The day dawned tres booteeful so we headed off for Plan A. Place our lock on Bridge Du Love along with previously placed locks from Della clan. Easily found and mission accomplished. One does wonder if it will be there in December though. Guys were cutting off locks in one section while there and least 30% of sections were boarded up now.
Most holidays have that one recurring theme that both amuses and annoys. In Paris it has been trying to get service in a fucking cafe!
Case 1 . Breakfast at Le Deux Maggots on way to locking down our lurve. We saw Gerard the waiter as we approached the outside tables and sat down. He saw us too. Some tables had a menu lying on them but no pattern apparent. No tables were set up as such. Nothing happens for 10 mins. Reach over and grab a menu from table 3 feet away and suddenly Gerard arrives! Nice breakfast but 7 euro for a small coffee!
Case 2. Found another cafe for a late morning tea after much walking. Sat down outside with a table that had a menu at it. If nothing else the boy is a quick learner .Waitress continued to wipe tables nearby and ignoring us. Eventually she rocks up. Bonjour. The menu had plenty of food and drinks but nothing sweet like a biscuit or cake so we placed our coffee order and enquired ” Do you have any cakes? ” ” Oui Madame ” and walks off. 5 minutes later coffees turn up. Nothing else, no cakes, no menu?? Meanwhile some French tart turns up and is served straight away . Eventually we had to get up and go inside to pay our bill.
So after the very pleasant walk across the bridge we were in Louvre territory so thought we would go and have a laugh at line ups etc and maybe throw popcorn at the tourists as they waited. Lo and behold the lines were relatively small (0930 am) and moving quickly so we went in and got our fill of cultcha for the day. A Mona here, a Venus there , avoid 4000 Japs and then back out into the real world.
Some more thoughts on life as a Frog. For largely monosyllabic grunters who rarely smile let alone speak to you why do they insist on cramming people next to each other in restaurants like forced integration ? It makes for an unpleasant dining experience when you are virtually sitting in the lap of the person next to you. Conversely in large groups they tend to speak loudly to the point of annoyance. Another feature have noticed this time around is the habit of some people (ie more than one) to walk down the street still with motorcycle/scooter helmet on?? WTF. Mind you, have noticed that the female bicyclists are always smiling. I suspect it is the cobbled streets. One thing though, the French do know their bread and give you plenty of it. Great stuff. And slimming to boot. Yay.
So after a relaxing afternoon headed out for a great little Tapas dinner and onto the Arc de Triomphe for a sunset glimpse of the Eiffel et al. CLP suggested going to top as ” only 40 steps ” . Sucked in again ! Sadly it was smoggy as usual so no classic sunset but was a nice evening all the same
Now I need my sleep as big day tomorrow.
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flashman181 