Note: Journaling is a great way to build your stories. When you keep a journal you can record details that would be long forgotten if you let days pass. Then when you look back at your pages, you relive those moments and your stories emerge. Sometimes journals can be stories in themselves.

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The power is out when I wake up. Call Isabelle and she calls me back and tells me how to press the green button in the box in the entryway to turn it back on.

Email is working! Power back on. Life is good.

Wash up a little and dress. Answer email, telling Sabine that I will pay cash for the Monday wine touring because I can’t get PayPal to work for me here online on the petite ordinateur. Talk to Jack, how to get to Montmartre tonite to meet Bill and Fred. We work out what line to take. He is so helpful. And he advises me of the store that can help me with my camera too.

I google the store on the petite ordinateur and they are near Notre Dame, they are called FNAC and who knows what that stands for.

I go out to get my camera fixed.

Stop at a beautiful restaurant afterwards, La Fontaine de Mars, and my camera is working again! Of course the guy just touches it and speaks some French and it works again. I buy more memory for it. Have a lovely endive salad, with goat cheese, with that nice light mustard vinaigrette.



Stop on the Rue Cler for picnic items for tomorrow, purchase a dry white Chardonnay too on the way back. Receive his email and talk to Bill about dinner plans. He and Fred want to come to the picnic on Saturday! Also email with Susan about going Champagne tasting on Monday.

Time slips by as usual and soon it is time to Montmartre to meet Fred and Bill for dinner. I find the stop on the metro, even changing trains, taking the Paris metro rather than the RER. Thank you Jack!

Get there early a little and wander up the hill, cobblestone streets, watch your step, very narrow and winding. Outside the church Sacre Coeur, there is a plaza not far, artists ring the plaza, beautiful paintings really. They paint them right there, their oils, The evening is lovely, warm, and fine. I continue on up to the church. The view from the hill of Paris is stunning, there is Paris, laid out sunning itself, its aliveness radiating in the evening lying there under the watchfulness of Sacre Coeur.

I enter the church. There is a fully habited nun singing. Her voice rings out against the stone walls of the church, which is enormous. It is Mass going on.  I walk slowly around a bit. Many people look devoted, in prayer, thoughtful. I see candles that I could light. I put in my euro and light one. The priest is saying  the Mass in French, in full vestments and mitre, perhaps he is a bishop. That would make sense in such a grand church. I walk outside into the sunshine, there is Paris far below, continuing to bask in the early evening. Going down the steps I see some teenage boys eating pizza. I ask one of them who has just finished if he could take my photo. Of course! He jumps off the stone he was sitting on and takes one, no one more he says, very cute. They smile. Nice kids.

I go down to the restaurant, L'Annexe on the rue des Trois Freres in Montmartre. I am there before Bill and Fred. Waiting a bit before the door, I have a chance to look at the menu. It looks very elaborate, yet the prices are so good. Soon there they come around the corner. I know it must be them. We meet and it is just like with Jack and Randy, it seems like I’ve known them and yet we have just met, the warmth and friendliness radiate and creating an atmosphere that accompanies us into the restaurant where they are greeted as familiar friends and treated to a complementary glass of champagne. Bill says in France they call them William and Fredrick. Fredrick speaks no English and so it is a great opportunity for me to practice my French. I fail miserably and Bill continuously translates between the three of us.

Fred and I


We have a very enjoyable dinner chatting away and I am taking numerous photos of the wonderful food that they bring us. I have foie gras for the appetizer and then duck for my plat or main course. The foie gras is so rich and delicious. And we have a very nice red wine too. And I have a decaf coffee for dessert. The restaurant is not large, but there is a continuous flow of people coming in. Candles are lit at the small tables. A group of women sits next to us with two children.  Fredrick talks to them easily, everyone smiles, everyone is enjoying the food and the place. There is no hurry. The food is delicious.

Foie Gras


Happy Bill


The Duck, YUM


Ahh, the Pie for Dessert


After dinner, we wander around a little and they accompany me to the metro where we all get on. They ride along all the way to where it will be easy for me to transfer trains. It is so kind of them. We will see each other again the next day for the picnic

You can continue to read about my Paris trip here: Day 7 tellourlifestoriesblog.com/2011/05/27/saturday-april-16-2011-a-picnic-and-cruise-the-seine.aspx