Early walk along river (after coffee and croissants) then through Jardin des plantes and quiet streets of Ile st Louis. Quick 45 min visit to Musee de carnavalet, which features the history of Paris. Many fancy "hotel" rooms, stories of kings - and tons of fragments of grand statues smashed during French revolution (another example of the French killing each other). Decent prehistoric exhibit in the cryptlike basement. Paris has been around a long time, and had 250,000 residents in the 1300s! Jen went to see the stained glass museum on Ile de la cite, appropriate biblical scenes for Shabbat, then got on train to Blois with 8 more riders. A hot walk to the hotel, then we had a little meet-up, with wine, and went off to our first dinner in small groups (petit honfleur with Sam, missie, David and Shira). Tomorrow- we ride.  An on time departure to the bike shop and then it took us about 45 minutes to get bikes matched up, and on the roa...

After an easy flight got on a packed RER train into the city, then grabbed a quick baguette sandwich, dropped our bags at les Tournelles and met up for a free tour of le marais with Adrien. Unlike much of pariis, this area was not rebuilt in 1800s so there are many original narrow streets. Its also a Jewish area and LGBTQ area - checks all the boxes for cool place to stay. The current mayor is on a pact to remove cars from city so main drag has huge bike lane and few vehicles, we saw no rush hour or traffic jams - another box checked. Lots of small gardens (although paris not as green as London) and piazzas around., and zero trash on the streets. Even the rubbish bins look like they're empty. Walked around Place des Vosges, the oldest square in paris and into national archives, set in an old private "home" which feels more like a small castle with its huge rooms and ornate details. We met up with Shira and David for coffee and snacks and a wa...