cannes you dig it? oh, and our paris all-nighter, and filthy french men

sorry for 4-day lapse between postings...i've been londoning and birthday-ing around these past few days; i shall write about it once i've finished on euroland, and who knows when THAT will be.

when i last left you, i'd been talking about our lovely days spent in nice and monaco. on the last day in southern france, helen and i decided to ditch nice and catch the train to cannes, just for a change of pace. it was on the way back to paris, anyways (we were catching a night train back to pah-ree, for the next morning we'd be going to rennes and mont st. michel).

after having one last bowl of nutella cereal, helen and i got to the train station. while waiting for the train, i was bored, and took the following picturre:

for some reason, i think train stations are cool-looking. so there you go.

after a pretty train ride, we made it into cannes in the early afternoon. it was sunny and warm outside, so we happily explored the town. a lot of it was designer shops and beachside restaurants, but we also saw the theater where they screen films for the festival:

supreme french cheeze.

like some sort of crazed addict, helen couldn't get enough sun. after walking quite a ways down the beach boardwalk, and seeing many topless ladies, helen decided to join them--fully clothed. meanwhile, i needed to find shade, so i plopped down on a bench and read for a while. after lunching at a nearby restaurant (which was hilarious, becuase i ordered a sandwich, and they gave it to me in a paper bag on a plate), we resumed our lounging.

finally in the REAL riviera! but i do miss the hollywood riviera i call home

hm, no nudity in this one. sorry!

cannes street

once separated, things began to get a bit sketchlicious for me. i was reading in a little park, close to the beach, when a 30-something man approached me. he didn't really speak english, just gestured towards my book as if to ask what i was reading. he seemed nice, and i was in a public place, so i figured nothing could really come of it. i showed him the title, we attempted to communicate, and largely failed. he smiled and walked away, and i pretended to read further, but couldn't help but feel like something else was going to happen.

sure enough, ten minutes later he returned with a friend. the friend had some of the worst teeth i'd ever seen, which i (rather unfairly) ALWAYS take as a sign of a villain.

with my hand firmly on my purse, i cautiously chatted with them for a few minutes--kind of. their english wasn't amazing, and i don't speak a lick of french. for a bizarre reason, i felt like i couldn't tell them my real name, so i said my name was "claire"--as if that would help if they decided to drag me off!

the first guy left, leaving mr. teeth behind with me. he sat next to me, and introduced himself as dimitri...but he kept insisting, "NO RUSSIAN!" he was from cannes, and we talked about his family, politics ("BUSH BAD! OBAMA GOOD!"), where we'd been traveling, etc. he was actually really nice, and we ended up chatting for about 40 minutes. he kept inviting me to drinks, and saying i was "tres beautiful," (LOL, skeaze) but there was no way in hades i was leaving that bench.

after awhile, the first guy came back, with another guy, as well. with the three of them in front of me, i began to feel a little panicky, but didn't know what i could do. i was already somewhere public, there were people around, and it was broad daylight. i figured the best thing to do would be to stay put. after conspiring together in french, they attempted to ask me something, but didn't know how to say it. i have the feeling it was something wildly inappropriate, because they kept giggling and looking guilty. then, when the two left, dimitri insisted that he didn't even know them, and that they weren't friends. so i have a feeling they were being lechers!

i knew helen would be coming back soon, and i couldn't wait to see her face when she saw me talking with a random older man. sure enough, as she approached, her face was frozen with shock and terror. she shook hands with dimitri, as did i, then we got the heck outta dodge. on the way to the train station, we both kept cracking up at what had happened...but there was more waiting for us in paris.

lucky us, we had first-class train tickets, so we enjoyed our luxury carriage during the 5 hour train ride. we got into paris at 11:30pm, and had 7.5 hours to kill before getting on our 7am train. we hadn't booked a hostel, so with bags in tow, we hit the town. in the metro station, a homeless man decided to sit on the bench next to us, repeatedly ask for money despite our uncomfortable "no's," and smoke a really stinky homemade cigarette. we were ready for some wine at that point.

we had done some research, and knew of a restaurant open 24-hours. hilariously, it was l'atelier, the place we had eaten at a few days before! not shunted into the back this time, we plopped down at an outside table and rubbed shoulders with hip parisians. we got a bottle of house rose, and nursed it for the next four hours. we just chatted and people-watched, but towards the end were both drifting into zombie-like states of conciousness.

