Merci pour les crepes, Paris!

Bonjour! My mom is currently on her way to the CDG airport to fly back to Chicago, while I spent some quality time on the internet, until my flight to Pisa leaves at 6 PM. A day in Paris, what to do, what to do..

This week has been wonderful. The dinner party we went to on Sunday night is called "Dinner at Jim's", and is run by some American who has these dinners every Sunday and has for the past 30 years. There are usually some 50 people there, all strangers eating and mingling. We went, and it turned out to be pretty alright! met some really interesting people- a group of Parisian ladies who were there mostly to practice their English, an Australian guy who comes every so often to meet "the ladies", a couple who are traveling through Paris before moving to Scotland, and this neat girl Olivia who is actually going to Mt. Holyoke in Mass in the fall, and is a fellow feminist and travel addict. The food was mediocre but the ambiance was really neat, I would definitely reccommend going if you are ever in Paris on a Sunday!

Monday was another crystal clear day, not so hot, so we headed to Montmartre, where the huge Sacre Couer is on a hill, and wandered through the slightly run down neighborhoods. The highlight of Montmarte was the butter and sugar crepe we bought from a street vendor, and walking past the seedy Moulin Rouge. We had Croques Monseiurs with Roquefort cheese near the Opera house, and it was beyond words. After a quick trip into Galeries Lafeyette (a department store complete with stained glass windows), we headed home for a quick nap. We thought about checking out the elusive Deux Magots or the Cafe Flor, where all the literary types used to hang back in the day (like Satre, Scott Fitzgerald, Simone de Beauvoir) but they seemed lame and touristy so we didn't partake. We ended up on the Ille Sant Louis, the little island behind Notre Dame, where we had the best crepes of our life and met this woman named Dorothy and her boston terrier, Kennedy, who has been living in Paris for 30 years (the woman, not the dog). On the way home, crossing the bridge over the Seine, we got a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower all illuminated, really beautiful.

Tuesday began with a trip to the Le Parisienne boulangerie so I could continue my obsession with macaroons- got cafe, pistache, vanille, chocolat, framboise and citron and they were AMAZING. We went to the Marais district, which is supposedly the gay/jewish/funky area but it wasn't at all, at least what we saw. Kind of disapointing- we saw tons of chain stores, a few falafel places and Jewish bakeries, and the English bookstore The Red Wheelbarrow which was neat, but otherwise it was kind of like we were in Lincoln Park, Illinois. To cheer ourselves up, we went on a boat ride on the Seine with a HUGE group of British teenagers behind us, and a HUGE group of French 4 year olds in front of us, who were better behaved than the teenagers. Saw the Eiffel Tower from the water, up close and personal, and it's just so gorgeous. We then stopped in a creperie for a salted caramel and nutella crepe with 2 Kirs( our favourite tiddle here), and then after a quick packing/nap time, we hit up an italian restaurant near St. Michel that was fabulous. Some gelato on the Ille Sant Louis, and a walk over the bridge to see Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower at night, and we were ready to say au revoir to Paris and our really wonderful time here.

Today I'm heading to Pisa to meet up with my travel buddy, Sari, and starting to feel the stirrings of being ready to be on the move move move. I heard it's wicked hot though in Italy, not so stoked for that.

Paris is an amazing city, not sure I could ever live here- apart from the language part, it just seems a difficult city to integrate into. But I did successfully order stamps in French, so maybe..

Au revoir, Paris. Ciao, Italia!

p.s To make your own Kir, mix either Chardonnay or Champagne with Creme de Cassis (blackberry liquer, I believe) until it looks dusty purple. Delish!