Sunday:  It seems that we are finally over the jetlag which hit hard again this time.  It has taken us 4 days or so to feel recovered.  We go to sleep late and get up late — sometimes around noon!  it was a lazy day and so we slept late and stayed in until it was time to head to a friend’s for dinner.

Unknown to me, all of Paris’ bus routes have been revised which explains why when I was checking out how to get to our friend’s home none of my route apps gave me the usual way — Bus #28.  More willing to trust my own knowledge than an app, I stuck to what I knew.  Wrong!  We walked to the bus stop for #28, which is quite close to us. Unfortunately, we just missed one and so had to wait about 15 minutes for the next bus.  As it approached I saw that the banner across the top read “Montparnasse” which is only 1/2 way to where we were going.  It dawned on me that was why the route apps were giving me different routes than the one I knew.  Well — here we were – so we took the #28 as far as it went.  Just as we got off it started to rain.  (Why hadn’t I checked the weather report before leaving?) We walked up to Avenue du Maine, a busy place with busses, cars, and people all rushing around caught in the rain – many without cover as well.   The rain was light at first, then began to get heavier.  We stood on a corner, my head barely shielded from the rain by my thin scarf while George stood closeby not to happy while I fumbled with my phone trying to figure out what to do. We tried to get an Uber — but the driver couldn’t find us and cancelled.    Luck – finally — despite it always being impossible to find a taxi in Paris even it if it isn’t raining (without calling a head for one) – a taxi pulled right up in front of us, someone got out and we got in.  We were so thankful to be out of the rain which by now was coming down in buckets. Less than 10 minutes later we were at our friend’s street — a private road which the taxi driver refused to go down.  Umbrella in hand, our friend came down to meet us.  By then the rain had just about stopped.  We were pretty wet — I kept thinking about the two raincoats and multiple umbrellas in our closet back in the apartment…. Lesson learned! 

Coming home, our friend called for a taxi.   The driver turned out to be worth the cost of the trip.  He was jovial and friendly.  He spoke a little English, but clearly had that problem all figured out.  He had an app on his iphone which translated his spoken French into written English!  So he’d say something fun like “A lucky man with 3 women”  in French,  (we were with two friends)” and up it popped in English on his phone’s screen.  We had a lot of laughs all the way back…. and that, after a wonderful evening of good food, wine, and conversation.  The rain was long forgotten.  (No photos — just picture two people in the rain… and not the Hollywood version — we weren’t singing!).