I embraced the change in the weather today -- even if it meant it being gray and a bit breezy. For the first time in I don't know how long, I didn't break a sweat while getting to class which was quite the refreshing change! We met at the Saint Paul metro station in Le Marais again to look at the Hotels -- again, not actual hotels, but mansions of the early Renaissance period. We toured the Hotel de Sully, Eglise de Saint Paul Saint Louis, and Hotel de Beauvais -- all very cool stuff! It's interesting to see the differences in the architecture between the middle ages and the Renaissance (which I suppose is why I'm taking the architecture class!). Still very striking, but much less decoration and flourishy details.
After class, I headed to Monoprix (which has become one of my favorite places) to look for some lunch -- they have an incredible produce section which was incredibly tempting and so I went for a salad with some proscuitto and parmesan, some small garlic croutons, and balsamic dressing! And an apple -- which, as it turns out, France has some pretty delicious apples too! I actually ended up taking my lunch home where Marilu and Alain's oldest son and his son, Alexandre, were there eating, too! So I sat with them which very fun -- Alexandre is so cute!
I went to swimming early because my coach said I could come a bit early so I could get 2 hours of swimming in on the days that the practice is technically only an hour and a half. It probably didn't really do me much good today....I was feeling pretty rusty in the water! Oh well -- I suppose it's my first day really feeling 'off' since I've started with the team. I'll try it again tomorrow and see how it goes! Each day, I'm having more and more conversation with the kids from the team and really starting to become one of them! Well, kind of -- I still have to ask them to repeat some of the sets for me -- but luckily now not all of them! I'm starting to get the hang of the French swim lingo and the hang of things.
There was a "reunion" at 7:30 at the Maison des Associations of the 15th arrondissement -- which is quite a different place than where I live! Marilu wasn't kidding when she said that the 15th arr. is the biggest one in Paris -- it's enormous, and it's also incredibly diverse. The Maison is just a few buildings down from the Moroccan Consulate and it's clear that that culture carries around into the neighboring streets as there were signs all over the place in Arabic and French. The meeting was fairly uneventful, but lasted until 9 (when we got kicked out of the room....).
I took the metro home and heated up my dinner (Marilu and Alain had a rendez-vous tonight), which was the delicious little Portuguese half-moons with a filling of shrimp and other stuff (I'm not sure what) -- so I had that and some cut up tomatoes and some pain mais (which isn't like the corn bread we're used to eating in the US -- it's not sweet at all, just much denser than what I would consider normal bread).
I believe that's about it -- everyday when I'm on the metro or general people-watching I think of cultural differences or interesting Parisian things to write about and attempt to write them down, but of course, whenever I sit down to write about the day -- they always manage to slip my mind. Oh well -- one of these days I'll get to it!
Photo of the dayy -- one I've been meaning to post (or take) for a while! It's a restaurant that I pass everyday on my walk to swimming -- an hommage to my two grandmothers (and to my mother who tells me that they should have named me this -- Marie being the French equivalent to Mary):
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