SUNDAY IN PARIS

Sunday in Paris, May 3, 2009
Nice thing about most all of our Hostel rooms is that they most always include a breakfast. The one here at the Young and Happy is a good one…. Coffee, OJ, cereal and 2 large breads with fixings. It’s always nice to start the day with a full tummy. After eating we put all our luggage in the storage room as when we return this afternoon it will be to a different room……. Then off we went to find the Pantheon which is suppose to be within walking distance… were told that a McDonalds and a church would be nearby….. found the Pantheon without much trouble but it was closed until later in the day. This did not surprise us as it is Sunday, our goal for this morning was to find a mass to attend and check the McDonalds for internet.

We did find the McDonalds and yes it does have free internet but ended up being further away from our hostel then we thought it would be so will look for the other one that may
be closer for us to walk. But more importantly we found the church of Saint Leon… following other people who were walking to mass we ended up in the Chapel, we assumed that the big church must be shut down for restoration or something as everyone was headed for the chapel. A lovely mass that was attended by mainly families with children and a few older people. It was really a mass geared to the children and even though it was a bit noisy the pastors sermon, in French, must have been good as at several points people were laughing with him. After mass we noticed that the door was open in the front of the big church so decided to go in and check it out….. High Mass was in full progress as we came through the doors…. We really did attend the children’s mass… but enjoyed it and noted to ourselves that the only Sunday we have missed mass was when we were in England.

From here we walked until we found the street market and knew that we must be close to the restaurant, Le Café Du Commerce, where we were to meet Martha’s friends that she met while traveling in Australia during 2008. Nicolas & Maeliss with their month old new baby girl, Nine had offered to take us to lunch while we were in Paris. What a delightful place they had chosen. This restaurant was opened in 1921 and had four levels of dining areas built around an open atrium full of greenery, with an glass opening in the top to let in the sunlight. We had a great lunch and 2 hours of sharing our travel experiences and catching up on their lives while little Nine, pronounced Nin, slept throughout most of the meal. Nicolas and Maeliss are both lawyers and they hope to be able to visit the US, especially the west coast, within the next year or so. They asked what our next museum was and offered to give us a ride in their car… needless to say we took them up on their gracious offer for a ride to the Marmottan Musee.

The Musee Marmottan was a lovely home that has been turned into a showcase for mostly paintings of Claude Monet. Remember we visited his home in Giverny so many of these pictures were familiar looking to us as we had seen the actual places where he had done these paintings. During the walk to their car, Nicolas and Maeliss shared with us that Nicolas’s parent live very near to Giverny and their wedding photos were done at the Monet’s Gardens. Actually there were many other paintings, some by Renoir and a few Rodin sculptures. A small museum but very enjoyable…. Nice ending to a nice day.

A post note….forgot to tell you that we found out yesterday why all the museums etc
Had been so busy…. This was a three day holiday weekend for the French …that’s why we had long lines everywhere. Also we thought we were getting twin beds in our new room… turned out to be bunk beds with no ladder to climb up on and no side rails to keep you from falling out. We were able to borrow a tall stool from the common room for Martha to use so she could reach her bed…. Then we made a makeshift railing out of our clothesline and my 2 luggage straps… talk about a photo opportunity…