these are in no particular order, because i am too tired to care to put them in order and blogger is inserting them in the wrong places and it's too much of a mess to deal with right now.
i pretty much just liked this little car in the foreground. the eiffel tower is visible in the way-way-background.
this is a shot down our street, taken just as our airport shuttle dropped us off in front. we waited about a half hour for regis (ray-ZHEE), our apartment landlord to arrive and let us into the building. it was kinda raining, but not too bad. it's a pretty narrow street and there was hardly anywhere to stand with our large luggage. regis is kind of a skinny youngish hipster looking guy who was really nice and spoke good english, which we appreciated. we of course, are trying our best to get along in french. D knows more french than I do, but i've been picking it up here and there and know enough to order in french and ask simple questions when necessary. so far, no one has been overtly rude to us, which we were totally expecting to happen.
here's D in front of the louvre. i am somewhat unimpressed with the weird i.m. pei pyramid in front. what is that? a modern glass pyramid in front of a really really really old grand building. i don't get it. but there it is. the louvre building itself is amazingly beautiful. we haven't gone in yet, perhaps tomorrow, as it's supposed to rain.
these are some boats on the seine. i LOVE the seine, and all the bridges crossing the seine. we have probably walked across 4 different bridges so far, going from the left bank to the right bank, and also from the marais to ile saint-louis and ile de la cite. (i am ignoring french punctuation marks, but there should be some accents on some of the letters in those names).
here's an interesting paris parking job. they get pretty close here. while we were waiting for a bus yesterday (a bus which was never to arrive, as we couldn't really read the sign telling us the bus was no longer coming to that stop; we were saved by an elderly french woman who spoke to us in english telling us the bus wasn't coming due to road construction), we saw a delivery van ram into the back of a car, and the GIGANIC argument that ensued from that. they were really going at it. i wish i had some footage of it. pretty exciting.
the eiffel tower. i particularly like how they prune these trees at a straight up-and-down angle. the tops (which you can't see) are also pruned like a flattop haircut.
we went here, les deux magots this afternoon for a late lunch. it's a place where people like ernest hemingway and pablo picasso used to hang out. the food was pretty good, we had sandwiches.
this is a croque monsieur... it's basically a ham and cheese sandwich, but it was AMAZING. i don't know what they did to it, but it's the best ham and cheese sandwich i've ever had. the top has this bubbly crusty cheese on it. we bought these in our neighborhood (la marais) and walked to the jardin tuilleries to sit and eat.
this is a chocolate macaroon we got today at Laduree (a place pretty famous for its macaroons) in St. Germaine. it was amazing. we found this place totally by accident, but D recognized the name and we went in. totally worth it.
here's a view of some of the bridges crossing the seine from the top of the eiffel tower.
this was dinner the first night. wandered into a random brasserie/bistro (not sure what the difference is) and ordered the special, boeuf bourginon. it was pretty good. a little salty, according to D, but just right for me. i have tried to make this dish (it's listed as the easiest dish to attempt in the Les Halles cookbook by Anthony Bourdain), and mine came out a little sweeter than this version. i liked this version better.
after long treks around the city, with our legs aching, this "bag online" store is a welcome sight. it means we are going to turn right, and our apartment (and bed) is waiting right there.
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