Friday For Touristing and Breaking Rules - Paris Explore Trip

With our relocation business concluded, it was time for the vacation part of this trip to begin. Well, at least for me. Dave was due in the office for a day of meetings, so I took the vacation.

I slept in for a super-long time. But eventually food and coffee got me out of bed. I meant to hit a cafe on the way to Luxembourg Garden, but one sniff the Starbucks lobby and I changed my mind. And here is where I broke an unwritten rule of Paris ...

I got a take-away coffee and walked with it. And horror upon horror ... it was a Starbucks!

In Paris it's straight up not done. A cafe is a big deal here. You sit and enjoy morning coffee either at home or at a cafe with a friend, or both. Walking and drinking coffee is not seen, not like in NYC where it's almost a sport. When you order coffee here, you get a real mug and a place to sit. You're not going anywhere.

It pegged me as a foreigner for sure. But I wasn't fined or thrown in jail. And I still got asked directions to a metro station!

I had a sandwich while sitting in the Luxembourg garden, people watching and making to-do lists. It's such a beautiful place to spend time. Then, I walked across the street to the Pantheon, which I've never visited. It was blissfully quiet and calm inside, and I got to really enjoy the architecture. No, I didn't walk into the crypt. I visited a crypt in Berlin and it creeped me out for life. But the rest of the place is stunning, and since it was just finished in the late 1700s, the building is pretty new for this city.

Lunch View

The Pantheon 


Inside the Pantheon 
Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, Pantheon's Neighbor
Tomorrow is another day to explore this lovely city. And I have a long list of places I have yet to see.



Related posts: 
The Paris Move

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