After sleeping in we headed out late to explore Nottingham, which was sadly rainy most of the day. I'm sorry I didn't get pictures of breakfast, Laura and Andy had an enormous variety of delicious foods for us to sample. It was downright luxurious. Best, though, was their own homemade bread with lots of real butter. Mmmmm.

Above is the Sky Mirror, and it must be stunning on clear days with blue skies. As is it was pretty impressive. Next we went to the castle, an ancient structure that I didn't get any decent pictures of. The grounds allow you views across the river and below you can see this old house set into the cliff, notice the roof of the round room in the corner.

Then it was over to see the statue of, what else?, Robin Hood.

And at this point it was nearly 11 a.m. and we happened to be near the oldest pub in England, Trip to Jerusalem. Here is the base of the hill below the castle, on the way to the pub. I can only imagine what is on the other side of these doors.

Here it is:

"Ye Olde" is actually in the name! It was interesting inside, all the rooms are carved from the stone and they are connected by narrow staircases, making the whole thing feel like a very civilized ant colony. With beer.

Looking up at the ceiling.

Proof that we actually had beers:

Next we wandered into the shopping areas and had a peek inside of Paul Smith. I really liked his perfumes, but was too intimidated to take a picture inside the shop. Just outside are two old red phone boxes, which Laura reports are disappearing.

Next we were off to Nottingham Contemporary art gallery to have a look at their space related exhibits and eat lunch in the cafe there, nice presentation for a humble burger:

I had to take a picture of the Royal Shield of Arms coins designed by Matt Dent, that all fit together like this. We only had three:

The most impressive thing on show at the gallery was this giant space suited man:

You can see the room guard sitting against the back wall just off to the right near the shoe, that black smudge? That's the guy.

We could walk inside of the giant spaceman, here is Scott and Laura peeking into the helmet area where a pod chair was positioned so you could sit and look up out of visor:

I liked the details, these eyelets must have been made with the rings that go around burners in stoves? Or something?

They had held a futuristic fashion show inside the spaceman, here are a few of the outfits that were on display:

We ended the day with a trip to John Lewis. I tried to be discreet about taking pictures so please excuse the following, but I wanted to show how they sell fabric and yarn right in the store:

Upstairs was yardage of home design weight fabrics, lots of it also came laminated:

Downtown Nottingham was lovely, despite the overcast day. The interior roads are closed to traffic except for transit vehicles, and there are wide areas just for pedestrians. People were walking all around, it was calm and quiet without the sounds of rushing traffic and so nice. I really wish there were more cities in the US that were able to treat the main areas like this. Between all the great shops and the fantastic transportation I've decided I'd like to live in Nottingham, though Laura and Andy assure me I'd like Manchester a bit better.

A small traveling version of the London Eye happened to be set up while we were there. (Ok, fine, it's just a regular ferris wheel, but look! a ferris wheel!):

Back at Laura and Andy's home we were treated to Toad in the Hole with vegetarian sausages, it was delicious. I think they said this was a Jamie Oliver recipe.

And dessert were two puddings we had picked out at Marks and Spencer foods the night before. Spotted Dick! and Sticky Toffee Pudding!

We wound down the day by getting comfy with Daisy:

And eating as many Cadbury Easter chocolates as possible. The creme eggs and mini eggs taste so much better than the ones we get in the US.

Things I Learned the Hard Way

Buy stuff: I wish I had bought much more stuff, especially yardage at John Lewis and chocolates. I thought I was showing restraint in spending and luggage space but there are dozens of things I'm sure I could have found room for. (Not really, we had zero room left in our luggage, but I am good at revising my memories.)

Bedding sizes are not the same:Heartbreakingly!, I learned that the bright and cheery Orla Kiely Stem duvet covers are a good 10 inches too narrow to fit on our kind-sized down comforter as US and UK sizes are different. I'm glad I checked before buying it at John Lewis, it would have been really difficult to return.

Previously: Day One arrival and beating jet lag; Day Two big impressive monuments, unexpected meetings, needing to pee; Day Three The Metro, a museum, and French onion soup; Day Four dogs in paintings, startlingly large arches and towers; Day Five pastries and scoldings; Day Five the bit about the mangosteens; Day Six trains and vegetables

Next up: Rain Gods and cake for elevenses

I'm caught unprepared this year! Clearly I don't deserve my Irish heritage. Please check out these excellent Saint Patrick's Day stuff from other people -- Shamrock Badges at Design*Sponge, Bog Tea at Make Grow Gather. ("So in honor of St Paddy’s Day, I suggest that you brew some good, strong Irish tea, carry it outside, and drink in the world." Lovely!) Corned Beef and Cabbage (which thankfully starts with a package of corned beef) and Caraway Soda Bread, both from Simply Recipes. (All images used above are from their respective sites.)

