L'Artisan Parfumeur

Mark asked what I am going to write about today -- I certainly have a lot of material to work with! We are loving it here -- but then again, what's not to love? One of the things I have really enjoyed it practicing meditation in one of these very old churches. I have done this every day so far. While we are out and about, one strikes my fancy and we go in to admire the architecture, then I find an appealing spot and sit for 30 minutes. Sometimes Mark joins me, sometimes he wanders around. Today it was Eglise St-Eustache which was built between 1532 and 1637. For an American, it is mind-blowing that something can be so old. We went by another one today that was originally constructed in 1160. How can that be? It is a wonderful environment to practice -- sometimes there is a mass being held, always people milling around who are praying, taking photos, talking and laughing, whatever.

Today we spent in a neighborhood called "Marais" which translates as "swamp". It is hardly a swamp. It is full of very old mansions which now house trendy stores and restaurants. One of the places we stopped was a perfume store. These days it is impossible to find things that are only available in the country of origin. You can buy everything and anything on the internet which makes nothing seem as special as it used to "back in the day". Nonetheless, we had fun in this particular store called "L'Artisan Parfumeur" which has 40 of their own fragrances. Most tend to be for both "femme" and "homme" and we finally settled on one that we both like called "figuier", ie fig.

I have been checking on Sasha. My sister tells me that she is having a blast with the Angels and hasn't eaten too many things that she is not supposed to. I wonder what that means? I miss her! There are a lot of dogs here. I read that 1 in every 6 Parisians has a dog. There is a lot of evidence of that -- lots of dog s--- on the streets. I also read that there are hundreds of emergency room visits due to people slipping on it! So we are watching where we walk!

Tomorrow morning we fly to Dublin where we'll spend a full day, then back to Boston on Sunday.