Cone or Cup?

Melissa here. It has been a while. We are having trouble getting internet connections and having time to write a post. So, I will be going back about a week. On Friday morning, Chad and I did our usual routine of grabbing a pastry then walking down to get a coffee. The coffee here in France is wonderful. It is strong and tastes great. They aren't fans of artificial sweetner, so I am putting sugar in my coffee. It is actually quite yummy, but just a little sweet. We have the morning to ourselves until Jerry arrives. We decide to take a walk along the Left Bank of the river. It is overcast and a little rainy. This is weather I haven't felt in a long time. We start walking over the bridge and Chad describes what we are looking at. We pass by the statue of Voltaire and take a quick picture. We then stroll past Oscar Wilde's and George Sands house. There is also a Delacroix museum. Le Petit Prince is a big deal over here in Paris, not surprisingly. There is one little shop dedicated just to this book. Towards the end of this walk, we come to two churches. One is St. Germain des Pres and of course St. Sulpice. St. Germain is Paris' oldest church dating back to the 11th century. St. Sulpice is the church I want to see. For those of you who have seen the Davinci Code, this church is three times the size of what was depicted in the movie. The church is enormous. I think it is almost similar to the size of Notre Dame. Of course, we find the obelisk and Chad takes a picture of me about to smash a tile like Silas. No tile was broken of course. WE will come back to this place for mass on Sunday. It has the most amazing organ and I think it considered the best in Europe.

We then decide it is lunch time. We find a cute little creperie where we can get some food. THe place is packed with all types of people drinking and eating crepes. CHad of course orders some cider and a crepe. The crepe was good! By this time we need to meet Jerry. We head back to our hotel and wait for Mr. Centanni to arrive. THe cab pulls up with him around 4pm. We drop off his stuff and then head out for lunch for him and snacks for us. We return to another bakery (there are three on every block) and buy a sandwich, a coffee, and pain au chocolat for me. Man, I can get use to this bakery thing! We walk around the neighborhood a little to show Jerry around and then decide to head over to the Ille St. Louis area of town. Chad and I walked by this area and saw a bunch of gelato shops. NOw, that is what I want. After a bit of a walk, we decide on dinner. We usually have been doing dinner around 8 pm and having it last til about 10. This seems to be the culture in France and we are openly embracing it. We settle on a littel Morrocan restaurant. Of course, we order a bottle of wine and two courses. We all get a salade then an entree. It is good food as we have all had this trip. AFter dinner, we head down to one of the gelato shops. We taste all types of Gelato and decide on two each. I actually get a cone. I haven't had a cone since I was about 12. She puts two flavors on the cone is the shape of a flower. How cute. Now, we all have our gelato and decide to walk to NOtre Dame to see it lit up for the nighttime. I grab a napkin for the walk. Chad does not. By the time we make it to the church, the gelato has melted all over CHad's hands and close. It was so funny Jerry and I also wet our pants. There are pictures, you have to see them. The gelato was great, but Jerry keeps reminding us that it will be nothing compared to Italy. By this time it is around 11 so after taking a bunch of pictures of the church, we walk back to the hotel. We are trying to get to bed before midnight, but somehow, that doesn't always work.