Pottering on Thursday

Today is the beginning of my last week so I spent some time this morning going through my lists and working out what I did not want to miss.

I went  for lunch to another place on my list of traditional, interestingly decorated cafes with reliably good food.  Seated next to me were 2 gentlemen from NY. One could speak French and grew up in England. We talked about all sorts of things. As part of my entrance ticket to the Louvre I could get into a small museum where Delacroix spent his last days. It was in a house in Place Furstemburg in the 6th , a little quiet corner of Paris.  The best part of the museum was the quiet garden in the back where I sat for a bit. Then I wandered the streets in the direction of the church in St Germain-des-Pres where I had been before.

I came across the 2 iconic cafes of literary Paris - Les Deux Margots and Cafe de Flore.  Ages ago I had decided that I would not bother - they would be overpriced and full of tourists.  I walked slowly past one, yes, full of tourists then slowly past the second and  thought , a hot chocolate would be nice, saw that there were a few spare tables and that there were some French people so went in.   Different authors preferred different cafes, apparently. I had not looked up which cafe Simone de Beauvoir spent her time talking to Jean-Paul Satre in, but it didnot matter. I ploughed through a few more pages of her book that I am reading while I drank my very delicious hot chocolate. Yes, it was expensive, but there were French people on one side of me.

Then I sat in the church for a while and then  wandered my way back through a few more of the quaint passgeways and narrow streets filled with  interesting things.