paris -- in the thick of it

so our first full day started with a quick walk to a street which was known for its baked goods, and was nearby the pantheon (and what we soon discovered) the mosque. starting the day as every day should, with a baguette, we made our way in the rough direction of which we could remember was the right way. we did end up finding the street, which handsomely rewarded me with an almond croissant, which i acquired with my very little, very butchered, french.

after our morning walk, we headed to the flea market (real original, i know. but it seems to be what i do on the weekends) to hunt through whatever they had to offer and then some. sadly, this flea market had more antiques and less obviously stolen items, so prices were a tiny bit higher than what i have grown accustomed to. but that yields a better selection of higher quality goods set up in slightly more permanent establishments than the usual newspaper or bed sheet laid out on the ground.

from there we headed to the champs elysees to see the arc de triomphe and window shop a bit. i had us pull over, it's nearly required, at la duree to sample some macarons of the finest quality. after the champs, which was very nicely decorated for christmas, we headed to the latin quarter to find dinner and explore that area a bit.

that evening we got our dinner (went with the steak this time) which more than made up for our first blunder, and earlier that afternoon we discovered the joy of low-cost sandwiches from just about every boulangerie. after this meal we headed off to montmartre to explore and go see (not literally of course, no one can afford it) the moulin rouge.

the following day, we set off to the louvre where we were sure to get our ticket prices' worth and spent quite a few hours exploring. after leaving, fully 'museum tired' we went off to recoup in our room before meeting with my friend josephine, who's studying in paris for the year, for dinner.

she took us to bastille for a fantastic dinner, i had a chicken skewer, we headed to an apartment of josephine's friend's where we ate, drank, and were merry for the rest of our night.

james, sadly, had to leave the next morning so i saw him off in as best shape as either of us could be. i spent the rest of the day further exploring the montmartre/latin quarter/notre dame/left bank (at least i think it's the left -- the 'not notre dame' side)/palais de tokyo. i made sure to do my last minute shopping and had as much hot spiced wine (vin chaud) as was available, that is a delicious idea to get rid of the cold.

i also saw some of the christmas markets set up along the bottom (away from the arc de triomphe) portion of the champs elysees which pretty much just sold snacks, like soft pretzels/crepes/waffles/hot wine/hot chocolate/etc and a couple christmas items.

i kinda just explored what that area had to offer as i'd never been there before, and my destination was a hotel and store designed by and carrying goods done by my favorite graffiti artist. after a bit more walking around i started thinking about dinner options.

i settled on cous cous with a lamb skewer which turned out pretty good, but not ideal, as i'm sure i could've found a higher quality moroccan restaurant. oh well, it wasn't bad plus i got some free mint tea since business was slow that night -- score. i went from there to grab my bags from my first hotel and meet josephine who generously offered me her apartment to spend the night before leaving the next morning.

we went to get dinner (she hadn't eaten yet) and i got a creme brulee which was fantastic, she's yet to steer me to bad food -- che buona fortuna! so we hung out at her apartment with her friend that night before we settled in for a couple hours of sleep before i was up and off to the airport.