...and the Croissants are Still Good!

Chuck strolled down to one of the many boulangeries in our neighborhood, Les Marais, this morning.  This is not only the Jewish Quarter but also the Gay mecca.  It's a very interesting neighborhood that has recently become a very expensive area.  We are loving it.  But back to the important stuff.  He returned with 2 croissants and 2 baguettes.  We made a pot of strong, dark coffee and swooned over our tiny yogurts, croissants and torn baguette with apricot jam.

Fully sated and raring to go, we hopped on our metro, transferred once and managed to find the start of our Paris Canal Cruise.  We decided this was a good way to survive jet lag--by relaxing and doing nothing as the sights slowly rolled past.  It was a perfect time, with perhaps 22 people total on the barge-like boat.  We started on the Seine, floating past the usual famous landmarks while making our way to my real destination, Canal St. Martin.  After making our way through this very long tunnel with no light at the end (it curves) we came to our first of 9 locks and some wonderful sights to see.

Canal St. Martin was made famous by the movie "Amelie" and this bridge in particular.

This is a cute cafe Canal side.

We returned to our apartment to rest and have a picnic lunch indoors: some nice French cheese, the other baguette, apples and some gazpacho we bought in the juice section of the grocery store (really good).  Chuck napped and I read, then we walked to our metro stop, St. Paul, to meet up with Paris Walks.  Today's walk was Les Marais.  We learned a lot, laughed a lot and had a great time.  We began by walking right up our street and past our apartment, learning that our street was one of the first to be paved back in the 12th century.
The French do have a sense of humor.

Obviously we needed sustenance after our grueling 2.5 hour walk.  This is gelato from Amorino, where they turn all their cones into flowers.  Words cannot describe how good this was, cafe and framboise (coffee and raspberry).

Life is Good.

C&C