River to River

Tower Bridge - Thames River - London

Seine River - Paris

I'm sure I'll get prettier views of the Seine during my time here, but this was my first glimpse of it - the view just past the Eiffel Tower.  Mostly with this post I'm checking in to let people know I've made the journey from the British Isles to the European Continent - and especially to thank those who were praying for me as I did so.  Many of you who are inveterate travelers might not understand my trepidation, but a lot of changes were involved, and part of my concern was being able to navigate Gare du Nord and the Metro (here where English is not the official language) when I had done so poorly upon my arrival at London Paddington a week ago where English is the official language!  It's a huge relief to me to be here and to be safely ensconced in my hotel room!

The most fun I had today relates to this last picture.  I was pulling out my camera, and a man passing by indicated that he would take a picture of me if I wanted.  He wasn't speaking English, but his offer and my acceptance were easy enough to figure out.  Then, somehow, we realized we could both speak Spanish, and we stood there and had a lovely conversation in Spanish together!  He's a resident of Paris but is originally from Spain.  I think he enjoyed speaking his native tongue as much as I enjoyed speaking something I was more familiar with than French even if it wasn't English!  We had quite a lengthy conversation - about where we were both from and what I was doing there (el estudio de la historia de las matematicas) and what day it was that I would be going up in the Eiffel Tower to get the beautiful pictures he told me I could get (miercoles).  I'm so glad my classroom-learned Spanish sufficed for a real-life situation!

That was really fun, and then I had what I think was my first dinner in the last four weeks that was not pasta or pizza. (Don't judge me, Rob).

PS  David, you would have loved this place!  The first thing they did was bring me a pitcher of water!

PPS I was happy to find a market tonight so that I could get some things for breakfast tomorrow.  When I approached the counter I asked the cashier, "Parlez-vous anglais?"  She responded that she spoke a little English.  I then pointed to the display case, held up two fingers and said, "Two croissants."  The lady behind me in line started cracking up and said, "That wasn't a very hard one."  I laughed with her, and said, haltingly, "Je ne parle pas francais."  To which she replied, "Not yet  .  .  ."  So far this is feeling quite hopeful! :-)