What's a (mostly) normal day in Paris like 3-19-15

***FROM DEB:  In response to some questions about what our everyday schedule is, I’ll give a quick summary. Warren gets up around 6 and I wake up around 7. He often sprints out to get us fresh baguettes or croissants and then makes tea while I stare blankly at whatever object is directly in front of me. After a cup of good Kusmi English Breakfast tea, I become mostly functional. We send and answer emails, do some little household chores (watering plants, putting away dishes, sweeping endless breadcrumbs of the white tile floor in the kitchen, etc.) and usually read a bit about what we’re planning to see that day. After getting dressed and making sure we have our house keys (a MAJOR concern since we have no backup system and locksmiths cost a FORTUNE), we head out, as Warren comments “at the crack of 10:00”. Or sometimes later. Much later.

 

***We then head either for the bus or for the Metro. Metro is faster, but has lots of stairs that my fussy hip is currently complaining about (just a touch of arthritis and getting better every day, thank you to those of you who asked). The slower busses let us see so much more of the neighborhoods. Takes us somewhere between ~15 minutes to an hour to get where we might want to go.

We maybe pack an easy picnic lunch, or pick up a good sandwich at one of the bakeries, or because it’s still cold, pick a pleasant-looking bistro.

 

***We have been exploring museums, a love of ours, or taking annotated walks laid out in several of the walking books we brought. Both choices often result in us taking off, just to see something that catches our fancy. We wander around quite a bit, ant-fashion. No straight lines. For example, today we ran across the newly renovated Picasso Museum on the way to the Cognacq-Jay Museum, and found the first public library of Paris (housed in a magnificent 17^th century building) while just walking over to look at a corner turret. We stumbled across an area of antique stores that I had read about (Village St. Paul in the Marias) accidentally by heading up an interesting looking street.

 

***Anyway, after doing whatever, we’ve been ending up staggering home somewhere between 6 and 8. My days of 12 hour sightseeing are definitely over. Six or eight hours and I’m done.

 

***I whip up a bit of dinner, which I have to do before I sit down or I’m doomed. One or the other of us does dishes. We try to catch the news, either BBC or SkyNews or the French news if we’re not feeling brain-dead. Spend a bit of time translating words we didn’t understand during the day and having a good laugh over what we thought they meant and didn’t. Warren’s been catching a little rugby on TV and improving his sportscasting French. I’m slowly making my way through a giant history of art book I brought with us.

 

***And so to bed…