Diverging paths

AndNow that our time together has come to a close, Jim and I are off on our own separate adventures, but we are fortunate that we are both with good travel companions.

While Jim and Matt forge ahead to St Petersburg, Moscow and points in the back of beyond, the lovely Rita and I sat in the Zagreb airport for quite a few hours whiling away the time before our flight to Paris. It was quite the busy place, what with people flying to and fro and paying their parking tickets. Yes, that's right, they conveniently have a place to pay a $15 parking ticket, one of which we received while in downtown Zagreb. I have a sneaking suspicion that they target rental cars, sine the place to pay you fine is at the airport, but no worries, because we felt that with all the cars we drove, if all we got was a 15$ parking ticket, we were doing pretty well!

Our flight to Paris was on HOP air, a low cost(?) subsidiary of Air France that was very nice. I dropped one bag at left luggage and we puzzled our way out of the massive Charles de Gaulle airport into the arms of Paree. We felt pretty proud of ourselves when we emerged above ground only a few blocks from out hotel. Fortunately I know the neighborhood pretty well, having just been here last spring, at the exact same time, coincidentally. 

Our hotel was not quite up to the standards of the other places we have stayed recently for half the price, but hey, this is Paris! Our big irritation is that the wifi is the worst I have had on the entire trip, dropping us at random. I told Rita I would have never booked a hotel with bad wifi, knowing what I do now about how nice it is to be able to stay in touch and do a little research. We have not had a lot more success with wifi in cafés but if you are reading this you will know that I finally went to McDonalds or somewhere to use the free wifi...

We had a full day planned for our second day here, so didn't try to stay out too late ( past 9:30!) our first night. We found a great restaurant nearby, CRU, in St Paul Village which is sort of tucked away in the Marais and had a good dinner. Being an animal lover, Rita was amused to see the small dog nearby being fed from its' owners plate! Welcome to France.

Our server rattled off in French until she saw look of bewilderment in Rita's eyes. Oh, she thought she was French! Ok not a bad compliment...

Off at the crack 'o dawn on Sunday to the market near Bastille, one of my favorites. 

I was thrilled to see my first rhubarbe of the season, even if I couldn't buy it.

Gorgeous seafood.

Artful displays

I love seeing radishes, so cheerful! 

And plump white asparagus. I wish I had a kitchen! 

Can you smell these olives? So pungent and wonderful. Mmm. 

We decided to try a Breton sausage crepe, and Rita, ever the good sport, sampled it for the photo. Delicious! But enough for 3 or 4 people. We couldn't eat too much because we had another eating event to go to at 11:30. 

Rotisserie chicken, moist and tender, but too early in the morning for that. 

A big pan of tiny potatoes, whic would go nicely with the chicken.,

And the flowers, oh the flowers! They made me swoon. 

Tempted though I was, I did not buy any, since I knew we had a big day ahead of us. 

We set off from Bastille, and since it was such a nice day, decided to walk along the Seine taking in all the sights. A young German girl approached with her family, and asked us, in perfect French, if we could tell them the way to Notre Dame? I replied in English that I think they could just follow the river. We found it just fine, but they disappeared..

From here you can't tell that it was besieged by crowds at 10 am.

The "love locks "have seemingly taken over the bridges of Paris! This is not the only bridge covered solidly in these locks- one was on the verge of collapsing under the weight, and had to be shored up! Rita and I want to start this idea in Portland. Maybe rebrand the Vista Bridge the " love bridge". 

And we'll sell customized locks. Rita searched ( in vain) for a lock with the name Rita. I said in The Amazing Race you might be given 15 keys and told to find the locks they opened. I'm glad this is not the amazing race. 

By Notre Dame we saw an outdoor art exhibit

I liked this little assemblage by the artists young daughter best. 

This is some king of newfangled crepe machine. Who would eat a rectangular crepe? Certainly not me! Doesn't seem to work all that well...

This was an ecclectic guy on his crazy contraption ,who wanted money for a photo. 

We had places we needed to go, so we had to abandon our walk and hop on the metro to get to our destination.