My roommate and I got up early, I Skyped to my kids who all of a sudden can't stay awake until midnight...yea right. We went to 'our' cafe and got our cafe au laits, she her crepe and me my fresh fruit. Then meet the students and guide back at the hotel.
Again, lots of really fast walking (ow ow ow). We got to see architecture designed by Le Corbusier.
We then walk to the 7th arrondissement (same district as the Eiffel Tower) and we go to a nice restaurant. The decor are an architects and interior designers dream. It was very eclectic.
I had a really nice grilled chicken salad with goat cheese.
Our guide put us into 2 groups and then told us we would be going across the street to take a tour of Maison de Verre. YAY!!!! If you do not know about Maison de Verre and you love architecture, you have got to look it up. It is a former doctors house and office that was designed by Pierre Chareau from about 1927 to 1932. His use of glass block was very innovative for its time and the house has lots of advanced mechanisms, some advanced even by today's standards. Shoes and cameras are not allowed inside the house. The tour was about 20EU per/person but well worth it.
**** I'd like to take a moment to show how I'm still within my budget, uh huh ****
While the first group was doing their tour, the rest of us decided to explore the neighborhood.
One girl and I walked around and came across a pastry shop. With all the running we'd been doing we had not had any opportunity to enjoy such things. But now, YAY! We enter the shop and speak to the guys working there...bonjour. They love when you at least try. They smiled and said bonjour back. Because of my food allergies I have to be very careful, so in broken French I asked "parle vous anglais", the guy said a little and then said "parle vous francais", I lied and said a little. I then asked, in English, if there were any nuts in the pastries. He said that all of the crusts have either almonds or cashews....a death sentence for yours truly. CRAP! I cannot even eat the pastries in Paris :(. So, I got something unmemorable while my companion had a tasty pastry (hey that rhymed).
We sat for a while under a tree just enjoying our surroundings until it was our turn for the tour.
The tour was excellent! I wish I had spy glasses to take secret pictures ;).
Maison de Verre was great. We were allowed to take pictures of the courtyard.
After the tour we caught the metro back to Les Halles. We got cleaned up, went to the market next door and bought a bottle of wine. I can't believe I lasted that long.
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