notre-dame was our afternoon's true destination, though we wandered around the rive gauche -- french for "you don't smoke enough to shop here" -- enjoying the atmosphere, hitting the shops, staring at the braless french madamoiselles ... well, only one of us was doing that. i told frijolita to not be so obvious about it, but you know how she is.
the interior of the cathedrale was large, dark and actually inspired awe and reverence. the concept behind it, apparently, is to represent the majesty of God on earth by making the church as huge and imposing as possible. it was filled with tourists, and a sign out front helpfully reminded us all to watch our wallets and purses, as pickpockets target the cathedrale-goers.
after we'd walked for six straight hours, we decided to try the metro, and while i can say that the short, three-stop ride made our tired feet grateful, i also can say i came across an interesting mathematical theorem:
smelly frenchmen + crowded train car x (no moving air)2 = angry, angry tourists
allow me to translate the last line of the sign for you:
"philosophers and general pains-in-the-ass"
yes, we stumbled across le deux magots. the front was filled will gawkers and tourists, and reminded me of what i saw at the two bookstores we stopped at today: every philosophie book featuring a french thinker was this: white background, black text, picture of said thinker with a cigarette either dangling from the lips, or used as a gesturing device.
and then there was dinner.
frijolita (remember, that's my lovely wife's nom de plume on this website) and i had dinner in at la place du tetre, in montmarte, at an outdoor cafe. i'm told that, in europe, it's standard operating procedure for these outdoor cafes to put more than one couple per table -- which is exactly the opposite of the good ol' u s of a, where we like our distance from other diners. why, we'd actually have to talk to them!
matthew and alana (i hope i spelled that right) were seated next to us, and over the course of dinner (quiche lorraine, moules, frites and ice cream), three bottles of wine, two beers and a few other assorted drinks, we became fast friends. matthew amazed the table with his knowledge of raymond loewy and how wal-mart uses the merchandise it sells merely as a cash generator for other investments ... while alana made us all laugh at the czech tongue twister she recited -- three times. even more impressive: it was done after most of the drinking was behind us.
they made the evening for us; we felt blessed to have shared the experience with them -- especially when tommy, a sketch artist (i use the term very loosely), approached the table. matthew and tommy bartered back and forth for what seemed like hours, and it was truly one of the funniest things i've witnessed. i wish i'd been able to record it. tommy did a horrendous sketch of the two and (long story short) he walked away with far, far less than he'd originally asked for.
matthew and alana, me and frijolita -- the best possible way for me to kick off my birthday.
really, this shot sums up yesterday. every street in paris -- at least, every street we saw -- looks that charming, especially when the weather is as angelic as it has been for us so far. the fact that i'm posting this, oh, eight hours later than yesterday's post is proof that (1) we're adjusting to the local time, and/or (2) we drank way too much last night.
oh well. c'est la vie!
(as always, the main flickr photo page -- with a few more shots than i had room to include in this post -- is located here.)
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