Third Time's a Charm!

 Some of you may know that Chris and I have been trying to get to Paris - first, in 2015 and then again in 2020. I got sick enough in 2015 that I couldn't travel. You all know what happened in 2020. But we are now in Paris, so 2024 has been good to us.

Many of you asked us if we were excited about our prolonged trip. Before we left Indianapolis, we were not excited, just because we were too encumbered with selling our house, packing up and emptying the house, working with our architect on the renovations for our Chicago apartment, and planning our trip. But I finally got excited when I knew we were on our way to Paris. Here we are in the TGV train (très grande vitesse - very high speed) on our way to Paris from Barcelona:


The train maxed out at 290 km/hr. at one point! So much better than flying!

Before saying more about our first few hours in Paris, I should finish up in Barcelona. Naomi left this past Tuesday to go home to Chicago. Chris and I spent our final day in Barcelona at the Mercat de Boqueria. I should credit Naomi here, as she was the one who discovered it and encouraged us to go see it. It was fun. Lots of brightly colored candy and other delicious things to eat - most of which I could not eat, of course, but hey, I live vicariously and I remember what the good stuff tastes like! Chris and I did have some potato spirals on a stick - a bit stale, but we liked the concept.


And then there were the colorful candy stalls. These actually don't tempt me at all.


We also visited a nearby "international" parish church that had about 6 chapels off to each side. I'll just post a picture of the sanctuary:


Which brings us to the end of our time in Barcelona. We had to get back to the apartment and get packed up for our trip the next day.

So, back to Paris. We hit the jackpot with our Airbnb apartment. It's huge and cavernous. Kind of shabby elegant. It even has an out-of-tune piano. We sat through dinner and giggled, as if we'd just gotten away with something. Can't believe our luck. These pictures don't do it justice (except for the great shot of Chris's foot!).




Tomorrow we'll get our shopping done and do some wandering to get to know the neighborhood. I'll be back with more about Paris. We'll be here for 2 1/2 months, so there will be plenty to report.

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