The sun came out late today and was pouring into the apartment. It was lovely!

One more word about Alix's time here. She said that she always gets homesick when she's away, but she didn't get homesick at all this time. I'm happy to have been able to show her a good time. Or I should say, Paris showed her a good time.

Alix having a good time

I gave my knees a rest today - my torn meniscus (or whatever it is) isn't always happy. But I did get in some strolling and I went down the hill to buy dinner - everything is down the hill and back up - because everything up here at the top is for tourists. It's always a pleasure to walk out my door, because it's so beautiful.

On the way out of the apartment

I did just what I've been planning for years - bought a rotisseried chicken with the potatoes that roast underneath them, some beautiful strawberries, and a small lemon tart from the organic bakery - along with a very pale rose from the wine store next door to the bakery (what a combination!). I tried to order my chicken in French, but the guy who worked there would have none of it. He wanted to practice his English. He told me that he hadn't known any English until he started selling the chickens on the trendy rue des Abbesses.

Dinner tonight

If this photograph is a little confusing, it's because the table is glass and the sun is shining in (even though I'm eating at 8:00).

I stopped for a glass of wine - I could go through my entire budget in cafes - on my way back up the hill. I was sitting looking at an apartment building where Max Jacob lived - we read him in Terry Ehret's poetry workshop and I used a few of his phrases in one of my poems. I was also across the small square from Le Bateau Lavoir (given the name by Jacob), the building of artist's studios where Cubism essentially got its start. I was listening in on a conversation between a young woman from the Bay Area and a young French woman as they discussed organic food, cooperatives, and working with people of like minds. So I caught the address of a website for a group here in Paris that does tastings - www.tastings.fr - and I found out they are having an organic picnic on the 26th. I'll have to look into it. It's the day after the anti-GMO eat-in that I've signed up for. You are all going to an anti-GMO protest aren't you?

And speaking of organic, here's some graffiti from down the street:

"If birds could speak,

they would tell you to pollute less."

And because it's still so light at 9:00, I took another stroll after dinner and came upon a garden behind a wall with redbud, yellow roses, lilacs, and wisteria. Here's some purple wisteria and pink wisteria in that garden in the block behind the apartment.

Purple and pink wisteria