"Steal my heart away." -Van Morrison.

After class today, our whole group went and had a picnic on the Champs de Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower. Baguettes, cheese, salami, and strawberries is what I brought to eat. Yummy. As we were sitting there eating, these young boys came up and waved something in front of this girl Chloe's face. Our director yelled at them to go away. We later discovered that they were distracting Chloe so that they could steal her iphone! The police caught the boys and Chloe got her phone back, so all's well that ends well. I knew we wouldn't make it through Paris without encountering such an experience
Emily, Rachel, Fran, Amanda and I did assigned Walk 16, which took us to Montmartre. This is the Paris I have always seen in movies, it was magical. We rode the Funiculaire up to Basilica Sacre Coeur, and toured through that gorgeous building. I saw Renoir's house, Van Gogh's house, and Picasso's house. Very cool.  I also fulfilled my lifelong dream of seeing the Moulin Rouge! Not nearly as fanciful as it is in the movie, but I'm still glad I got to stare at it for a minute.
After the walk Emily and I went back up to Montmartre and just sat on the grassy hill in front of the basilica enjoying the afternoon sun, and turning down all the beers we were offered.
Dave Stephens is in town for business and he took Rachel and I out for a nice dinner. We had so much fun. Sat at a little outdoor café, then went and got salted caramel crepes. We ate them as we walked along the Seine with Dave. We ran into this same homeless guy who has two puppies that Rachel and I see everywhere. His name is Robert and we have become fast friends. Today a young guy was with Robert, and I invited him to church on Sunday! I wrote down the address for him, and he put his cigarette in his mouth so he could take the paper from me. Will be interesting if he shows up.

A classic, and essential, tourist shot.

Yes, that's a baguette in my bag.

Strolling along the Seine with Dave.