Paris Day 2, 2013

     It was rainy and cold again this morning, so we stayed inside hoping that the forecast was correct that the weather would clear in the afternoon.  Happily it did, so off we went to explore again.  We were looking for an ATM that would give us more than 50 Euros at a time since we needed to pay the rest of our apartment rent.  We have found that French ATMs really limit how much cash they will give you at a time.  It is rare to find one that hands out more than 200 Euros at a time, and the ones we used yesterday and the day before gave us only 50 and 100 Euros.  Leon had been looking up the locations of ATMs on his computer, so we set off to see what we could find.  

     Across the Champs Elysses we tried out an ATM that at first look said only 50 Euros, but we asked for more and were happy to get 200 Euros from it.  We felt so rich!

     We had seen the name of a cathedral on the map, and it was one we had never heard of before, so we headed out to see if we could find it.  We expected to see the top of it over some buildings as we got closer, but could not see anything at all.  When we finally came to a short street and looked down it, we spotted onion domes on top of the church.  Duh!  An Orthodox cathedral!  We walked down to the end of the street and saw the church surrounded on all sides by buildings.  No wonder we had not seen it.

     We walked up the steps and walked inside.  Leon has been studying Greek, but could not read any of the literature in the narthex, so we decided it was Russian Orthodox.  We went inside, bought a candle, lit it, and sat down for a while.  No photos were allowed in the interior (I borrowed the following shots from the web), and that was a shame, because it was truly beautiful.  There were lots of paintings on the walls, lots of gold mosaics, and framed icons all over the place.  The floor had a red carpet on it.  We have never been in a Russian Orthodox church before, so did not know the proper etiquette, and watched as others came in and genuflected and bowed and then did all that again.  They all bought candles at the entry desk and lit them in front of one of several icons around the church.  The candles here are all tall tapers and not the little votives we are used to at Catholic churches.  We enjoyed the peace and quiet as well as the chair.  There was beautiful music playing in the background…sort of like Gregorian chants…and incense wafting through the air.  Leon decided we should leave a donation as well as buying a candle, so we left some money with the lady at the front desk whom we did not think spoke any English.  We tried to explain that it was a donation or contribution, and finally she smiled at us and said, “for the church?” and we nodded that it was.

     On the map, the word “Cathedral” was the largest word with the rest of the name as smaller letters.  Since both of us are half blind, we never even noticed that the name of the church was the Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky.  That should have been a hint that it was Russian Orthodox!  When we got back, we had to look up to see who Alexander Nevsky was.  He was a Russian Prince in the 1200s who was a great military leader and defeated the Swedes and Germans.  He was made a saint in the 1500s.

      One of the interesting things we have seen as we walked along is all the motorcycles.  Several of them have dual wheels on the front that are fairly close together.  We are used to the 3 wheeled motorcycles with 2 wheels on the rear that are two feet apart, but have not seen these before.  The seats of most of the motorcycles are protected by a cover.  I am sure that is helpful if it has rained.

     We walked back and decided to go to our little boulangerie.  We had walked past there earlier and had seen some flan in the window.  This time, we had the place to ourselves.  We looked around, and Leon spotted a pork sandwich that he thought looked good.  Of course, I was interested in the flan and pain au chocolat.  We also got a crepe…they only had plain ones, but I sliced a banana over it when we got back, and we just imagined that it was thick with Nutella!  We have not seen a creperie in this neighborhood.  We stopped by a tiny market and picked up some wine and chevre to go with our lunch.

     I have been making really nice salads with mache and tomatoes.  We can’t find mache back home although I see in some of my magazines that it is a gourmet lettuce popular in California.  It is so common here that it’s hard to believe it is an expensive gourmet item in the USA.  We bought olive oil, vinegar and some Dijon mustard the first day so I have been making nice dressings for our salads.  

     Leon scrubbed the regular coffee pot and plans to make a whole pot of coffee for tomorrow.  He has been enjoying the little espresso coffees.  I, of course, have my Lipton Yellow Label tea. 

     The weather tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and cold.  We will get farther afield then.  Here is the outside of our building.  Our apartment is just above and to the right of the red sign. The window at the left edge of the building is our kitchen, then the larger windows are our living room, and the small window to the right is the bedroom.  We are on the 2nd floor. There are actually 2 floors below us...one is halfway below ground level, then the next one is above that.  Our floor is the first one the elevator stops on because the floor below us is a "walk-up."