-Une Amie for the weekend-

I hope everyone at least knows that ami if French for friend.  If you don't...you haven't been learning any of the words from my blog!  Fellow AU student Kelsey was here for the last couple of days of her spring break, and it was a lot of fun having a friend here in Paris with me.

Friday afternoon I accompanied Chris, Neena, Kelly, and Brianna to the Eiffel Tower, but it quickly became so cloudy and windy that we abandoned any plans of going up, and just got warm crêpes instead.  New favourite crêpe: Grand Marnier.  Most delicious.  And since no one wanted to stay outside, we met Travis at a café and shared a pitcher of sangria.  I think we chose the wrong café, because the sangria was watery, and my croque monsieur was just a burnt grilled cheese with a smidgen of ham hidden somewhere inside.  Never forget that though Paris is famed for its food, not every establishment will live up to that.  McDonald's, Pizza Hut, KFC, and Starbucks are all allowed here now, so you can see how quality standards have dropped.

After that partial failure, I met up with Kelsey and took her to the Marais neighborhood for some famous falafel...only to remember that nothing is open Friday evening in the Jewish neighborhood, so we "settled" for gelato instead.  My second stroke of genius was suggesting we just walk to see the Cathédral Notre Dame, which looks just as gorgeous at night, but I accidentally went the exact opposite direction down the street and instead we ended up at the Tour de Bastille.  Via metro, we made it to Notre Dame, took some pictures, tried to give a couple directions, and walked back across the bridge to Chatelet to find real dinner.  

We literally ran into the people I'd gone to the Eiffel Tower with, so we met them at Banana Café for a drink, where we met a fabulous guy from Maurice, who was quite shocked that I knew where Maurice was.  (It's a very small, French-speaking island off the east coast of Madagascar).  Coincidentally, my drink was called an Absolutely Fabulous, so I'm a little suspicious that Banana Café is a gay bar...

My feet were still aching the next day, but I met Kelsey at the Louvre for some Egyptian art, a few sculptures, and lunch in one of the museum's cafés.  It was good to catch up, hear all about her study abroad in Rome, and worry about our upcoming senior year of college.  Yes, Kelsey, thanks for reminding me about that...

But then she had a plane to catch, and I had homework to do.  Honestly, I've mostly been writing postcards instead...ah, good weekend in Paris.