Monday 7/25/16

Laura and I walked up the street to a wonderful bakery, Maison Plisson, and picked up croissants and other goodies for breakfast.  These must be the best croissants in Paris, if not France - melt in your mouth delicious!  We then all walked to Notre Dame Catherdral - great gargoyles and a first for us:  a stained glass window with opening panels to let in fresh air!  We walked back and on the way stopped to pick up empanadas for lunch - very good.  We then took the Metro to the Arc de Triomphe.  What a wonderful view from the top and what a crazy traffic mess!  There are 8 boulevards that come into a circle around the Arc, including the Champs Elysees, which is 4 - 6 lanes wide.  There are no lines in the circle so people just make their own way around and cut in front of others when they want to get out onto one of the boulevards - fascinating to watch!  There was a quick little rain shower when we were at the top - this thinned out the crowd.  We stood under an overhang until it passed.  It was a warm day so the wet shirt felt good.  When we came down, we decided to walk along the Champs Elysees so that we could window shop in the very expensive stores and Dan could fancy car spot for his blog.  We came back and had a nice dinner at the Cafe Hugo at the Place de Vosges, just down the street from the apartment.