we finally decided to try to get to the train station and sleep, so we packed up and walked down rue de la montparnasse. on the way, another homeless man called out to us, and began to follow us down the street. we both started panicking, and practically ran away, eventually losing him. being girls, at 4am, we were steely-faced and ready to fight whoever threatened us, haha.

we made it to the just-opened train station at 4:30, and were disappoitned to find that the benches had immovable arm rests separating the seats, probably in an effort to discourage tramps like helen and me from sleeping there. as we walked into the station, we were met with a pretty dismal scene--tired vagrants littered the benches, curled up into their seats. helen and i found a bench a bit apart from the rest, and i intwined myself in my backpack and purse while helen braved the disgusting floor.

for the next hour, drifting in and out of our panicky dozings, helen and i watched through half-closed eyes as people walked past us, staring. there was a guy behind us who wouldn't break his gaze. another guy came and sat right next to us, despite the vast amount of empty seats elsewhere. he then left, and an hour later came back, to the same spot. things were getting weird, and once helen and i "woke up," it worsened. a haggard man came up to helen, leaned into her face, and leeringly asked, "francais?" and then, "anglais?" helen practically screamed, "NO!" then as he stalked off, she dissolved into shrill, hysterical laughter. i was suppressing my laughter, because i didn't want any more attention drawn to us. we were sticking out like really tired, scared sore thumbs.

bursting with wine and water, eventually helen had to go to the bathroom. she left me with our things, and hurried off to find it. as soon as she left, a scary man (who might have only had one arm, i couldn't tell) approached, and tried to speak to me in french. i shook my head, making him mime long hair on himself and repeat "cheveux, cheveux, cheveux," which i assumed to mean "hair." i started feeling really uncontrollably angry at that point, at all the men who wouldn't leave us the hell alone, so i uttered a snarling, "NO" and glared at him until he walked away.

of course, when he left, the guy who insisted on sitting next to us came back. he tried to speak to me in french, as well, and i just shook my head at him and turned away. it was just completely ridiculous. finally, helen came back, and when i told her about what had happened, i confessed, "i was so upset i almost cried!"

at that point, we were both in a pretty healthy state of delirium, so we started to laugh at how pathetic i was, and laughed and laughed, loudly and hysterically, causing everyone to look at us. we tried and tried to stop, but couldn't--we'd catch our breath, and calm down for a second, then one of us would start again, and it would begin all over again. my stomach was all bunched up, and i was half-crying, but the laughing didn't cease for ten long minutes.

finally, calmed down, helen was hungry. she pulled out a baguette (remember, i told you not to forget about them!) that she had bought the day we went to nice. with a half-crazed look on her face, she pulled out the rock of bread, and spluttered out, "I'VE BEEN SAVING THIS BREAD FOR THREE DAYS!" which of course made us launch into more insane peals of laughter. i had to bury my face in my hands, and cried/laughed into them as quietly as i could.

much to our relief (and probably those around us), finally our train came into the station. we gleefully picked up our bags, said adieu to all of the mofos who had been hassling us, and boarded. at last, i felt like i could relax. i leaned my head against the window, and thanked my lucky stars that we'd made it through the night.

...with all the sketchiness (hopefully?) behind us, we made our way to rennes, which i'll tell you about in the next post. for now, i'm all storied-out, and need to do some birthday celebrating! thanks for reading our harrowing tales (parents, i hope you didn't pee yourselves too much). i'm off, but shall return faster than you can say "cheveux."

exactly 21 years old,
lilly

niceties, monaco, and nutella cereal

i'm back! the monopoly pub crawl will be documented later...for now, it's back to the continent!

when i last left you, we were about to leave for nice, a popular tourist spot in southern france--very close to italy. we got up early on the 28th, grabbed some baguettes (remember the baguettes, they come up again later), and arrived in nice in the early afternoon. the last hour or so of the train ride was completely gorgeous, gliding along the crystal coast and through (what i thought were) mustard fields. france is full of these long patches of stunningly yellow flowers. i assumed it was mustard, because of "french's" back home, but helen contended that they were wildflowers. after days of debate, we finally looked it up...and we were both wrong! they're canola plants, for canola oil. who'da thunk it?

