The red dirt tennis tournament is heating up

Near the Grand Arch at the end of the Champs Elysees stands this giant thumb sculpture. We were there this afternoon during a day of marathon hiking through the city. It was a bank holiday and most of the citizenry were on the streets. I did not expect to see a huge thumb in the midst of the business district, but here it was: "La Pouce de Cesar" (the sculptor). Parisians for scale.


The walking began before eight a.m. Mr Moohoo and I went over to get some photos near the Louvre and to fetch some fancy pastries for breakfast (the ones with almond paste are exceptionally tasty). At that time of the day the area around the Louvre is not yet filled with lines of tourists. The reflection of the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel is pretty in the morning with few to witness it. I.M. Pei's Pyramid entrance to the Louvre is just to the left in the photo.



We went out later and took a walk that Ernest Hemingway described in his writings about his time living in Paris. Gino is standing beneath a sign indicating that this building is where Hemingway lived. The walk took us through much of the Latin Quarter and past the Sorbonne, now known as the University of Paris, and in front of Notre Dame again. The day started to get hot so we took a bit of a sit down back at the residence.


Part of the morning walk took us to the Museum of the Middle Ages where there was a bunch of really old stuff. Amongst the old tapestries and recovered sculptured heads of the Kings of Judah were some really beautiful restored stain glass windows. These may be as much as 800 years old. The one below seems to depict St Denis, the guy who had his head cut off and then proceeded to pick it up and continue on with his mission. I think that that may have been an exaggeration, but, hey, I wasn't there when it happened.


During the afternoon sit down we were able to watch some very good tennis matches from Roland Garros on French TV. There were two French players involved in the featured matches. Richard Gasquet and Andy Murray were involved in a five setter, which Murray won in the fifth set 6-1, and Gael Monfils dispatched a German, Kindlmann in four sets. We are going to tomorrow's matches, but it is still unclear who will be available to see on the outer courts. Nadal, Roddick and the Belgian women haven't played their first round matches so there may be some good viewing. The high temperature tomorrow is predicted to be 80 degrees.

More pictures and coverage tomorrow.