11pm I'm back in my room now; we decided to give them and early night. Everyone is tired, so it's like a reward. They want early night and late morning start, but we didn't come all this way to sleep away the daylight.

I eat a lot at breakfast. Yogurt, baguette with butter and strawberry jam, a hot chocolate, two pieces of ham, one big piece of cheese (yersterday it was two) one hard boiled egg (yesterday it was two) a cafe long, another baguette with butter and strawberry jam, a croissant. Yesterday I also had a cup of apple sauce. Two glasses of orange juice. (Yesterdady it was grapefruit).

Maybe it would be better to tell you what I didn't help myself to, but that's a short list: french cereal with milk, canned fruit salad, and prunes.

We went to the Louvre this morning, and I found myself doing the tourist visit, for once. The museum wasn't closed for a strke, but there was definately a work action. I tried to go into egyptian, but it was closed; J found me later and was surprised, because she had gone into egyptian, probably minutes before me. Later, when I came out of italian, she said "how did you get in?" Through the door, why do you ask?

So anyway, there were rolling shutdowns throughout the Louvre, but it didn't affect people that much, because they'd reopen it 30 minutes later. And you don't go to the Louvre in a hurry, so nobody missed anything. I thought it was clever. The tourists were confused though.

I bought a bottle of water and a twix at the sandwich stand, some postcards and some prestamped postcard envelopes. Ah the french.

The we all hopped on the metro to Boubourg, and had lunch on the place Stravinsky. I had a gazpacho, a grilled/ pounded filet of turkey breast with a lemon cream sauce, and a quiche/cake of spring veggies. And lots of water.

We had been wondering where our waiter had disappeard to, and I found him on my way to the bathroom; he was ordering his dessert. Fromage blanc, if I remember correctly. I told him 'bon appetit' and then asked the other waiter for our bill. In France, everybody eats.

We took the kids to the rendez-vous point and split into two groups. I took my group back to the centre pompidou and promised them that I'd give them time to bum around the neighborhood and do internet and whatever.

So we went into the Musee National de l'Art Moderne, and it was delightful. Picasso, mondrion, pollock, rothko, we saw a lot of great stuff. one in particular was a photo of the explosion clouds over afganistan from US bombing.

Anyway, we noticed from the museum that it was raining cats and dogs, so rather than leave, we decided to go up to the sixth floor cafe and be served by some beautiful people. Of course, that was rained out as well, so we passed the Pompidou firefighters, wearing their cool star trek uniforms, and took the elevator back down to the bottom.

I considered running to the point de rencontre, but it was raining so hard! then it turned into an electrical storm, and at that point nobody was leaving the building. Hundreds of people waited there. So I thought, do I run the kids in a lightning storm to the rendez-vous? Or do I skip the rendez-vous and bring the kids home? Of course I took the kids home, but we waited there a good while until the rain stopped, until well past the rendez-vous time.

We got back, and before i could enjoy a personal moment in the bathroom, my phone rang; it was J who was exasperated that I didn't make the rendez-vous. Her group was all wet and grouchy, but when they asked if they could just go home, J told them, no! JP never misses the rendez-vous, he's five minutes early to every rendez-vous, something's wrong! So I tried to apologize, but then the line got cut! So I thought, on, no, she's going to think I hung up on her. So I waited by the phone for her to call back, but she didn't so finally I had my personal time in the bathroom. Number 2.

Afterwards,I went downstairs, and they rolled in a few minutes later. J told me she had leaned into the phone, and the bag she wass carrying cut of the phone line. We laughed, she wasn't mad when I told her about the choice I faced; taking the kids into an electrical storm or missing the rendez-vous. She understood, and we laughed after that. Apparently they had been huddled under the awning of a Haagen Daas until the rain let up a little. Nobody was soaking wet.

So then I made a reservation at Crepe Show; they offered us their lunch formule at dinner, which they don't usually do. I had a Crepe complete (ham cheese, fried egg, salad, tomato) with a bowl of cider; for dessert, a sugar crepe stuffed with chestnut butter. I also had a cup of cider

Then we walked back to the hotel and gave them the night in. In the street, we played telephone to tell everyone what time breakfast was. Of course, I planted myself strategically at the end of the line, so when the message came back "Breakfast at 11am" I was able to say "good job, everyone, breakfast IS at 8pm.

I'm tired now; time for bed.

To do...
Buy floss
buy powder
charge camera
buy shaving cream