window!  Goodbye Cafe Francoeur!  Goodbye Montmartre!

So the lovely Rheims tour is not going to happen.  But they refunded our money and are giving us the afternoon at Fontainbleau for free this afternoon.  And we figure we've been looking into Rheims on your own, and the cellars are in easy reach of the train station by walking or taxi, and so we will have the do-it-yourself version.   In the meantime, Fontainbleau in the afternoon.

More when we slow down a bit, but Cluny was quite amazing, and the ballet was gorgeous.  Beautifully danced.  Much applause.  No standing, which would seem a very unFrench thing to do, but many curtain calls.

Must eat lunch before the car arrives for Fontainbleau!

Cluny yesterday. Ballet--of Eugene Onegin--at the Opera Garnier today, and Rhiems and the the champagne wineries tomorrow. I can't believe the trip is almost over and there is so much I haven't done!


ETA:  Where is my Rheims van?!  Late, late, late!  I could have slept an extra half hour!

ETA again!:  No Rheims van!  He went to a completely wrong address, and then left without us!  Currently doing laundry (a fairly desperate necessity, since I brought only a week's worth of clothes with me) and waiting for the agency to call back to see what we can do tomorrow to make up for the loss of Rheims today.  I thought, just try again, but he says they are booked up for the rest of the week on the champagne tour.  We can take the train to Rheims ourselves for the cathedral, but we would not get the champagne growers that way, and I am much more interested in the champers than another fusty old cathedral.  Impressed once.  Impressed twice.  Third time, yawn.  I am so shallow!

Finally the Gaillard pictures--we are off to Normandy!  Click to enlarge the pics.






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Will try to get castle gaillard pictures up tomorrow.  In the meantime, here is a postcard msscullyred made of our visit to the department stores.  ( This one is  )Went to the catacombs today.  Down a million steps into this narrow tunnel that winds deep until you find the stacks of bones, all sorted by the cemetery they originally were buried in.  The bones were moved because the cemeteries were causing disease and they wanted to clear out the bodies.  It is interesting to see the bones of so may people stacked like cordwood under the city streets.  No tourist signs or gift shop or anything like you'd expect at home--just a green iron door, a turnstile, and those million steps.  I did not freak out, even though I was pretty claustrophobic.  Even the walls of the tunnel were interesting, becasue the stone in different parts was dressed differently.  And in one area t local scenes from above were  carved into niches in the stone.  Very interesting.  Then a charcuterie (coldcuts) place at a cafe and home. 

Je and her friend Kate stopped by with their huge pinneaple and they had a good day too, wandering up by Sacre Coeur in the rain.  Then poulet roti and veg at home, and goodnight!