getting into the train station, we had to find the "tram" that would take us near our hostel. for some reason, i imagined that it would be like the open-car-trams in disneyland parking lots (i dunno why i kept associating european transportation with disneyland, but there you go), but instead we were met wtih a futuristic-looking, silver bullet of a tram on tracks that ran throughout the city. we made it to our hostel, the "world-famous," award-winning villa saint-exupery. it was indeed a great hostel, but we couldn't muck about for too long. we dropped our bags and went out to explore!

on our hour-walk down to town/the beach (everything is on a downward slope in nice), we passed tons of people, all speaking french or italian. didn't seem like there were too many english speakers around, but that made it all the more authentic.

nice itself was very beautiful, with some funkadelic stuff mixed in with good old euro vibes (lots of outdoor eating, bakeries, outdoor markets, etc). we made it into "downtown" nice, which was a short walk from the beach, and soaked up the sun and the sights.

statues on poles

nice street

big plaza; fountain

the azure coast! the water was pristine

because the water was so incredibly blue, it looked awfully inviting. we noticed that no one was swimming, though oodles of people were sunning themselves on the rock beach (nice is way too cool for sand). helen couldn't resist sticking in her pigs, though...so we watched and laughed as she screamed in pain upon touching the apparently ice-cold water. silly girl!

anywho, after stepping painfully on some rocks, we decided to walk along the boardwalk and into the little squares that dotted nice. the other girls got gelato, which was everywhere (undoubtedly due to the proximity to italy), and we sat on the steps of a governmenty-looking-building to bask in the sun and people-watch.

there were some boys having a kickabout, and were joined by a kind of homeless-looking man. they were kicking the ball way too hard and fast, and it kept flying into the people eating in the restaurant next to them. after being yelled at multiple times, they continued a little farther down, until the ball flew at full speed into some girl's head, making her cry. good work, frenchies!

after getting up and walking a bit more, we were quite ready for dinner, so we found a place on the boardwalk that served "nice" specialties. helen and i shared a tasting plate of ratatouille, beignets, stuffed peppers, and other tasty, unidentifiable bites. full of french noms, we headed to "wayne's," a bar that many english-speakers go to, to have some happy hour cocktails. i tried a long island iced tea for the first time, despite all the warnings my mother has given me about them...and it didn't do a thing! i think they made them pretty weaksauce, though.

a football match was on (chelsea v. barcelona), and the bar was getting really crowded, so our waiter basically hustled us our of our table. "luke," his alleged name, sparked much debate among us girls--did he look more like johnny depp, or orlando bloom? we argued at length, then finally agreed that he was some sort of hot mutant hybrid of the two.

anyways, all that ogling got us plum tuckered out. we trammed back to our hostel, and as i was checking my email, i got a hot tip from the girl next to me. very friendly and chatty, she glibly informed me that the breakfast cereal smorgasbord included...NUTELLA CEREAL. i practically squealed when she told me, and dreamt all that night of the promise of my favorite spread, wonderfully stuffed inside chocolate squares.

and the next day, villa saint-exupery DELIVERED! the nutella cereal was so rich, and so good. i felt a bit sick after eating it, but it didn't matter. it was fuel for the day!

and what a day we had ahead of us. we wanted to check out monaco, so we caught a crowded bus from nice to get there. we made a pitstop at a beautiful hilltop community, called "eze," which has incredible views of the coast. the hills are lined with pretty boutiques and restaurants, so we did some shopping (window, for me), and checked out the lovely views.

i was just trying to air out my pits. jokes!

france has supermarkets called "casino," and the little ones are "petit casino," which is the name of a great french bakery by my house. now we know where they ripped off that name!

after seeing all of eze, we caught another bus going onward to monaco. although the weather was beautiful, and the "country" was clean, i didn't especially like it, to be honest. everyone there was clearly disgustingly rich, and there didn't seem to be a lot of fun things to do if you didn't have gobs of moolah. it was good to check it out, though. here are some pics...

monte carlo, the famous casino. it cost 10 euro to get past the lobby, so we just looked around in there, used their bathroom (haha, suckers), and peaced out.

yachts

the pauper of monaco

mercedes, lamborghinis, and porsches were everywhere. gross

they were setting up for the grand prix (aka the love of christopher's life), so i had to take a picture

having had enough of monaco, we jumped back on a bus, and scouted for "plage mala," a reportedly half-hidden gem of a beach. we finally found it, and spent an hour lazing about among the multiple topless old ladies. i wanted to get out of the sun, so i searched for shade like an animal, and was glad to rest my feet while the others tanned.

