While this was vacation for all of us, it felt less so for me, as I was doing a lot of the same stuff I've been up to for months now. Dad and I had one major chore for the morning: cart Laura's immense duffel bag to Nicolas' for storage until she was ready to leave for Africa on exchange a month later. It did require the work of two people (would have been a long cab ride) to lift and move the thing via two metros and the suburban train to Asnières. After some sweating and some cursing, we dragged ourselves and this massive pack to Nicolas' door, where he welcomed us in for some refreshing water and a chat before we left him to his day.

Next up was meeting the rest of the family at the St. Michel fountain (a common meeting place, I am told). It is surrounded by a university bookstore that is contained in several shops around the square, where Dad and I alternated browsing while waiting for the others (partly to stay occupied, partly to warm up). After they showed up and we had a tasty round of ham/cheese/mushroom crepes, we were off to Montmartre.

Montmartre is a huge cathedral built within the last couple hundred years (practically new by French standards) located on a big hill in sort of the North part of the city. After fending off the many bracelet-makers ("let me just put this on you!") we hiked up the hill for a good view (clear and cold again, pretty lucky) and then the many steps to the top of the cathedral for an even better one that included the sunset.

At the top it is just a circular hallway running around the dome. The place was not crowded by any means, but I ran into someone I knew from the University of Saskatchewan who was stopped over in Paris on his way to Russia. Wacky.