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This past week has made me smile - mainly because it seems like it's just been one never-ending weekend. Friday there was a small party hosted by Beth with plenty of chocolate, bread, and cheese :-) Her flat is amazing with a view of the Eiffel Tower from her window, which makes the 6 flights of stairs minus an elevator worth it.


Saturday I saw James Bond Quantum of Solace with Julia.

Not sure about America, but Bond is on every billboard possible here - promoting cameras, Coke, Nintendo, cologne, toothpaste... I just made the last three up because I can't remember what, but really. He's making some serious advertisement money. I asked some of my French students in class which James Bond they preferred out of the 5 or 6 men that have filled those shoes. Does it mean that I'm old if I was shocked to hear them say they'd only seen 2 Bond movies? Or just that I have 3 brothers ;)

Sunday I rode through the streets of Paris with Michel getting a free French tutoring lesson while seeing the sites at night. New favorite hood - Montmartre. It has hills :-)

And then Tuesday was a French holiday. Something about an armistice. I don't work on Tuesdays anyways, but turns out babysitting was cancelled for that day so I spent the day riding Parisian-style through town on a Velib bike. There was an article about this in Time magazine a few months back. France (and some other cities around the world) have bike stations set up all throughout the city for commuting purposes. You just swipe your card, take a bike out from the 20+ bikes stationed there, head wherever you need to go, and park it at a different station. Pretty cool. Pretty green :-)

Beth and Madeleine had the idea. We met at Beth's house in Arr. 16. The day was GORGEOUS which helped to cement the feeling of freedom that is the primary ingredient to all holidays. We just zig-zagged our way through streets. No one in Paris wears helmets, when in Rome... No worries. Our hair and brains survived the day. Turns out bike-riding in Paris is a bit tricky though. The majority of streets give you a little vibrating massage (cobblestone) or intense adrenaline rushes whenever you enter a roundabout or get tail-gated by a car down a 5 ft. wide lane. We ended up taking the march of Napoleon's army and headed towards the Arc de Triumphe because of a convenient bike path, followed by a little trip along the Seine, and we ended at the Eiffel Tower.


That night was Azia's birthday so we went out for drinks in St. Germain on Princesse street at the Frog and Princess pub. Because it's Princesse street, most of the bars and shops on that street have something to do with princesses:

Turns out, Azia was running a little late and never quite made it, but we enjoyed ourselves regardless. Happy Birthday to Azia and happy Armistice day :-)

Then yesterday I decided rather than to pay 20 euros for each book that I seem to be finishing each week, I'd check out the local library. I am now a proud patron of the Antony municipal biblioteque. I thought it was time to start reading a French book to speed this language learning thing along so I chose a book in the Twilight series (#2 which is called Tentation in French) since I figured I'd remember the gist of it in English and could pick up some modern-day conversational phrases. Genius!