Paris avec les amies

Whitney, Erin and I decided to meet up at the Jardin du Luxembourg, as Erin had heard there was an afternoon marionette show that she wanted to see. As it turns out, saying "Let's meet at the Jardin du Luxembourg," is sort of similar to saying, "Let's meet in Central Park. Ok, see you there!" So after several confused texts and phone calls,
"I'm near the big horse statue."
"Uhm, I don't see any horses. Lions?"
"Nope. Oh! There are some fountains over here."
"I see a fountain! And some little sail boats?"
"Boats?!"
We did find each other, and even found the puppet show but there were only a few seats left, and we couldn't bring ourselves to take the last seats away from some little French children who really wanted to see the show. So we wandered a bit, found some heavenly gelato at Amorino, then headed back to the metro to come over to my neighborhood. Paris is surprisingly sleepy on Sundays; the streets are fairly empty, and most shops are closed. However, most museums are still open, and Centre Pompidou is open late until 21h00, so we decided to check it out. Fortunately, we all agreed that we pretty much have a one-hour limit in most museums before our attention flags and we get restless...

The Centre Pompidou was really interesting, despite the fact that I generally don't have a huge interest in "modern art." I really don't get it. Like, three blank canvasses on a wall, proclaiming minimalist art? Seriously? And then there was even this...a room full of inflatable furniture.

I'm willing to be the first to accept my failings or lack of artistic sense, because I just don't get it. Of course, some of the pieces were really impressive, and did make me think a bit. My absolute favorite was at the very end of the museum...this bright red, super shiny, larger-than-life sized rhinoceros. There was something about it, I just wanted to touch it, and to bring it home with me.


After the museum we were all starving and since Erin had been craving falafel for months, I took them to the famous As du Falafel, and we stood on street inhaling our "heaven in a pita", hardly stopping to take a breath. They had this red spicy sauce, that was like crack, I couldn't get enough. I will definitely go back there before I leave Paris again.

After dying a happy little food death, we headed to the left bank, to St Germain-des-Pres. We had some time to kill before meeting a few other people, and found ourselves right in front of Les Deux Magots, one of Paris' most famous cafes...a favorite haunt of Hemingway, Picasso, Simone de Beauvior and Jean Sartre. And because "It was once famed for, and prided itself in, its reputation as the rendezvous of the literary and intellectual elite of the city," we of course had to grace the cafe with our presence. All the cafes here have these wonderful heaters on the outdoor seating, so Parisians can continue their favorite past-time of sitting in cafes and people-watching despite falling temperatures. Brilliant.

We ended our night at a tiny cozy bar in St Germain called Zero de Conduit (loosely translated to mean "bad behavior"). All the drinks are served in baby bottles, and they all have cute names based on Disney or cartoon characters. It was definitely a fun and unique experience. It was even more fun knowing that a bar like that would never fly in the US, I'm sure the moral majority would be up in arms proclaiming that it encouraged underaged drinking or somesuch nonsense.