unexpected blessing

One of the reasons why I wanted to travel was to meet new people. Now for the past four days I have been alone seeing the sights and walking the streets of Paris, it gets lonely especially when you see the couples or groups of families walking around. To deal with the loneliness I have tried to keep busy moving from one sight to another, one great piece of art after another and for the most part it works. Then you walk down the river side and see the couples holding hands, families out on an outing and even large groups of Japanese tourist milling around…it’s when the loneliness bug hits you. You are alone in this great big city, but when that happens I just try to remember that I am not really alone. God is with me even though I may not see Him in person He is still there (Psalms 139: 7-10). So today I had planned to go see the Cluny Museum and then perhaps go back to l’Ongerie to see the room of Monet’s Water Lily paintings again. By the time I left my hotel and got on the metro it was around 9:30-ish and I decided to get off and see Notre Dame. I had downloaded Rick Steve’s Historic Paris walk and since that was part of my “to-do list” I figured why not. Plus I was pretty much “museum-ed out” and needed more outdoor activities. So I skipped breakfast and figured I will just eat a really, really nice lunch. The tour was supposed to take like 3 hours but since I did one of the museums already it only took me about 2 hours to do. It began in front of Notre Dame at ‘point zero’ the place where Paris all began with a few peasant villagers who wanted to build a church in the island that we now know as Ile de Cite. The tour proceeded to go inside Notre Dame where the rose windows were and a statue of another famous French person, Joan of Arc was displayed.

Then it took you back outside to the side of the building where it mentioned something about the gothic architecture, etc. There is a park behind Notre Dame that commemorates the many Parisian’s who died in concentration camps during WW2. I’m sad to say that I could not go down there into the memorial, not alone because just standing in the small park area near the entrance was giving me the heebie-jeebies. Notice the red sign on the white stone makes a point and stands out. The words say “may we forgive but never forget” which apparently is written in a lot of places like this especially at the location of the concentration camp itself.

The tour continued to a small park back on the bank off the island where one of the oldest trees of Paris was and another small chapel. It then took you to the Shakespeare & Company book store which was not very ostentatious so if you blink you might miss it. The store wasn’t open otherwise I so would’ve been in there! But on with the tour, it made a comment about how in the olden days they used to build buildings so close it looks like it would topple over just trying to get a spot on the street.

Then Rick instructed me to wander the back areas where there were plenty of little shops great food places. At the Place St. Andre-des-Arts there is a statue of St. Michael killing a devil. Then it was back across the bridge to Ile de Cite and Sainte-Chapelle. Now this beautiful Gothic cathedral shows some wonderful flying buttresses and inside was some amazing stained glass windows. The room at the top was just floor to ceiling stained glass windows that told Biblical stories. Amazing! The tour ended near a park behind La Concierge where a statue of Henry V stood. Actually it was on the bridge on the other side of Ile de Cite where the tour ended and you could see the other bridges of Paris.

Now after skipping breakfast I promised my stomach a nice lunch and so I went back to Angelina’s. That little café is a favorite on a cold day and I really just like their hot chocolate. For lunch this time I looked over the menu carefully and found that they had cooked lamb with ratatouille so that was what I got. Superb! I have only eaten lamb a few times and I must say this meal did not disappointed. The lamb was nice and tender and the ratatouille complimented it nicely. I had this pistachio pastry for desert and even had an espresso to end the meal. At one point during the meal I had dropped my fork, made an exclamation and the girl seated next to me smiled. I figured she must understand English and so I started a conversation with her. We ended up talking for over 45 minutes and since she had wanted to go to Sacre Coeur but wasn’t sure how to get there, we decided to go together. This was by far the longest lunch I had taken, but it was nice to make a new friend out of it.

H, my new friend, had traveled to Paris before on business and knew how to use the metro system rather well. We go out in Pigalle and just walked up this street where a small park was located. In the park was a wall called “the wall of love” and written on it in over 39 languages were ‘I love you’. It’s an out of the way place that not many people know about. We climbed several flights of steps and finally made it to the top where there was such an awesome view of the city. Paris was spread out before you and behind you was the gleaming white church of the Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart). Simply breathtaking! Then we wandered in the back alley behind the church to find little shops and houses that gave the area a nice “village” feel to it. There was a hidden courtyard that we saw through some gates; it was such a nice stroll. But it was back down the hill to find our metro and behold we saw the famous red windmill. The Moulin Rouge in the red light district, lots of neon signs and there was even an erotic museum needless to say we just took a picture in front of the Moulin Rouge and walked past everything else back to our Metro.

Now for dinner I had mentioned to H about this great place where they served fries and steak. It was in the book “Kissing Adrien” and when I went to Siri Mitchell’s website she had listed the restaurant there but gave a vague description of the location. So I found it through a bit of research online. H had mentioned something about getting some chocolate for a mid afternoon snack and I wanted to go to Laduree. We found a nice pastry shop on the Champs Elysee and though it was not Laduree it was close. Their raspberry tart and chocolate flan was so delicious. The flan was thick like custard but had a lightweight feeling once it got to your mouth and the tart was flavorful. I don’t normally like raspberry but it gave the tart a nice sharp-tasting flavor to complement the sweet cheesecake like foundation.

To use up some time H had mentioned that she needed to get some souvenirs and so I told her about the Galleries Lafayette. It wasn’t too far away from H’s hotel so we took the metro back to the Concorde stop and then walked up the The Gallery. Now talk about a crowded area, man trying to get into that store was a mad house. Picture lots of cattle being forced to walk through a small opening to get in a larger field and that was how it was trying to cross the street to get to the main building of the store. Craziness! Now we had to get to our restaurant before 7pm when it opened because they don’t take reservations and there is a line. We were there about 30 min. beforehand and so we wandered around the streets a bit, but when we got back after 15 min. of walking around there were already people gathering. So we decided to get in line and were one of the first people to enter the restaurant. Now this restaurant must be really good because within 5 min. the whole place was filled up! And when you get inside all they ask is how you want your meat done and what you would like to drink. Then they serve you a salad with vinaigrette to begin the meal along with the house wine. The only meal they serve here is steak and fries. It was the best! The fries were nice and crispy without being overdone or salty and the meat was so tender. It had this nice green sauce that was olive oil based but had some spices in it to complement the meat. Delicious! Then for desert I ordered crème brulee which was just heavenly. My new friend and I parted on the Champs Elysee, her to go back to her hotel and pack me to walk back to my hotel and sleep off this meal. The unexpected blessing was that I had made a new friend, just when I was so lonely in this big city God provided me a friend. It was so unexpected and just made the experience that much richer.