Paris: Day 17

After a long day yesterday walking to Montmartre, walking around the area, and then walking home, Luke was pretty tired of being out and about. He took 3 naps today, and so we did not make it to the Orsay museum like we planned. Instead we stayed in the apartment and played and rested. During his third nap, Allison decided to take a nap also, so I went out to walk around for a while.

I ended up making my way over to the Left Bank of the Seine (pronounced sen) River, passing various cafes and shops.

One of the cafes I saw - Indiana Tex-Mex?














I ended up at the Jardin du Luxembourg and the Palais du Luxembourg (the Luxembourg Garden and Palace). The palace is where the French Senate resides. The garden is basically a park, where Parisians can relax beside the various pools, lay in the sun and grass, play in the children's playground, play tennis and basketball, and various other activities. Across from the garden is another, smaller, park with a children's playground and ping pong tables. Parisians like to spend time outdoors!























































After walking through the garden, I went to St. Sulpice, a nearby church made famous recently by its inclusion in The DaVinci Code. The "Rose Line" is here, although the church has erected a sign refuting "a recently written novel." It is pretty neat, though, because the sun shines through a hole on the south side, hitting a bronze line that runs from an obelisk on the north side, down the obelisk, to the altar, and ending near the south side of the church. At Christmas mass, the sunlight is hitting the obelisk, and by midsummer the sunlight is hitting the center of the altar area.

the obelisk in St. Sulpice




















After I returned we got ready and went out to dinner. We went in and sat down to eat and ordered a meat platter (Allison) and the Duck Delight (Philip). Both dishes were very good! After eating we walked back to the apartment by going down to Place de la Bastille, where a concert was going on to celebrate Bastille Day tomorrow. We heard a few songs by a Nordic pop group, and then walked back to our apartment. On the way we passed the line for the fireman's ball in our district, which happens to be on our street, Sevigne. The balls and concerts were to start tonight and go until dawn tomorrow, and then the festivities start again at 9:00 with a parade.

Allison & Lucas at the restaurant















duck delight















Place de la Bastille concert















the Sevigne fireman's ball