On day six we took the Eurostar to London and a National Rail train to Nottingham to visit a our friends Laura (Busywork) and Andy. I was very excited about taking the train but, turns out, it wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped. We did end up going through the Chunnel, but they didn't announce it or anything. It just got dark, and a few minutes later we were in the UK.

We did get some great advice from Laura on how to book a good train ticket, and I've added my own below.

We were hoping for more time in St. Pancras station since it's filled with nice stores, and we were hoping to go next door to get a picture of Platform 9 3/4, but our train was late and by the time we found where to get our tickets and grabbed some food it was time to find the new train.

At this point in our trip I was in desperate need of some vegetables. I was over the moon to find some prepared broccoli and soba noodles with carrots! At this point these were the most precious and delicious things in my world. I was giddy while eating them, it was terribly silly.

I also spotted Scotch Eggs!

And these cute meat pies:

We were met at the Nottingham station (so nice!) and were soon exploring the neighborhood. First we went to the Nottingham Craft Mafia pop-up store. Apparently it had started as a temporary shop set up for the holidays but was so successful they stayed. It's full of great things:

We passed a bank and Laura and Andy pointed out this cat who waits at the front door in the moring, comes inside and hangs out in the lobby all day, and leaves at night. Smart cat.

After this we went to Boots! I bought some Travel Calm (motion sickness pills that we can't get in the states, and don't have the heavy drowsy side effect of Dramamine) and looked through all the many goods. I didn't buy nearly enough stuff here.

And then we went to a Marks and Spencer's food store, it was amazing. Trader Joe's pales in comparison.

The flavors of crisps here were amazing. I think we bought Honey Roasted Whiltshire Ham, which tasted uncannily like any barbeque flavored chip.

Chocolate buttons.

Look! Dessert spoons.

Later Scott got a Malteasers milk shake:

I was very tired so we all went to bed early.

Things I Learned the Hard Way

Eurostar and train tickets The earlier you buy rail tickets the less expensive they are. We got ours about two months in advance and it was still surprisingly pricey. That said, Paris to London in two hours? That was pretty cool.

Laura sent me to sites that had really fantastic advice about booking on the Eurostar - Seat 61. In particular this site has some great advice on choosing a seat and points towards this very handy (PDF) Seatting Plan which can help you choose a seat facing forward and with a good open window in your aisle. Most handy of all? If you buy standard class tickets know that cars 5 and 14 have power sockets in each row. They alternate UK and European outlets, and if you book early enough you can choose (they show which outlets are in which rows when you choose). These are also the cars nearest the bar cars which can be good (food!) and bad (lots of people coming through).

My advice? Headed out of Paris towards London get seats on the left side of the train, we were seated on the right and had a view of a highway the whole trip. I kept peeking across the train car to see more pastoral views of villages and barns in the distance out the other windows.

If you're interested in shopping in St Pancras try to get a longer layover than one hour. Our Eurostar trains were both running half an our late. We had enough time to get our connecting train, but not enough to look around. (I was hoping to have enough time to slip and out have a photo op moment at nearby Platform 9 3/4.)

We booked our trip (Paris to London to Nottingham) all together through Eurostar.com, the advantage of which is that should one train be late, you're automatically booked on the next train going your way without extra expense. We weren't able to request specific seats on the National Rail tickets. On the way back we found ourselves in the midst of commuter time and it was madness with people standing and a few sitting down in seats only to have the ticket holder for that seat arrive shortly afterward, and then negotiate with the squatter, generally kindly, who had longer to travel and on and on. It was really amusing.

You need to arrive half an hour before departure time for the Eurostar trains, so if you can at all help it don't double check your tickets the night before and accidentally read them as "9:31 am" instead of "9:13 am" because you'll also find that the journey through the Metro and RER with it's long underground connection tunnels will take you a good 45 minutes when you have luggage and you'll be frantic when you realize your error and arrive at Gare du Nord to find you have to walk three football fields of length through crowds to get to the Eurostar platforms and you'll be sweaty and rushed and panicky. So, yeah, give yourself plenty of time.

On the way out of Paris through Gare du Nord we did have to fill out forms with our names, destination and travel dates to go through passport control, as well as go through some luggage screening. On the way back out of St Pancras we had luggage screening but didn't have to fill out extra forms. (Actually, the French men in passport control barley glanced at me on the way through.) At St Pancras there is a newsstand with candy and a restaurant with to-go food on the other side of passport control. If you head all the way to the right (towards the restaurant) you can find counter seats with both European and UK plugs, there were a bunch of people camped there with laptops, and I think the St Pancras wi-fi extends that far though we weren't able to connect to it.

