In which Mrs. Smith goes to church, views the Opera, visits the old neighborhood and gets taken to lunch in the Tuileries

But had nothing whatsoever to do with the tacks in the road.

Last evening she stated unequivocally that she would NOT give up any sleep just to take the minute and a half walk to be present at a religious observance in a building where construction began in 1163, was completed in 1330, built on a site where other churches previously stood and where thousands of priests have since presided over the same religious observance being conducted today on behalf of millions of people.

She changed her mind and after church pronounced herself extremely pleased with the experience. Whatever your religious beliefs mass at Notre Dame is an experience uniquely connected to human history. It seems at least to me to be impossible to be unaware of all of the other human beings who have stood in that place doing the same things that you are doing.

This is the 14th century statue of the Virgin and the Child located against the southeast pillar in the church transept and known as Notre Dame de Paris.

She had expressed a desire to see the Opera House, in fact, it was on her extremely short list.  We made our way over to Chatelet again with a stop along the way at the Popular Kids' bank and boarded the 7 line, a no transfer ride up to Garnier.

It is a very, very nice looking old building.  It makes an immediate impression.  But we were also impressed by the Colonne de Vendome, visible down the other street without having to take a step but by only changing facing direction.

We had to take about 7 different crosswalks to get from the Metro stop to the half way around the building tour entrance.  But soon enough we were inside.  Operating on the theory that we should get to the best things first before the crowd got too heavy we headed into the performance auditorium for the Chagall ceiling.

The stage right boxes and balconies.

Everywhere you look in this building seems worthy of a photo and believe me, I took them all.  Through an excruciatingly painful process of editing I have gotten the set down to what you see here.

This is the Grand Staircase, the entrance into the theatre from the front door.  This is the path most patrons would travel on the way to their seats.

We headed out from the Opera down Avenue d'la Opera towards some more familiar stomping grounds.  Imagine our surprise to discover that the Opera Monoprix is closed, possibly for renovation but there are aspects of the boarding up that look more like a conversion to something with a more significant bottom line boost for that most assuredly touristy part of town.  We did find the brasserie on the corner where we dined on several occasions.

The boulangerie is still there although it was closed today, Dimanche doncha know.

The sun was out, it was temporarily gorgeous, we headed into the Tuileries.  The Carrousel is up.

Next Sunday the Tour de France will be here, we  will not.

The sun was definitely out but the FT pointed to some black clouds looming behind the Eiffel Tower.  We stopped for lunch at one of the two Tuileries places, chosing one with umbrella protected tables and a heavy cover of heavily leafed out trees.

We had been sitting for about 30 seconds when the skies opened and a drenching downpour began.  It affected us not, Mrs. Smith had been taken to lunch, we were busy with our meal.  Not a single drop touched either of us.

And just as we finished up the meal the rain stopped.  We emerged from under the trees for our first confirmed sighting of the Arc de Triomphe.

When we got down to Concorde we discovered the Presidential  viewing stand being dismantled.  There will be plenty of viewing stands up for next Sunday's Tour final stage, just none of them will actually be out there in the center of Concorde.

We headed for home base on the Metro giving the FT an opportunity to engage in one of her favorite word games, the Find-a-Word.

This one is made harder by the fact that all of the words are in French.  I believe I have mentioned that MY French is deficient.  At least I have a tiny amount of French to be deficient, the FT has completely and totally no French at all.