Europe Adventure Day Three - Paris

planning our day!

Libby's only day with us was packed to the gills starting with breakfast at a lovely cafe and followed by an adventure on the Metro to an area that is flea market heavy.


One thing I have observed is that people don't play with their cellphones nearly as much in Paris as they do back home. I think this might be because what I see on a day-to-day basis is on a college campus, so the cell users are younger and more dependant on their devices, but still, it's refreshing to get on a subway and see people reading. Like, actually reading books!

Actual book reading on the metro!

We ventured to the flea market was in hopes of finding Libby some props for her food photography biz. The first place we came across was a lonnnnng stretch of street with chintzy tent of crap after chintzy tent of crap. Following the advice of a knowing friend of Libby's we turned a corner eventually and came to a whole new world - the complete other end of the spectrum - high end antiques, all out of our budget, but very beautiful to look at.

Libby talks antiques

We walked further and found the Mama Bear's bed and it was just right; Interesting stuff right in the middle price-wise. It was here that Libby's french (which was very good for her having not spoken it in years) failed her. I was looking around and vaguely listening while she bargained with a seller. I heard him say that the item she wanted was 15euro. She wanted to pay 10, but when she said so, she said "vingt". I thought to myself sort of in my background brain, Hm, I'm pretty sure 'dix' is ten, and 'vingt' is twenty, but of course for me it's been even longer since I "spoke" any french, so I said nothing.  The seller jumped on this and by the time Libby figured out what happened, he refused to sell it to her for even his original asking price of 15euro. What a gentleman.

She found some very cool silverware at another table soon after.

While wandering this area we bought fresh-squeezed orange juice, candied peanuts, and another crepe. I know...we eat our way through countries. However, the really nice thing about traveling with others is, among other things, you can share snacks with them so you feel like less of a piggy American.

Our OJ supplier

From there we left the 18th Arrondissement (neighborhood, essentially) and headed south to the Jardin Du Luxembourg is located. They were actually very far apart!  But Nirvi navigated us just fine via the metro. She was the Metro goddess. My technique is to immerse myself in information before going on a trip, obsessing about what I'd like to see and where we might eat, and then promptly forgetting all of it and blinding (but happily) following Libby and Nirvi around once at our locale.

We wandered the neighborhood near the gardens until we found a formagerie (cheese shop). The woman there communicated with Libby about her cheeses and dried meats and we made our purchase. Our intention was to find bread and bring the cheese, and the fruit we'd bought earlier, into the park and have a picnic. We ventured downstairs at the formagerie where there was a restroom we could use. There were also places set-up, like a dining room, for tastings, most likely. Aware that we had no way the cut the cheese {snicker}, I considered stealing a knife from one of these place settings. This seemed like a very romantic thing to do, albeit rude and illegal. I thought back to a scene from one of my favorite movies in this moment, but Libby chastised me, made me put it back.

"Shoulda let me be a criminal this one time!" I told them when the plastic knife we found in another shop broke while cutting the cheese {snicker} in the park a short time later.

Figs, croissants, apples, stinky cheese, dried meat in a famous park. It was quite awesome. Especially when the homeless guy approached us with a hand-rolled blunt and tried to trade for some of our food.

Jardin du Luxembourg is unreal! Such a beautiful place! Fountains and flowers, and greenery, sculptures and statues, and a pond where children could float boats. It was so charming. And there were so many people but somehow it wasn't too crowded. I had hoped to find the location where my favorite Eisenstadt's photo was shot, but unfortunately, the location of the puppet theater is is no longer a charming little stand, but a big structure that you have to buy a ticket to enter. The photo was taken in the 1960s after all!