EIFFEL TOWER

There wasn't much of anything going on yesterday.  I went to class, cleaned up my little apartment, bought some groceries, and caught up on my sleep.  All that equals:  no blog. 

I am LOVING French language classes.  Yesterday we added a beautiful Italian girl named Gemma to the group.  She's the last one.  Our gang is complete. We're all working hard and get along so well.   We laugh a lot.  What else can we do?  Today Musa, a doctor from Sudan, came up with the idea that we can say whatever as long as we follow it up with, "s'il vous plait".   I'm giving that a try.  So far, so good.

We're all starving when we finish class, so I made myself some lunch and set out to see more of Paris.  I took the metro to Concorde and walked toward the Eiffel Tower.  The weather is cool, sunny, and downright perfect this week.  I strolled through Place de la Concorde, and along the way came upon a statue of Lafayette that was given to France in gratitude by The Daughters of the American Revolution.  This is one of those times when I'm sorry that I haven't pursued my membership in that society.  You see, my great great . . . . grandfather was a General in the Revolutionary War which has entitled me, my sisters, Raquel and so on to become members.  Anyway, it still made me proud.

As I was walking, the Eiffel Tower seemed so close, but I guess that's because it's so darned big.  Anyway, it was as impressive today as it was the other times I saw it.  The difference today, however, was that the weather couldn't have been more beautiful, and there were no crowds.  I spied these ducks in a nearby pond and couldn't help but think, "France is a bad place to be a duck".  I mean, really; duck is on every menu in town.  By the way, I love foie gras, but I'm not down with that whole force feeding of ducks and geese required to create those gigantic livers.  That's not a popular stand to take here in France, but after doing some research, it just seems kind of cruel.

I used my very elementary French three or four times to ask, "Where is the metro station?".  When I finally found it, I realized that there in lies the problem for me.  Navigating the metro is a no-brainer.  It's finding a station, any station, that's the issue.  Anyway, I obviously found it, and I'm back safe and sound.

I'm so looking forward to French class tomorrow.  As a matter of fact, since my culinary arts program is now being held during the evenings next week, I signed up for another week at Alliance Francaise.  The week promises to be grueling, but I might as well soak in every last bit of this experience.

Tomorrow evening I'm having dinner again with my friends Pierre and Veronique.  This time we're dining at an Asian-French fusion restaurant.  Sounds promising.  I'll let you know.