La Nouvelle blague

We finally got it together to visit the marché today. Of course, there was no marché, because they were filming what I suspect is a movie called Les Turfistes. In any event, we saw this guy: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0149260/, along with some other French actor types I didn't recognize. And a horse. So, that was cool.

Then with lunch in the parc we had a pretty life changing dessert called a Saint-Honoré, a sort of fractal cream puff explosion ingeniously fastened to a pâte feuillée disc, with little pats of torched sugar on the smallest cream puffs. Watch out for that.

I'm here! I'm here!

Day One in Paris= Great Success

My flight was actually pretty enjoyable, long, but alright! Thanks to my dear Tara, I snacked on trail mix and chocolate while watching Bridesmaids! I had a brief layover in Iceland (just long enough for me to eat Icelandic yogurt for breakfast...delicious!) Harlan met me at the airport, flowers in hand. Then we took the train home. Our apartment is just how I imagined it would be (only smaller... hahaha...how is that possible). The shower is tiny and the hot water lasts for literally four minutes. (I know, I know, shut up you are getting to live in Paris!) After eating yogurt and baguette I slept for six hours! We had take-out tacos for dinner- not very Parisian, but very very delicious. This morning we slept in and then went our for brunch at this little place right next door to us. While the food in the cafe was delicious, the experience was much more terrifying than I had imagined it to be. I have been so focused on getting to Paris that the fact that I don't speak any french had not really hit me... OH MY GOD I DON'T SPEAK ANY FRENCH. I have no idea what I am going to do when Harlan is not with me. Anyway, after lunch we went shopping and sightseeing around our neighborhood. It is really wonderful here!

This Picture Was Taken in Paris

That is good news.

Countdown to the Most Anticipated Arrival in Paris of the Year

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

Back in the Saddle

Beautiful Sunday for a bike ride to and from Versailles. As some of you may know, I was between iPhone screens over the weekend, and it's considerably more difficult to use a proper camera while mounted. As a result, the photodocumentation is unusually (and perhaps mercifully) concise. Also, it's a good thing Michelle came: Although I was without my beloved RunKeeper app and its bounty of GPS data, she charted the course here http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5154492 the old fashioned way, with a cursor and Google Maps.

Versaille by Cycle

In other news, I'm so excited that...that...well, I'm just really excited.

What's new where you are?

Love,
HD

My Weekend Did Not Suck

Casks & Castles: Loire Valley Weekend

Run: Parc Monceau

Around Paris

Whoa.

I haven't seen Parisians do anything with as much dispatch and cohesion as they just evacuated the school during a fire alarm.

Perhaps relatedly, two hours ago, I somewhat inadvertently opened this window in the library and have been unable to close it.

On further inspection, we see that the locking mechanism is magnetically driven. So it is not entirely clear to me how I was able to open it in the first place. Merde.

Oh, well, it's really stuffy in here.

Around Paris