Last Day in Paris

Wednesday, July 30

On our last day in Paris, we loafed. Most of the morning we spend reading in the studio. Then it took way too much time to get online to reserve our airplane seats. We had lunch at Cafe March on Place Marche St. Catherine (the square on rue Caron we previously mentioned). On a hot day, a bowl of gazpacho hits the spot.

In central Paris, most of the buildings have shops on the ground floor and apartments above. Many were at one time city houses which were subdivided. The building walls allow for a narrow sidewalk and have very unimaginative but large doors leading inside to a courtyard and the entrances to the individual units. Seeing Paris from the air shows how this system looks. Italy is very similar. On rue St. Paul, they have turned the ground floor of the interior courts of the buildings on an entire large block into shops accessible from the court, Villages St. Paul. These shops are mostly design studios and decorator items with a few cafes. Today, most were closed. We suspect the owners were either getting a jump on the annual holiday season (starts August 1) or they left early on Bastille Day (July 14) as many do.

Claire was tired and stayed in for dinner. Bill went down the street and had a burger at a Scottish pub, The Auld Alliance at 80 rue Francois Miron, just off Rue Rivoli. Great Scottish ale (Caledonia 80, really smooth and only 3.4%, better than any continental lager) and good conversations with other English speakers (American, Australian and Scots).