November 9th

This morning was mostly spent in Avie's beatiful apartment, having coffee and pasteries. Then Joy and I wandered about the Bastile area, doing a bit of shopping, and went to her plaza so that she could check on the spice store that she is imitating. From there we wandered back towards the metro so that Joy could go to class, stopping for a bit more shopping along the way. After sending Joy to class, I walked back to the hotel to deposit bags. On the way I walked down Rue Montorguel, a street full of cafes and food shops of various sorts. It is a lovely little street, and mostly not driven on (though it appeared delivery vans were allowed).

For the rest afternoon, I decided to actually see some of the "big" sites in Paris. Namely, I took the metro to the Champse-Elise and walked up to the Arc de Triumph, which you can only get underneath if you pay. Since I decided I didn't really want to go up the Arc today - save that for the next trip - I continued on to the Eiffel Tower. Sadly, just as I rounded the corner to see the whole thing, the sun took its final dip below a bank of clouds. But it is still an impressive structure.

From the Eiffel Tower, I again jumped on the Metro and went to the Photography Museum. It had a lot of strange modern photography, which I did not like - very violent. There was also an exhibit by a man who mostly paints industrial type things in stylized ways. Here, though, was mostly a display of the photographs he takes as references, which were surprisingly beautiful and colorful.