Day in the neighborhood, the Left Bank, and the Marais
On Saturday Mike and I slept in again. He was tired from his week in Stockholm, and frankly I’d had enough touring to not be too worried about it. We got a late breakfast from the bakery downstairs and walked up to the Place du Tertre, the square famous for all the street artists, at the top of Montmartre near the Sacre Couer. I told Mike it was worth the walk, especially since it’s right in the neighborhood. He ended up buying a small painting for his mom and another one for his brother, and I discovered that there actually are some decent artists up there if you can stand the people long enough to look. We walked over to the church, where Mike bought a few more things for family and I bought a few candleholders for myself, and we walked back to the apartment just to drop off the stuff. We thought we might head into the city to see Notre Dame and walk around a little, but we ended up going to do one of my errands first. I really wanted to go to the olive oil store so I could have something to go with all these baguettes. After that we ended up café- and bar-hopping around the left bank; at the café we had one of the happiest and most chipper waiters I think I’ve ever seen. (He figured out Mike spoke Spanish, too, and said “hola” as he remembered us when we walked by later.) We decided we’d leave Notre Dame for tomorrow, and we hit the Moose for another round, since we wanted more of those spicy chicken wings. We walked down this one street in the Latin Quarter that’s lined with Greek restaurants – it’s so full of energy, it’s something to see – and later in the evening went to a few bars in the Marais. First we went to a café in a pretty tree-filled square, where Mike noticed that everyone, including the waitress who didn’t speak too much English, was very friendly and willing to try any English they had. Afterwards we went by Chez Richard, where Jimi had taken me a few weeks before, but when we saw that it was pretty dead, we went to another bar nearby. We treated ourselves to a cab home, and the cabbie took the longest route possible, I think. Naturally I fell asleep in the car.
Too many social plans to handle for one day
Today was a better work day than I’ve had in a while; over the past two days I just feel like I’ve been able to get more done. I learned something interesting about French employment law, too. In the US it’s very standard to have a noncompete agreement – a part of your contract that prevents you from quitting and taking your company intelligence to a competitor; it generally only applies if you quit, not if you get fired. Here apparently, noncompete agreements are common, but if the employer doesn’t release the noncompete clause of the contract, an employee can sue for a year’s salary, even if they don’t go to work for a competitor. So basically the employer knows they can get screwed, unless the employee specifically goes to work for a competitor. Very strange.
After work I met Majid at park near the office, and near where his parents live, before picking up Mike at the airport. Majid spends the weekends at his parents’ place, since it’s much nearer to Paris than his house. We went to the little park in Le Blanc Mesnil, which is funnily right next to his high school. We sat out on the grass by the little lake for a while, then when it started to get cool, we went to grab a quick bite to eat at a Greek restaurant. It was just a little take-out joint and there wasn’t any space there, anyway, so we drove back to the park and ate outside the park in an open city square. We walked back into the park but got kicked out when it closed at 9:15. (The guy walked right past us on his way to lock the gates and only unlocked them when we yelled at him – good grief – it’s not like he didn’t know we were in there.) Anyway, we walked back to my car and drove around corner to where he’d parked. Majid told me his university was having a gala this weekend and that he’d want me to go if my friend weren’t here. Damn! Why couldn’t that be another weekend?! When he went to say good-night, we did the kiss-kiss thing (very close to the front again.) He looked at me, and then kissed me again, this time more like adults than 8th graders. It was very sweet, and we spent a few good minutes in the car before I had to go. As he walked to his car, he patted his pockets like he was looking for his keys. As he walked back to my car, I rolled down my window, and he said “I forgot something.” Then he leaned in and kissed me again – extremely cute, I have to say. He wasn’t going in the same direction as me, but he led me to the highway I needed to take, anyway. At the red light just before the highway, he got out of his car, ran back to mine, told me which way to go, and kissed me again. Again, very cute.
I got to the airport just in time. Mike’s flight was early, and I met him in baggage claim not 5 minutes after I got there. Mike wanted pizza and an easy night, which was fine with me, so we decided not to go downtown. We just got take-out pizza from the joine (Pizza Factory) down the street. (Admittedly they remembered I’d just been there last night, but oh, well.) Later on we drank wine and watched Seinfeld. Naturally I fell asleep.
Day of French
Today was pretty uneventful, except for two things. #1 – I had a meeting that ended up lasting pretty much the entire day, and it was basically all in French. I told them it was ok to start out that way and I’d let them know when I got lost, but I hung in there pretty well and was able to contribute what I felt I needed to. So that’s a success, I think. #2 – on the way home traffic was stopped completely in my street. I thought maybe it was an accident or some other emergency, but nope, after I’d parked and walked up there, I just saw people standing in the street in front of a bus, arguing. No apparent vehicle damage or anything else to justify it. The police were just standing there letting it happen, so I still have no idea what that was all about. Other than that, I just came home and crashed.
