Saturday, June 2nd -- Happy 48th Anniversary wake up!! We met our driver at the hotel and arrived in plenty of time for our EasyJet flight to Paris scheduled to leave at 9:15 am.  We had absolutely no problems with our luggage, and we were airborn at exactly 9:15 am having pushed back from the gate 20 minutes before the scheduled flight time -- a full flight. As we had paid for early boarding and were first in line, we easily found overhead luggage space and took isle seats across from each other. We arrived at Orley in Paris early, found our luggage almost immediately upon reaching the terminal area, our driver waiting for us at baggage claim. he took our luggage to his Mercedes Van and we were at our apartment in the Marais area of the 3rd District in about 30-minutes. The apartment manager met us at the apartment, showed us what  we need to know, and we were ready for our first day in Paris well before noon.  The apartment is lovely with three bedrooms, two baths, laundry, modern European style kitchen, dining room, den and rooftop patio.  As Karen had not yet shown up from her week on the Riviera, Daniel and I decided to do some grocery shopping.   As we left the building and started up the street, we met Karen walking toward us. She had actually arrived about 30-minutes earlier, but didn't know the apartment number, she decided to walk around the area to orient herself.

After getting Karen familiar with the apartment we all left together and began our first day's tour of  Paris.  We stoppped first for lunch at a nearby cafe, but were very surprised when our chicken salad arrived with lettuce covered with fried chicken strips and loads of fried potatoes.  Not a great start to Parisian cuisine.  We did hit some of the high points almost immediately crossing the Seine to the Ile de la Cite, an island in the Seine, and bought tickets to see the stained glass windows of St. Chapelle.  We wanted to see them with the sun shining outside, and it was indeed a most magnificent day, hardly a cloud in the sky and temperatures in the mid-70's. The windows were a marvel, with oldest dating to 1485 (the rose Window), a gift from Charles VIII. The magnificent chapel was built in 1248 and the stained glass windows added several centuries later.  The windows are 50 feet tall, a total of 15 windows with over 1.000 religious scenes.

From there we walked to Notre Dame.  We waited in line for about 15-minutes to enter, and found ourselves in the middle of a very formal service with choir, organ and many high level dignitaries.  Karen was familiar with a memorial (also on the Island) to the 200,000 Deported Martys, Jews, homosexuals, and resistence fighters deported to concentration camps during the war, so went there next. After all that touring, we just had to stop at Bertillons on the Ile Sainte Louis, the most famous ice cream parlor in Paris.  Afterwards, we walked back across the Seine into the Marais and stopped to enjoy a lovely park, the Place des Vosges, considered by Parisians as the most beautiful park in the world, dating back to the early 17th century.  On the way back to our apartment we stopped to do some grocery shopping for some basic food supplies. By the time we finally arrived back we decided it was too late to go out for dinner, so we I went to a local couscous shop and brought several dishes back to the apartment.    Karen did the translating as the owner didn't speak any English. He told me to take his platters and bowls with me and return them when we were finished.  We had a bottle of wine with our meal, enjoying it beyond its gourment values and revelling in the joy of not having to go out to a restaurant.  We were all bone tired.  We fell asleep to the muted roaring of the crowds celebrating the joy of life in a Parisian cafe immediatley beneath our windows.  Bon soir.