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Since Laura and I had already been through Notre Dame on our last Europe trip, we didn't go there with Meadow to see the church. We went to feed the birds. Oh, how things change when you have a child.

The weather was very windy, blowing in big rain clouds then blowing them out and giving good stretches of sunshine. We even got to play in a couple hail storms. As Alaskans, we came prepared. In fact, Meadow was an oddity to many folks in her rubber boots and full body rain suit. She got to jump around in the puddles while the other kids just got their wool coats and scarves wet and watched her longingly.

After feeding the pigeons we went and looked at the "street performer" (gypsy?) dressed up as some kind of silver statue. She'd bow every time someone put a coin in her cup but was otherwise stone-still. Lu noticed when traffic died down her accomplices (fellow troupe members?) would approach and put coins in the cup, to garner attention. I did the math and figured they earned about 60 euros an hour, during optimal flow. Not bad! And more respectable than the ones that approached us at the train station with a note about being a Bosnian refuge and trying to get me to hold her baby while the other circled behind me eyeing my pockets. Cute baby though.