Lazy Dimanche

How I spent my Sunday:
1. starting my day by reading Ernest Hemingway and drinking coffee after sleeping in.
2. picking up a fresh baguette from my usual boulangerie -- miraculously open even though it's Sunday -- and an avocado from the Sunday marche at Place Jeanne d'Arc.
3. taking the Metro to Mairie des Lilas to see the movie version of "Le Petit Nicolas" with student discount tickets with one of my friends who's also an assistant -- it was adorable.
4. returning to the 13th for a wander around and show her my new neighborhood -- Bibliotheque Nationale Francois Mitterand, Piscine Josephine Baker, the quai and its accompanying nightclub boats, and Les Frigos, an abandoned refrigerator factory that is now an artist colony with requisite awesome graffiti and galleries and it is so cool!
5. ...and then returning from our wanderings to make and eat a delicious vegetarian dinner (kidney bean burgers, a salad of tomatoes and avocadoes, and baguette) and drink homemade kir at my apartment.

It was a good one.

A few more pictures:

More pictures are on their way, including those of my growing vegetarian culinary skillz.

Paris in the Rain

Another beautiful night in Paris. It was raining, but this was more than made up for by Nutella and banana crepes on Rue Mouffetard, followed by kir (white wine + creme de cassis) and conversation at a sidewalk bar followed by a bottle of cheap wine in the ancient, fancy apartment one of my friends has been staying in with a quirky old lady while searching for housing. Everyone I know, through some protracted search or a bit of luck, has now found a place to live.

I caught the Metro back by the Bastille - only the top of it was bright enough to shine through the rain - and then back to my little corner of the world on Rue du Chevaleret. Life is good.

Sometimes being here is all about the simple pleasures, like reading on the Metro or having someone ask you for directions in French for the sixth time or the way the way the Bastille looks in the rain. Those are the things that make me happy I live here.