What else? The Eurostar trains have fold-down foot rests, that was a nice touch. And at night the cars are lit on the inside so it's easy to catch several reflections of the couple in front of you making out, hee hee.

Previously: Day One arrival and beating jet lag; Day Two big impressive monuments, unexpected meetings, needing to pee; Day Three The Metro, a museum, and French onion soup; Day Four dogs in paintings, startlingly large arches and towers; Day Five pastries and scoldings; Day Five the bit about the mangosteens

Next up: Ye Olde-est Pub in England and a giant space suit

Tomorrow night (Wed. Mar. 17th at 7pm) the Grassroots Business Association is having our Focus Group meeting where we'll be reviewing each others business ideas. It's going to be a lot of fun. And if you're a regular please note the meeting will be in a new location, in the offices of Accounting For Small Business at 920 NE 64th Street, just across from the Ravenna Whole Foods, here is the Google map. You can find more details here, I hope to see you.

Design*Sponge » sewing 101: curtains.

Memo Chalkboard Wall Sticker, online at JohnLewis.com. Curse my orange peel finish walls!

Highlight Your Flat Screen With Plywood & Pipe | Apartment Therapy Unplggd.

Making it Lovely | Transforming the so-so. » DIY Painting Tips, Tricks, and a Step-By-Step Guide.

Design*Sponge » small measures with ashley: starting seeds indoors.

The Kitchn On Dishwashers Kitchen & Bath Month 2010 | Apartment Therapy The Kitchn.

5 Books & Guides To Help With Wiring Woes | Apartment Therapy Unplggd.

Yesterday was the first meeting of our Cookbook Club, a gathering of friends where we each bring a different dish from a chosen cookbook so we can sample and compare. Our first choice was easy, Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson, aka 101 Cookbooks.

I'll just go ahead and tell you I liked everything. Heidi's book is very focused on vegetarian foods that aren't necessarily healthy (there is no shying away from butter and cheeses in this book) but aren't trying to be vegetarian versions of meat foods. She explains very clearly the how and why of each recipe (I finally get soaking and cooking beans). Our collective criticism? Some of the ingredients can be difficult to find, even in health conscious, food focused Seattle. Though because of this conversation, half of us learned about Big John's PFI, an imports store in SoDo.

My favorite of the afternoon I somehow didn't end up with a picture of, it was the Black Tea Spring Rolls. They are filled with mushrooms and smokey tea leaves and the flavor is interesting and comforting and I wanted to eat more until I burst. update: You can see a picture of these taken by Maggi (thanks Maggi!) here. In fact, she is an amazing photographer so just go look at her pictures instead.

Beluga Lentil Crostini, with goat cheese and chives, we couldn't stop eating these.

Golden-Crusted Brussels Sprouts, this picture was taken just before they were sprinkled with cheese that melted fetchingly.

Gnocchi alla Romana with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, these were delicious, and not shown was the accompanying spicy tomato sauce.

Straw and Hay Fettuccini Tangle, made with asparagus and spinach pesto, amazing.

Otsu, this was very satisfying to eat.

Sweet Potato Spoon Bread, so very yummy.

Giant Crusty and Creamy White Beans, this is the one I made and I'll be making it again.

Raspberry Curd Swirl Cake, served with whipped cream. This had a delicious crusty top and we were impressed how well the whole wheat flour turned out a fluffy cake.

Thin Mint Cookies, really great, I nabbed one of these before we officially started eating.

Next up, Falling Cloudberries!

This weekend Scott will be doing at gig at the Emerald City Comic Con, he plays bass for Kirby Krackle. They'll be performing tomorrow (Sunday the 14th) in Room 3AB at 2 p.m. And get this, the Marvel Comics Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada will be joining them on guitar. It must not be missed*. (And hey, you'll have time since the Focus on Felicia Day panel was canceled as she is currently filming in Canada. (I mean this lovingly, I would have been in the Felicia Day panel too. (Shh, don't tell Scott.)))

We visited the con today and it was packed so I didn't get pictures. But we saw the most adorable Dahlek costume on a very small child, and we saw Keith Knight and Bob the Angry Flower in real life. And Bob, I mean, Stephen was actually wearing the flower on his head. (I have a old story that involves me seeing a K Chronicles on the wall of my dentist's office and she mentioning that oh, yeah, he did that for her because he comes in to that office, and concludes with me excitedly freaking out for a bit. The end.) And from a middle of a pack of people slowly milling past we spotted Wil Wheaton and Lou Ferrigno.

