First full day in Paris

P We woke to a little rain this morning, but  it had well cleared by the time set sail at about 10am.   Our goal was to go the the Jardin du Luxembourg, but our first stop was coffee at a very local cafe, with an exceptionally friendly waiter who kindly gave us our first French language lesson :)

We chose to sit indoors away from the smokers, little realizing that dogs came inside to escape the smoke as well.  

After our coffee we headed off in what we thought was the right direction.   Three of us are not too wonderful with directions, so we managed to not take the direct path we thought we were.

However, it was to our advantage, as we came across a typical market, enjoying strolling through it, and checking out the meat, cheeses, fruit and vegetables, and lots of other art and crafty items.

Dogs enjoy the markets too.  It could be the smell of the meat that attracts them.

After leaving  the market, and realizing we were not going in the right direction, we happened upon what is described as the largest church in Paris, St-Sulpice.  It took 134 years to build, beginning in 1646.  There is a magnificent fountain outside it.  Sadly there are lots of pigeon droppings all over the steps and almost to the doors of the church.

Before doing the touristy thing at the church. We had lunch in a cafe, with a waiter whose manner did not match that of our previous waiter.   The sandwiches we ordered turned out to be on a baguette, not bread as expected, but were delicious just the same.

Finally we found the gardens we had been seeking.  Napoleon designated this the "garden of children".

It's a 25 hectare park, with the formal gardens set around the palace of Luxembourg.  The gardens are lovely and there is a central octagonal pool, with small yachts sailing on it.   Children, using long sticks, boost the yachts along in the breeze.

On leaving the gardens, we found they were much closer to our apartment that we thought.  We plan to return later if we have the time, perhaps for a picnic.

   Takeaway pizza was dinner, it is sold by weight here.  One of them had spreadable salami on it, we think it was simply crushed pepper, it was so hot.   We all had to scrape if off our pizza to eat it.

Kwong has one of those keep fit wrist bands which measures  your steps, and today we did 14160 steps.   Any wonder we had takeaway for dinner!

Afterwards, Kwong and I felt energized enough to go another short walk, to check out how to buy tickets for the public transport system.