I had my alarm set for 09:45. It is very quiet out on this holiday morning. The rain is drizzling out our window. I start the day by making back up copies of all of our photos. This takes a long time to sort the images and make the disks the correct size to burn.
We have breakfast of grits, chocolate croissants, cheese and baguette. Then it’s off to the Louvre. After a call to see if it is open on this rainy holiday, they say ou. We arrive in the pouring rain. We wait in line about 30 minutes for a ticket. The place is packed. We zoom through the rooms filled with glorious paintings and statues. It is not allowed to take photos in the rooms with paintings. The sign is posted in 20 languages. But there are still people trying to take photos of the Mona Lisa. The guards are constantly trying to stop people from taking photos.
Over on the statue side it is okay to take photos. Sam takes photos of his penguin with many statues. They are actually quite good.
At 16:00 we decide that we have had enough. Let’s go back to the Sacre-Coeur. The weather is looking up outside. We make our way back to the Il St Louis for lunch in the apartment. I fix pasta, herbs de Provence chicken, green beans and baguette.
When we leave the apartment it is raining again. We arrive at the station and it is cleared a little. We walk around Montmartre looking in the shops and just absorbing the sights. Got some good pictures of the cafes with reflections off the wet cobblestones.
We head to the Moulin Rouge. It is in site as we come up from the Blanche Metro station. There is a bus load of tourists there taking photos when we arrive, then all of a sudden the bus pulls up and they are gone. We have the place to ourselves. As Sam is taking a photo of Guy, 3 other young people there see him taking the photo, they are laughing but one of the girls pulls out something that looks like a lamb and takes the same type of photo.
Sam wants to go back to the Concorde to take a photo with the lights on, so we head back that direction. The wind is howling. We discover upon returning to the apartment that it is 9C out side. It is 21:40 and we think the lights will come on at 22:00. Rhonda stays till then and then says, ”I’m going back to the Hotel”. I walk her back to the Metro entrance. Sam and I stay for another 20 minutes or so. Sam was so cold the he could not keep his hands still to take a photo he is so cold.
Upon returning to the apartment Rhonda has washed the dishes and warmed up the leftovers. It is still good.
