A Fun Filled Fourth

This past weekend I was able to again rejoice in the marriage of my friends Nicolas and Isabel - this time around Paris. On Friday, I spent the day walking around Montparnasse in the 14th, including seeing the cemetary and enjoying a lovely bowl of moules and frites with an ice cold beer at the Academie de Biere (not really a school). The 14th is not a very tourist driven arondissement and while I don't think it is as quaint as say the 16th, it was nice to see a part of Paris that Parisians call home.

Friday night, Jai and I took the train to attend a party at Nathalie's. Parties here start at 11 - and end, at least this night, at 4. It was very very hard to get up Saturday morning - but I did, bright and early at 8 so I could come back home.

I tried to leave the party with Isabel and Nico Friday night, but unfortunately, the taxi driver refused to take Jai and the trains had of course stopped running by then. Saturday, I rode with some friends of Nico's about an hour and half outside of Paris for the wedding reception. I learned some very important things - for example - if you are invited for a lunch at 1, you don't show up any earlier than 1:30 or 2:00 since you must assume that the party throwers are not ready to receive you until then. So, showing up to the reception around 2, was not rude, but par for the course.

The reception was lovely and the ride had been quite pretty - I have to say, the French countryside I saw, was not altogether different than the countryside in the US. Since the reception was a bit in the country, I did not arrive home until after 9 - exhausted and ready to crawl into bed. Sunday morning was spent lazing in bed and reading before going to a 4th of July picnic.

A couple of the expat groups on Meet Up had organized a picnic at Bois de Boulogne. Armed with wine, water, bread, cheese and some olives, Jai and arrived at the picnic. Jai had a ball - he ran around off his leash, burrowed in the tall grasses when he was hot, rolled around in the grass and most importantly - was loved on by everyone and was able to sneak away some food from many picnickers - including a half round of blue cheese and a hot dog. I'm waiting to see what the effects of this are going to be. Let's hope that he has a steel stomache for now. I also had a lovely time meeting more folks coming to Paris to take a break from their everyday or having moved here and considering themselves lifers. It was nice to spend the Fourth surrounded by Americans.

I arrived home to tidy up since Myra and Tracy were returning to Paris from Italy for Monday. They arrived around 10:30 and we promptly set off for a very late dinner at Au Pied du Cochon (or Pig's Feet) a restaurant near the Church St. Eustache that serves food 24 hours a day.

Whilst I had a wonderful time this weekend, Monday morning arrived a bit too quickly for this vacationer.