Wednesday, May 6

I've decided it may be easier if I break things up by day... even though I'll only be posting about every two/three days or so. So here goes Wednesday:

Wednesday AM, I finally decided to plan out some days for myself, so I’m sure not to miss the things I want to see. I don’t have to do these things, but if I wanted to go to such-and-such neighborhood, I would know that such-and-such is less than a metro ride away, for example. After a leisurely morning and barely scooting out before the kick me out at noon (each day, we have to vacate from noon to 3p; not hard to do and I appreciate the daily cleaning.

I headed off to Monoprix – a large… department store, I guess? But the basement is a grocery store; upstairs is kind of a Target? Anyway, I loaded up for a picnic at Place des Vosges (pics). I found this fabulous little “buffet” of cheese thing with 6 different “tastes” of cheeses: heaven! I also treated myself to a dark chocolate bar with hazelnuts… the candy aisles (there are two: one for cookies, one for chocolate) may be what lures me into staying here in the end…

I eyeballed the expensive shops between Place des Vosges and Centre Pompidou. Very boutique style and in fact, you could see most of what they had to offer in the window display, so I didn’t go in anywhere. Got to Pompidou and realized I didn’t really want to go in the museum exhibits. I like the architecture and the hyper-moderne style (pic), but I am realizing, most of my must-dos in France involve talking and eating and such. So instead I sat down and journaled from the WiFi spot at Centre Pompidou (pic) and then headed out to call home (hi mom and dad). I got done with Pompidou a lot earlier than I thought, so I headed out to see a movie I’d seen before that I thought would be in French… (17 ans encore). Turns out it was version originale with French subtitles! Boo. But I read along and tried to pick up the slang words. And it was still a cute movie the second time around.

I learned that ads for snack foods and desserts are required to have a label (throughout the entire ad) that says something like “For your health, don’t eat too much salty, sugary or fattening foods. More info at mangerbouger.fr” This is way new. Gov’t sticking their hands in the health pot. In fact, Alli (a weight loss drug) was just released in pharmacies here without regulation. That makes it the first to be widely available in France.

I had my first “French jerk” experience at the café in the cinema. As rusty as my French is, it was bound to happen I guess, but people have been really great with me and complimentary of my French usually. It was actually his “English” I didn’t understand. The guy at the counter offered me “Earl Gray” tea. When I didn’t understand earl gray with a thick French accent wrapped all around it, he got really frustrated with me and started barking things like “Big Ben??” So I recoiled a bit, apologizing and saying I hadn’t realized there was a choice. *sigh*

The movie theater I went to is in a “mall” called Les Halles (lay Al). I use air quotes because this monstrous human construction is so big, they have to use street signs to help people get around! (pic) Anyway, I did some light shopping while I waited for the movie to start. Found a fair-priced and packed store called New Look that has officially proclaimed the 80s are back and happenin’. The fluorescent shoes alone speak volumes! (pic)

After the movie, I walked down to Boulevard de Sebastopol to catch some jazz at Ducs des Lombards. There was a concert going on for 25 Euros, but it was vocal jazz and I was positively starving, so I paid it. I was 30 minutes “late” and the only seat I could see was practically on stage to the left of the drummer. So I took it, and could see the entire audience. I ordered food and must have eaten to fast cause the drummer leaned over as I was finishing and asked (in French) “Is it good?” I said “very” but then realized he was sort of making fun of me and the entire front half of the audience had a chuckle.

See now, in the States, I can handle ribbing and laugh with the rest… in this case, I was afraid I’d done something offensive or wrong and was just mortified. Another one of those things that comes with traveling. I’ll get comfy again but I’m currently kind of unsure of myself…

After dinner/show, I headed back to le Marais (my neighborhood) and squeezed into the bar at a very local, somewhat mild spot. Met another new friend (I’m invited to his party on Saturday here in Paris) and had fantastic 3 Euro wine. My day was full and varied but ended well.

Check out the whole roll of photos on Flickr…