I wake up to sunshine and comfortable temperatures! My immediate mission is to find a croissant and coffee. Then I set off through the Tuileries. It doesn't look like I remember it at all. And it is filled with tourists. So I head toward the Place De Concorde and am rewarded with the memory of a dinner at the Hotel de Crillon (probably in 1988). Next I head for the back streets of the right bank away from the tourists and looking for other places that I recognize. Sadly the best i do is recognizing a Starbucks...and no I did not stop. I finally find myself next to the biggest tourist trap in Paris (The Louvre)...and decide I will see if I can find anything familiar on the Left Bank.
I wander through the back streets until I end up at Place St-Germain Des-pres where there is a band playing dressed in period costumes. I am suddenly nostalgic for this street corner where John and I sat in a cafe watching traffic (1985).
I find a cafe for lunch. I'm having the lamb on a stick with olive Polenta and a Legrand 2009 Chardonnay.
Some other interesting notes about traveling in Europe 18 years later. Wifi is not as readily available as it is in Asia or even Eastern Europe. Travel with a credit card with a chip and pin. Your credit card never leaves the table but the system doesn't work if your card doesn't have a pin.
The French are so civilized. Just stop anytime for a glass of wine or coffee if you get tired of walking. Walking through des Halles, I stopped for a Kir Royale at Chien au Fume.
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