DAY 2 - SAT 3/2 - Getting our feet wet

Today we wandered to some of our old haunts, and along the way found some other fun stuff. Follow along with us below:

- Found a fun Vintage clothing store called Kilo Shop where you could buy some terrific faux furs, and a multitude of scarfs and pashminas, which we did stock up on for ourselves and as great gifts...

-Here's Marty leaving the shop with our stash...

    

- Street scenes...

    

- Here's the Metro station at St. Michel, heart of the Rive Gauche, exactly where we came up to the street in May of 1968 (almost exactly 45 years ago) to run smack into a street uprising of students and workers, and the police using tear gas to quell the riots...it was like a war zone...those were crazy times...referred to as 'les evetements de Mai' (the events of May)...we can tell you stories of those times, just when we had arrived in Paris in 1968 with one-way tickets!

- The famous Bateau Mouche...

- Cathedrale de Notre Dame...

- Prefecteur de Police where we had all our Carte de Sejour papers processed (permissions to stay and work in France)...

-Eglise de Saint Chapelle...being refurbished...

- Booksellers along the Seine...

- Bird Market...

- Hotel de la Ville (City Hall), and the fabulous Bazaar Hotel de la Ville right behind it (aka BHV - the Paris version of Home Depot where we used to get all of our home supplies, gadgets, and tools)...Marty just had to go there and buy something for old time sake...he found a plug adapter from 110 to 220 that we needed...and he almost bought one of those fantasia shirts until I stopped him just in time!  But we were having fun in the process and again it brought back memories, except BHV used to be more of a warehouse, grungy, with stuff in huge barrels, and now it's like a huge hardware and sundries store...totally upscale...with no hunting challenge anymore, nor bargains...

- Place des Vosges main entrance, in the Marais area...

- The arcade all around Place des Vosges...beautifully illuminated at night to highlight the wonderful architecture...

- Place St. Michel at night...a hub of activity where students, as well as tourists, congregate all day and all night...

- A typical romantic French couple...

- Merry-Go-Round in front of City Hall...lit up brightly at night...

- Notre Dame in the distance at night...no matter where or when you look, it's all so beautiful and romantic...

- Chez Allard, one of the famous classic old brasseries where we had dined many times when we lived here, and it didn't disappoint...

- with decorations on the original old zinc bar

- our first course of escargots...

- followed by rognons madere (veal kidneys in Madera wine), and Coquille St. Jacques in buerre blanc (scallops in white butter sauce), ending with Tarte Tatin avec Chantilly (apple tart with whipped cream) and cafe...oh la la!