April 26

Well Hello from Paris: Had a great day in Paris today after the junk that happened yesterday. We were able to get all Bob's card cancelled and no extra charges have so far turned up on them. Also we still have to deal with his driving license, care cards, and blue cross when we get home. All in all it is taken care of.

We started the morning later which is nice because we could get up and relax and not have to rush on to the next stop. We are getting the hang of the subways and went to the Islands of the Seine this morning to see the Sites there. First of all we sat down and had lunch as it was getting onto 2:00 PM. After lunch we went into the Palais du Justice and found a beautiful little chapel called the Sainte-Chappel. It is incredible but you have to put everything through an x-ray and go through a body search yourself to get in. I guess the saying "it only takes a few bad people , to ruin it for the many" is absolutely displayed here. It was very small compared to others we've seen but really magnifique.





Then down the road to the Nortre-Dame of St, Michael. Here the other thing that blew our minds was that in the afternoon there was a service going inside the sanctuary while tour groups and visitors were wandering about, taking pictures and talking. There was even a 'gift' shop in operation, right in the sanctuary doing business. I can't believe they didn't shut the visiting down for the 1 hour service. I guess the money would be worth too great a loss. I thought back to Jesus being upset with money changers etc in the temple. I asked myself "What would He think of this"?





From here we crossed the Seine on a foot bridge and magically arrived in the Latin Quarter Shopping area. I will go back before I leave as the souvenirs are still expensive but cheaper than other areas. We then caught the subway 3 stops to get to the Louvre and spent about 1 hour taking pictures as we were to late in the day to go in and explore. There is One Bigger Pyramid surrounded by 3 smaller ones. Looks like the waterfalls have been turned off but it was still gorgeous.



The museum takes in all the buildings around the huge square which was at one time the Palais du Louvre. We will go back on Wednesday as they stay open longer in the evening. Tomorrow we are off to see the "Palais of Versailles" it is about a 35 minute drive on a train and you apparently can spend the whole day there looking at things. Going to take some garden pictures tomorrow as a lot of people say that the French Gardens are very different from the English ones. We'll see.

At lunch today we had French Onion soups and then a bagette with ham, tomatoes, egg, cheese etc. I am having a hard time chewing the crusty bread even though it is very good. Bob said that he can't wait to get home to ordering and knowing what you will get. He ordered a Chicken Caesar and it had the ingredients in a way but didn't quite come out the same.

All in all it was a grand day and the weather was excellent. I will let Bob put in the pictures so that we can get this posted tonight because tomorrow is a very big day also.