With seven people traveling together and making heavy use of a city’s public transportation, it naturally follows that one person will often guide the other six through a place like a subway station. Frequently, that person is Cas. I now see that Chad does that, as well. Yesterday, Zoey took a turn. We started the day very slowly, moving out for a brunch instead of a breakfast. This time, the whole seven of us went to the Crêperie and seated ourselves at three small sidewalk tables. It was a very nice breakfast, once again, looking at the Pantheon.
With that done, we headed back to the apartment. Cas and I stopped on the way to pick up some essential supplies. Okay, we stopped at a wine store. You have to keep the apartment stocked, and wine is an important part of the list of things you stock a place with. The group was assembling for a trip to Montmarte.
We had a walking tour of Montmarte scheduled, and it was a pretty good tour. The guide took us around to different sites, noting what different movies these places had been featured in. I suppose I should have watched Emily in Paris or Amélie or something. I guess it’s like required reading. I missed the memo.
Jeanne was excited to have one of the artists in the square create a portrait of Zoey. It was kind of cool to see an artist rendering of our niece in pastels. Cas and I decided that the thing do to while that was happening was enjoy a glass of wine at a table on a sidewalk. We’re sitting at a lot of tables on a bunch of sidewalks, but they’re everywhere. Probably because they’re cool.
Dave sat out the Montmarte adventure, though. He has a little congestion or something, and he thought a little down time would be better to prepare him for the adventures we’ll be having today. He did miss out on the new leader of our pack stepping into that role, though. Zoey effectively led us back from Montmarte. Cas went into full-blown teacher mode, and instructed her how to read a subway map, then he had her use all of the signs to navigate, based on the information she gleaned from the map. Good teacher + smart kid = safe travel home, expertly guided. Jeanne had purchased a small French flag as kind of a joke for Cas, and Zoey picked up the mantle on that one. Jeanne and Dave thought it would be funny for Cas to hold up a flag for us to see in a crowd and follow like a tour guide. He, of course, resisted. But when Zoey was leading the group, she held it up. She acknowledged that she would never see any of these people again- to kind of indicate that it didn’t matter what the folks milling around the subway station may think of her. Good attitude, kid!
When we got the group back to the apartment, we all went our separate ways for dinner. Chad, Becky and Zoey went to a restaurant, while Jeanne took a hot sandwich back to the apartment. Cas and I went to a fancy, French restaurant. He looked at a reviews for spots around the Latin quarter and found the one that claimed to have the best escargots. If you’re ever going to eat snails, this would be the city to try it in. Give it a go. We tried a few snails. Anyone who had told me about escargots before last night helped set my very low expectations, but the snails I ate were pretty good. After that, we had steak tartare and a bit of sausage. The tartare came with French fries. I had French fries in France.
All in all, it was a heck of a day. We had a tour guide niece, we ate snails and we saw the artists of Montmarte.
Today, we have a trip to Versailles. Should be a good one. This evening, we have a dinner cruise.
Here, again, are our photos: tinyurl.com/dunlap-pl, and a photo of me and a snail:
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