Paris Day 2

Our second day in Paris, Max had to work....BOOOO. But, I really shouldn't complain because we wouldn't have been visiting Paris if it wasn't for his job.

Lucky for me, a dear friend of mine just HAPPENED to be living in Paris (for the past 6 months), and opened up her schedule so we could hang out all day long. We devised a time and place to meet, and then it was up to me to navigate on the Metro and through Paris to find her. Ok, so it wasn't really ALL me....you may recall me mentioning in my earlier post that we did a test run of the directions on Sunday while we tooled around the city. So, I felt pretty confident going into it.

Two differences between travelling around Paris on a Sunday, vs. travelling around Paris on a Monday.

1. Rush hour
2. Masses of people going to work

Seriously, the 'click click click' of people's shoes in the halls, the beautifully choreographed dance that everyone did as the masses poured through each metro station. It truly felt surreal. Until I realized that I didn't know the steps to the dance, and I'd better MOVE before I got trampled!!!

No, it wasn't really that bad, but it really did strike me as this huge automaton of people. Kinda neat.

So, I navigated the metro, found my trusty landmark,



consulted my 'dork book' (the lovely nickname my guide book aquired over the trip) to navigate to the cafe where we were meeting...

...and made it there! In one piece!!! With time to spare! So, I walked around leisurely and scoped out this awesome museum right across from the cafe we were meeting at, the Centre Georges Pompidou. It is an 'Art Noveau' museum -- meaning it displays modern art. It could be described as an Inside Out building. All the pipes are on the outside of the building. Kinda neat!



Carina showed up at our designated time, and after startling the waiter with our squeals and hugs, we sat down to enjoy a Cafe au Lait. The cafe had a pretty cool bathroom, in a cave! I had to sneak this picture in quickly before the person in the stall came out...



Carina and I then walked around for the majority of the day, checking out little boutiques, catching up on the two years that we hadn't seen each other, walking up the Champs de'Elyses and seeing this FIRE at the George V restaurant!



Max and I walked by the restaurant again later in the week, and only the outdoor seating was available -- there was major cleanup going on inside. We never figured out what happened.

We finished up the day with another wonderful cup of Cafe au Lait and said our goodbyes....(until Day 4, because one day is never enough!)


Carina


Me (a bad picture, but the only one)


MMMMMMmmmmmm (see the dork book in the background??)

That evening, we were treated to a wonderful meal by Max's workgroup and a quaint French restaurant about 2 miles from our hotel. Unfortunately, it was POURING rain when we left, and most of us didn't have rain coats or umbrellas. We were soaked, to say the least. Very VERY wet. So, no pictures of that wonderfulness were taken.

The meal was delicious, however. I had a goat cheese appetizer, duck with cherry sauce, and some almond flavored dessert that I thought was going to be some type of pastry. When the waiter came to the table with a large white poof the size of a cantaloupe, I insisted that it wasn't my dessert. Turns out it was. NICE. Not embarrassing at all.

It was delicious though. Meringuey like with caramel drizzle. Uber rich. I couldn't even eat half. But, a cantaloupe is pretty big.

I didn't live the dessert debacle down for a few days, at least....