First Days In Paris

Daughter Rebecca and grand-daughter Penelope arrived at CDG on July 7th, and we met them there, RER'd back to Paris and our apartment, then headed out for some initial walks in the neighborhood and BHV. Trying to fight off the jet-lag. No pix. They slept well that night. Next day we did most of the Carnavalet--P had been studying French history from the Enlightenment through the Revolution--to those we of course added the Belle Epoche, but no more. We then walked to the Samaritaine department store, which Rebecca had not seen since its re-opening a year or two ago. Again, few pix. And then to Mollard, a favorite art nouveau restaurant, for dinner celebrating our 54th wedding anniversary. Next morning, Rebecca departed for London, to meet husband Jeremy, and a week there. Our day with P included the Bastille market, Les Halles, and a couple gothic churches in the neighborhood, St. Merry and St. Eustache. Few pix. As I explained, we were more intent on showing Paris to P than documenting it all. Nonetheless...

Someone else's great shot of the interior of Samaritaine's
oldest building, now restored

Displaying its history...50s, 60s, 70s TV ads playing
on TV sets from the same times

I usually document our fine, or awful, meals better than this time;
we were having too much fun looking around at the Mollard decor
and being with Rebecca and Penelope; the gist here is that I got
to have two or maybe even three entrees (by design)

Vicki's onion soup

My pate; forgot to take pix of the main courses altogether

My baked Alaska with Grand Marnier (after flaming at the table)

Vicki's berry soup dessert

Us, 54+ years happy, in one of our happy places

Penelope got her introductory lecture on Gothic architecture at
St. Merry's, across from the Pompidou, sometimes referred to as
"little Notre Dame," a church we'd never been in before

The lectures continued at St. Eustache, other side
of Les Halles, a big late Gothic I've always liked,
now substituting for Notre Dame while its reconstruction
continues; set up for an organ concert, a nice juxtaposition
of console and pipes; I thought

Vicki and Penelope looking into some of the art work;
P is still pretty creeped-out by all the memorials, funereal
stuff

Sculpture/rock-climbing outside St. Eustache