I’m still positive, still fighting, and still short on energy, so I slept in this morning. Once I finally got out of bed, I had to fight the Nespresso machine – when I first tried to use it, it filled the cup some very slight tinted water, but nothing drinkable. And my later attempts were even less successful.
I found the manual on the web but it was of no help. I finally called our host and she talked me through the process, which, of course, worked fine. I think that my mistake was not realizing that I had to push the “coffee” button without having inserted a capsule so that the machine would heat up the water in the carafe. I’ll find out tomorrow.
Everyone else wanted to explore Paris by foot, but I didn’t think I had the energy, so they took off. Diane had started the laundry and I moved it to the dryer, which claimed it’d be done in 80 minutes – it lied. After the first 80 minutes had elapsed, it added another 45 minutes to the timer; I decided I felt good enough to use the time to search for lunch.
There are 10 restaurants on the block with our AirBnB – I could have spent hours looking at their menus! I went to the second closest place, Bulliz Cantine-au-choux, where I had an pleasant little sandwich, a nice ginger lemonade, and a fantastic chocolate pate-au-choux, all for ten euros.
I still had twenty minutes to wait for my laundry, so I wandered around the neighborhood, looking at all the restaurants and interesting stores. And architecture, of course, like Porte Saint-Denis, the first of Paris’s triumphal arches.
When I returned to the apartment, the dryer had decided that the clothes were dry enough. I didn’t agree and eventually found a way to force it to dry the damp shirts more thoroughly – good thing it’s not AI-powered!
I wanted to get out of the apartment and onto the streets; Diane, Pete, and Debbie were just heading over to the Louvre and I decided to join them. I thought about taking the Metro, but Google thought it would only save one minute compared to walking, so I walked. I had asked Apple Maps to give me a walking route to Diane’s position and I followed it, passing by Charles Ray’s Horse and Rider at the Bourse du Commerce – Pinault Collection.
I had foolishly thought that Apple Maps would recompute the route to keep up with Diane’s motion (I’d specified her “Find My” position), so I was surprised when I got to the end of the route and was nowhere near Diane. Fifteen minutes later, I found them in the courtyard of the Louvre, not too far from the Pyramid.
Everyone was interested in seeing Tuileries Gardens, so we walked over there, enjoying the views of the Louvre (and enjoying NOT being in the two-hour-plus admission line).
The weather was perfect for a quick stop at Les Petits Bateaux; the boats moved well in the wind, chairs were available, and the kids who were in charge of the boats seemed to be having a blast.
We stopped for a mandatory photo of the Eiffel Tower in the distance before splitting up.
Diane and I took the Metro home (it was packed) and Pete and Debbie walked. They had more fun, but we were back sooner.