{"id":250,"date":"2014-04-22T15:50:23","date_gmt":"2014-04-22T15:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/?p=250"},"modified":"2016-08-23T20:54:40","modified_gmt":"2016-08-23T20:54:40","slug":"saturday-april-19-day-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/?p=250","title":{"rendered":"Saturday, April 19, Day 18"},"content":{"rendered":"

Packing went easily and well, which meant one less thing to distract me. Picked up a baguette with Brie to go from Miss Manon,<\/strong> and tucked it in my bag.\u00a0Road the Metro to St. Michel<\/strong> with a line change, which showed me how confident I\u2019d become with something I was nervous about when I arrived. I followed the cultivated, intelligent ladies who recorded the audio guide through the Rue de la Huchette walk<\/em>, which gave me insight into medieval times. It was quite the disconnect, looking at stones carved ages ago\u00a0while bobbing like a cork on the tide of tourists. What the guide had to say was insightful, but it was my first exposure to being caught up in a super touristy area lined with cheap trinket stores, caf\u00e9s and the barbarian hordes. I bought a piping hot butter and sugar cr\u00eape from a walk-by window, delicious camouflage that gave me a legit excuse to stand in the street when I paused to look and listen.\u00a0Eventually, the audio guide led me to Rue Jacob<\/em>. I sat under a\u00a0tree in a courtyard garden of the oldest church in Paris, Saint-Germain-des-Pr\u00e9s<\/strong>, and devoured my baguette with Brie.<\/p>\n

Among the gifts of the day, was watching fitful sunlight bloom and fade translucent \u00a0colors through the stained glass onto the flagstone floors of the\u00a0Church.<\/p>\n

\"glass\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The audio guide explained exactly how the whims of royalty and the depredations of war had influenced the church\u2019s interior. I sat on one of the small wooden chairs that have been in every church I\u2019ve visited in Paris (as opposed to pews) and felt the centuries stretching behind me. Thought about the enduring power of faith, no matter how human being have twisted or denied it. One thing the audio guide pointed out was how the\u00a0St<\/i>\u00a0of\u00a0Rue\u00a0St Severin<\/em>\u00a0had been gouged out of the stone street sign by the revolutionaries, who wanted to erase the influence of church. It\u2019s the day before the resurrection is celebrated in the Christian world, as it has been for 2014 years. The older I become and the shorter my string gets, the more I am astonished at \u00a0the ability of us short-attention-span monkeys to conceive of and create such a thing as art.<\/p>\n

A little bit further along,\u00a0I found myself on Rue Buci, which rang a distant bell. \u2018Number three on the fifth floor\u2019 floated up out of wherever I store information that hasn\u2019t been accessed in 43 years, like the fortune in a Magic 8 ball.<\/strong> I thought I\u2019d just walk over and see if there was, in fact, a number 3, and if it had a fifth floor. And yeah, there it was. The garret I lived in when I first came to Paris, before I tripped and fell into modeling\u00a0and my life spun off in an unanticipated direction.\"#3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I took a couple of photos to show Robert\u00a0and noticed a motorcycle’s mirror was in one of the shots. Appropriate, as this was a pure stare in the rear view mirror of my life moment.<\/p>\n

\"va<\/a>\u00a0On I went.\u00a0I happened by Ladur\u00e9e<\/strong> at 4, just when my blood sugar fell into the cellar. I decided to sit down and have tea and a salted caramel macaroon or two. \u00a0Upstairs I went. \u00a0Blue velvet, gleaming silver, Earl Grey tea, sugar. I wrote postcards to my loved ones and contemplated the many pleasures of Paris. Time well spent.<\/p>\n

\"laduree\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My time is done here, though so much is left undone. \u00a0It will have to suffice. I don\u2019t know how or if this will manifest in my work. For all the riches of this city, I love my life, my real life. I will be glad to get home and be with\u00a0my darlin’ Robert, my spoiled rotten dogs, and my studio. And, when they get back from their<\/em> travels, my beloved children. \u00a0Out of the rear view and into the present moment. But not just yet. Ten more days to go.<\/p>\n

I’ve heard the King of Holland is going to throw\u00a0a party, his first birthday as the national holiday. \u00a0Good thing I’ve got that tangerine scarf. Heading for the CDG airport<\/strong> at 7am and the next chapter in this travelogue; Amsterdam, and\u00a0the Rijksmuseum<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Packing went easily and well, which meant one less thing to distract me. Picked up a baguette with Brie to go from Miss Manon, and tucked it in my bag.\u00a0Road the Metro to St. Michel with a line change, which showed me how confident I\u2019d become with something I was nervous about when I arrived. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[13],"tags":[115,225,152,227,194,148],"class_list":{"0":"post-250","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-paris","8":"tag-audio-tour","9":"tag-cafe","10":"tag-church","11":"tag-pastry","12":"tag-restaurant","13":"tag-sketch","14":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/laduree.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7OBxc-42","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=250"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2282,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250\/revisions\/2282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}