Sunday and the start of bridges

When I first looked out of my windows at 8am there was no-one at all in the place in front of the Hotel de Ville that I look onto and noone in the streets. As I look now, 5pm, there are about 40 people  in small groups of mainly 2 and 3  wandering around.

This morning I walked a few blocks to a boulangerie I had seen that had seats.  The coffee was quite pleasant and the croissant disappeared quickly, so I had to try a pain au raisin. I was watching the street and from 8.30 to 9 only 6 different people walked past and 4 of them were leading dachshunds. I have seen quite a few dogs since I have been here, but never dachshunds, until this morning. And they were diferent dachshunds.

I pottered in my room until lunchtime, then went about 8 blocks to a place that I had read about. My dictionary is not too good on cooking terms, sauce ingredients etc etc. So I wasnot quite sure what was coming with my fish.  I donot need a dictionary for chocolate mousse. The restaurant was quite old - wood pannelling half way up the walls, small room, mirrors, tables only inches part, lovely mosaics on the floor, mainly covered by the tables.  People, including me, got moved to different seats to make room for people. All fun to watch. I had the chocolate mousse just so I could stay longer and watch the comings and goings- a better excuse than I usually dream up.

After pottering some more and enjoying sitting in the sun in my room watching the people in the Place opposite - this morning someone must have been distributing chalk ( but I could not see where or who) because lots of people were bending down writing on the paving, there were still people writing or drawing this afternoon - I decided to go for a walk with no map and no real idea. I walked over the bridge that I can see to the Ile de la Cite ( excuse no accents) and then to Ile Saint Louis. I walked around it and started my collection of photos of the bridges over the Seine. Great fun. On one of the bridges a goup of 4 people on roller skates were dancing along to music along a row of small cones quite closely spaced along the bridge.  They were quite skilled and fun to watch.

A fairly ordinary bridge, Pont Saint Louis,  behind it a typical Parisian building and behind that the back end of Notre Dame cathedral.

A more interesting bridge, Pont Sully, built in 1874