St. Sulpice, another Paris Walk and lost photos . . .

Strange day. We woke to a light rain and walked to Paul’s for breakfast but due to a mix-up, the maitre seated ahead of us a family who had just entered, and we had waited long enough that it annoyed Ed so we walked out. So . . . we started looking for breakfast. I knew a patisserie across from St. Germain market so we walked over, but it was closed. We wandered on and ended up in Café de la Mairie by St. Sulpice and shared an omelet and each got a hot chocolate. It was okay but nothing special. We started having breakfast at Paul's many years ago and it was just local folks. Unfortunately it has turned into a major tourist trap at this point and while it seems to be good for Paul's bottom line, it hasn't done much for its charm.

Got seats in St. Sulpice for the fifteen-minute pre-Mass organ performance, the Mass and a wonderful but too-short recital after Mass. We took the Metro out to Pl. d’Italie to start “Paris Walk #34, Le Butte aux Cailles.”

With the Paris Walk card and my map, we managed to find everything. Of all the restaurants recommended by Paris Walks, they either didn't look particularly good, were out of business or were closed on Sunday. We climbed up and down a few hills and found the Ville Daviel, a small cul-de-sac of quaint single-family homes set in a very industrial looking part of Paris. It was quaint and we were glad we found it, but the walk to get there was not particularly inspiring.

We followed the card to a very long market on blvd. Auguste Blanqui but it was late and they were closing and washing down the streets so we continued back to the Metro at Pl. d’Italie. We took the Metro back to our apartment and refreshed a bit before going out window shopping in our neighborhood. If I were to live in Paris, I would love to live right here. It's pretty, picturesque and close to all the things we enjoy. Walked up to the Seine and turned right where we walked down to rue des Sts. Pères where we turned south to rue Université and back to L’Empire on our corner for an early dinner/late lunch.

They weren’t busy but seemed somehow distracted. She gave us the English menu but by this time, we have it memorized so didn’t even notice. We both had the excellent chicken and got the nougat ice cream with very dark chocolate sauce. It was great, as usual.

Tomorrow is our last day and we're meeting friends from Virtual Tourist for lunch. Kate and I have been coordinating this and we came home to an e-mail from her to discover they were planning to meet us at a different Luxembourg Garden restaurant that Ed swears is not in the Luxembourg. It is; I saw it on a Google walk, but tomorrow may be a disaster if we all end up in different places.

To top it off, I accidentally deleted all of my photos and videos in one simple, irreparable click so no pictures from all our walking today either. Not our best day . . .