old family blog

We Almost Made it Out

Last night I after running home in the rain and only wear jeans and cashmere sweater. I think I caught a bug. I woke up this morning feeling really under the weather. Clem got up early along with me and we headed out to our favorite little Patisserie to get my favorite Turkey Panini. I am in love with this place – not sure why there panini’s are so good. This will probably be our 10th visit in over 2 weeks. Of coarse this morning was no different, perfection.

After a quick breakfast we walked down the Montogieu and headed back over to the Marais district in search of some presents. Today was going to be all about buying presents and find gifts for us. We walked about 4 blocks and that icky feeling fell on my like a pile of bricks. At first I kept my mouth shut and kept walking. We stopped at the Les Halles center and took a few pictures. What’s really great about the center is they have Kids Park that is huge, I’ve never seen anything like it. Sadly I have no picture of it, every time we walked by it was closed.

We stopped at Starbucks and ordered some more coffees. I know, how American can we get? But its worth it – the flavor satisfies some itch for American. But, yet again, ordering at a Starbucks is ten times more difficult than any other café or brasserie. What’s interesting is how they correct us or the tude the throw when we ask for something they are not familiar with or we ask for it differently. I’m sorry in the states there are so many ways to order a Large Non-Fat Latte…so ordering it their exact way is just silly. Now, just to clarify, we were ordering in French. At a regular café on the street it’s so much simpler to order, and when you say something incorrectly they correct you with such a kind demeanor.

So we hit the road and headed over the Marais district. We were about two blocks into our shopping and the sick feeling was turning into a throw up feeling. I was getting worse! I tried to keep my mouth shut but I finally told Clem I was not feeling that great and I might need to head back to the apartment. We found this amazing teashop, which is a 300-year-old tea company. The store had been open for over 200. As we left the shop I decided I needed to go home. Clem walked me back to the apartment, the sky was starting to get dark again, and we had no umbrella.

On the walk back to the apartment we stopped at the Pompidou center and watched a couple of performance artists at work. One guy was doing a one mad stage play and the other was playing music on a boom box and playing a fake cello. Tied to the bow was a paintbrush, he played along with the music blind folded and painted a picture. It was pretty cool! I found this great artist and fell in love with two paintings….I procrastinated about buying one and now I am kicking myself I didn’t. I need to make that a golden rule from now on. The clouds over the Pompidou were starting to converge, I took several great shots.

We made it back to the apartment and I went to bed right away. Clem headed back out to walk around and hit a Irish Pub that Eric suggest he stop by for some better beer. Poor Clem has been drinking piss beers during most of the trip. One can only drink so much Heineken before getting sick. But then again, I don’t drink beer – It has such fowl taste, before, during and after. I told Clem it’s going to pore like crazy soon – so he should take the umbrella – he doubted me! But did take it, Not 10 minutes after he walked out the door – It started to pore like cats and dogs.

I slept for several hours luckily. Clem came back and we just hung out in the apartment for the rest of the night. Eric meet up with Chrystelle and her mother for little while and then headed back to his apartment to get some work done. Clem and Eric were up pretty late. Eric was working on a major article for Newsweek on the mayor of Paris. We stayed in for the evening and Eric brought us some Chinese food. It was pretty good; I got some simple chow mein. I am heading off to bed real early. I hope I feel better tomorrow.

posted by turlie @ 10:33 AM