By day three I think we felt a bit better. I found each night I would plan the next days events. I started off with a rough list of things we that were must dos before we left home and after day one it needed to be broke down into days. So each night I would go over what we did that day and then plan the next day. The only scheduled thing we had was our wine tasting lunch at O Chateau for Saturday.
Today was day 3 which was Friday. Since I wanted to go to a market, I planned to got to the Marche Monge in the 5th Arrondisment. There was a method to my planning so as long as we were going to be in that area my dream was to visit the church where Owen Wilson waited nightly for that Peugeot to pick him up and take him on his nightly adventures with Ernest Hemingway, Gertude Stein, and gang in Midnight In Paris.
So first up was walking to March Monge. BTW I had purchased a sim card for my Iphone from Cellhire prior to leaving. The reason I did this, was because my cell carrier recommended this to me. There are other ways you can get data overseas, but this is what I chose. I chose to get the Europe Sim Card with 2 GB of data for $69. It was simple to use. Just insert the card when you reach your destination. You may have to change your APN if it doesn’t automatically. For my week in Paris I would have been fine with the 1GB, but I wasn’t sure how much I would actually use. Anyway I was able to navigate with my phone and we never got lost.
Which brings me to a handy little app that I feel is a must have. Sidekix saved us! It is a walking app and it can be used in many major cities. I used it all over Paris. It worked every time. You know how confusing the streets are there and this thing pointed us in the right direction. I will shout praises for this app over and over. I believe it made out trip essentially stress free. we didn’t have to consult paper maps more than a couple of times.
So back to the market. March Monge is a small market, but had everything to cook a gourmet meal plus some clothing, bags, scarves, and other goodies. It was a delight to watch the Parisians with their wheeled carts buy their supplies for the nights meal. I was brought back to reality seeing to armed guards standing watch on the corner. That was a familiar sight around Paris. Seeing groups of men dressed in fatigues carrying machine guns helped me feel protected but also sent chills down my spine that we live in a world today that calls for this in the cities of our world.
Next was walking to see Eglise Saint Etienne du Mont church also in the 5th AKA the Midnight In Paris church. It was a surreal experience to look down that quiet street and half way expect that Peugeot to drive up. It had started raining but that did nothing to dampen my spirits. That was a highlight for me. I have watched that movie probably 50 times.
I cannot tell you how many times I had to silently pinch myself that I was actually in Paris again. How can a place that you never lived in feel so much like home? The pull I have to the beautiful city is incredible. I don’t expect most people to understand what I am talking about. I take comfort in the fact that there are more people like me out there.
Lori you look like you belong there!