Welcoming in the Tour de France

You can never get bored in Paris. This is my third time to the city and there are always new discoveries to be made. I love it! On Saturday, Ali and I decided to take a walking tour of the city, rather than hop on the metro, for the whole day. After grocery shopping, window shopping and strolling by some quaint cafés on a beautiful sunny morning, we went to the Jardin de Luxembourg. I loved it there! There were people everywhere enjoying the gardens and activities. It was so fun yet relaxing. Something for everybody.

One of the first things we saw in the garden was a small Statue of Liberty that Auguste Bartholdi used as a model for the larger one that France gave to the United States. We took a picture next to it, of course. We then went to a Guignol marionnette show that was taking place in a small theater in the park. The first three rows were all reserved for kids so they could participate in the show. It was so fun. It felt like we had been transformed back in time to Punch and Judy shows that I have only seen in the movies. These were the most high tech puppets I had ever seen in all sorts of costumes. They danced, moved, and got the audience to participate like you see at the Desert Star. Definitely something not to be missed!

On the rest of our stroll in the Jardin de Luxembourg, we saw everything from old men playing Boules to rows of people playing organized chess or cards to joggers, to stands that sell Barbe a Papa (Dad's Beard....Mmmmmm!!!! Really means Cotton Candy) and Crepes for all to enjoy. There are parts were you can sit on the grass and everybody does and other parts where they kick people off the neatly manicured lawns. Ali and I bought lemon sugar crepes and sat on the permitted sections of grass to enjoy them. Some young guys next to us pulled out their guitar and we loved the little concert, but the police quickly arrived to tell them to put the music away.

When we got home on Saturday night, I decided to save 10 Euros and wash my laundry in my bathtub rather than paying for a washing machine. It's not like I didn't get used to it in Brazil. I hung it up to dry on our balcony.

Sunday was a super packed day!! I wanted to start off by seeing the Bird Market. This is usually a flower market except on Sunday, where the vendors bring out live birds. We decided to get off on a later metro stop before church so that we could see it. Sure enough, there were birds all over the place: caged birds, free flying pigeons, bird food, all set up on a long street in Cité. We then walked to church and it was a great meeting. Afterwards, we rushed off to welcome in the Tour de France.

Now, in all honesty, I have never really gotten into bike races. However, the excitement present in the city that day got me all pumped up! I was almost temted to buy a yellow shirt and flag. We pushed through crowds of people to try and get the best view but some of them had been camped out since the early hours in the morning. We found a spot and waited for a couple of hours...no sign of the riders. We weren't sure exactly what time they would be coming in..sometime between 2:00 and 5:00. Ali and I were hungry, so we went to get a baguette with tomatos on it at the carnival nearby. Afterwards, there was a soft ice cream train--near impossible to resist. I chose vanilla and this delicious black licorice flavor mixed. Mmmmm!!! At this time, the Tour de France still hadn't arrived. We decided to choose another spot to watch it from. Ali said, "Why don't we take a ferris wheel ride? Could be fun. Maybe we will get lucky and see them from the top of the ferris wheel. Ha ha." It sounded like a fun idea, so we walked over. We debated on whether it was worth 6 Euros to ride it. Well, we finally decided to ride it after 10 minutes of deciding and could you believe.....we were on top of the Ferris wheel when all this cheering started happening. The riders were coming in!!! What timing!!! We took tons of pictures!! When we got down on the ground, we walked closer to the road to see them on another one of their laps (they take 13 laps in all around the city). I have to admit that I have become quite the fan of the Tour de France now.

Yesterday, we had class for an hour or so. Afterwards, we took off to discover the most famous bakery in Paris: Poilane. I know I always talk about food in my blog, but seriously, this bakery was amazing!! I got an applesauce filled fritter and it literally melted in my mouth. Amazing! For hundreds of years, they have baked recipes without preservatives and in a wood oven. Their breads rise without yeast, don't ask me how. You can get bread delivered to your house in the US for only 36 Euros each. A little pricey, but were you to try this bread, it might be worth it. I will definitely have to go back sometime before I leave this trip.

Last night, the 5 of us, even the married couple, went to the Single Adult FHE. Eduard, the leader of the single adults, lives right by the Arc de Triomphe in a super nice apartment. There were tons of Asians there--I spoke to a missionary from the states who was called to Paris France Chinese speaking. How would you like that for a call? There were lots of cool people that we met. We had tarts, chips, Orangina, Fanta, and played some regular FHE games. We laughed and had so much fun!