Sunday in Paris: the Pere Lachaise Cemetary. We visited Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde and Modigliani. We went to Notre Dame. We walked to the Latin Quarter and bought souvenirs for people at home. We saw the Eiffel Tower, which glowed golden in the dusk. We chatted with other Americans. After dark, promptly at 11 p.m., the tower began to sparkle with flashing white lights. For 10 minutes it glittered in the dark, and we were dazzled as we sat on the wall that overlooked the Seine. We trudged our way back to the apartment at midnight, our bodies aching from walking all day long.

Monday in Paris: Kippy and Kathryn are gone. Merry Leigh and I have the apartment to ourselves. We are struggling to get our computers online. I had dinner with Meg, a student from my class, and American journalist living in Paris for 30 years. Her lovely apartment was 3 Metro stops away from where we're staying. I felt absolutely cool traveling the Metro all alone, making my way to unknown places. I won't mention how long it took me to figure out how to use the Metro ticket machine. I went through the line 3 times, and finally asked a woman to help me. I never would have figured it out by myself.

Tuesday in Paris: Merry Leigh and I travelled all day on the Metro (I'm a master at it); we finally made it back to the Musee D'Orsay to see the Art Nouveau section and revisit the Impressionists--my favorites-Degas, Toulouse Lautrec, Vuillard, Bonnard. We found our way to the Carnivale Museum, hoping to see some medeivel architecture. Never found it, or if we did, we didn't recognize it. We stopped around dinnertime for wine and cheese, then headed home, stopping at a boulangerie for more bread, and at a market for wine and cheese.