Paris, part two

Continuing our plan of cramming a lot of living into a short number of days, we hooked up with our old friends from Seattle on our second day in Paris. They took us to a delicious little bistro where we actually had that epic 3-hour French lunch (complete with wine! and a cheese plate!).

After lunch, we strolled down toward the Seine. There was this church....

As you can probably see - despite my attempts at slick photography - a few more of our ten thousand friends were there (well, in addition to our actual friends).

 (that pairing is a bit disorienting, no?

So while we did wait in a long line and did end up touring the church, it was a little too crowded to really appreciate the sacred space. But we tried . . . .

After that, we headed for a little cruise on the Seine.

Have I mentioned that Paris is my favorite city on earth? Are you sold yet?

After the boat cruise, our friends headed home (jealous!) and we took the opportunity to check up on Natalie via Skype. After that, we headed out to the Jardin du Luxembourg. It was such a relief to see green grass and flowers and living, thriving plants (rather than dry, wilted grass and heat-scorched plants).

We stayed in the garden until sunset. The garden actually had hours, but we weren't sure if those were, like, fake or actually enforced. And then, at precisely 9:15pm gendarmes started blowing whistles and announcing that the park was closed. They don't kid around. Relaxation over!

The next morning, we returned to THE BEST little pastry shop in our neighborhood (I won't tell you the total number of times we darkened the door of this establishment - half our readership will be disgusted, the other half will be proud of us. My sense is you know which group you're in). I found the pastry shop from this list of Paris foodie musts (in the foodie vein, this book was also an awesome resource). I thought these people were my Paris favorite. They have been replaced.

We then took our croissant to the Jardin du Luxembourg to eat. Ha, ha, I bet you thought I was done with garden pictures. Wrong! Locate the goat:

(Well, the angle is different, but you get the idea, no?)

We were actually en route (see my nice use of French there?) to an organic farmers' market. Here are just some random city pictures that I liked:

I tried to take a few pictures at the market, but they didn't really turn out. Luckily, we did photograph our picnic (which we ate in the Jardin des Tuileries).

After lunch? A little knitting in the garden, of course!

And then we strolled the garden some. 

And then we strolled back through the city.

And then we saw what we can only understand as something akin to a rollerblade flashmob. This parade literally took 10 minutes to pass us by, complete with police escort. It was odd. And also? Awesome.

And then we left for London the next morning . . . .