On our way back I spotted this real (?) old red phone box from the UK outside of a pub.

And this morning I actually succeeded in making pancakes (for some reason mine usually turn out poorly). It was important enough to deserve a photo:

* Just wait until I tell you who they are on the bill with for a con in Phoenix.

In case you haven't heard yet, the Liberty of London line for Target stores is coming out this Sunday, March 14th. It's terribly exciting. I'm hoping to find a few of the softer goods to mail to a friend, and maybe something breakable for myself. You find the whole line, at least in thumbnail format, here on the Target website.

If you live in the UK some of the items are available for pre-order through the Liberty of London website, though I'm curious to see how the prices on those will compare to the goods in the Target stores.

While I'm talking about Target I'll mention that I found myself staring at the Giada De Laurentiis products and I like the look of her stainless steel pots with metal lids. The 2-quart saucepan and 6-quart stock pot looked nice, and thankfully come without any sort of rubber of plastic on the handles. (As I say this, though, I should mention that the pots I find myself using most often are my 1-quart and 4-quart sizes, both celebrity lines that I found discounted at TJ Maxx.)

The extra large slotted spoon (more like a pasta strainer) looked great to me too, but I didn't buy it because none of the utensils come with loops on the handles for hanging. It looks like they had to go to some effort to design packaging to allow it to hang it for display:

I spotted my camera (the Canon S90) and it's nifty leather case in a recent Men's J. Crew catalog. It reminded me to let you know that after dragging it all over Paris I am thoroughly happy. The case was easy to get into and out of, and the camera is small enough to stay with me all the time and it takes pretty good pictures in low light situations. And, it takes pictures in RAW. Awesome.

I stopped into Immortal Dog, a fabulous independent pet supply store in my neighborhood, to say hello to Nicole. I first met Nicole when she came to speak at the Grassroots Business Association about what goes on behind the scenes in opening a retail store. (She is one hard working lady.) The next time I met her was when we bumped into her in Paris (of all places).

The shop is at 1712 S Jackson St.
Seattle, WA in the Central District and is open Mon - Fri 11am to 8pm and Sat - Sun 11am to 6pm. Phone number is 206-323-9112.

I don't have dogs, but I really want them, so I spent some time looking around.

Nicole bakes her own dog treats "all baked with human-grade ingredients without corn, wheat, sugar or salt" and offers them at a biscuit bar. You can buy them by the bag and she carries lots of flavors, peanut butter, parmesan herb, gingerbread, garlic cheese, sweet potato bacon.

She carries as many eco friendly products as possible, but that doesn't mean the style isn't happening. The items above are made from recycled fibers.

On of my favorite things in the store were these wooden dog puzzles. In this one you put a treat inside the cup, then fit it into the hole there and slide to the other end. Your dog has to work to get it out. So cool. She carries six puzzles total.

These are dog beds that you stuff with old clothing or towels.

There are tons of varieties of pet foods, dishes, grooming tools and even pet spa products.

And of course, her dogs come to work with her. Hi there!

While we were in La Grand Epicerie we came across some mangosteens. I'd heard of these before but was most intrigued by Maggie Mason's report about finding a stash in Chinatown. They had been illegal to import into the US for a long time, and at the time I bought these I thought they still were, but Maggie updated her entry to say: "they were cleared for U.S. import in 2007 and small quantities are grown in Puerto Rico, mostly for gourmet restaurants." You know what? Thinking they were sneaky commodities in the US made buying them in Paris thrilling. I'm glad I got to taste them as forbidden fruit. We took them to us when we went to go visit our friends Laura and Andy in Nottingham.

They look strangely organic inside, and it was hard to get Scott, let alone Laura and Andy, whom are vegetarians, to try it. But once they did we all agreed, delicious. If a little difficult to get the fruit off of the seeds present in the larger sections.

That said, here I thought I was being all fancy buying rare fruit at an upscale grocery store. A few days we found them much closer to our apartment in Paris. How close? We could actually see them from our living room window. Here, let me zoom in on them for you:

Previously: Day One arrival and beating jet lag; Day Two big impressive monuments, unexpected meetings, needing to pee; Day Three The Metro, a museum, and French onion soup; Day Four dogs in paintings, startlingly large arches and towers; Day Five pastries and scoldings.

Next up: trains and vegetables

This day was filled with going to visit fabulous chocolate and food shops, and being scolded for taking the photo above (more on that later). I made ourselves a route through the city that involved the closest Metro stops (my feet were tired). It was ambitious and we skipped a number of things, but everything we saw was amazing.

