Yesterday ended up being a bit of an American-themed day here. Georges and I started our afternoon by going to the Musée Carnavalet for the Benjamin Franklin exhibit (and judging by the accents overheard in the exhibit, lots of other loyal Americans-in-Paris decided to drop by as well), and ended it with an early "dinner" (American-style) at Breakfast in America.
The Ben Franklin exhibit was quite interesting and we enjoyed it (note: although the Carnavalet's permanent exhibits are free, there was a 7 euro fee to get in to see Ben). Franklin was much revered in France and lived here in Paris for much of the latter part of his life, and upon his death the French government declared three days of mourning. Lots of paintings and drawings of Dr. Franklin (the man surely loved to sit for a portrait!) and many letters both in French and English. Books written by Franklin translated into French. And some of his inventions and interests were honored: bifocals (which I have a feeling I will be needing soon myself), hot-air ballooning, and one invention I'd never heard of but was fascinated by -- the glass harmonica!
The glass "armonica" (as Franklin called it) is a series of glass "bowls" of varying sizes, stacked inside one another and placed sideways on a long pole. Every other glass is rimmed with gold to make it easier to distinguish one from the other. The musician is seated in front of this contraption with a bowl of
water and places his foot on a pedal (think the old Singer sewing machines) to rotate the horizontal "stack" of glasses and -- you guessed it -- it is just like someone "playing water glasses". They had a demonstration video so we could see and hear someone playing it (this is a different one I found on YouTube so you can get the idea), and it was fascinating. Mozart even composed a piece of music specifically for this instrument and it was very pretty.
After the exhibit, we walked through one of the museum's small gardens where I was a bit surprised to see pink roses blooming (this weather in Paris is really strange sometimes). I love the French style of 
symmetrical gardening, and look at the heart in the foreground of this design. Back inside, we eavesdropped on the end of a piano concert that was being held in the museum.
In the museum store, I picked up a biography of French writer George Sand, and a very interesting little tour guide to "The Best Places to Kiss in Paris" (you might think, like Georges and I, that the answer is "anywhere in Paris is the best place to kiss" but the author clearly has other ideas. It will be interesting to see how many of these places we can personally "test drive"!)
After the museum, we strolled around the Marais a bit, and around 5:30 pm we started feeling a bit hungry, so we ducked into Breakfast in America which at that time of day had no lines to get in. Being American and knowing how totally fun it is to eat breakfast for dinner in a diner, I got blueberry pancakes (and I paid the extra euro for the REAL maple syrup) and a side of American-style bacon and some OJ, and Georges got a burger, fries and a side o'slaw (he just can't eat breakfast at that hour). We WAY overate though... even though we ate dinner so early, we were not in the least hungry for the rest of the evening, and even the Laduree macarons I had at my apartment couldn't tempt us into some dessert. But it was SO good to have regular pancakes and bacon, and Georges was a good sport for eating at that ungodly hour. I promised to take him to a real American diner when we go back to America in a few months so I can introduce him to my family and friends. New Jersey has great diners, I'll say that!
The only truly bizarre thing we encountered was a group of people roaming the quartier with a bull horn and video cameras, KISSING total strangers! Periodically the guy with the bull horn would shout out some commands and then the designated "kissers" would accost unsuspecting strangers and kiss them on the cheek, and then run away again. I got kissed by two girls, and some guy kissed Georges (who was not all that thrilled about it). Later as we were sitting on a banc public in the Place de Vosges (one of the Best Places to Kiss according to the book) this same group came into the park to continue their activities. We have no idea what it was all about but they got it all on tape. Are they competing with the Free Hug people? Students doing a sociology experiment for a class project? Hired by the local French TV station and now we'll be on the 6 o'clock news? We have no idea. But when we saw them in the Place de Vosges we decided it was time to move along and not risk a repeat attack.
All in all, a lovely Saturday afternoon in Paris, strolling hand-in-hand around the Marais and sharing the love.
