Paris

Last weekend I (yup ... "I" in the singular) went to Paris to hang out with Lauren and Ben for their last weekend in France.  James is studying like a madman for his surgery boards in November and was nice enough to offer to watch Conor for the weekend so he could hang back and study while I took off for a little adventure. 

The TGV (which was luckily running even though another strike was supposedly happening) from Strasbourg to Paris takes only about 2 hours and is quite a nice way to travel.  No security so you can bring your shampoo.  Reasonably priced wine and beer available.  No stops.

I hadn't been to Paris for about a decade but even a ten year long absence didn't make me want to re-visit the main Paris attractions. Luckily, Lauren and Ben were also interested in just hanging out so we had a great day wandering around the Marais.  For lunch, we had some delicious oysters and crepes and shared two bottles of cider.  Exactly my kind of meal.

You may remember from a past post that I compared French strikes to Fourth of July parades.  Maybe the Strasbourgeoisie are better behaved than Parisians because we came across the following post-manifestation carnage while strolling around:

It actually was kind of artistic in its own way. 
For dinner, we ate at Derriere http://derriere-resto.com/restaurant/paris/derriere/, which is equal parts restaurant and fraternity house.  None of us could concentrate on ordering drinks because our cocktail waitress was basically topless (think see through lace t-shirt with chunky cardigan covering everything but her chest).  Our table was directly behind the ping pong table.  The food was average and expensive but we had a great time nonetheless and stayed out until a respectable 2:30 a.m.

CONOR UPDATE:  Its getting cold!  Which means I get to start dressing the man in all the adorable winter clothes I've bought for him (at the used baby clothing store where I'm a frequent shopper).  Here's an example:

You can't tell from this picture but the red thing is actually a full body "costume" which I have to zip him into.  I've had to learn to zip from upside down and around since there is no such thing as sitting still anymore for Mr. Man. 

Finally, for those of you (Garrett) who were outraged that you could not link to Rob Mac Myer's myspace page to listen to his American Country-Folk music a la francais, here is the link again:

http://www.myspace.com/robmacmyer

Upcoming Posts:
The Most Amazing Daycare Ever
All Your Questions Answered About What James Is Doing Over Here
All Your Questions Answered About What Jenn Is Doing Over Here (just kidding ... blogging, obviously)
The Famers' Market I Can See From Our Window (Almost)