Finally bikes...and a ticket :-(

AAuuugghh!!! I just spent 20 minutes creating a post only to have it disappear when I previewed the page. From now on, I’m going to create posts in Word, then copy paste, then and only then, delete the post from Word.

So anyway…we’re been busy and HOT. Yesterday it was 88 degrees here. We went over the courtyard in front of Notre Dame last night because we were wide awake at 10pm and remembered there’s often performers over there. There was a wonderful string quartet on the bridge between the 2 islands (Ile Ste. Louis (where we are) and Ile de la Cite). In the courtyard was some young people spinning some balls of fire. It was pretty amazing. At one point, they lit a stick, twirled it while it shot out sparks and popped.

Sunday morning we went to a bird mart that we’d read about. It was mostly stacks and stacks of small birds….budgies, finches, etc. There was a series of 3 cages, holding about 9 african grays and another couple of cages with bare-eyed cockatoos. None of them seemed too happy or social. Rich noticed the bands on their legs probably meant that they are wild-caught. It’s been illegal to import birds into the U.S. since 1989, but probably not in France. We didn’t so much else exept wander around the neighborhood and have a nice dinner on the island yesterday. It was just too hot.

Today we finally found a place that rents bikes!! We each rented a 24-speed Peugot mountain bike. We rode them over to the fat-bike tour place to RSVP for a bike tour of Monet’s gardens. The Wednesday ride was full, so we had to book for Saturday. After lunch, we rode over to Napoleon’s Tomb. Rich wanted to see it, but after learning that it’d cost 15 euros ($18) for us to see it, we decided not to. Turns out we’d need that money later. We headed back and were almost home when we got stopped by the police. Turns out we’d ridden through a red light w/out realizing it!!! First they yelled at us for not having our passports on us. Rich has his license on him, so they yelled at me for not having any ID and were going to take me to the police station to verify my ID. They also wanted to charge us 90 euros ($120) EACH for a fine!!! The two police started talking amongst themselves and then decided they’d let us go if we could cough up just 90 euros. They copied stuff from his license while he went to an ATM to get 90 euros. Ouch! That one hurt! 