Notre Dame

Last night we were out celebrating Nick B’s birthday. They had arranged a meal in a nearby restaurant. We were a little late because Brett was napping and I was working on my computer (which was showing London time, so I thought we still had an hour to get there!), but in the end it didn’t matter, as service was in the leisurely French mode. The food was good (I had oysters, rump steak and a mixed dessert platter) the wine was cheap and plentiful and the company excellent.

I was showing my new phone off to Nick and he sent himself a suggestive text message – only to discover that I had his boyfriend’s phone number listed for him instead!

This morning, while Brett was in the shower, I nipped out to the local Boulangerie-Patisserie and picked up a fresh French stick and some pains-au-chocolat and we had our first proper continental breakfast in the apartment. The pastries were still warm and we made the coffee strong and sweet: Delicious!

Today is the first day of the Various Voices festival, so we went along to registration after breakfast and picked up our badges, welcome packs and concert tickets. After an hour or so of chatting with the other boys we took a wander down towards the river and stopped in the Tuiléries Gardens to have our lunch (the baguette and cheese and pate from the market on Sunday.)

The plan had been to go on to the Museé D’Orsay but when we got there, there was a massive queue. The guidebook (as well as not mentioning any likelihood of queues) didn’t have any advice on alternative places to purchase tickets and it looked like they were regulating entry anyway. We decided to skip it this time around, which was shame, but meant I could avoid having to explain to museum security our six-inch bread knife being in my day sack! We hopped on the RER, down to St. Michel – Notre Dame instead.

The cathedral wasn’t anything special actually. I would say that both Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral are more interesting inside than Notre Dame. Brett said he didn't feel anything sacred in there, just commercial. I didn't even get the commercial vibe, but agree that it certainly didn't feel like an important church. They had some nice silver- and gold-ware, though, including reliquaries which, on Good Friday, are used to display items claimed to be Christ’s Crown of Thorns and a fragment of the ‘True Cross.’ (I keep meaning to look into the Catholic Church’s position on items like this to see how much evidence there is that such items are genuine and how much of it is based on faith!)

We skipped the forty-minute queue to climb the towers, found ourselves seats in the nearby café and had cappuccinos and pastries instead. While watching the world go by in true Parisian style I was impressed by the waiting staff, who seemed to be fluent in at least four European languages – at least to the extent of café talk. I doubt many waiters in London or Washington could provide the same service!