Today was one of those magical Parisian days. I really wish I had had my camera with me. There were so many funny, beautiful, silly moments that I would love to have on film. Instead, I'll have to capture them here.
After tutoring Lucas this morning, I walked over to Odéon to wait for Elodie. Elodie and I met through our friends Joe and Morgen, and hit it off. We've been trying to make plans for a few months now, and finally made it work today. We started off with lunch at l'Avant Comptoir, which was so packed that there were people waiting on the sidewalk to get in, but we politely pushed our way to the back, where Eric saved a little spot for us.
There was a huge pack of men from the Basque region, who decided to serenade the bar, loudly. The first song was fun and made me feel like I was in a movie. By the third song, I was asking them to keep the volume down so I could hear Elodie speak. We shared ham croquettes, scallops with parsley and garlic, and tuna tataki, before making our way over to the bar and smearing butter on warm rolls to go with our cod and (four!) glasses of cool white wine.
We decided that dessert should be ice cream, so strolled over to Grom, for my favorite ice cream on the right bank. I got vanilla and caramel, and Elodie had vanilla and pear. We ate as we crossed the Seine, making our way over to the Louvre.
Thanks to my Louvre card, we skipped the lines and went straight to the newly opened Russian icon exhibit, which was huge. It was luckily nowhere near as packed as the Venitian exhibit a few months ago. There were these two old women who seemed to be sitting on poles jammed up their butts, and it was quite a startling sight. They had these combination walking stick/seats, and they would waddle over to a piece of art, squat a bit, and stuff the triangular piece of plastic under their bum. From the back, you couldn’t see the seat, so it looked quite obscene. Sit and spin, ladies!
After a bit more than an hour, we were iconed out, so headed out of the Louvre to get a drink in the sun. Except by this point, the sun had gone away and it was too chilly to sit outside. While figuring out our next move with the help of my carefully researched Pariscope, we listened to an orchestra play by the Palais Royale.
Having decided to catch the 5 pm showing of An Education near Opéra, we walked north, and caught sight of one of the most glorious views in Paris, that of Sacre Coeur up on Montmartre, with Notre Dame de Lorette down below. The movie was fantastic, much better than either of us was expecting, and I headed home very happy that I live here.
la fille en rose 