a lot of southern france and monaco reminded me of home. at plage mala, there were houses built right into the cliffs, and it instantly reminded me of palos verdes. the weather was similar, too, and the beachy vibes made me a little homesick.

the cliff-bound homes

after awhile, we decided it would be prudent to catch the bus back to nice for the night, so we hiked back up to the main road and waited for the bus....for forty minutes. oh, europe!

it was standing room only in the packed bus, and clouds of hot B.O. hung heavy in the air during the forty minute ride. sweating and dirty, we girls could only laugh and chalk it up to being an authentic traveling experience.

once back in nice, we wanted to climb a giant cliff path that seemed to lead to a look-out park. we did so, making that our umpteenth trek up ridiculous amounts of stairs. it was good for my nutella-cereal-fueled legs, though!

view from the top

that night, we were all exhausted from the day's activiites, so we decided to chill in the hopping lounge of the villa. we suspiciously bought some of their "world-famous brownies," anticipating some sort of "special" ingredients in them, if you know what i mean. the night before, fragrant wafts of mary jane could be whiffed all over the hostel. to our small surprsie, the brownies weren't tainted, just really gigantic and delicious. we coupled them with the bottle of white wine helen had bought back in paris (haha, i can hear my dad vomiting from here), and had a really good last night with lauren and jen, who would be leaving the next day.

and so ends the tale of nice and monaco. as one last hurrah, i'll tell you a story about the winning young men you can find in southern france.

our group could deal with the unwavering stares, yelling, and whistling, but when guys approached we all tensed up. one special incident was on the tram, when a young french man leaned into jen's face and said "tres tres tres tres tres tres tres charmand" in a slimy whisper, then jumped off laughing with his friend. i tried to conceal my jealousy. hahahaha

anyways, prepare yourself for more creepster stories, because they'll be abounding in the next post. for now, i'm off to see some more of london!

with a kiss and a creepy stare,
lilly

hold onto your hats!

rabid readers (aka...mom),

i wont be posting more on europe for a few days, because i spent the today finishing up a long essay--free at last!!--and tomorrow we're doing the "monopoly pub crawl," which will deserve a post of its own. the pub crawl will last all day, and i'm sure i won't be in any condition to blog when i'm back.

until later this week then,
lillylass!

my little cwahsont (paris, part deux)

as a side note, my body for some reason has been telling me that sleep is unncessary, so the past two nights i've had a combined total of 10 hours of sleep...yet i feel great! i don't know what i'm flying high on, but let's hope it lasts! i woke up a few minutes ago, and felt OCD-ily compelled to update again. so allow to continue recanting our days in paris--

we slept like babies after all the sight-seeing previously described, and the next day awoke with renewed tourist vigor. we began the day by stopping in a little bakery for breakfast munchins. paris is stuffed with boulangeries, and the tantalizing smell of warm baguettes and pain au chocolate floats freely down the streets in the morning. i'd already sampled some of the baguette fare, though, so i opted for the quintessential french breakfast food: a croissant. it was crispy, impossibly flakey (i made a mess of myself and the floor, like a child), buttery and warm. long story short, it was really good. however, at the same time, i wouldn't say it was exponentially better than croissants in the US. dare i say that i've had croissants on par back in the states?

i also tried a small coffee (emphasis on small: it wasn't an espresso, but the french like their coffee petite and fierce. i prefer mine large and fierce, but there you go). after snarfing, we skipped over to the louvre, to spend a few hours there running around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to squeeze in all the must-sees. i felt like a bit of a tool for hitting up all of the very famous pieces, but the place is so incredibly gigantic that i had no other means of navigating my journey. i did see some other cool stuff on the way, though!

first, we followed the sizable crowd to the mona lisa. the amount of people was ridiculous, so it wasn't the best way to enjoy and appreciate a painting. i snapped a photo, and after a few minutes of being elbowed by a very aggressive old chinese lady, moved. but here she is, the mona lisa:

look at her, smirkin. she thinks she's soooo great

after mona, our group dispersed and everyone did their own thing. after getting really lost (which happened repeatedly in the museum, btw), i managed to find the venus de milo

and, after her, continued my journey...

