The Tuileries

We walked a bit of St. Germain, up to a cafe on Rue de Solferino for lunch, and then over the Pont de Solferino to the Tuileries.  What follows are snippets of the city and daily life.

(Click photos to enlarge.)

The Louvre

Play area and bike path along the Seine

Statue of Thomas Jefferson

Love this tree in the Tuileries

Backside of this statue just seemed the angle to shoot.

One of the garden cafes

"It's just like in the movies" --  a phrase I heard some Europeans say about America when they were visiting.  ;)

On Place de la Concorde

The Love Locks of Paris

Strolled the Seine today.  My mission was to see the love locks on the bridges, started here about 2008.  A mistaken belief is that they are a longstanding tradition of Paris, but they originated about 100 years ago in a Serbian tale.  They present a great controversy, because their added weight caused a partial collapse of the parapet of Pond Des Arts.  There is great concern about preserving the historic bridges.

(Click to enlarge photos.)

Sunday Morning

Seems more shops and restaurants are closed on Sundays than even in the U.S. South!  Coming from the Midwest, that is a really foreign concept for me.  We found a place a couple of blocks away for breakfast and then a friendly Parisian on the street directed us to a "French 7-11" (for my Southern friends, a "French Quick Stop") and we bought a few food items.

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Ruth ordered quiche, but you cannot see the giant portion this was due to the camera perspective!  I ordered an omelet -- also gargantuan -- but it didn't have cheese and I just can't do an omelet without, so I asked for a "to go" box and ordered a quiche, too.  The quiche was scrumptious, but I guess they don't do "to go" in Paris, as our server brought me an emptied out candy box!  (It leaked all the way home.)  Note to Self:  No "to go" in Paris.  Forget about "wasting food" and just leave the rest.  (I did, however, get four breakfasts out of this!)

Ugh.  McD's is everywhere.  And what is "shiny" bacon, I ask you?!  (Or maybe a Big Mac is called a "Shiny" here?)  Beats me.

Ruth in the "French 7-11."

Only one thing worse than seeing chains like McD's around the world:  Seeing Coke products.