Paris - week 1 conclusion

Yesterday was officially the end of my first week in Paris so I decided to give you a week 1 wrap-up.  I have been reprimanded for not posting frequently enough, sorry peeps.  There is not as much wi-fi available as I had thought, plus I was exploring the city a bunch. I'll be better, I promise.

Starting with updates:

• Saw 'the prostitute' today during the day... only in passing, though. We exchanged bonjours... no new updates other than he is for sure not a vampire and not just 'a lady of the night', sorry.
• Went on a legit date with a Frenchman.  You can read the details below.  
• I made my first girl friend today! Magnifique!  We met up for dinner, but forgot to eat ecause we were chatting so much...As per usual, I had wine for dinner...again.

Closing out the week:
So, as I mentioned, I went out on a date with "The Frenchman". I actually met him for a drink (champaign) the night prior and he had invited me to dinner the following night.  Wi wi!  The date consisted of dinner in St. michel at a cute little outdoor restaurant called Chez Julien followed by a stroll (past the public rental bike racks that I can't ride because they won't accept an American swipe credit card, only European chip based cards) and over to Notre Dame.  It was pretty romantic because everything was lit up so beautifully.

Velib Bikes hate American credit cards, but at least my "date outfit" was cute

Then we strolled over to a tiny bar called Les Trois Malliet (the three nails) where there was a caberet show set in the caverns of a cave in the basement.  The performers were funny and soulful and forgot the words sometimes which made them even more charming.  Some people from the audience, obviously friends of theres, got up on stage to shake their money makers.  Some were horrible dancers and others were atrocious.  There was one skeleton French girl trying to shake what her momma gave her, but it was just a bag of bones flailing her limbs and hip bones out of socket.  She was so funny, we ended the evening with that comedic closer.

The next day, I took a list of recommended sites and hit the road. I decided I was going to get up early since I was a sloth the day before. I was out of the house by 10:30am and off to the Louvre.  While walking to The Louvre, I had considered stopping here to work, but I decided there might be prettier venues and this was very close to the very touristy Champs Elysees. Plus I was afraid if I stopped here, I would love it and not move on.

 It was about 12:30 and I was getting hungry so i stopped a place called Angelina on Rue De Rivoli (a recommendation from my date, The Frenchman). The mescaline salad was good, but the hot chocolate at Angelina was to die for!  They call it Chocolat Chaud (shocola sho) and it was incredible. Its quite thick, but creaming and amazing.  Christine, you and I will be coming back here while you visit!

AMAZEBALLS!

 OMG, I was a sweaty mess, I was so embarrassed. Behind me, there is a mirror that I was sitting against.  When I took off my backpack, the back of my T-shirt was drenched in sweat.  It was so gross, I sat up straight hoping you couldn't see it in the mirrored reflection...mortifying!

 I decided that it was a good day to do some research for my book. So, I went to Jardin Des Tuileries, the garden just outside of the Louve.  I read 40 more pages of the book with similar content, that thankfully, isn't that similar (or interesting to me) at all.

My reading nook

 As i mentioned, its not that interesting to me, so I feel asleep and was awoken by dozens of fighter jets flying overhead.  Seriously, there were about 8 flyovers with 4-6 planes each time, some fighter, some regular planes, but they were flying low and were LOUD....like Blue Angels loud.

Parisian alarm clocks in the garden

Yawn, wakey wakey

To the Louvre!

Panorama of the Louvre entrance

It was also suggested that I also take a trip over to Palais du Luxembourgh and also to the garden. So, I walked from the Louve to the Palais weaving in and out of St. Germain des Pres along the way. It was a great recommendation, they were absolutely beautiful and the perfect setting to get some work done. I sat in the park for about 2.5 hours writing. I'd say it was a productive day...

Bon Appétit!

On my walk home from the Jardin du Luxembough, I decided to stop at L'Atelier for dinner.  I had chardonney (because its cheaper than water, obviously) and some salmon tartar. It was phenomenal.  Plus, they had wifi so I had time to solidfy tennis plans for the following day.



I decided to take a long walk home and came across this cool building in a square.  Its somewhere southwest of the Eiffel Tower.  Another one of those cool gems that I will probably never find my way back too.  LOL

This is how light it is still at 10:00 at night!

I found a couple of meet-up groups that I decided I would make friends through.  One of which was a tennis meet up. I set up a match today and got my ass whooped 6-1 by Carlos.  The score was not exactly indicative of play.  He was definitely better than I, but it was not a slaughter as the score would indicate.  There were a lot of great points.

Tennis sweaty girl on the metro - Glad I brought my racket!

until tomorrow... and, yay, Jetta comes on Friday!  No more selfies on the blog!!