Day 7

Okay, it's raining outside, and I've got a bit of time before my pickle and jam session starts, so I'm going to attempt to start updating this thing. I realize it's a little strange to be writing about October 17 two weeks after the fact, but I think it's important to finish up with the first week in Paris before getting into what I've been doing since I left the city.

October 17
This was my last full day in Paris with Lindsay.
Our first adventure of the day took us back to Marais. We had gone into the neighborhood on Sunday to do some shopping, but seriously the whole area is madness on Sundays. The narrow streets are lined with people shoulder to shoulder. Picture Christmas shopping season at Chinook, except outside. Monday morning is a different story, and it's just a normal neighborhood again.
First thing we did was grab some croissants from the bakery just outside the metro. Not bad, not bad, though definitely not as good as our croissants from Pierre Herme. We ate them as we wandered into the side streets. See, the day before, we found a salon, and Lindsay wanted to get a blow-out... I wanted to get one too, but was more intent on eating the damn falafel already. Finding the salon for a second time was a bit tricky because our route on Sunday had been indirect, twisting and turning at the whims of the masses. Luckily, I've got a good memory for landmarks, and Lindsay is amazing at remembering what side of the street things are on, so together we managed to walk almost straight there (only one wrong turn).

Once she was sitting in her stylist's chair, I took off. I found L'As Du Falafel again, though I'm not sure if it was my sense of direction, luck, or the Hansel and Gretel trail of yellow napkin from the place that lead me there. I ordered the Speciale, which is just your standard falafel sandwich, full of hot fried spicy chick pea balls, tons of pickled cabbage, cucumber, and tomato, smothered in hot sauce and garlicky tzaziki. This thing was €5, and was well worth it, as I'm sure it would have fed both me an Lindsay. It required two hands most of the time, and a fork to eat. It was everything I hoped for in a falafel, though I hear they have a rival across the river and might endeavor to check it out when I return to the city. I wandered back to the salon, and waited for Lindsay's hair appointment to finish... who knew it takes longer to properly blow-dry hair than it takes to walk several blocks and eat a sandwich?
After this, we finished picking up a few souvenirs, hopped back on the metro, and headed over to the area near Les Halles for more shopping, and a late lunch at Au Pied De Cochon. This restaurant has some history behind it. It's open 24 hours, 7 days a week and serves classic Brasserie fare. The specialities are pretty pig-centric, but since I was still pretty full from my giant sandwich I stuck to a soup a l'oignon gratinee and a bone marrow. A word about the soup: I know it's probably terribly cliche to get French onion soup in France, but I just somehow feel like the French should be able to do it better than me... This one was pretty good, but still fell somewhat short of my overblown expectations, so it seems my search will continue. The bone marrow, on the other hand, was incredible. It was both sides of a 5" length of bone that had been split lengthwise and then baked with a sprinkling of salt and mustard seeds until the marrow did that thing it does (if you like marrow, you'll know what I'm talking about, if not, I'm not sure comparisons to anything will do it justice, so you should just try some marrow). This came with toasts to smear the marrow on, and was totally satisfying.We finished the meal with a tarte Tatin, the famous upside-down caramelized apple pie, and headed off into the belly of Forum Les Halles.
Okay, so this place used to be a crazy food market, with anything and everything you could possibly want to eat, cook, or cook with. Now it's kind of a mess of mainstream French and international chain stores, though there is a huge movie theater down there too... It's mostly underground, so it's easy to waste time and money down there, like a casino.
When we emerged, the sun was starting to drop in the sky. Our tickets to ascend the Eiffel tower were for 8pm sharp, so we hopped back on the metro and headed for Champs de Mars in hopes of catching the sunset... We missed the sunset, which must have happened mere minutes before we walked between rows of men trying to sell us shitty gold and silver plastic Eiffel tower replicas. Since we already had our tickets, we just went to the line for ticket holders and waited for our turn to go up. There's lots of things that I could say about how long we waited in line despite the fact that we had tickets, and comments I could make about the system of things once we started to ascend, but the view of the city at night kinda kills any complaints.

Okay, so that basically brings us to the end of my first week in Paris. Pictures to come, don't you worry. These things just take time, and even more time when I realize that all pictures from certain days are on my sisters camera.