Paris, continued

I would like to blame anyone but me for this hairdo, but only I am to blame! Thankfully, I have a wonderful foulard on, so that is somewhat distracting from the hair. It is all gray now: I have sworn off coloring it, now that I'm not working.

 We were not particularly affected by the rail strike, but I did call this picture Bad, Bad Trains! Luckily, Alex knows how to get around a rail strike, so we took the plane from Rome to Paris. Take that, SNCF!

We visited the food exhibit, which had a bunch of breads. Security was of course tight...the lady scanned my jacket and pack. She asked what was in my shirt; I said Estomac! (French for stomach.) We both laughed..

 Chimneys are so plentiful and fascinating. They were a somewhat different shape in Italy.

Cobblestones for Lisa, with nice leather shoes. I'm the one with toes..

 We were near the Coulee Vert. A very nice raised walkway with lots of plants and trees. I may not work at a garden anymore, but still enjoy all the prettiness and diversity.

Fete du pain...more bread.

 This apparently homeless lady cared about her dog, George. It would be a bummer to be on the street, let alone when it's raining.

This was the art on our hotel room's wall.  I kept thinking I should know who these characters were, but couldn't place them.

 Spire of the church near us. It's nice to be able to go in, early in the morning. My pal, Ro, had recently lost her husband to cancer, so I actually lit a few candles, in addition to praying for her.

The grand lady church, Notre Dame. Of course, there are Notre Dames all over the world. It just means Our Lady.

 Highway building art.

Our hotel was on this street, on the left. Right next to a place where blind folks either lived or went to school. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to navigate streets, in any city, without sight.

 The bag from our two pears. We entered the store, and I asked the nice man, in French, which pears would be good to eat today. He picked two for me! Such a nice service. Of course, I asked not only for French practice, but because I got my hand slapped in 1975 (at another store in Paris) for picking fruit from a display on my own! So sensitive!

More bread; this time, baguettes. Ah, so lovely.

 Since I missed the most famous Pieta in Italy, I snapped this quick shot. I also took the photo because obviously, Jesus was not still on the cross.  So often, He is depicted still hanging on that cross. Catch up, people!

 The red Eiffel. I had to smile. We could have spent money each day and never repeated a souvenir of this thing. We had thought of trying to see it at night this time, but figured we'd be too tired by the time it was dark enough. In our defense, we were walking a lot each day...and then there was the wine and cheese and bread.....

On the Coulee Vert. I was surprised when I looked at this photo closely and blown up, there are several little green bugs on it, in addition to the water droplets. I find it quite difficult to take a flower photo with no bugs on the plants...

 One of our fave meals: steak frites!We try to include a healthy salad, too.

On the way to the airport, going home. We took Le Bus Direct. Very convenient and comfortable. I thought perhaps the driver had missed our departure area, but we had to go around again to get to it.

 More bread...I am not sure what the thing in the middle was called, but it was pretty.

More pix in a minute. We love France: look out!

Seals and eels

I have been seeing a lot of seals and eels lately. Perhaps that's to blame for the SKUNKING I took again today: no octopuses! My hubby said GOOD CAMOUFLAGE! :( I enjoyed the swim anyway, but always miss my little 8 legged pals when they are hiding too well.

Below is the adult of the Yellow Tail Coris...just below is the juvenile. You can see the start of the purple on the young one's tail..

Here is my beloved Ambon Puffer. I do so enjoy the patterns and colors.

Sadly, this Pencil Urchin had been someone's breakfast or dinner. The inside looked like bloody flesh. I thought of collecting it, but we are moving and I'm trying to avoid getting more stuff! The red of the pencils doesn't last anyway...they turn a pale tan.

 God's Glory: nice rays through the clouds.

Confluence: this is where the one pond meets the other...When I first arrived, the water was pouring over the rocky area between. There was quite a rip, too. High-ish tide.

Cowry shell hiding.

One of these eels that could have been pestering the octopuses! 

 I don't know if Snowflake Morays can eat an octopus, but this Christmas Wrasse was keeping tabs on it anyway.

More pretty clouds and palms.

 Honu having a nap on the beach. People kept away, too. Thanks, people!

 Male trunk fish.

The moon...i guess there is a good reason to come to the beach early.

 I am unsure what these fish are. I thought at first they might be half-beaks (in the needlefish category) or barracuda of a different type. I'd look 'em up in my books, but they are packed already. If only I had a computer...ha.

 I definitely know what fish this is! The devil scorpion fish. This one moved along, perhaps because it didn't like me hovering over it, but didn't show its under fin colors.

 This seal was barking at people...probably to get them to move back. It had no place to land!

A small urchin...maybe 2 inches across. Very cute.

 Seal appears to be asking me what I'm doing....I was stuck between the shallow pool and the deep pool, as he paused there, deciding where to come in. So I ended up swimming down to the Waiohai to come in.

 A well documented attempt to come up on the beach. These seals are amazing athletes when in the water..not so much on land.

Good swim. I hope to figure out where all the octopuses are.

Domo does Paris

 Alex brings Domo along on all our trips. He's a lucky character! Here, he is outside what used to be a fave restaurant in Paris. But this time, they had weirded out their menu enough that we passed.

 Domo visits Notre Dame.

 Domo helps us choose beer in the Monop.

Tour D'argent is outside our comfort zone (too expensive), but that didn't stop Domo from having his photo taken outside.

 And of course, Domo went with us on the Metro.

Luckily, he was ok with sharing beer with Alex.

 So we shared the umbrella with him.

And of course he enjoyed Creme Brulee with Alex.

 He went with us on our Coulee Vert walks.

 And went over the bridges on the Seine too.

 These elevators were bigger than the ones in Italy.

No swimming in the beer! We enjoy Domo. He is not very expensive and keeps quiet, with no complaining. An excellent traveling companion.