Today was the Paris marathon which we discovered ran just a block away from our apartment. There were about 35,000 runners. The route started at the Arc de Triomphe, ran down the Champs Elysees and then onto our street, Rue de Rivoli. It continues on down past the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. At the 35 km waypoint (the race is 42 km long), they serve the runners wine and cheese. We were at the 4 km marker - just a water stop, but I think some of the runners in the back weren't going to make it to the wine.
We went to the food market at the Bastille. It's supposed to be the largest open air food market in Paris, but it mostly seems large in terms of people crowding the aisles. We bought some salmon and asparagus and tried our hand at cooking in the apartment. It's not something I'd do every day, because we've only got two burners and a microwave, but it's certainly cheaper than eating at a restaurant and everything in the market is really, really fresh. (The French don't like frozen food.) Most people think of the Bastille as a French prison, but the only thing that remains is the column in the middle of a traffic roundabout.
Today was the first Sunday of the month, which means that you get into the museums free. We decided to go to the modern art museum, Centre Pompidou, thinking it would be a little less crowded than a place like the Louvre.
This particular sculpture looks sort of weird, but it smelled heavenly. All those little hanging things look like the legs of panty hose, but they are filled with lumps of spices (hence the good smells).
The only bad thing about Sunday being a free day at the museums was that this was the first day that the sun came out shining brightly. So after a couple hours at the museum, I headed outside with my sketchbook and sat in the sun along the Seine.
Tons of other people had the same idea (I think everyone had spring fever). I managed to do a little painting, but just like at home, I kept having people stop and look over my shoulder. The trouble this time, was that I didn't understand a word they were saying to me.
