Magenta Past Gare duNord

I had spent the early morning writing and ended up getting out of bed much later than normal. My friend and ate in the kitchen but this time we ate very little before going to Pain Quotidian. So when we got there we weren't full. We split a fixed menu. The fruit compote was an interesting mix of apple and citrus. There was white chocolate spread.

We walked to the space near the EDF Foundation and then we went to the hotel to get laundry. We had found a place near the Marché St. Germain.  An Aussie couple helped us but it was straightforward. We went to Hibou and had chicken. They messed our salad up. I had to return to the laundry a couple of times and I picked up water on the way.

We had coffee and then we went to get stuff at the pharmacy. I got a new jacket and after stopping by the hotel we picked up bikes and got lost in the neighborhoods. We visited Notre Dame and St. Louis. Later we went to Place Bastille and up the canal.  My friend was having a hard time so we went to Café Craft on Vinaigiers.

Later we rode on rue Magenta past Gare duNord and drop the bikes off at Rue Lafayette. Then walked up Passage Briare and on to to Place Pigalle. I noted some of the private alleys on Masse.  We sat and had cheese and wine. My friend was enjoying herself but we had to go after a couple of drinks.

The next morning at eight we stopped in the kitchen before catching a train Solpice to the second arrondissement.  There we went looking for an acquaintance. We found our friend at a cafe on rue de Petits Carreaux. There we talked for a while and learned about each other. We looked at maps and I got coffee and when we were done we walked to the Les Helles. We stopped at a shop and bought her a flower and she helped us buy tickets.

She told us how to get to Versailles but when we did that the station attendant told us the C train was not working so ended up at Chatalet drinking sparkling water at a café named Le Benjamin. Later we found our way to La Defense and took the U train to Chantiers.

From there we walked to a pub called Helios then where we ate before heading into the chateau.  Some tourists really wanted to help us as we walked up.  We went to the information office and then on to the gardens for a peek.  Then we walked into the castle and started to look around.

We took pictures of the gold leaf and tried the different chambers.  By the time we had passed through the rooms with images of Napoleon we discovered that we had entered half way and that the walking was only one way so we started over.  We began by looking at the palace models and learned about Louis XV.  Eventually we passed the earlier portion of the walk and just went for postcards.

The chateaux was closing then so we headed for the gardens where we found a cat in the forested areas and a whole lot of fountains near the grand channel.  We discussed getting bikes sometime and while we were looking at around.  We got tired really fast so sat at La Flotilla for refreshments.  After that we returned to the palace and onwards to the Gare Versailles where we caught the next train.

We transferred to an 8 before and headed to the Opera from there.  My first choice for dinner was expensive but we found an ok place called Tivoli.  I liked that.  Later we went to a place called Cafe M on Maubeuge.  The waitress was nice and made us creme brûlée.  She told my friend to be careful walking in Paris at night.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.