5/31 Paris

Our trip ends today with a flight out of Paris. We spend less than 24 hours here, mostly transporting ourselves to and from airports or sleeping in the garret of a pension near the Luxembourg Gardens. Here we are have hot sunny weather and enough time to walk through the gardens and then down St. Michel Blvd. to the Isle de France where we watch the last evening light fade from the facade of Notre Dame Cathedral.

We saw evidence of the Parisian spirt on the walk: the careful planting of the formal Luxembourg Gardens where the late afternoon sun brought richness to flowers and animated the half dressed marble statues; beautiful old stone buildings along St. Michel housing flats, outdoor cafes and a very large McDonald’s restaurant; lovers along the Seine  locked in the kiss to form beautiful cliches with light emphasizing the whiteness of the men’s shirts and the young richness of the women’s hair.