A quick post before we head off to a Ligue 2 soccer match (Paris FC vs Auxerre) at 8. Today started on an odd note; after the second flush of the day, our toilet would not stop running, and despite my and Suzie’s attempts to futz with an entirely alien mechanism (where’s the floating ball? where’s the chain? for that matter, where does the water come out?), we finally had to call our friends whose apartment we are staying in to ask what to do. They kindly said they’d call the young man who helps with the apartment when they are out of town, and he must have eventually either fixed the problem or had a plumber fix it, since at this moment, l’eau ne coule plus.
Passing that, we enjoyed another glorious Spring day, first walking through the Luxembourg Gardens, one of my favorite places in Paris.
We had planned to meet Anne-marie, one of my former instructors at the Alliance Francaise de Paris for lunch, so we spent some time wandering and checking out restaurants, finally settling on Georgette, which was near the school and turned out to be an excellent choice (good food, reasonably priced, hilarious waiter). We had a wonderful time; in addition to being the best French-language teacher in Paris, Anne-marie is smart, funny, warm, and genuine, a joy to pass time with (sorry if you are blushing Anne-marie but it is true). I found that I still have on Flickr a picture of one of our classes, and neither of us looks much different 10+ years later.
After a long lunch, we set off in search of a hat for me, Suzie saying that I looked red after a couple of days in the sun. That turned out to be a bust (straw Panama hats at Le Bon Marche for 360 euros, non merci, il faut changer de nom, je pense), but we did enjoy being outside and spent some time at the pretty little square next to the Sevres-Babylone Metro station.
When we got back, I calculated that we’d walked about 3.5 miles (route here for anyone who’s interested), but I swear it felt like more than that, and it probably was, what with our zigs and zags back and forth in parks and stores. My feet say more like 5, but they haven’t been pressed much lately.
Last picture, ma belle Suzie … and now, le foot m’appelle!
Categories: Blogging