May 1st is Labor Day in France, so everyone has a holiday.
I scheduled a walking tour with Paris Greeters, which is this service where natives of Paris will take you on a historical/social walking tour of parts of the city for free. The walk I was schedule for was through the old village of Picpus (which translates to Flea Bites, because apparently the village suffered decimation at one time thanks to a disease transmitted by fleas).
It was me, a very nice Australian couple, and our guide, who was retired after 25+ years with IBM France. She didn’t want to forget her English, so once every few weeks (or more) she would get out and give tours of the area on the eastern side of Paris.
It was a really nice combination of history and modern culture. We got to see the non-tourist areas of Paris, which was really kinda cool.
We finished up just before I had to be home for work, and I hammered through the day so that I could scoot out to meet Naomi for dinner at le verre volé, one of her favorite wine bars.
It was pricy, but totally worth it. We had a great meal, great wine and great conversation that pretty much summed up with “Clay needs to relocate permanently to Paris.”
Dinner pictures are at the end of the photo gallery… the appetizer photo isn’t for the faint of heart.
