2 Euro Rhum with a Monoprix Cider Chaser. Yuck.

Since I'm writing these after the fact its hard to be linear so I'm going by the pictures in my camera, which can be limited.

The next day was spent in recovery. I don't believe I made it to school, which is great since I only missed 2 classes the whole time I was there anyway. That night we had a group activity in the form of the Musee D'Orsay, my favorite museum in Paris. This one houses all of the Van Gogh, Monet, Maney, Renoir stuff. I wandered around with Lauren and Emma for a bit and then lost them as I took the express escalators up to the best rooms at the top. I managed to find the outdoor balcony where I had an even better time taking a hysterical call from Shannon while feeling really bad that I was having a fantastic time. Even worse I was observing the Left Bank on a gloriously sunshiney day from the roof of an old train station where there are quadruple-life-sized statues looking out over the city. Paris is so beautiful it could heal anyone's soul. I listened to her freak out as I gazed over at Sacre Coeur, the highest point in Paris, as my eyes wandered down the streets of the Marais, as I watched the water of the Seine rush under the ornate bridges. I felt like a terrible person. Anyway, I got the summons that the girls were ready to go so I met them at the exit.

Our next fun excursion was more Seine! Of course. Julie and I got ready for another night out and met Emma and Lauren over in the Latin Quarter for dinner. We chose Le Menhir, which I'd eaten at on another trip to Paris. The guy was super sketchy because he enticed us in with a 10 euro set price menu but didn't want to give it to us when we sat down. Jerk. I ended up striking up a conversation with the couple sitting practically in our laps next to us because every time he said the word 'Yankee' I wanted to strangle him. They ended up being a very nice couple from Georgia or something. We decided not to go back to the house to get wine but ran into the small issue of not having a corkscrew and not wanting to pay for a new one. Oh, we of little faith in how easy the French make it to laze on the Seine with an open bottle. We stopped in at the Monoprix on St. Michel Blvd and found carafe shaped bottles with pull tab tops much to our delight. They also had Monoprix brand cider for under 2 euro, and better yet, something called Rhum for 2 euro that looked like the kind of bottle that usually comes with a brown bag and a bum attached to it. We bought it of course, and then briefly stopped in next door to beg some plastic cups at Starbucks as we were trying for a classier sort of evening. Pleased with our purchases AND our free cups, we head down to a different part of the Seine, possibly on the Ile St. Louis...I'm not entirely sure. The draw of this spot is that its smack in the middle of the Seine on an island point that juts out into the water. We plopped ourselves down in the crowd and immediately Lauren knocks our cups down the embankment onto a ledge by the water. Curses! Back to swigging out of the bottle. As is the norm now some guy comes up to us and tries to speak French with us. Lauren is more than happy to accommodate but when the conversation goes silent and awkward he just wouldn't go away. We finally had to have Julie tell him that 'NO, our alcohol is for us, he has to go get his own,' and that got rid of him. She's pleasantly mean like that...we like it. It was rather cold out so we opted to move up the steps and into the grassy park. Small problem...grassy park was gated off. Clearly that hadn't stopped the hundred other people who'd hopped over the fence to get in so, as they say, when in Rome...err...Paris... We hopped the fence and plopped on the grass. Another two random boys came up to us who spoke decent english. They were very charming and invited us to go hang out with their group. We might have but once again I had to pee so we made our exit. Finding bathrooms in Paris is REALLY hard, hence this problem that keeps popping up. Funny, but we find ourselves at peeing boy bathroom again. Emma and Lauren decide to head home but Julie and I aren't ready to call it a night. We head towards Rue de la Huchette stopping on the way for the most delicious pizza ever. The crust was like biting into a cloud....really. We decide to try a bar on the left that looks promising. There are alot of fun lights, random conga lines, and 'No-stripper' signs posted on the walls. Great! Drinks are expensive so we only get one and then head out. Randomly these two younger people come up to us and start talking to us. They recommend the bar across the street from where we've been because of the salsa dancing. We're tired but we decide to check it out anyway. As we're walking in they tell us that they'll be closing in 20 minutes so we say okay and continue to look around. Another bouncer tells us that we need to buy a drink or leave so we say okay, we'll leave. As we're walking out the door Julie gets shoved from behind right out of the place by security. We couldn't believe it. Needless to say, although I love staying on Huchette, I will never frequent a bar there again since 3 out of the 3 that we've visited have been terrible. Tired we start the walk home only to be stopped by another weirdo. This is no surprise since Paris has an endless supply and in my weariness I could have sworn he was the exact same fellow who wouldn't leave us alone on the island.

Est-ce que vous avez...um...'preservatives'?