More football watching with Jimi
Today I was much less tired at work – hooray – I couldn’t take another day like yesterday! After work I met Jimi to watch another football match, this one being the final of the European B-team clubs, the ones not good enough to make the Champions League. We met at the same English pub in the Marais, the Frog and Rosbif, where he was a lot quieter than the last time – apparently that’s a testament to this league’s reputation versus the better one. Three of his friends ended up turning up towards the end, which was slightly strange for me at first but ended up being fine. Two of them live together across the street, so that was pretty easy. They were friendly and luckily patient enough with my English (and good enough with it themselves.) I called it a night a little earlier than the last time I was at this pub, though – I think I headed home around midnight…
Mike goes to Stockholm, and a very late work dinner
This morning I took Mike to the airport on the way to work; he’s going to Stockholm for an internal NI conference for a few days. Good for him, though – as long as he’s over there, it’s good to see another country/city. I was super-tired at work; I think all my partying is catching up with me. At work I had a discussion with Frederick about the work environment, and that I needed his support to get more things done that are on my agenda. That was good, and certainly a discussion that needed to happen. After work I was supposed to have dinner at the home of the newly-appointed marketing manager, but by 6:25 when I hadn’t heard from him, I left the office. I was secretly hoping he’d forgotten, since I was exhausted, and since we made the plans so long ago, I thought it was a possibility. But nope, at 6:35 my phone rang. Bummer. I was already on the A1 heading home into Paris, so I entered his address into the car’s GPS to try to find a route there. Apparently the BMW likes to take the super-trafficked scenic route, since I didn’t pull up to Marc’s house until 8:00. Granted, it’s outside the city, but they were still shocked at how long it took to get there. He and his wife are lovely, as are their two little kids, but with two kids to put to bed and after several courses of food, I didn’t leave until just after midnight. I was certainly hoping for an earlier night, but the dinner and the company were both great, and they were super-generous, so what more can you ask for…
Louvre, and more eating and drinking
Today’s a holiday in France, to celebrate May 8, 1945, the end of World War II. We decided that today was the day to hit the Louvre. I’d suggested that Mike do it last Thursday while I was at work, but I think he wanted to see it together. We were a little museum’d out from Madrid, but if something’s open in Paris that you really want to see, you do it then – you don’t want to risk getting caught out by a strike. On the way there, we got pizza and sat next to a nice 60-ish couple from Toronto. We got to the Louvre about 2:45, and we were there until they kicked us out almost exactly 3 hours later. It ended up being about perfect, though, because we got to see pretty much everything we wanted – lots of old Greek, Roman, and Egyptian stuff; Michelangelo sculptures; huge jewels of French royalty; and of course the Mona Lisa. After that we went to the Charlie Birdy off the C-E for drinks – one of my favorite bars in town. We got flowers at the wonderful flower shop near the Parc Monceau on the way home to take to my hosts for my work dinner tomorrow night and went back to La Rughetta (after a quick flower drop-off at the house.) La Rughetta was great but was a little bit tainted by a serious father-daughter interrogation going on next to us. From what we gathered, the girl was an architecture student doing her 5th or 6th year in Paris, and the parents were visiting and giving her a serious questioning about her project, why she chose that subject, why can’t she do something else, etc. Less than fun to listen to, I can tell you that, and I’m sure brutal for the daughter. When we got home, we put in a movie (“Hitch”,) while Mike packed for Sweden and I fell asleep…
Last day in Madrid
Today again we woke up late. We checked out and went towards Retiro Park. Mike wasn’t as keen to check out the park, but I thought it was a must-do – and besides, what else are you going to do on a Sunday morning? On the way there we stopped off in church that Mike wanted to see – Mass was going on, and we stayed to listen for a little bit. After just a bit, we walked through the park, where we found lots of street performers and families out. It was really nice, and Mike admitted later that it was his favorite part of Madrid. Afterwards we got quick tapas outside the park, then walked back to hotel, grabbed our bags, and took the metro to the airport. One very turbulent and scary ride later – we had a couple of drops that made half the plane scream – we landed at Orly. Since it’s NBA playoff season and Mike’s a huge Spurs fan, we went searching for the Spurs game on this afternoon, straight from the airport, without wasting time to drop the stuff off at the apartment across town. We couldn’t find an American bar, so we tried Canadian ones. After trying one that was closed, we ended up at the Moose in the 6th. Very cool people in there; all the waitstaff are native English speakers (seem to be UK or Canada.) They were nice and tried to find the game for Mike, so we stayed for several rounds – plus their chicken wings were satiating my craving for spicy food, which is pretty hard to take care of anywhere in this city (even at Indian food.) After that we went back towards the apartment, lugging all our stuff, and just crashed when we got there. Very long day!