On our way to the fist stop Scott spotted this Invader at about knee-height. It was near this alley, which I really wanted to explore, and housed this, um, Tex Mex restaurant.

First we headed to Roger Patrick simply because Clotilde's Edible Adventures In Paris listed it as having fabulous window displays. They were kind enough to let me take some photos but I didn't get many before other customers came in, and I didn't want to get in the way.

Here are the dancing ladies from inside the store:

I loved how the chocolate on their tutus was so transparently thin:

We bought a few things and on the way out they gave us samples of thin chocolates with a layer of lime ganache which was amazing. Not too sweet, and so fresh tasting.

Next to Pierre Herme. They were also kind enough to let me take some pictures but again, I was feeling timid and only got a few.

The people behind the counter were all wearing chocolate brown clothing and different colored aprons that matched the various colors of macarons. It was a nice touch.

Kernels of corn and gold leaf. Why didn't I buy this dessert to try?

Inside Pierre Herme I found a whole bar of Porcelana chocolate. I did a little excited hop (I hope nobody noticed). I first heard about Porcelana chocolate on The Splendid Table. It's made from beans which are very good, and in short supply as they come from tiny region, you can read more at Chocolate Speak, and find a reivew of the Pierre Herme bar, which it turns out was made by Valhrona!, over at Choqoa. I had not tried Porcelana yet simply because I was too lazy to order it from the internets. I really liked this chocolate bar, but Choqoa found it to be not as good as other Porcelana. I'll have to seek out more to taste.

Today we took our own advice and stopped for lunch with glasses of rose. It was our first time ordering on our own and luckily we got a patient waitress who didn't seem to mind our jumble of shopping bags and umbrellas. I loved these small, wide glasses that we sipped our liter of bubbly water out of (turns out, a liter isn't too big for two unexpectedly thirsty people).

After lunch we traveled down to La Grand Epicerie at the Bon Marche. First we slipped into Bon Marche to do a little bit of furniture gazing, and passing the cafe I found the sugar cubes that hang on the edge of a mug, these are the things that inspired my tiny gingerbread house project.

They had a few other kinds displayed, I really liked the black and white options:

La Grand Epicerie is a large gourmet store with lots of everything. I was, of course, most attracted to the candies:

I love the perching birds. I tried to get bird or butterfly shaped cookies to do this but couldn't get the slot width quite right. I think I'm going to take the cookies on again soon.

These sugar rose rings were stunning. Wish I'd bought one.

On the end of the confectionery counter I spotted this flat of real eggshells with shamrock stickers covering what I'm assuming was a hole in the bottom where they'd been filled with chocolate. About .002 seconds after I snapped this picture I heard someone hissing "mademoiselle" and I looked up to see the face of the counter lady looking at me with an amount of angry disapproval that I have not seen since the nuns in my Catholic school years who had successfully hunted down somebody chewing gum. Luckily she was helping somebody else who was standing between her and me so I slipped away. Oops.

I suspected they were perhaps chocolate and praline filled eggs, but I dared not go back inquire. I had seen these real eggshell treats on the Dean & Deluca website ages ago and was always intrigued by them, wondering how they sterilized the eggshells. (You can find a picture of the Dean & Deluca ones here at Blue Badger.) I figured it must be something like an autoclave. Then a few years later Martha Stewart made chocolate filled real eggshells and simply boiled the emptied eggshells. Duh.

But I'd been thinking about these praline eggs for years, which means I really, really wanted to get closer to them. I wanted to own one! But I could change my clothes, bleach my hair and draw a mustache on my face and I suspect that counter lady would recognize me and not let me near.

We formulated a plan over coffee:

Scott, my ever willing assistant, circled back to spy on the eggs. He reported that she was placing each in a bag, closing the bag, then packing them into cardboard boxes and, gasp, putting the boxes beneath the counter. They were out of my reach. Darn.

I was a little consoled by our ultimate purchase, mangosteens, which I'll talk about more tomorrow.

Then we headed to Fauchon. Again, they were nice enough to let me take pictures. At this point were too tired to do much but gawk.

Such cute little knots.

They had this HUGE truffle in the window.

These praline pops nearly had me looking around to see if Bakeralla was in the shop.

We stopped at the nearby flower market on our way home:

That night we met Cakespy and company back at L'As du Falafel for dinner. They told us about Versailles, ice cream, which pastries we should seek out, and a vegetarian restaurant they had stumbled across:

You can find a review for Le Potager du Marais at Living on the Vedge. Jessie and company reported the food was great, but unless you're vegan go ahead and get dessert in one of the amazing patisseries around Paris.

