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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Late for my 10:30 Taste of Paris tour by an hour but still manage to find them. I go to the right metro stop and find myself on a street that looks promising. I call Oriel, the manager of the tour company and she says, “Oh, yes, they will be coming to that street, look out for them,” Sure enough I spot my group, ambling along. I’ve only missed the macaroons and a bite of chocolate which the guide put away for me. She is wonderful and knows so many things about the food. It is a treat, this tour. We get many tastes of wonderful things in the Etienne Marcel neighborhood, very good for food and chocolate.

The taste of Paris tour, like the fashion tour it is one of the walks from www.Paris-walks.com  . They have many every month and you can sign up for them in advance. I found out about them from my dental hygienist, who told me, you could do one in the morning and a different one in the afternoon! They don’t cost very much and it is an opportunity to walk through the neighborhoods and learn about Paris history with very knowledgeable English-speaking guides. They have tours such as “Edith Piaf’s Paris,” “Village Monmartre,” “Hemmingway’s Paris,” “Cite Island & Notre Dame,” “The Marais,” “The French Revolution,” and more.  

After the walk I buy gifts for family, tasty treats to take home with me and send to them. My camera doesn’t work on this day. More electronic challenges.

Wander around slowly making my way back to Rue de Rivoli. Stop and have a small salad at a restaurant and look out over the people passing by over my Café au Lait.

Go back to my apartment by early evening where I see an email from Randy suggesting a picnic on Saturday! How nice, so I email Bill and Fred and invite them too, all my new friends.  Spend the evening doing some email and writing.

I am in bed by 8 pm.

Wake up around 11 and take melatonin. Later, turn on the kitchen light and it pops and goes out. Ah well. Sleep soundly till 8 a.m. Good for me.

You can continue to read about my Paris trip here: Day 6 http://tellourlifestoriesblog.com/2011/05/26/friday-april-15-2011-sacre-coeur-and-dinner-with-bill-and-fred.aspx