Day Seven

It's a real challenge, you know, trying to decided what to do in a day here in Paris. But our day turned out to be a real surprise and not as planned. We had a visit in the morning from the "nanny" who takes care of a girl in this building --she's the same age as Isabel. Connie and the nanny had met on the elevator a day earlier. Long story short, Isabel was invited for lunch and an afternoon at the park with Allynor. Oh did I mention that this French family lives on the second floor of this building (I'm on the seventh). But their apartment takes up the entire second floor. It is so huge and so elegant that the only way of describing it is to say it's something you might see in a movie.

Off to the train station to catch a morning ride to Montmartre. The hill of Montmarte provides a spectac ular view of Paris, especially from the monumental Sacre-Coeur. Isabel rode the carousel--isn't it beautiful? Connie had to get Isabel back for her 12:30 pm "luncheon date" so I stayed behind and awaited her return. A few postcards written and two cups of cafe au lait later, Connie was back and we enjoyed the afternoon together. I found a restaurant that served beef bourgogne so that satisfied my urge for this Julia Child speciality. Some of you might recall that I made this very special recipe six weeks ago and am pleased to report that mine was every bit as good as what we had today!

As we left home this morning I mentioned to Connie that a dear friend was sending me a belated birthday gift to Paris and I so wished it had arrived. Why? Because it's a cashmere scarf and with this cold weather it would have been an ideal accessory to keep me warm. When Connie met me for lunch at Montmarte, guess what was in her backpack? A large envelope from Burbank, California, addressed to me in Paris and voila, it was the scarf! How blessed can I be to already have received two letters and one gift from my friends in the U.S. (and in less than one week?). [Notice the beautiful blue cashmere scarf with fleur-de-lis design that I'm wearing at lunch!]

It looks like I'm going to end this blog before midnight and that's a good thing. Tomorrow is another busy day and getting enough sleep is a top priority. It's also the last full day before Connie and Isabel leave for Seattle. The thought of them leaving makes me very sad...

Love, Judy