It’s late. I had a fablious day. I traded my violet deathtrap(I shouldn’t say this, she was a lovely bike, but not what I am needing now) <-ha! i type in english how i try to speak in french. je suis drole….for a bike that is much safer. It has brakes and everything. The seat is confortable, the basket goes on the back, c’est cool. And I had my first experience since I have been here of speaking en francais the whole day. Which might be why my english is being typed like I’m translating it from french. No, this is a lie, not the whole day because I spent the evening with Aidje and he is very sweet and speaks english with me.
But ooh! Restaurant review # 2!
I went to the 18th to return the bike, it’s not far, I was there in about 20 minutes. But the bike shop doesn’t open until 5! I guess when I was there yesterday, it was a freak occurance that I walked up as the owner was unloading a bunch of bikes they had just fixed. And since I had an hour to waste, I wandered up to a cafe I had noticed the day before. I opened the door, not even noticing the shades drawn and asked if I could eat something. Remember how I said that sometimes restauarants close between 3 and 5? Well, guess who forgot. Yes, it was me. And yes, this restaurant was not only closed, the owner was having a chat with a friend, colleague, who knows. And did she ask me to leave straightaway? No. She said the kitchen is closed so the only thing I have on hand that I can offer you is quiche and salad. I didn’t even want to ask what was in the quiche because if I knew there was meat I’d likely say no and leave. And I was terribly hungry so I said that would be lovely and still! It didn’t occur to me yet that this was above and beyond what was expected of her. So she brings me a quiche made with artichoke hearts and sundried tomatoes and no meat! And okay yes quiche is by definition fashioned of eggs, but eggs don’t walk or look at you with those big eyes and want nothing more than your love and affection because it never occured to them to wonder what a damn food chain is anyway! Yes, and well, the quiche..heavenly..the salad..had dressing!(this is unusual) and baby tomatoes that were so amazing I ate them all! Those who know me well, know that Trish may be a tomato, but she does not eat them…that goes to show how awesome they were. And I had the a la menthe and for dessert! Oh laLA! Fruits Rouges avec sucre the verte. Red fruits with green tea sugar. I don’t actually know that green tea sugar is anything other than sugar dyed green and sprinkled liberally over strawberries, raspberries and what reminds me of salal berries, but I don’t know what they are. A dessert so named looks something like this.
And so if you find yourself in Paris, in le 18eme, at the corner of Rue du Ruisseau et Rue Calmels, there is a little place which says Au Bois Blanc above the door, but I think ownership has changed recently and it’s actually Chez Anne now. C’est tres magnifique.
And last night was hilarious and random. I went out chasing a thunderstorm and decided that riding around the city taking night pictures would be cool. And at Bastille, I met Bruno et Karyo. We had some tea and then we raced across the city to Batofar, a supercool venue which is actually a boat on the seine. It was reggae kind of stuff, not my favorite, but easy to move to and I had a lovely time dancing with them. Then I escorted them home like the lady I am, made sure they could get in and proceeded to get lost trying to my way back across the river to the right bank, where I live.
Tho earlier today when coming back from the bike store, and subsequently the market (some goat cheese at one stall, hummous and falafel at another, vegetables at a third..it’s so civilized shopping like this and I never spoke english once!) I did get lost again, but not as lost…it gets better.
And so I have finally uploaded pictures of Paris. Much more to come. Bise bise.
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