Last weekend we took the Chunnel to Paris to meet up with some friends from San Francisco, Alli and Jake. It was a quick trip but it was great to be back in mainland Europe and in one of our favorite cities. We stayed in the Rue Cler neighborhood this time, near the Eiffel Tower. Rue Cler is quintessential French – a cobble-stoned street spilling over with specialty shops. You’ve got your butcher, your patisseries, your florists, your wine store, your fromageries, and so on. Hard to not be smitten. We were particularly happy to find that the city was a lot less crowded at this time of year than on our previous visit in April.

We had a great evening out with Alli & Jake on Friday at a neighborhood restaurant. The next day, as usual when on vacation, we did lots of walking, but since we had been to Paris fairly recently, we didn’t feel like we “had” to do anything, which was nice. Saturday afternoon we killed about three hours just sitting outside at Cafe de Flore, absorbing the sun, enjoying cappuccinos and croissants and watching the world go by. In the end, we did end up visiting two museums – the Orangery which has Monet’s impressive water lily canvases and the Musee d’Orsay – both well worth the (in typical Boswell style – short) visit.