Day Two Who Knew

Even now after day two I feel like I belong here. I don't get blown away by things, I love seeing these beautiful monuments and castle buildings and Cathedrals and listening to Christy spout history for me. I enjoy trying to speak French [having never learned any intentionally to date] to people I'm ordering food from, just walking down random streets, and for the most part acting like I belong here.

Our day was mostly covered on my first day tour so all the things Christy had planned for me, we had already done or seen so today was very casual. Intending to get up at 9 we didn't leave Melun until I think the 11:15 train. Our first stop was El' Opera Garnier. The opera house that The Phantom of the Opera was based off of. Since going inside is fairly expensive, we did our own outside tour and went into the gift shop that sold good ol' ballet clothes and shoes.

This is the time where I seem to get hungry so we grabbed some baguettes and eclairs and went to eat our spoils on the steps of Place de la Madeleine, which apparently is something every Parisian does. After our lunch of completely non-tourist proportions we meandered through the Tuileries garden where they had the old school wood boats with these patchwork sails and sticks to push them with and several little kids running around the circular fountain chasing their respective boats

Toward the end of the garden Christy and I noticed a man sitting on the bench fully decked out in kilt wear. There was no question- I needed a picture with this man. He, shockingly, wasn't Scottish, but English and guessed that we were Canadian, which I'm not complaining about. However, we would pose for the photo- he just kept talking to me... so Christy snapped a few shots anyways. When I asked why he was wearing a kilt he said he thought that the other Englishmen who wore trousers were a bunch of... I can't remember the word right now, but it was very British.

One of the things I've enjoyed most is the train ride between Melun and Paris- I love all the old brick housing and minimal three stories with random mansion-like homes that I get to see along the way. The ride is very comforting; I don't have to think about getting up and down or on and off, I can journal, write postcard, actually see the pictures I taken and just all around relax as the Parisian suburbs float by.