It's 9:33 p.m....

...and I'm sitting in our Paris apartment's warmly lit kitchen as the Mallerys and Katy prepare a Turkish dinner. We may not have made it to Turkey this summer, but there are Turkish-style lentils steaming on the stove and fresh French bread from the market hovering on the long white table, waiting for us to eat. (Can anyone tell that I'm hungry?) The last thing I ate was a small piece of French bread at a cafe in a lovely little plaza somewhere in Paris, and I only ate it because I didn't want to drink my Cafe Viennoise on an empty stomach. We had wandered around a beautiful neighborhood in search of the Paris Mosque, and when we found it, we could only gaze at its stunning turquoise-tiled exterior--we couldn't go inside. Today is the first day of Eid (the three days of celebration that take place after Ramadan ends) and the mosque was fully occupied by worshipers. After we took plenty of photos we decided to sit in the outdoor section of a cafe in a plaza, people-watch, and sip coffee. It's an experience a lot of us wanted to cross off our bucket lists.

We will go back to the Paris Mosque on Monday, when Eid is over and we can (we hope) go inside and take a guided tour. The mosque is one of the most beautiful buildings I have seen in Paris, and there are myriad beautiful buildings here--Katy and I see them in the morning when we run up and down random streets, past random arches, and across random bridges over random canals. We've gone running two days in a row now for about an hour both times, and we're excited to continue to exercise in each city we visit because we see a lot of places as we go that we wouldn't otherwise see. People do look at us as though we are insane for dashing past them as they walk to work, but this morning we saw an older man jogging and a young woman doing the same, so we know we are not the only ones who run in Paris.

This running, however, makes me extra hungry, which is why I am looking forward to our Turkish dinner. It's the first homemade supper that we have had since we left the U.S. on Tuesday, and though eating out is always fun, it's nice enjoy a hot meal at our temporary home with our "travel family." Since we've felt tired and are still chasing after the elusive phenomenon called falling asleep at the right time, we have not pushed ourselves to fill our days with work and sightseeing and other tourist pleasures. We are working up to being able to do that. I think it's almost time to eat, so I'll post some photos after dinner!

Laura Melchor (Ojeda)

P.S. The first photo is of the Paris Mosque; the second photo is my Cafe Viennoise and me; the third photo is from the streets we walked yesterday!