Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. An errant leaf that resembles a parking ticket draws me down the road just as a blue jay soars past.

2. The waitress at the restaurant where we had dinner runs next door to break my 50 Euro note so I can leave her a tip. And a random stranger at the Montparnasse Metro station uses her card to open the turnstile when my suitcase gets stuck and refuses to budge.

3. Obama. Yes we can and yes we did. The days ahead are grave, but people needed to believe that their voices mattered — and this proved that they did.

Greetings from Paris!

I spent the day in a sleep-deprived state. Whoever came up with the idea of staying up until night-time as a means of combating jet lag must be someone who can sleep before traveling. I was miserable, dozing off anytime I sat down and, possibly, a couple of times while standing or walking. Eventually I convinced Rudi that really I’d be a much more pleasant companion if we could just go to the hotel and lie down for a while…

Otherwise, we wandered a bit, getting to know our Latin Quarter (named for the Romans, not Central Americans). We walked down to the Seine and visited Notre Dame. I ate three crepes and missed being able to find tea at night.

A demain!