Weekend Update

Dr. B and I celebrated our 10th anniversary on Thursday with a special dinner out at Le Procope, in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. In the Chopin Salon, we dined on traditional french fare, while persistently speaking french to the staff who served us, despite the fact that we were surrounded by Americans, and the staff was happy to speak English. (I wonder if they put us all in the same room on purpose?) The restaurant was founded in the 1600's and is supposedly the oldest still-running restaurant in the world. They advertise that Ben Franklin worked on the American Constitution there, which must be a draw for those who are visiting Paris from the US. I think we really threw the waiter for a loop, when he brought out our first course and realized it was me who ordered the pate en croute (potted spiced meat spread wrapped in a pastry crust) and Dr. B who wanted the tomato and mozzerella salad. Jeff tasted mine, and agreed that though the idea of pate scared him, it tasted pretty awesome, so he bought some at the grocery store the next time we went. Nonetheless, dinner was lovely; we ended our meal with a delightful creme brulee and digestif, and afterwards we walked along the Seine, talking and shooting pictures, in hopes that we'd get something really cool and arty-farty. Here's the best of our efforts; not great, I know, but we'll keep working on it. In the one of me alone, I am sitting in one of the little viewing spots with benches on the Pont Neuf, which you can see behind Dr. B in the photo of him. The Pont Neuf ('new bridge') is the oldest bridge in Paris, and was started in the 1500's. It has recently been cleaned, and looks brand new despite being over 500 years old. The one of the two of us was taken the old fashioned way, and I cropped my arm out of the bottom. (My college photography teacher is probably cursing me right now!) [**Note: I can't get the layout right on this--blogger is being weird--so I'll put these photos at the bottom of the page. I hope they don't cover any text. Sorry!]

Friday was spent helping friends move appliances they had just bought, eating great Italian food for lunch on La Butte aux Cailles, and later picnicing in the Parc de Montsouris with Lucy and Kyliemac joining in on the fun.

After an uneventful Saturday, Sunday dawned, with plans to bike around Paris with our friends and visit the vide grenier (garage sale--literally 'empty attic'), but someone had other ideas. The rain that was so desperately needed in Paris came down, and down and down and down. The biking idea was scrapped, and we figured that the vide-grenier was probably cancelled. Even so, Lucy still needed to be walked, so we headed up to La Butte just in case the sale was still going on. It was! We stopped under the awning to dry off at a funky little cafe that I had visited before with Aimee, Kylie and Lucy. We drank a coffee and discussed our plan of attack before turning around to head back through and dicker on prices for the items we were interested in.

Here they are. The pitcher is for water at the table, and appears to be brand new. I got it for 5 euros. I absolutely love it! The lemons are so cheerful, and the colors are great. Not a scratch on it! The posters are both of James Bond movies (we love old movies) on metal, and in French of course. A bit rusty, the one, but we can clean that up. We figure someday they will hang in a movie-watching room. 9 euros each (I thought it was too much, but like Dr. B says, they are a pretty cool souvenir, which we couldn't find in the US.)

Diamonds may be Forever (Les Diamants sont Eternels), but our time in France isn't. Catch it while we can...