The Best Trip Ever

Yesterday morning when we set out, we found the electricity off in the hallway and the elevator dead, so we had to creep down an old stone circular staircase in almost total darkness, just a little light leaking under the doorway at each floor. Since then it’s been off and on sporadically, on the last time we checked. This morning they’ve started some sort of major renovation of the ground floor entryway and piled bags and bags of rubbish in front of the doorway to the stairwell, so I'm really hoping the elevator continues to work. I don't want to have climb over that rubbish, THEN climb five flights of stairs in the dark!

The weather remains very changeable, with blue skies and sunshine one minute, then rain and wind minutes later. I’ve been watching the leaf buds on the trees fatten over the past week and I think spring is coming regardless.

Yesterday we spent a few hours at the Musée National du Moyen Age, or Cluny. Somehow we’ve walked past this for years, looking in at the ruins of the Roman baths you can see from the street, but never going inside. I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the exquisite Lady with the Unicorn tapestries.

We had a nice lunch at Brasserie Balzar. Neither of us felt like one of their big meaty main dishes so we ordered the vegetarian plate, which was wonderful -- braised endive, white beans, pureed potatoes, green beans, carrots, and maybe a few more. Then we snacked at home for dinner. I’m saving the big dinners out until the cold is gone and my taste buds are functioning again.