I woke up to an email from my swim coach saying that because I'm American, my club registration is taking longer than usual, and so, sadly, I was unable to compete today. I had actually been looking forward to it! But I soon recovered and continued to stay in bed for a bit.
I took a little adventure today to find the Marguerite Yourcenar Mediatheque which is in my arrondissment -- over in the general direction of my pool. I decided to walk over -- it was a beautiful fall day with not a cloud in the sky. I truly am enjoying the cooler temperatures though! It's nice to be able to wear jeans and a sweatshirt and not instantly be drenched in sweat the moment I step outside. The Mediatheque is a lovely modern building -- practically all windows which is really nice. I made my way up to the 2nd floor (which would be the American 3rd floor), and found some books on French architecture for my paper due on Monday. I was surprised to find the library extremely busy -- lots of people (mostly students?) working at tables and computers -- at noon on a Saturday!
I worked at a long table sharing with 4 other girls for about two and a half hours, and then started to get hungry for some lunch, and so packed up. On my way out, I signed up for a library card! So now I can borrow up to 20 "documents" from the library at a time -- it costs extra to take out CDs and DVDs, so I stuck to the "document" only option. But the woman was very helpful, and she told me that my card would work at any municipal library in the city -- but that I couldn't take out more than 40 documents total at one time! I assured her that I would be able to work it out....
I found my way walking back approximately the same way that I walk home from swimming, and I pondered what could be an interesting lunch option -- I was trying to resist the temptation to do the easy, but boring, stop at Monoprix or Dia...SO, I ended up stopping at a boulanger on the Place Cambronne that I pass by every time I go to and from the pool -- and it always smells heavenly, and the line is usually out the door. I decided on a piece of "quiche avec du saumon et des courgettes" -- which was quite a healthy portion (saumon being salmon and courgette being zucchini). The woman stuck it in the oven for a few minutes, and then I merrily continued on my way home. The quiche was delicious -- big chunks of tasty salmon, and zucchini that was tender, but not mushy. And even better was the crunchy buttery crust. Yum.
I settled in to try and get some more work done this afternoon (and succeeded a bit -- emphasis on the bit part). Around 5:30 I took the metro to meet John Balderston (son of a friend of my mom's) who was in Paris for the day with two friends -- all three are currently studying in Rouen with their school, St. Lawrence. I met them just on the other side of the Champs-Elysees, and for the first time on non-US soil, I entered a Starbucks! What a crazy feeling. I think it must be a requirement for the employees to speak English because I can only imagine all the Americans they get asking for their "triple shot non-fat no-whip mocha-caramel-vanilla latte frappachino"....Anyways, their drinks are even more expensive than in the US if you can believe that -- and they have quite the interesting selection of baked goods (or produced goods?) ranging from pancakes to french toast to cake pops to a three-fruit flavored cheesecake (that John got). It was quite the culteral experience.
We parted ways so they could get to the train station, and I took the metro to the 9th arrondissement to meet some friends at a Thai restaurant for dinner -- well, of course, I got a bit turned around, and was about 15 minutes late after realizing that I had gone the wrong direction from the metro station....I guess my internal compass hasn't completely adjusted to city living. It turns out that the Thai restaurant that we had intended to go to was a little hole in the wall place, with space for maybe 6 people to sit -- we were 7. So after I arrived, we set off to find a new option. We finally settled on a Japanese restaurant not to far from our original plan, and had a lovely dinner. I had noodles with chicken and vegetables, with miso soup and a cabbage salad to start -- all very good! The noodle dish was fairly simple, but tasty. I was with 4 other people from Hamilton, and then two real French students who go to SciencesPo with Noah! It was really fun to have them there to talk to and get to know. They were both extremely nice -- and patient with our French!
Alorrrrs, perhaps a bit more writing about the adaptation of Marguerite Duras' La Pluie d'Ete and then off to bed.
Picture from the archives -- view out back of Versailles as the sun sets (from a few weeks ago):
A tout a l'heure!
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