Squeezebox

9:45 AM met Judy at Cafe des Pharses for cafe and pain au chocolat. L, R + I will take the Metro to Rue du Bac and go to Musee Maillol to see the Botero exhibit. On the way we were caught in the middle of the Half Marathon of Paris as it made it's way through Place de la Bastille. We watched as a lone runner leading the pack ran by, and a minute later followed by several others, and then more minutes later followed by a much larger bunch. People clapped and whistled as they ran by. We also walked over to the street market behind our hotel. While I was taking a picture, this funny old guy jumped in front of the camera to have his picture taken. Laura kindly posed with him, refused a kiss and then we hurried to the Metro.

We waited for about 20 minutes to get into Musee Maillol-- and experienced our very first extreme European personal space issue. The woman standing behind me kept literally pressing up into me, and had her feet between my feet-- even though there was ample room. She wasn't even trying to pick my pocket. She just didn't think that she should be any further than 1" from me. I kept moving, and finally put my hands on my hips and turned sideways to make my self a little larger and afford myself a luxurious 6 inches of space. It was really bizarre. No one else was crowding anyone...just this weird lady.

The Botero exhibit was great-- all the paintings and drawings were very recent: 1998-2003. There was a very moving series about riots and massacres and the political environment of Colombia. And lots of rotund men and women dancing.

We went back to the Bastille to meet Judy and Bill for Sunday Lunch at Baz Art, a very nice neighborhood bistro. I had a bavette sauce bearnaise avec frites, and a funny composed dessert-- a souvenir a glace Carambar au sauce chocolat. It was a frozen caramel meringue-y mousse with some chocolate sauce and a chocolate covered marshmallow bear. Delicious, but very funny.

Laura had to go back to Grenoble, so we walked with her to the Gare de Lyon and waiting with her a bit on the platform. She took one of the high speed trains and will make it home early evening.

I had to do laundry, so R kindly accompanied me to the small laundromat-- where you have to use a single machine to buy soap, start the washer and start the dryer. It's a little confusing even though the instructions are in English!

We went to a place called Cafe Martini and had a pastis while waiting for the laundry to be done.