Tonight’s post will be brief due to exhaustion on this end. Sigh of relief by all. After walking over ten and a half miles yesterday, we added almost twelve today, The day blessed us again with crystal blue skies, sunshine, and temperature in the high eighties. After a late and leisurely breakfast at an outdoor cafe we headed along the river in the opposite direction from Notre Dame. We only left the river when we reached the  Louvre Museum. We didn’t enter the museum today, but strolled through the courtyards, admired the glass pyramid and the Tuileries Gardens. From there we continued on via the Avenue des Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triumph, and then a long circuitous route all the way to the Eiffel Tower. By this time the feet were screaming for a break and we found a quiet neighborhood with a shaded cafe. Refreshing drinks and a small plate of wonderful cheese with crusty bread put things right again. Back to the hotel with a leisurely stroll along Rue Cler’s quaint shops and Boulevard  Saint Germain’s shaded lengths, Both peaceful and tiring. Brenda put it all in perspective when she said “nothing here is ordinary. Everything here has a special touch, a subtle different in cultural, unique architecture, and so incredibly much history.”

It is only our second night here, and I fear already there is a trend developing. As we crossed the Pont St Louis (the bridge over to Ile St Louie) to have dinner in a small back alley restaurant, we paused to listen to the same player caress melodies from his piano. After dinner as we recrossed, a young man from Alaska (now living in Paris) was playing guitar and singing on the bridge. He had a golden voice and I swear he has been studying my iTunes play list. He performed songs from Simon & Garfunkel, Woody Guthrie, Kristofferson, Lightfoot, Lenard Cohen, and many more than I can recall. Needless to say we sat on the bridge until midnight and then strolled tiredly back to the hotel beneath the fresh half moon shimmering over the river.