Paris, Day 2

We slept!  We woke up
at 5 a.m. and decided a few more hours of sleep would be beneficial.  The sun was starting to peak through the
drapes in our room so I put on my eye shields. 
Much to our surprise, we woke up at noon!  We figure we got 16 hours of sleep!  We should be fresh for our first full day
here in beautiful Paris.

After coffee and showers, we head out. It’s a warm day and
the sun is shining brightly.  There are
people walking everywhere and the little restaurants along the street are
filling up quickly. We see an elderly man sitting on the sidewalk, resting his
back against a wall.  There is a
rectangular shaped plastic dish next to him with a few coins in it.  I notice a young lady in a blue flowered
flowy dress reach down to him. Instead of putting coins in the dish, she hands
him a bag of groceries as she greets him in French.  Before he can think of what to say, she is
off.  What a sweet display of loving
kindness I get to witness. 

We eat pizza and drink spritzers at a restaurant that caught
our eye yesterday.  It did not
disappoint.  The pizza was delicious with
pesto, cashews, fresh mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, and ham.  The crust was warm and soft and we decided
that we would not restrict our bread intake if we lived here!

We decided to Uber to the Louvre Museum only to discover
that tickets must be purchased ahead of time. 
We purchase our tickets for Sunday and enjoy the next few hours eating,
drinking, and strolling around this very old, beautiful part of the city. 

The Arc de Triomphe, completed in 1830, was majestic.  We learned that it was built to honor those
who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic
Wars.  We were in awe of the detailed
artwork that we could see on every side of the monument.

I have two other favorite people moments.  The first is seeing a man draw on a
mural.  See the attached picture.  The second is a man playing violin in the
underground passageway on the way to the Arc de Triomphe. Watching and hearing
the arts in real life is a privilege.  It
brings me right into the present moment.

The evening is warm and we decide to walk back to our hotel,
watching people and admiring the architecture around us along the way. 

As of now, we have not yet received our Pass Jeux, which
will allow us to move around the city more freely during the Olympics.  We’re hopeful but also open to whatever
experiences present themselves to us.