the turkish bath! there were lots of artists in the louvre doing mimic paintings, which was cool to see

napoleon's apartment! guy was livin large, louvre style

"cupid and psyche,"probably my favorite "famous" thing. the picture doesn't really convey how beautiful the sculpture really was. i loved cupid's wings

after our drive-thru version of the museum, we were utterly famished. but first, i had to do a little errand for my parents. their friend wanted some really special choc from this place called "debauve et gallais," which happened to be close to the louvre. we found it, and the place was gorgeous and delicious-looking. really high-quality stuff. but the lady working there was a bit austere (unhappy in a chocolate shop?! witch!), and the shop was eerily silent. so i awkwardly bought the goods and we split!

then, we met up with lauren's friend david again, who took us to "marais," the jewish/gay part of town, for amazing falafel. the restaurant was endorsed by lenny kravitz, randomly, so you know it's good. afterwards, we stopped for "macarons," which are NOT macaroons (gross), but rather these sort of half-cookie, half-cake dealies that are a delicacy. i got a chocolate one, and it was pretty good, but not my favorite. i'd rather have a crepe!

macarons

after stuffing ourselves silly with the out of control falafel, we walked to the french pantheon, the side of many famous frenchie graves. the place was impressive and gigantic, as shown below

inside, there was this pendulum designed to show the earth's rotation and orbit. if i was a science nerd, i'd probably appreciate it more.

i headed down to the crypts, and got to see the graves of voltaire, rousseau, hugo, braille, and curie! then, our group rejoined and we hiked to the top of the pantheon. first we got some inside views, then yet another panoramic view of paris. we began to joke that our trip should be dubbed "the epic stair climb," we'd climbed so many things by that point. and there was more up ahead, in nice! but anyways, more pictures...

a very unattractive photo of me. you're welcome?

can you spot the notre dame?

once up there, it started to rain, which perfectly foiled our plans to hang out in the tuilleries gardens. instead, shaking in the cold, we headed home to rest, becuase it had been such a go-go-go 48 hours. then, a few hours later, we went to dinner at a place called "le marathon," where you could get three courses for 10 euro! i dont think the waiters liked us much, becuase they kept making fun of us with sour faces, but the food was good. i had an utterly yummy french onion soup, roast chicken, and chocolate mousse.

but of course, being americans, a three course dinner wasn't enough. afterwards, we got crepes! i tried a simple butter-and-sugar one, and it was really nice, but not quite up to nutella standards. unfortunatley, as we were buying them, it began to pour. naturally, we had no umbrella, so we ran the 10 minutes back to our hotel, getting wonderfully soaked. we burst into the hotel lobby, clutching our soggy crepes and looking like a pack of wild, wet dogs. i couldn't imagine a better ending to the day.

the next day we were training it to nice, early in the morning, so we had to get some good shut-eye. and thus ends paris, for now! she'd be making reappearances later in our journeys, so it's not time for "adieu" just yet. but, i do have to write my essay, so until next time--

wistfully (wheres my cwahsont now??),
lilly

frogland, part one!

well, hello, stranger..it's been awhile since we've met--thanks to my adventures on the continent. (un)luckily for you, i meticulously jotted down what we did and saw for every one of the 13 days we traveled. so, the next few blobs are going to be pretty epic. i'm trying to do the abridged version, bear with me! haha, i'm listening to edith piaf as i write. how appropriate.

the whole shebang began on april 25th, two saturdays ago. i took the eurostar train from london to paris, and had been expecting some sort of wild, disneyland-like roller coaster ride as we went through the chunnel. in actuality, i dozed on the train, and i think accidentally skipped the chunnel part. i thought the train would tilt downwards, but it didn't! conclusion: operated by a magician.

i was anxious about leaving my beloved england, but was oddly comforted by seeing cars on the right side of the road once in france. i guess i like familiarity.

paris, though...that was anything but familiar. i took the metro into the heart of town, and upon emerging from the underground was immediately awed by how beautiful the city is. i had heard good and bad reviews of paris, so i really didn't know what to expect--it's gorgeous.

and horribly confusing. i had a map, but was lost for an hour before i found our "hotel," which was only about a quarter mile from the metro stop. i didn't mind too much, though, because my desperate wanderings were very scenic. no matter that a volatile homeless man screamed at me on my way! our hotel was in a great spot, right next to the notre dame and the latin quarter.

