Thursday, 5 April, 2012....late at night...internet slow so will try to send some photos tomorrow.
Continuing our journal for today; Jim was slow to wake and it was 2 pm by the time we left the apartment. We ate breakfast about 1 pm from food that we’d purchased last night at the store: Coffee, Orange Juice, bananas and bread with jam.
Off to the park with our computers to try the free wi-fi provided by the city. I had carefully printed the instructions before leaving home but could not find the right paper this morning so we were “winging” it from memory. No luck after half an hour so we went to the McDonalds in the opposite direction to try our luck there. That should be a breeze but by this time our computers were so confused they didn’t recognize the free McDonald’s hot spot.
Jim turned to a young man sitting next to us who was using his Wi-Fi on his telephone and asked if he could help us. What luck…he spoke perfect English! He spent a year as an exchange student in Michigan. While his food became cold; he worked with our computers; even sharing his code for the Paris free Wi-Fi. We finally got my computer connected and I was able to read a few emails and sent the first blog this morning.
We decided to bite the bullet and purchase a USB port that gives us our own Wi-Fi access. Off to the Orange Store and then home for a bit of internet time for Jim before shutting down and finally heading out of the apartment about 6 pm.
We headed northeast towards the Eiffel Tower; walking near the Peace Monument this time as we traversed the Champ du Mar heading towards Rue Cler. Steve, our internet guru at McDonalds, told us about his parent’s restaurant, Saveurs D’Asie, 145 rue Saint-Dominique in the 7th arrondissement. We headed there for our dinner and met his family. Steve, a second year university student, sat with us for a while after he arrived. We enjoyed our very first Chinese dinner in Paris…actually probably the first in Europe. And, Jim said it was definitely one of the best duck…canard…that he’s eaten. And that is his very favorite dish when we travel!
After dinner we bundled up…it’s dry today but cold, yesterday we had light rain but very little….and continued on to Rue Cler. On the way we spotted what looked like the back of a Catholic Church so decided to walk around the block to see the front. Oops…large block so never saw the front but instead found a Lutheran Church. Started to enter and realized they were having a service so instead walked around it. Towards the back we hit a dead end filled with English speaking people. We looked around and realized we’d accidently found the American University that Steve had told us about. So we had another new site to add to our lists of first on this trip. Soon we were walking down the center of Rue Cler; all the restaurants were full but the shops were closed.
By this time it was well after 8 pm and dusk was coming. We walked back towards the west and home for the night. We stopped along the way for some items at Monoprix and then home. Hopefully we will get an earlier start tomorrow as its Good Friday and Notre Dame is on our list as the display the “crown of thorns” happens from noon to three pm.
No comments:
Post a Comment