Paris - Again

We arrived late in the evening and we dashed to a sidewalk café down the street for a glass of wine and sparkling water. The café owner greeted us warmly and then went to spend time with a group of South African Rugby fans in town for the Rugby World Cup. There was much back slapping and taking of pictures and pouring of red wine; Mary and I watched the show and smiled at each other.

Our experiences last summer had been so positive that I had harbored some concern that Paris would not be able to live up. Stow those concerns sailor; All is well in Healy heaven. We spent the next day reintroducing ourselves to Paris and resting from a long travel day.

We went to Luxembourg Garden to stroll and watch the tennis players and spend quality time with the Petanque crowd as they kibitzed the games. We sat at a sidewalk café watching the rowdy rugby fans. Then we went to our old café for dinner. Le Chartreux had not changed a whit, and that includes the menu or the pictures of aging French movie stars on the wall. They still make the best cheeseburgers we know.

Returning to our hotel we stopped by the Swan Jazz Bar. Lionel, the expat American owner was standing in front. We stopped to say hello and talk old times, soon he veered into a political discussion. His passion has not banked and his smile has not dimmed. We waved good-by and headed across the river for our 8th Arrondesmont hotel home.