Long Walks

What a day.  Vanessa and I went our separate ways today.  I walked to the Jardin du Luxembourg and sat there in awe for a while.  I read my book and was highly tempted to paint, but because there were so many people and no place somewhat private to be, I had to be satisfied with some photos and a short video.  What a lovely garden.  I don't know the history...maybe the one whose grande maison it was was a tyrant, or maybe he was a general or a politician or an ambassador.  But somebody in that family had a very good sensibility when it came to the feng shue of flowers and trees.  Who dreams up something that beautiful and then sees it carried out?  Someone with plenty of money at their disposal, that's for sure.

After getting warmed up at le jardin, I decided to walk to Montmartre.  I spent some time along the way referring repeatedly to my map, searching for the correct streets I needed to take to get me there.  In Paris, if you take a wrong street for a block, then decide to take a couple of lefts to meet up again with the street you missed, what you find is that your way is suddenly intersected by several diagonal streets that, even though they look like you're going the right way, end up taking you farther away from your goal rather than closer.  So, I did a wee bit of redundant backtracking up behind the Opera (another amazing grand building).  I couldn't find the right street for the longest time.  By the time I had walked all the way up to the Basilique du Sacre Coeur (and I mean UP...all uphill), walked around and finally found a restaurant wherein to rest my most weary bones, I had walked for more than three hours without stopping.  The muscles and blood vessels in my legs pulsated the whole time I ate!  The walk back was not nearly the adventure of earlier, but evening in Paris is a sight to behold, no matter how badly one needs a toilette.

Aside from the rain yesterday, the skies have been filled with scuttling white puffy clouds (and an occasional gray one) that block the sun and make it chilly enough for a sweater.  Then, minutes later, the sun is back out and the sweater comes off.  There are so many people here.  There must just be so many people in the world, period.