où commencer?

...which means” Where to begin?”
And yes, perhaps the beginning is the best, for even there is where I started, however late.

The weeks leading up to my departures have, of course, been crazy busy.  I must have been tired (surprise, surprise!) for I slept until nearly 1pm today.  By the time I woke up, nursed my exhausted body in the bath tub (oh thank you, tub-tub-tub!), and figured out how to get to the Louvre, ride the bus, get a bus ticket, locate the Caravaggio in the Louvre, and enjoy my cafe creme and thé Earl Grey, it was 5pm! So I ubered to the musee and prompltly felt overwhelmed.  After asking directions 3 times, and receiving them in English each time, and getting lost three times (I excel at following directions, navigating, and have a keen sense of direction; I was receiving very poor, contradictory directions), I looked up and saw The Fortune Teller over the right shoulder of the Louvre docent, as he was pointing far down the hall away from the painting!  

Please click the link, "Read More", below the slideshow...

After admiring all TROIX , I managed to ask three more guides how to find the Roman antiquities hall... and again, there and back and up and down and totally by chance, found!  By then, I am thirsty, hungry, and tired, having not eaten properly, breakfast or lunch.

I wonder and I wander and depart.  I need to eat and drink coffee.  My body seems to be in it’s own time zone because it is daytime in Austin and I am exhausted.  I get a map and memorize it before I leave.  Oh, that’s the other exciting point:  I have no phone service unless I have WiFi, which means I can’t simply pull up a map as needed, and of course (wow, full of these “courses” today!) left the paper Paris map I gained at the airport back at the flat.  I walk in the general direction, but the streets radiate at angles and cross, and come to circles, so I promptly proceed to get lost again!  But I don’t mind, because I am LOST IN PARIS!  It is early (8ish), many people are about, but of course it is in the 20’s and I left my face muff at the flat, too.  Vis a vis, being lost, I am hungry, thirsty, and freezing.  But again, it is an adventure, so I slow down as much as my shivering allows.  I think to myself: I can simply Uber home!  Several blocks later, I realize I cannot connect to Uber unless I have WiFi!  From that discovery, I start to gaze into brasserie and cafe windows seeking a warm, quiet place to connect to WiFi so I can uber home.  Many are crowded, or look fancier than I seek.  Finally, I ask the gendarme how to get to the Louvre, and I am walking in the wrong direction.  Both the cafe owner and the gendarme speak so fast and speak many words—very fast— but I nod and look interested and cognizant.  Luckily they gesture.  I should stop saying “Please speak slowly” in French, because my accent is TOO good and they think i understand.  Of course, French is so close to Latin, that I can comprehend if one speaks very very verrrrrry slowly!  

“Sil vous plait parlez lintemant”

More to write later. I have found my cafe, I am nearly warm, but full on soupe de oignone gratinee, 2 cafe cremes, and un  Graves vin rouge!  Time to really order an Uber, return to my flat and rest, and then go out again for dinner around 2am LOL. 

Oui! Je suis sérieux!! Yes, really!