What we learned the hard way

Macarons and the rain: When purchasing macarons from Pierre Herme it's best to eat them right away if you're experiencing rainy weather. Maggi reported that they had somewhat deflated and lost their crunch by the next day despite staying in their box. The ones from Laudree held up a bit better.

Previously: Day One arrival and beating jet lag; Day Two big impressive monuments, unexpected meetings, needing to pee; Day Three The Metro, a museum, and French onion soup; Day Four dogs in paintings, startlingly large arches and towers

Next up: forbidden fruit

Breakfast and knitting at Curio Confections.

I like these little white scissors from Muji, the cover means I can throw it in with the yarn without worry.

And while I'm at it, it amuses me that the Muji travel sewing kit only comes with white, gray and black thread.

Then a stroll through the Arboretum to look at blossoms.

And Sunday we decided that despite how much I like my bamboo tongs*, we really should get a new toaster.

* Dwell recently asked me about my favorite kitchen item and I went on and on about my bamboo tongs.

But first we had coffee in the apartment. Here is Scott in the morning, in Paris (I still find it exciting):

Then we were off with our handy museum passes to the Louvre. We came up through the Metro stop to find ourselves in an underground shopping mall. Turns out, one of the ways into the main lobby of the Louvre is through the mall. The downward facing pyramid is just outside the Apple store:

At the museum I headed straight to the section for Georges de La Tour. In college one of my art history assignments was to go stare at The Fortune Teller for at least twenty minutes and then report on what was going on in the painting. It was fun to discover all the eye lines and triangular arrangements on my own. When I see that painting now it's pretty obvious that the guy is having his pocket picked, but at that time I wouldn't have known to look at a painting that closely, or even that (what I still considered boring old) artwork would have such exciting stories inside them.

We got to see the candlelight through the fingers effect up close:

And examine The Cheat:

And find out the de La Tour wasn't such a nice guy:

We finished walking around that wing taking note of all the dogs in paintings:

Nicole of Immortal Dog (whom we bumped into two days previous to this one) will be doing some reports of dogs in the paintings there, I'm looking forward to learning more about them.

Afterward we did the basics. The Venus de Milo:

People were crowded around so we went around to the back. Scott wanted me to get a picture of her plumber's butt, I complied.

The Winged Victory of Samothrace statue was huge (much larger than it looks here), and really lovely. Nearby they have a sketch of what it would look like with a head and arms. I think I like the broken version far better.

Then up and down and around a few staircases and down a long hallway to see th Mona Lisa. This is as good a shot as I got:

It was both smaller and larger than we expected after hearing the reports from lots of people. And of course the effect of getting to see it in person was ruined a bit by the crush of people and the poor museum employee whose job it was to sternly tell people to turn off the flash on their cameras.

After this we were suddenly hangry and headed back to the lobby to get the nearest cookie into me. Later we were told there is a little cafe just on the other side of the wall from the Mona Lisa. Good to know, it was a long way back to the lobby.

As one might expect eating in the museums was less than inspiring, but we fell into the trap of letting ourselves get over tired and hungry. It was very easy to do this and I encourage you to stop and eat every, oh say, two hours no matter if you're in a museum or wandering through the streets. By the time we were a little bit past a mealtime we were often far from the apartment and at that sugar-low point that mean one of us was cranky, one was hyper, one was apathetic, one had blisters and none of us could make a decision on what to do next. The answer, every single time, is: find the nearest cafe and order the nearest wine. Or preferably preempt the situation altogether with frequent preemptive wine and snacks.

After eating our emergency museum lobby lunch we headed to see the Arc de Triomphe. There is a walkway that takes you down below the street level and back up to the outside of the arc. Even if you have no intention of tackling the stairs it is worth going out to see it up close. It wasn't too expensive to head up inside, but it was a lot of stairs:

We made a few "Look kids, it's Big Ben" jokes watching the traffic below.

The interior of the arc has a few floors with displays, restrooms, a small gift shop, and some benches where you can sit and whine about the stairs.

There is also this screen showing the live feed of the people standing just below you. That medallion in the ground is where I'd been standing to take the picture upwards that is above. Little did I know I was taking a picture of a camera that was taking a picture of me.

From on top you can walk around and see in all directions. We tried to get a picture of ourselves with the Eiffel Tower in the background and failed to do so several times:

I loved the stairs so darn much I took a picture of them on the way down too:

The weather was behaving itself for the most part so we headed to the Eiffel Tower. Eiffel Tower!

You wait in line to get tickets, it wasn't too bad on the day we were there but the uppermost floors were closed. Which was ok because the Eiffel Tower? So much larger than we thought. Huge. No pictures do it justice. The upper floor must be terrifying. (I desperately want to go up to it!)

