Still crazy after all those years.....

I have always enjoyed the opportunity to make new friends, and I have had that in the last few years with meeting Lyle's family and friends, new ones from a new church, and now beginning to meet more here in Paris. But, there are a number of friends I have kept in contact with from even childhood. One of them is Jan.

We met in seventh grade, sitting in the same homeroom and discoved that our parents grew up near each other north of the "cities". We shared so many fun times during those crazy junior high days and became very close. Years passed, and miles between us tugged at the bonds we had created, but they have never broken. Even though we only see each other once in awhile, we seem to pick up where we left off.

Jan and her family have lived the adventurous life.....missionaries to Eastern Europe and lived in Germany and the Czech Republic. She met my boys and me in 1992 in London and showed me all around that city, plus Germany, Austria, and Prague. It ignited a travel bug in me and my sons that hasn't left. Now she works for the airlines, which affords her the opportunity to still travel, and for her husband to continue doing mission work in faraway places (like China and Russia).

Well, Jan came to Paris from the states last Sunday to pick up her daughter Bethany, who is a teacher in a mission school in Germany. Although they had been to Paris before, they probably weren't prepared for my walking tours.....

On Monday, we stopped at the neighborhood boulangerie and picked up some croissants and headed for our first stop.....the Eiffel tower......

....continued our walk across the Seine and up to the Champ-Elysses where we saw the Arc de Triomphe at the top of the hill. Passing all of the tourists up on that famous promenade, we reached the bottom of the hill at the Concorde Plaza (I told them that is where the famous guillotine was)....

.....took the Metro up to Montmarte, high on the hill overlooking Paris (reminds me of San Francisco). We enjoyed a quick lunch at a small outdoor cafe and then visited the beautiful church, Sacre Coeur, and took in a breathtaking view.......




.......and after walking up and down some winding, hilly streets and steps, we finally came to the little square full of artists asking willing to sell us their landscapes, portraits, and even serenade us with an accordian.

And that was just Monday. With tired feet and sunburned necks (yes, it was a gorgeous SUNNY day in the 80's!), we laid out our plans for Tuesday.

There are many "professional" walking tours around Paris and we began with one on Tuesday to tour the Marais district, a neighborhood that I had not seen yet. This is on the right bank of the Seine (north side), a little further east from where he had been the day before. It is where Paris in the Middle Ages came to be, spilling out from the center islands in the Seine. Naturally, it is full of history, some of it very colorful, as our guide related story after story on the two-hour tour. We saw some of the oldest "half-timbered" houses in Paris, most of them now covered in plaster. One of the kings, can't remember which, ordered these homes to be covered with plaster to prevent a fire hazard. Remember "Plaster of Paris"???? A few still stand.........


.....and part of the old wall around Paris also still stands, with a school built right around it!




We ended the tour on Paris' oldest square, Place des Vosges, where we discovered Victor Hugo's apartment, and we HAD to take a look inside. After a baguette lunch to rest our weary legs, we headed along the river for a view of Notre Dame, and then walked to my favorite park, Luxembourg Gardens. By then, we gave up the idea of walking home. We found a bus!

We were blessed with two gloriously-rare, warm, sunny days and we took advantage of them. My dear friends left the next morning for a well-needed sit-down journey back to the states. When we get more visitors, I think I need to taper the walking down a little?