Friday

On Friday I rode one the rental bikes to Luxemberg Gardens. I unintentionally took a very scenic route. I pride myself on my sense of direction and map skills. Both skills were seriously challenged. In my defense, Paris is an old city that has a lot of complexities and the road system was created before the automobile was invented. It probably didn't help that the signage is not the best (am I blaming the city of lights?) and that I kept ending up at very busy rotaries. I do have to say that I am now a more confident and aggresive Parian bike rider (for better or worse....).

Luxemburg was beautiful. All of Paris is about to spring into Spring. Daffodils have bloomed and the buds on the trees are forming. It was great to see everyone enjoying the park. Alexis and I met up for lunch in the Rue Cler area and then went to one of her friend's pastery shops that speciallize in macroons

We were to catch the train at 5:45 and we were on time (heck, early even) and as it always happens we had to rush at the last minute. Apparently all of Paris was in our train station to escape for easter weekend. Alexis darted around the station cutting people off and sliding inbetween inperceivable spaces and some how I managed to stay RIGHT behind her. It was like the ultimate video game. Initially, she would look behind to see if I was there. Every time she did we nearly touched noses, so she stopped checking on me and became even more daring in her attempt (or as I suspect) to lose me in the train station.

We would of been JUST on time, when we found out that the train time was moved up by 5 minutes. So we had to run for about 10 train cars. We were told by the conductor to get on at car 12 even though our seats were in car 19. So we walked through the 7 other cars with all our stuff. I had a backpacking backpack on with Alexis and my stuff in it, and 2 purses. The train was so crowded and I was so overloaded that I probably ran into half of the train's occupants with my stuff. Whenever someone had to pass in the opposite direction, my only choice was to back all the way into the nearest restroom until the person or persons past. I got to know the restrooms well. Here is a picture of us once we finally got to our seats. Notice the beautiful glow.