I think you can walk up stairs to the first floor for free. Or you can buy tickets that will take you to the second floor, where there are the usual restrooms, gift shops and benches. We saw a rainbow:

There were some areas closed for construction and graffiti in all languages was scrawled onto it.

I suspect Jimmy McLucas was... caught by his parents writing on the wall.

We wandered around in the dark/wind/rain looking for a Metro stop (this is one of those moments when we turned on the Data Roaming, for some reason the Lonely Planet app was only giving us a vague idea of where we were).

Then we were tired so got falafel from the places near the apartment for dinner. It was yummy. The most well known of the falafel places is L'As du Falafel, but in Clotilde's book she mentions that the other places nearby (all within a block, one just across the narrow street) are equally good. At L'As du Falafel you can sit inside or get food from the window. From our apartment we often saw people eating falafel or crepes while walking past.

The stuff I learned the hard way

Avoiding fatigue: Eat often! Drink lots! Sit down for a while! There are cafes everywhere, stop in them and get a coffee or glass of wine. We spent far too much time hungry, cranky and indecisive. As I said above the answer, every single time, is: find the nearest cafe and order the nearest wine.

Avoiding blisters: Somehow I didn't end up with blisters on this trip. I wore my boots every day except for one (the one you're looking at, in fact). I did notice my toes were the part that seemed the most tender and each day covered them with the sticky part of a cloth band aid to ease the friction there. Strange maybe, but it worked. Maggi did get blisters (poor Maggi!) and found special blister pads at a pharmacy that she reports worked well. (The boots were excellent and I never got cold or wet feet. They felt very lightweight worn just after the other pair of walking shoes I brought.)

The nearest Metro stop to the Eiffel Tower is towards the river and on your left. It's the Champ de Mars Tour Eiffel stop. It's actually for the RER C, yellow line. If you head the other direction while leaving the Eiffel Tower and walk out to the park then sort of follow a Metro sign and it starts raining and gets dark and windy and you're hungry and didn't take your own "wine often" advice to heart you will end up walking blocks that seem endlessly long to find the next stop.

Previously: Day One arrival and beating jet lag; Day Two big impressive monuments, unexpected meetings, needing to pee; Day Three The Metro, a museum, and French onion soup

Next up: pastries and scoldings

On day three we took our museum passes and headed to the Musee D'Orsay. We walked a bit then decided to tackle the Metro as it was cold and sprinkling. Except, the nearest stop was actually for the RER which you can use Metro tickets for within Paris (more on this below).

Some of the RER trains are double decker!

At the Musee D'Orsay we waltzed past the ticket line, flashed our passes and had them dated, and we were inside.

The D'Orsay is inside a grand old railway station built for the 1900 World's Fair. There is a restaurant on the upper level that has a great view, and a terrace in the summer. I didn't take any pictures of the Impressionist artwork here, probably because there were so many people crushed around each painting and sculpture -- when we were there the museum was being renovated so the paintings were displayed in rooms smaller than, I suspect, they normally would be.

At the end of the museum they have a model of the city under a glass floor. It's scratched and hard to make out, but still fun to walk on. I think we're standing on the opera house here.:

Upstairs is more decorative art, as well as an entire room. I like the light swags here:

Apparently I have trouble taking photos that are lined straight up and down. Forgive me, I suspect I view the world a little off kilter and it only really comes out when I try to hold a camera up straight.

These spoons and platters caught my eye as well:

Scott and I felt a bit naughty taking this mirror pic:

This painting kept my attention for a while while we were sitting on some stairs resting. I only took a few art history classes in college but it turns out I learned, and dimly remember, a lot more than I expected. I think the one figure in this painting that is looking straight out towards the viewer is an image of the artist himself, but I have not had time to properly research this:

Back home for a while, where I took these photos of what the street in front of our apartment typically looked like:

Most people in Paris wore black or dark coats that were belted or nipped in at the waist, I saw lots of boots, and the big scarves were there as had been reported. In fact, Scott has been inspired to start wearing larger, warmer scarves in the winter because he's seen how they can be both warm, stylish and manly. I never really noticed anybody wearing jeans, which means they must have been really good jeans. Nearly everybody had across-the-body bags, all of them looked like they'd been carefully picked out. Umbrellas were common when it rained (which was the entire time we were there). Maggi and I cannot figure out how the Parisian women manage to wear heels so often. Perhaps they stop in cafes frequently for a little sit down?

We saw lots of rolling luggage both on the street and down in the Metro and RER. Later we took the Metro to get ourselves onboard the Eurostar and didn't feel out of place at all. (Though again, I was never fooling anybody.)

