Lazy day today as we slept in for a while. We met shortly after 9 am to hit the streets once again. Today we were headed for Champs Elysees. We took the Metro and immediately were comfortable with the system they have here. We found the Metro underground area to be a little dirtier than London, but equally or better to find our way. The Concierge at the hotel gave us a quick primer on how to get around on the Metro and it worked very well. We bought a pack of 10 passes per couple (11 euro) which will get us through Monday and Tuesday probably.

On arrival at Champs Elysees, we soon found that famous French Café, “Starbucks” so we stopped for our morning snack. We sat there for a while and again watched the early morning crowd in Paris. From there we walked a few more blocks and found an intersecting street Georges V which is where the American Cathedral is located. There is an event going on at that location tomorrow afternoon that we will be attending so we wanted to track it down today. It was interesting that there was a wedding in progress when we got there. We walked in and the bride and groom were walking up the aisle. There were two attendents up front and a pastor. There was an organist, a photographer and a videographer all hard at work. The only thing missing at this wedding was attendees. There was no one else in the church. Interesting concept but it certain keeps the costs down.

Wow! Do we have a plan for Tuesday. We set out early for Versailles at 7:30 am with the plan of beating the crowd and leading the charge through this very busy attraction built by Louis the 14^th, King of France at the peak of France as a world power. He was a total dictator but ran a really strong military and government with his control of the decision making. We were to take the metro to Balard, switch to the RER C Train at a nearby location and be to Versailles at 8:30 well before the 9:00 am opening.

Oops. Asked for directions at the Balard Metro and they told us to turn right. First mistake of the day. We turned right and walked for about 15 minutes and no train station. We stopped for breakfast and then did an about face. We walked back to the metro and sought advice from a local store owner. She set us on the right course but we were now 45 minutes behind schedule. We found the station, jumped on a train marked Versailles and we were once again on our way. It took us about 4 stops before we figured out that this train originated in Versailles and was not headed there. We got off, got on the reverse train and were once again on our way to Versailles. We arrived there at 11 am and only had planned to be there until about 1 pm. The line to get in was about ½ mile long! It took us about ½ hour to get into the place.

We met for breakfast at the hotel at 8:30 am this morning. Ken and Kay all packed up and ready to head for home today. At 9 am, we loaded them in a cab and sent them on their way to Charles de Gaule airport for their 12:05 flight. It is going to be a bit lonely for the Walkers for the next few days and we have been pretty much a solid foursome for the past 5 weeks. It has been so enjoyable to spend those weeks together and our friendship is stronger than it has ever been.

Julie Ann and Ken grabbed the laptop and headed out to the Lafayette area where we heard there was a Starbucks and we were in search of free wifi. We were successful in the connection but at a small fee from Starbucks. The coffee was great too.

A late wake up, a leisure day. Ken and Kay are gone, now what do we do. We headed out to the Republique Square in search of a Bolangerie for our breakfast. Found a really great spot on the other side of the square that we had not discovered before. It was a very cool morning so we sat inside, had our breakfast and coffee and watch Paris coming through this place. They were doing a tremendous business, but the help were very professional, clean cut and helpful. They enjoyed what they were doing. It was a class place and great food. It was also interesting to watch an additional employee coming into work there. One guy came in, walked around and shook hands with every other employee as he was walking toward the back.