-Les Jours-

Today (Sunday) will be 3m 30s longer than the day before, says my Google Paris weather report.  This means I will have 3.5 more minutes of daylight in this city today.  I have also determined that I have less than 100 days left in Paris, which seems both short and long.

AND - my entire reason for explaining my fascination with time is to ask for suggestions on how I should fill my 98 remaining jours.  Heard of a fabulous bakery in the Latin Quarter?  Seen a monument on the Discovery Channel?  Wikipedia-ed Paris and found anything interesting?  Share with me!  Then I can both fill my weekends, and live vicariously for those of you stuck in the U.S.  :)  But for today...

Paris still carries a lot of religious tradition, primarily Catholic, thus most businesses are closed on Sundays.  Alors...

I headed to a Jewish neighborhood for lunch, for the purported 'best falafel in Paris'.  Endorsed by Lenny Kravitz.  Yes, read that sentence again: Endorsed by Lenny Kravitz.  Though the Rue des Rosiers has at least 5 falafel shops, L'As du Fallafel was the only one with a line forming along the street just for the take-away window, let alone actually getting into the restaurant.  We opted for the take-away.  And though it was delicious falafel - smothered in shredded vegetables and wrapped in a moist pita - I'd have to say it wasn't very different from the one I got just down the street with Maria Friday night.  Sorry, Lenny.

The tasty lunch was followed by the best kind of window-shopping in Paris: the stores are closed anyhow, so even if you wanted to go in and spend all of your euros on the most adorable purse you just spotted...you can't.

This is all in the Marais neighborhood, which has some interesting history, starting in swamps and fields, working its way to house the aristocrats, and much later, in the 1900s, becoming a home for Jews migrating from Eastern Europe.  Though the marshes and aristocracy have been left centuries behind, the buildings are still very impressive and the streets are often cobblestone.  Amidst all of the shopping there are also some museums (Musée Picasso) and historical sites (home of Victor Hugo).

And did I mention I saw a man being frisked in the metro on my way home?  I hope those guys were plain-clothes cops...sometimes Paris is sketchier than a Picasso painting.