I'm exaggerating, but we did cross paths with world events in a minor way today, reminding us of my adventure with the riots in Bangkok last April. You may have heard that there is a lot of popular unrest in Tunisia right now. It's getting major play on CNN International anyway. When we left our hotel this afternoon to explore some residential and less touristy neighborhoods (i.e. Belleville), the President of that country was still hanging on to power. As we walked around we came across a small demonstration of a few hundred Tunisian expats apparently in support of the street protesters in Tunis. The shouting in French that we could make out included the complaint that Sarkozy is an accomplice. By the time we got back to the hotel the President of Tunisia had fled the country and on his way to Paris.
We had a less ambitious agenda today and hopefully found our grove. It certainly led up to our best dinner so far. We started with a visit to Saint-Chapelle in the morning, a 13th-century cathedral founded by Saint Louis, famous for the beauty of its stain glassed windows which make up almost all of the exterior walls.
From there we hiked down to the Latin Quarter to visit the Musee de Moyen Age -- the Museum of the Middle Ages. We were disappointed that the section built over the 1st century Roman baths was closed. We did get to see some very cool tapestries, including The Lady with the Unicorn, which is actually a series of 6 tapestries.
We walked around the neighborhood of the Sorbonne for awhile looking in the bookshop windows and then tried out an ice cream shop that's supposed to be famous. It's been warm enough that we can take our coffee breaks at the sidewalk tables.
Then we took a nap to try and get on the right sleep schedule and to have the energy to hunt down a decent dinner. We can never nap for long in the daytime here because there's an elementary school below our window that has about 7 recess breaks a day I think. It sounds like the kids are in our room sometimes.
In the evening we hiked around Belleville and got chased into a cafe by the rain to have some hot chocolate. We eventually made our way to a proper neighborhood family-run restaurant. Maman running the front, Papa in back, heavy doses of plain peasant food with heavy gravies and sauces, fromage blanc with raspberry sauce for desert and a neighborhood kid who came in for awhile to sing pop songs for tips.
Tomorrow we expect to have a family reunion with an aunt of Ilene's who is visiting Paris for the weekend.
-Robert