the other girls (helen, lauren, and jennifer) showed up a little while later, and we immediately plunged into the city. we met up with lauren's friend david, who studies in paris and speaks french fluently (jackpot), walked around the notre dame, then explored the latin quarter, which is basically a bunch of little streets crowded with noisy, fun restaurants and shops. i got a yummy panini, some other girls got crepes, and we decided to see the eiffel tower.

the walk there was long, but so worth it. blurry pictures to prove it:

of course, we loved the sparkly light show!

finally, after a long walk along the seine, and a wine break at a little restaurant, we metro-ed it home. david convinced us to skip tickets and sneak in through a barrier thing, and naturally i was completely freaked out and thought we would be arrested. the popo must've been out having le cigarette break.

the next day was stuffed with sights! we began with the notre dame, and i was eager to see the famed "rose window." i remember dreaming about seeing it in 7th grade, when i first learned about it. yay, fulfillment!

quasi, where are you?!

the window!

charlemagne was chillin out in front.

yet another view

after a quick prayer, and the sore let down of not seeing quasi, we tramped towards the louvre, crossing the seine along the way

and made it to the museum! we'd go in the next day. i must ashamedly admit, i was excited about the glass pyramid due to the da vinci code. don't judge me!

we'd heard that the arc de triomphe was nearby, and were fooled by this imposter arc! pfff, what a wannabe.

THE FRAUD ARC.

on our way to the real deal, we walked down the champs-elysees (please excuse my lack of accents, i can't be bothered to put them in. and i'm sure my british cronies enjoy my bastardization of the french language, anyways). champie was lined with expensive designer stores, and we had to peek inside the louis vuitton HQ. it was a beautiful store, but i felt a little sick when i saw a trunk for 25,000 euro. we flounced out of there...it was too lowbrow for us.

posing outside of the lv window

then, at last, we saw the real arc! it was in the middle of an extensive, crowded roundabout, so we couldn't figure out how to get to it. at least, we discovered there's an underground tunnel. so we went!

grave of an unknown soldier at the arc

then and only then, it was tower time. being cheapies, we opted to climb to the top, rather than take the elevator...a decision i later regretted. all leg cramps aside, though, the climb was very cool, with fabulous views of pah-ree. and the view from the top...well, see for yourself!

her guts.

i actually took about 15 pictures from the top, but view pictures can get boring. moving on!

in the afternoon, we metroed to montmartre--i was very excited to go, since that's where they filmed amelie! we were heading for sacre coeur (sacred heart), a church that's perched at the top of a hill that overlooks paris. but right as we exited the metro, we saw the moulin rouge! easy sightseeing.

i cannot do the can-can

on the way to sacre coeur, we stopped for crepes. i got nutella and banana, and practically cried, it was so good

the cats by the carousel near sacre coeur...paris actually has a ton of carousels!

S.C.

again

and her view

we wandered through the church, but couldn't take photos...it was very pretty on the inside, though. i said a little prayer, then went outside to chill on the church steps and watch the various street performers (the area is chock full). there were some capoeira guys about to begin a show, but were interrupted.

this very gorked fellow came up, and began to do what looked like very sloppy, only-had-one-lesson capoeria, and then did some moves on the pavement that resulted in a bloodied face. he didn't seem to care, he kept on trying to rustle with the original cappers! blood running down his face, he refused to leave! finally, one of the legitters opened up the crazy guy's backpack, revealing lots of alochol. everyone laughed, but then another random guy from the crowd approached and began screaming in french. i have no idea what was going on, but here's a picture:

the confrontation.

after witnessing the weird spectacle, we explored the crowded streets of montmartre

then headed to rue de la montparnasse, where my aunt had recommended a restaurant. well...it was a bit over our budget, so we peeped inside like beggars and then crossed the street to eat at a cheaper place, called l'atelier.

haha, that's for you, fran! we saw it!

l'atelier was cool, there were a ton of parisians eating outside and people-watching. that's the thing about paris...everyone is checking each other out. it's kind of funny. all the chairs face the sidewalk, so couple sit side-by-side rather than across from each other.

but, the waitress at l'atelier informed us that she had a special "american table" for us, conveniently located in the back of the restaurant, away from everything. that's french hospitality for you. but i must admit, my food was delicious...i had a warm goat's cheese salad, and some of the tasty house wine. by the time we finished, we were very, very done for the day. so, filled with french food and wine, we happily went back to our strange little hotel to sleep.

and thus ends part one of what could be a 20-part series. stay tuned for the next instalment!

au revoir,
lily (french spelling)