Friday, July 24

Happy to be in Paris!

Mom, looking Parisian.

Cool picture by Mom from inside Pompidou.

Mom, lips.

Me, boobs.

Fountain at Pompidou Center.

Not as windy.

Mom being happy.

Love this weather.

Time for Mom/Gail to write. Thoughts/observations after sleeping (sort of) for 12 hours:

-Ambien is overrated. It does NOT keep one from waking up in the middle of the night and stay awake for an hour or two.

-One can still be VERY sleepy after 12 hours of sleep following 25 hours of not sleeping.

-Haven't felt this sleep-deprived since Jay and Kat were infants.

Got up around 7:30 and had some chips and yogurt along with a peach (it's all we had). Felt a bit better after that. Felt even better after sitting on our sofa with the window open behind me, allowing a cool breeze and warm sunshine in. Ah, Paris. Wonderful Paris.

We set off for the Pompidou Center, ostensibly one block away from our apartment. Stopped for a to-die-for super buttery croissant. After about 8 blocks of walking in circles (yes, we followed the signs, but didn't have a good map), we finally found it! Enjoyed the fountain beside it with all the fun sculptures in it. See photos. Too crowded to stand in line for the museum, so we went to a boulangerie to pick up lunch (jambon et frommage and a brownie) to eat back in our apartment. The apartment is so nice it's hard to leave! It's a vacation in itself! It took us about as long to find our apartment as it did to find the Pompidou Center this morning. Nous étions perdues. The upside of all this is that we saw many, many charming side lanes with amazing shops (one was a button shop). We headed back out to the Pompidou Center after lunch and the application of blister band-aids on my heels. Bought our Paris Museum Pass which lets us in almost all museums any number of times for six days. It also gets you a go-right-to-the-front-of-the-line pass. Very important for this aging traveler. Headed back to the Pompidou Museum (not crowded by then). Didn't spend long in there (we can go back anytime). Kat needed coffee. Her ear is all clogged up too and is not feeling so great. Left there and hit a Monop' (a mini Monoprix) to pick up some fresh pasta, tomatoes, garlic, and cereal for some in-house eating.

I've managed to bungle the French language several times today. Said "Merci" for "Bonjour" once. Tried to speak French only to have the person say "do you speak English?" and I continued to not understand even the English! When buying our museum passes, I requested them in French and the girl asked where we were from and spoke in perfect English. Stupidly, I kept answering her in bad French, not registering that she was actually speaking in English and she finally asked which language I wanted to converse in. Think I'll just keep my mouth shut.

:-) I'm hoping all these faux pas are due to lack of sleep. I'll let you know tomorrow!

I'll let Kat post the pics.

Think we'll stay in again tonight and make an early night of it. Hopefully we'll feel much better tomorrow and get our groove on.