The very next day we decided to make a second trip up to Sacre Coeur/Montmartre because Julie and Rachel hadn't gone the first time. The rest of us also wanted to spend some more time in that gorgeous area of Paris with windy streets and square-filled artists. I wanted to do some shopping at H&M so I met Julie outside our apartment and we walked up to Saint Placide. This took quite a bit longer than I'd anticipated so we were running behind practically before we began as we were to meet the girls at 3pm. I HATE H&M still but I did find a fantastic black dress to wear on nights we go out. Julie and I rushed back to the metro and rode it all the way up to Northern Paris because Emma, Rachel, and Lauren had already headed in that direction. The metro was terrible, crowded and hot and smelly. We skipped one transfer train but pushed onto the next one for the short one-stop ride to Anvers. We were pretty much about to faint from heat stroke so we stopped and purchased multiple beverages for the trip up to the cathedral. We met the girls at the top and stopped for some photo opportunities. While we were hanging out there was this street performer who could spin a basketball on pretty much anything...WHILE climbing up the giant lamppost. It was cool. We were hungry so we dragged the other girls to Place du Tertre where all of the street artists gather. There are restaurants in the center of the square as well for outdoor dining. After perusing every menu in site we ended up at Chez Eugene in the center of the square. I had thrown a minor tantrum because I did not want anymore paninis or crepes but I settle myself down when I saw the menu was quite varied. We got squished into a table meant for four and the French ladies next to us muttered something about us being sardines. They were incredibly sweet to us and we took over an extra table of theirs when they left. Dinner was amazing. I got the Confit du Canard...duck leg and it was seriously good. We got little carafes of wine and had great conversation. The end of our dinner was terribly exciting as Rachel got pooped on by the same kind of evil bird who stalks me through my apartment window. She kept talking about scrubbing her arm while slathering on mass amounts of hand sanitizer. We did a little shopping in the souvenir stores and Rachel and I got Gelato - Nutella Gelato. Yum! We had a little time before we were supposed to meet Ruchita for wine on the Seine so we sat with everyone else on the steps up to Sacre Coeur. Lauren, who was still sick, managed to croak out a few practice round of her oral presentation for class. I somehow got the giggles and couldn't stop laughing. Finally it was nearly 9:30 and I insisted it was time to go. We picked up wine from home and Emma, Lauren and I went to meet Ruchita at the Saint Germain stop. We were nearly to the Seine when three men stopped us. We figured out that they were inviting us to their 'accommodation' meaning their apartment and I put my foot down about going to anyone's apartment. We ditched them and made it to the Pont Des Arts to fulfill the promise of seeing what all the fuss was about with the rest of the locals. The Pont is one of the best bridges in Paris. It's a wooden pedestrian bridge situated directly between the ornately carved Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge in Paris, and a view of the Eiffel Tower which sparkles for 10 minutes every hour. Everyone on the bridge is sitting in groups with wine and/or picnic items, playing music, talking...it's fantastic. We pick a place and sit down trying not to gripe about the lack of cute boys in the immediate vicinity. As we would learn time and again, the weirdos will come to you without fail. After awhile of girl talk and bonding two moderately cute boys join us for conversation. Matteo and Greg. I chat with Matteo about politics and Sarkozy for awhile, who knows where the other conversation was headed. They attempted to punk some of our wine, a talent specifically reserved for Frenchman, it wouldn't be the last time that happened. At some point Ruchita and Julie had to pee so they followed Greg because he said he knew where the bathrooms were. Thankfully I didn't join them because the 'bathrooms' were some bushes off of the bridge. Classy! Not only are we swigging from the bottles we're peeing on the streets...actually, that makes us more Parisian than anything. Its starting to get late and the bridge is clearing out when we notice we're out of wine. THANK GOODNESS there are hobos selling bottles of wine on the bridge. That's what I call service. We purchase one and decide to find a bar somewhere else because now I have to pee as well. As we're trying to leave we get accosted by random people wanting us to smoke weed out of a hookah. Thanks but no thanks. These same fellows happened to have a 'preservative' (aka condom) on them when Julie asked. Why she asked I will never know because she freaked out the minute it was produced. Hilarious. All of a sudden the boys disappear so we ditch them to go find someplace that Ruchita knows about. All of a sudden they reappear and jog after us up the street. I need a bathroom really badly by this time so we magically arrive near Rue de Buci and the bar that we always manage to happen upon when it's time to use the facilities. I remember it because there's a creepy painting of a peeing little boy on the door. We somehow manage to convince them we're going home, which WAS the plan at the time, at least for Emma, who decided it was late enough for her. Ruchita, Julie and I decided we were hungry and I remembered that the Dungeon always serves pizza for decently cheap. How we find ourselves there so often I will never know. Maybe because its open til 5am?? Anyway, we order a pizza and the rest of the night passed until somehow its 6am, daylight, and I am making the trek back to our apartment with Julie. It was a FUN FUN evening.