Out and About in Paris with Wind and Rain

Today the apocalyptic weather arrived.  We were up and out early foraging for breakfast.  The hotel charges 17 euro per head and I just can't justify spending that much money for some yogurt, scrambled eggs and terrible coffee.  The instant coffee in the room is better than the hotel coffee.  So, we went here for an egg and cheese sandwich, aka an egg McMuffin.  Behold what the Parisians have available to them at their local McCafe.  We don't have this in the states.  Probably a good thing.

It wasn't raining yet, so we decided to mosey down to Les Halles to see what had become of it.  On the way, we passed through an Asian neighborhood.  It was interesting to see the signage.

This was very interesting.  See the man in the background, holding the giant green vegetable?  He was feeding it through what sounded like a chipper shredder.  Unfortunately we could not see what was coming out of the other end of the machine  The man with his back to us was doing something with giant pieces of meat, I'm guessing pork.  They weren't open so I have no data.

We pressed on, into the storm.  The skies opened up, the wind came up and inverted our umbrellas and blew my stylish fedora to the ground.  It was very sad. We did see this cool building.

If you are in Paris, Les Halles is not worth your time or effort.  After the original was torn down, it was replaced with an underground mall and is now essentially a subway intersection of 6 lines and the RER.  Please make a note of this.  Because it was pouring, we took the Metro back to our area.  Upon exiting the station, we promptly walked the wrong way.  We forgot the dang compass this trip.  We have have found the compass to be invaluable in city navigation.  Please make a note of this, as well.
Later it cleared up and we set out to walk down to Notre Dame.  However, the wind came up once again.  We ducked into the courtyard of the Louvre, where we saw this.  Look at the people standing in line to get in.  See the corner formed by the two sides of the museum in the back - look through the Pyramid.  The line starts well on the other side of the Pyramid.

See all the people?  They still have a long way to go to get in.  About 10 minutes after I took these pictures the skies opened up and it rained sideways.  If you want to go in the museum, pay money and get a no-lines tour.  I can't imagine standing in this much of a line for anything. 

We ended up going back down the Rue Rivoli and buying me a new hat with virtually no brim.  My fedora has too much brim and when the wind is up, it lifts off.

So that was today.  There weren't a lot of pictures due to precipitation.  Tomorrow is supposed to be better than today.  I will say that Jim's walking ability and stamina have exceeded expectations, so that's a bonus.