After everybody had their feet up for a while we were off to dinner, and French onion soup, yum.

Today (this is me speaking in the present, that being March 4th) I saw a Smart Car in my neighborhood and I was struck by how tiny it looked in context here. We saw lots and lots of Smart Cars in Paris and they really only looked slightly smaller, in a practical way, than the other cars there. In fact, we took notice when we saw a full sized car, or heard a particularly loud one.

Things I learned the hard way

The Metro: The Metro in Paris is no harder to use than the public transit in any other city. Once we became a little familiar with how the city is laid out and how to read the signs, we used it with ease. Within Paris Metro tickets can be used for the Metro, buses and the RER (regional train system) within Zone 1 (clearly marked on maps). You can use your ticket to transfer between systems for an hour and a half (but not re-enter, as we learned). The Metro runs until about 12:30 a.m., after which you have to catch a bus. We never ended up getting on a bus, opting instead to walk the few blocks to wherever we needed from the Metro stops. (Did I just tell the internet that we were always home and in bed by 11 p.m. when in Paris and therefore know nothing about how to get around after the Metro stops running? I blame the jet lag!)

Everybody uses the Metro and it was always busy and filled with all sorts of people. I never got that creepy, shouldn't-be-here vibe that comes on some US public transit systems. The RER after 10 p.m. on a weekend is a different story.

The most useful thing I had with me on this trip was the free RATP (Paris public transit) iPhone app. The main component is simply the Metro map that you can zoom in and out of. You can also get route direction from stop to stop, though, you have to know which stations you want to start and at, something I never knew so I didn't use this function.

We usually bought small paper Metro tickets in packs of 10, ask for one pack, "un carnet" (silent t), or just buy 10 from the ticket machine. We split our time in Paris in half though, and had we been there for the whole week we would have done as Maggi and Jeff and gotten a weekly pass which you just wave like a magic wand on your way through. You can buy tickets at the automated dispensers at Metro station, they have an English option. They don't take US cards so you'll have to have cash (one carne was, I think, 11,60 Euros). I have no idea how to buy a weekly pass, you're on your own there. I do know you are supposed to put your picture on your pass, and there are photo booths in lots of the stations for this purpose. Maggi and Jeff didn't have these (it's not like the directions were clear on this point) and it was really only a minor, momentary problem when we were stopped by Metro security who set up a ticket checkpoint in a connection tunnel. Even then they only scolded one of them, and immediately figured out we were tourists so just waved us on. So, (oh dear please don't take this advice) maybe you shouldn't bother with the headshot on your weekly pass. (That said, I was constantly tempted to stop in one of these photo booths so I could have "official" French ID photos.)

You can also use a card to buy tickets at a window with a human, we only found these at larger stations near the RER entrances. The one we stopped at only opened at noon, as we discovered having arrived at the dreadfully early hour of 11:58 a.m.

Note: Keep your ticket with you. You'll need it for transfers and for the occasional checks. We only had our tickets inspected once, in a hallway connecting two station.

More than once we entered a smaller station to find that the entry carousels wouldn't take any tickets, but there was an unlocked gate you could slip through. We couldn't understand the recorded message playing in a pleasant French voice so we just assumed it was saying "these gates aren't working, just go on in".

Metro lines are listed by number and color, and once you know which one you want all you have to do is figure out which way you need to head. The Metro has signs listing all the stops it's headed towards, so you find your stop and head down that hallway. The RER, though, only lists the last destination for the line. This is where that iPhone app came in handy. There are maps all over the stations though, and it never took us too long to untangle where we needed to go. Even when we were faced with some closed stations or connections.

The French word for exit is "Sortie", or you can just follow the crowds towards the way out. Some of the stations that connect to each other will have you traversing long blocks underground, and there are some moving sidewalks in the longer stretches. They dip down and back up, though, and I nearly always fell at the bottom of the dip so hold on.

I loved taking the Metro. It reminded me of the days when I'd figured out the NYC subway system and was able to give people directions. (In NYC, apparently, I'm the type of person who strangers feel comfortable asking for directions. Flattering, but really only fun when I could actually help.) A huge thanks to Maggi for being not only our French speaking restaurant orderer, but also the person able to get us down into the Metro tunnels and pointed in the right direction. And huge thanks to Jeff for all the knowledge on the iPhone apps and navigating an old version of Firefox in French. Paris would have been untangleable without you both.

Previously: Day One arrival and beating jet lag; Day Two big impressive monuments, unexpected meetings, needing to pee

Up Next: Day Four, dogs in paintings, startlingly large arches and towers