Sunday

 Day Three in Paris, we went to church bright and early.  When I lived there in 1984, the only branch was way out of town on the last Metro stop in a dingy building.  Now there's a big ward in the Marais in a beautiful building with a courtyard.  Meetings were in French, English and Chinese!  It was quite a mix of people from American ex-pats to North African and Chinese immigrants to native Parisians.  Araceli went to Primary, and who was the first girl she met?  A girl who knows Ellison!  Her parents are close friends with Mike and Sarah!  Her mom, Renee, taught Golda and Ruby's Young Women's class, speaking in two languages.  Coco and I sat in on it for the last few minutes after Relief Society, and it was beautiful to see.  There were only two other girls there, and the ward has four others who are not active in the church.  Golda and Ruby loved meeting the other girls.  One was French, one from the States.

 The Primary

 The Young Women of the Paris Ward

 The church is right by the Pompidou

 From church we rushed to the Saint Sulpice church to hear an organ recital that Bill wanted to hear.  We caught the end of Mass, which was a great cultural experience, especially having just come from our own church.  There were similarities and differences, but it was eye-opening for the girls to see first-hand that people worship and love God in their own ways.  Immediately after the service, the whole cathedral filled with sound from the massive organ.  The organist was so skilled and creative, we started to wonder if he was just pressing all the keys at once.  It was intense.  You've heard the expression "pulling out all the stops?"  Well, he was.

 Luxembourg Palace

 It was the perfect Sunday for lunch at a brasserie, one of Coco's favorites, and a stroll through the Luxembourg Gardens.  With the weather being warm and sunny, many people were sitting around the lakes in chairs, basking in the sun.  We had a little history lesson on some of the Louies and the de Medici family.  Details escape me.  :)

 Again, a walk to Notre Dame and numerous stops at the streetside tourist shops along the way.

 We joked that we were really in the mood for some South Tunisian pastries.  Well, guess what?  There's a South Tunisian pastry shop down the street!  The pastries all looked like various forms of varnished baklava, so we indulged in gyros instead at one of the many street vendors.  The gyros come with fries in them.  I'm craving one right now!  When Scott and I went on our honeymoon backpacking trip in 1995, all we ate were gyros.  They're cheap wherever you go.  This was our favorite spot in Paris back then because of the energy and let's face it: the cheap food.  I never thought I'd be back there with three and a half of my daughters, eating gyros!  We missed Scott and the kids, but we talked to them free at the apartment every day.  On Sunday, Ptolemy had told Scott, "Daddy, don't go on a trip!  Mama misses me!"  It was true, we all missed the funny little guy, but we knew he was in good hands.