10 18 Friday, a good day

This morning after my normal,coffee and croissant I talked to Noel, as normal and then ,unusually, my sister, which was good. I left here with no special plan other than check out notre dame and meet my canberra friend for lunch. I wandered down backstreets toward  the seine. It was time for morning tea so I went into the first bar, hoping it was a small neighbourhood one. No,big fancy one. The barman directed me  to a stool at the end of the bar. The bar was in the middle of a biggish room and he faced outward toward the street. I reckon I was in the best seat of the house. I could see exactly what he was doing, all the front inside , all the outside and the bar, and some of the back part. There were about 10 tables inside in the front and over 20 outside. No idea about the back. He was taking orders from 2 waiters, looking after the 5 people at the bar, and making coffees for all the regulars who came in, often with just a greeting but no words about what coffee, so he must have known their regular orders. He had a big mirror above his machine, so sometimes he would make a coffee for a regular coming in and it would be on the bar waiting for the regular.  Once he had 6 orders all at once while he was making several others. He held it all in his head, though sometimes repeating the orders under his breath. Very impressive. So I sat for quite a while just watching.

Next stop was Notre Dame. The crowds loitering around looking were quieter than normal.  There were several cranes working when I was there. There are hoardings up at ground level with a display of big black and white photos . I went closer to look and by change it was a photo of a group of 24  foresters,,some with tree saws. About the only thing I have read in detail about the restoration was about the lengths that they went to to find the exact same fairly rare timber for some of the beams as had been used previously. 

I went on my way to the Cafe I was meeting Jan at. I passed a small church, wedged in between buildings so all you see is one end. I took a photo and thought there was something different about the decoration above the door. From a distance it looked like stained glass , but it was a mosaic. It was a Romanian Orthodox Church. So I read some of the bits of information on the door ( not the one in Romanian) . It won some award for the restoration work of several years ago.

I was still a bit early so I stopped again at a tiny park around a statue  of a man named Ronsard and sat down and read about him , a 16th century  poet. Maybe it will come up in a trivia quiz and maybe I might remember him.

I chatted to Jan for a long time. Then we went our separate ways. I walked to and then along a shopping and food street that is well known in the area, stopping for a chai latte and biscuit and then in the direction of my apartment.  I heard someone calling out what sounded like sue, but Sue is not a  French name. The second time I heard it I turned around it was Jan. Fancy that.

I even remembered to  buy some camomile tea on the way home. I have forgotten for the last 2 days.  I normally take my shoes off as soon as I get in the door. Not today, I remembered i had to take the rubbish out first, again something I had forgotten for several days.