Weekend Update... Encore

This, my last, weekend, was good.

Aren't my sentences getting creative? I feel like my French improved but my English sunk into the gutter. I find myself spelling things wrong and mispronouncing long words. It's probably lack of sleep, though. It's not like I'm doing an immersion semester in French, after all.

Back to my weekend? Mom and my uncle came in to see an opera singer (uncle) and me (Mom). On Friday I had lunch with Mom at an amazing crêpe place on Washington, and then we had dinner on the Ile Saint-Louis, near her hotel. Saturday, I got up at my normal, during-the-week, pre-sun hour. We walked all around the city, crossing from one side of the river to the other on foot. We started at the lackluster Christmas market in St-Germain, made our way around the square and to Zara, and then walked to the Marais to see the Musée Carnavalet. My uncle stayed for another hour and a half to watch a Baroque violin duo play upstairs in the museum, and Mom and I... went shopping.

Saturday night was dinner with Madame, her Gentleman Friend, Mom, and the uncle. We went to Il Vino in the 8th... Basically, it was the best and most expensive dinner of my life. The concept of the restaurant is to choose the wine and they bring you a dish. Or, you can do as everyone but Madame and I did, and order a "blind tasting" menu with five courses and five wines. Both the Gentleman friend and the uncle struck out guessing all 5 wines, but that didn't stop them from ordering a few more glasses of their favorite wines and polishing off a bottle of champaign. (I helped)

I went out to our bar in the 11th after with some friends, but I felt a little sick until that went away and I just felt tired. I practically fell asleep on the bar while the beautiful British guy was playing guitar and singing away in the background. I vetoed going out after the bar closed, and got some sleep.

Then this morning, I woke up early again to see Mom off, and then headed straight out. I had been meaning to see the bird market near Notre Dame, and I got some cool pictures. The birds were so cold and I felt terrible for them-- they had tons of visitors cooing at them the whole morning, though, and they huddled together and I think that helped them stay warm.

I also ducked into Sainte-Chapelle and then got a terrific lunch at a bistro after a 20 minute search for a newspaper (I was fine with one in either French or English, but there was nothing in sight).... Luckily, most of the other stores were open today, a Sunday, which is unusual in France. Apparently, the big stores and chains stay open during the two or three Sundays leading up to Christmas. Which means I got nearly all of my shopping done, AND got to wander around Le Bon Marché for a good hour or so. I've said it before, I say it now, I'll say it again... I fricking love that place.

Tomorrow is the first day of my last week here in Paris. I'm planning on squeezing in a few things during lunch-- taking a picture from the clock in the Musée d'Orsay, for example, or going to La Défense. Wednesday is the company Christmas lunch at an Asian place that was described to me as "branché", or "trendy"... sounds good to me.

And now please excuse me-- I need to go to bed.