Easter Sunday and Falafels for Dinner!

Sunday, March 23. Easter Sunday and a bright blue sky. But it's freezing (no exaggeration).

Jed and I manage to get out of bed in time to shower, have breakfast, and make it to Saint Eustache by 10:30 a.m. No mean feat since we were out late last night and of course Jed is still jet-lagged.

Aside: Every morning that Jed has been here, I have run down to the bakery on the ground floor to pick up croissants (or a baguette or pain au chocolat), which we then have with mirabelle jam, creme de marrons and cafe au lait. This morning when I go down, there are special little pastries for Easter - les nids de Pacques (a little cake with a "nest" on top with three little eggs in it), and Saint Honore pastries (kind of like a fancy Religieuse!)

At the church, we get good seats and spend the next two hours sitting in the world's most uncomfortable wooden chairs! Lots of incense! Try to ignore fact that everyone in processional is a man. Service is long, sermon good - I understood most of it (priest was probably pitching it to about 4th grade level). Music excellent, organ amazing. Candles (dripless but not smokeless) - they are lighted three times during the service. Can see beams from sunlight streaming through windows.

After church, we take the metro from Hotel de Ville to Place de la Bastille where we walk through the giant open-air market. Buy cheese, tomatoes, grapes, oranges, apples. Then walk back through the Marais, including the Place des Vosges and the Hotel de Sully. Continue down rue Saint Antoine to rue Mahler and up to rue des Rosiers and the Jewish Quarter where we proceed to have fabulous Jewish food for our Easter dinner. We're nothing if not ecumenical! We stand in line for 30 minutes (along with half the population of Paris) at the legendary L'As du Falafel. It is definitely worth the wait. Talk to two Americans from Seattle who are ahead of us in line: a mother and her college-age daughter here for spring break. We eat the falafels sitting on a concrete windowsill and then go to the deli across the street so Jed can get an awesome pikelfleisch (that would be corned beef) sandwich for dessert!!

Walk down rue des Francs Bourgeois which of course turns into rue Rambuteau back to the apartment where Jed and I both take naps. Later we have a quick tour of the Atelier Brancusi which is practically right outside my door. Weather now overcast and sprinkling. Stop into patisserie to pick up une baguette for dinner as well as croissants for breakfast tomorrow morning as Jed will be gone before the bakery opens. Tonight we have dinner of bread, cheese, tomatoes, grapes, and chocolate eclair! Jed getting organized to leave tomorrow at the crack of dawn.