Ok. We’re over the jet lag

​it’s Day 5 of our Excellent Adventure Part II. We’ve conquered jet lag and we’re getting settled into our new neighborhood. Chris has described it as the Carmel of Parisian arrondissements. A friend of his told us there are more CEOs in the 8th arrondissement than in Silicon Valley. There are a lot of tourists in the area, too. 

I kind of miss the scruffier outer arrondissements where we stayed two years ago. There was an energy and joy just to be in the streets out there. I guess I felt special as an American in a more off-the-beaten-track part of Paris. I had a lot more opportunity to speak French, too. I hardly bother where we are now because everyone speaks English - because of so many tourists. 

On Friday we went to the Grand Palais. It was closed when we were here in 2024. But it was a disappointment. Little of the original interior was evident, except for one space. It almost seemed like they left this one token historical architectural space and then modernized the rest of it. And not in a good way. There were three art exhibitions, one of which was for kids. We went to two of them. The first was “meh”; the second was ok. The highlight was a space where a side of a building had been laid out on the ground with a mirror above it at a 45 degree angle. People could walk onto the “building” on the floor and pose so that it looked like they were hanging from balconies. Or they could walk across it, seeming to defy gravity. 

Otherwise, we’ve been checking out patisseries and boulangeries, especially those that are gluten free. We’ve also been eating out every night, which I’ve loved because we only have a stovetop at our Airbnb, no oven. 

I have a couple of pictures. I’ll post them on Facebook. Just search for me and you’ll see them in my feed.