Day Three in Paris now

Day started a bit later (thankfully), as we took the train to the Arch de Triumphe and the Avenue de Champs-Elysees. Please no one ask me to say that..I've heard so many different pronunciations today..I'll never get it. However, one note..there are 2 Mc Donalds within 3 blocks on the left side. We talked down by the two palaces and to the statues of the great heroes of WWII. Then back, with a stop at Fourquet for a tart and Coke light (we are back to that). On the way back to the hotel, we got on the wrong train. With the help of a decent metro map, we were able to get enough transfers to find out way to the hotel with time to spare.



THen we took a small van out to Claude Monet's house in Giverny. It has two beautiful gardens and a cute little house (though by those days standards, i'm sure it's huge). There is an impressionist museum there as well. Then home to a quiet dinner and work for me.



Now just a bit of my own observations about yesterday..it's been bothering me for quite awhile today. Yesterday in the Notre Dame Cathedral, I saw signs that asked people to not take Flash Pictures and to observe the sanctity of the church and speak quietly, or be silent and not to interfere with the function of the building as a church. Yet all over the church I saw flash bulbs going off, and people speaking loudly, yelling and sitting down talking next to people who were obviously praying. Now, I'm not Catholic..yet I respect the function of this building as a house of worship for those in it. All my pictures were taking without the use of a flash, and I tried to stay out of the way of those trying to worship in their own ways. Yet, those I noticed in the highest numbers come from cultures who to a one nearly demand that their cultures and traditions are regarded and respected above others. And yet, in this place that was not their culture, they openly disregarded posted signs and decent rules of etiquette. If they are unwilling to afford another person their culture and worship, why should they expect, even demand that others afford it to them?