Full Weekend

I took this picture this morning on my way back from breakfast in Puteaux with Hannah. This is one side of an island that is across from my apartment building. So I live to the right and closer towards the camera. Click to make it big.


Generally my weekends are pretty full. I always spend Monday kind of recovering from the social shock of spending most of my waking hours in the company of several people. I have church to thank for this problem. I'm really glad I went to church that first Sunday. It's been a total blessing all around.

Bear with me while I give you a little play by play. On Friday evening I left a house full of crying children to meet a friend from school and a couple of her friends. We were planning to go to Fajitas a real Mexican restaurant near St. Michel(across half the Seine from Notre Dame). I was really excited to find out about Fajitas. It was Hannah who first pointed it out to me. I'd already been there with Julianne so I spread the good news to my fellow Americans. Until very recently I had only met two Americans, no one else really cares about a good south western meal. But Fajitas is kind of crowded so while we waited we accumulated about a group of twelve. We were primarily American au pairs except Charlene who is a friend of mine from church. She's adorably British and works in Paris as a bilingual assitant. All of us are in awe of her French skills as well as her accent.

After finishing dinner we went down a little alley to a Scottish bar. Unfortunately for those of us living outside Paris the trains only run until 12:00 on Friday nights. So we left in order to avoid being stranded and falling victim to fake taxis and other horrifying scenarios branded into our minds from various news stories and movies in recent years.

The St. Michel area is really fun. It has a lot of English speaking themed bars like the Scottish one we were at and also and Irish and Canadian along the river. It's also a great place to get crepes. Hannah is kind of an expert on the area and she showed me Shakespeare and Co, an English bookstore thats the stuff of legends. Also there is this little movie theatre that plays old American movies that we went to once. So yeah, I should probably venture south of the Seine more often. I tend to go to Tuileries and rue de Rivoli every other day and sit on the same bench along the river.

On Saturday Julianne and I went to lunch at a little place called Scoop that is near Palais Royal. Scoop is famous for it's burgers and ice cream. It's very nice and trendy but we had a new server who was absolutely abysmal. We kind of forgave him because he said our french was very good. After sitting and taking up space for about four hours Julianne went to do homework and I walked off toward...rue de Rivoli. One nice thing is that the sidewalk is covered. It was pretty drisly so I went on that side of the road. The only problem is that it's so crowded with identical shops with berets, eiffel tower key chains and I heart Paris shirts that one can hardly make any head way. I spent way too much time getting another calendar at WH Smith, my favorite place in Paris.

Saturday evening was quiet and I ate pizza with Anne and the kids in front of French dubbed A Wizard of Oz. The songs were in the original voices so I was happy. Old fashioned french is much easier to understand.

Sunday morning I accidentally left and hour early for church so I get coffee and sat on the Seine and read my book. It wasn't quite as idyllic as it sounds. That stone bench was like and ice cube. But the sun was warm so it was pretty nice. After church I got lunch with five or so girls from church before a speed clothing exchange session. Even though I didn't bring anything I made it out with some gloves, a belt, some shirts and a scarf.

So that was my weekend. It was lovely. And next weekend I take the kids to the South of France to visit their grandparents. They don't speak English so I'm excited to have French be necessary.
Have a lovely day.