Paris Day 5, June 10, 2026

I am feeling better today, but not totally well.  The doctor told me to take it easy for a few days for me to have a voice to sing with Thursday night's and Friday night's concerts.  As a result, I am going to stay in the hotel and rest.  We are both going to miss the trip to the Louvre.  It’s unfortunate because we also missed yesterday, the sightseeing tour of all of the major tourist sites: the Eiffel Tower, the Arc du Triomphe and the Champs d' Lysee, and the outside of Notre Dame. (We will see the inside of Notre Dame on Friday morning.)

Today, Patrise encouraged me to get out of the bed around noon.  It was too late for breakfast, so she took me down to a lovely French bistro named Le Centenaire that she had discovered a few days ago for lunch.  She not only loved the meal when she went before, she discovered that it was a wonderful way to see a perspective of Parisian life that we would not normally see from a hotel. She witnessed hundreds of families escorting their children/grandchildren, little brothers, litters sisters to the local schools. Apparently, there are both a lower grade private school and public school, as we as a middle grade school: all with in walking distance. So even though it was after the lunchtime, she hoped that we would see many of the same types of neighborhood vignettes.

And we did! Adults appeared to emerge from seemingly nowhere, to to pick up children after school. Of course, we also saw people of adults of all ages, types, races, classes heading about their daily lives to and from work, visiting with families, visiting with friends, taking strolls to the local par, jogging for exercise, etc. etc. Here are several of the very many photos I tried to capture of communal life, as seen from our table's seat near the window seat.

We had a fantastic meal.  I ordered beef with potatoes and vegetables, and she had Dover Sole with lemon sauce. Both dishes were exquisite! 

After our meal, we returned to the hotel where I rested again until the time for the bus to depart for the dress rehearsal at La Madeline Church, our first performance venue. 

Patrise packed a lunch for me to take with me because the practice would go from 7:30 pm until 10:00 p.m. While I went to practice, Patrise toured the areas near our hotel and once again purchased replenishments for our cherries and water.  She also had dinner at a local bistro/pub called La Vache Acrobate.  She enjoyed filet mignon with a salad and calamari.  She said that it was fantastic!  I truly missed out again! C’est dommage!! (It’s a pity!)

Tomorrow will be our last practice in the morning, and then tomorrow night, the reason why we came: to sing at La Madeleine!