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.
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