Notre Dame, Pont des Arts and a visit by Queen Elizabeth II

Woke to sun; turned to rain then clouds so we took our umbrellas but not our hats or sunglasses which turned out to be a mistake. We walked to the nearby Sennelier art store where I got tubes of green and burnt umber to add to my palette. Then we crossed the street and walked along the Seine to the Pont des Arts which is completely covered with all the stupid “love locks" and all the vendors are hawking them. It should be illegal. They’ve ruined the bridge and the keys are polluting the river below. Shameful . . . (In fact, on June 8 a section of the Pont des Arts collapsed from the weight of the locks. The bridge was closed while being repaired and they have now put in plexiglass panels instead of grills.)

We headed for Notre Dame and noticed an incredibly heavy police presence and caravans of police going hither and yon. We stopped near Notre Dame for a limonade and watched all the tourists. Checked at the church and the Sunday afternoon free organ recitals are gone. There’s something on Tuesdays that we’ll check but we were disappointed. We always look forward to the recitals in Notre Dame. St. Eustache still has them and so does St. Sulpice. We walked on to Square du Vert-Galant subject of a favorite Picasso painting, then the peaceful Place Dauphine. Crossed the Seine and made sure the Pei Pyramid was still standing. Brief visit to Saint Germain l'Auxerrois and fought our way down rue de Rivoli to meet Pedro. I've never seen so many tourists, I guess for the D-Day memorials.

We were supposed to meet Pedro and his son for lunch so we walked back and along the Seine noting more police. We got to Café L’Impérial at the corner of rue de Rivoli and rue Roget de L’Isle before Pedro arrived so told the waiter we were expecting two more for lunch. He seated us at a table for four. When Pedro walked in with all three of his sons, we were quickly moved to a larger table. His oldest Noël is 22 and the twins, Remi and Xavier, are 19. They were all very nice. Noël is most like Pedro and Remi is the talker who reminded us of a very nice horn student of Ed’s many years ago at California State University. Of course Pedro is a non-stop talker so we had a fun and very interesting lunch. Ed and I both got the filet de cabillaud rôti à la provençale, écrasé de pommes de terre à l'huile d'olive (cod) and all the others got various kinds of steak. It was all good and service attentive but not intrusive. It was a fun lunch and we enjoyed it. [Café L’Impérial-Rivoli, 240 Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris; tel: +33 (0)1 4260 7327; Café L’Impérial-Rivoli web site]

Pedro and sons left for their home in Brittany and we walked back to Ile St. Louis to find my favorite scarf shop, Diwali’s. I try to get a scarf on each trip for my souvenir. The sun had come out and it was hot and humid so it was a hot, sweaty walk and Diwali’s is at the end of the Ile St. Louis. We had to fight our way through tourist mania including a very long line at Berthillon’s Ice Cream. In fact, this was the perfect day for ice cream if we hadn't been so full from lunch.

Found Diwali’s and got a lovely grey, blue and white scarf and a scarf tying lesson. Fun! Then we started back to the Hotel de Ville Metro station fighting our way through tourists. I’ve never seen so many here. We found the Metro and made our way home to clean up a little for church and walked over to Ste. Clotilde for Mass.

Later I discovered the heavy police presence in the morning was for a visit by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip somehow related to all the D-Day observances this weekend.