Yesterday, I miraculously slept until about 11:30 (after turning my alarm off at 9:30) which was great. Marilu told me that she was going to go be "Pere Noel" and do some shopping and she invited me along, and I gladly accepted her invitation!
We first went across the Champs de Mars to a natural food store called Naturalia, which is actually a chain. It's a pretty cool store -- they have just about anything, and they even have a fresh bread section! We got a couple of rolls that had dried fruit and nuts in them -- they were good, but almost too nutty....from there, we went to this little store that sells cheap odds and ends, and we perused the Christmas decorations that were lining the outside of the shop. We continued on to a thrift store where Marilu asked if they had any Hermes bags -- the woman had one Hermas bag which was hidden behind the counter in some special cover -- and it was still over 2,000 euros.
We came home for lunch, and then went back out again! This time we took the metro to the Alesia stop in the 14th arrondissement -- I had never been there before (near that metro stop, that is). There's this really cool road that has all these discount stores along it -- clothes, shoes, an enormous furniture warehouse. Everyone was out doing some holiday shopping! Marilu found a beautiful dress and jacket to wear for Christmas at one of the stores (but Pere Noel left emptyhanded...).
I headed home after our little tour of this one street -- I went to swimming which turned out to be pretty nice because practically no one was there! There was a swim meet yesterday so a bunch of the kids were swimming in that instead of coming to practice.
After swimming, I met my friend Katie back at my house, and we made pasta with pesto and I roasted some artichoke hearts which were delicious. We had a nice and relaxing evening and watched a movie (yes, en anglais) -- I Heart Huckabees, which is really a bizarre movie, but hysterical none the less. It was a wonderful way to spend the Saturday night.
I forced myself to get up around 9:30 this morning -- which shouldn't have been difficult but it was. I puttered around for a while and ate breakfast and then Marilu called me after they were done with church and I went to meet her so we could go to the market together! We made the "regular" tour -- Portuguese stand, the same fruit stand, eggs, and then there was a used book stand that she found a bunch of books for her grandchildren. Always lots of fun stuff!
We came home and had lunch -- delicious Portuguese shrimp half moons (I have no idea what they're actually called, but that's essentially what they are). The rest of the afternoon -- which was gray and chilly - was spent on my couch doing (or "doing") work -- I successfully completed my family's Christmas letter (after a 6 year absence) AND photo collage before actually getting to what I needed to be doing...I believe that deserves some sort of procrastination prize...
Marilu bought premade Croque Monsieurs for dinner which were tasty and we then got rather distracted by one of my favorite sites -- www.tastespotting.com -- I highly recommend it...We planned out the Thanksgiving dinner (part deux) that we'll be having here on Friday night wheich I'm very excited about, and now I'm heading to bed! Going to be a busy week!
The beginning of the Christmas market along the Champs-Elysees the other day --
A bientot!
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