Squeezebox

Met Judy and Bill at Cafe des Pharses. Had a quick cafe express and a tartine (baguette, butter and jam).

Onto to the Metro towards Montmartre. Walked with R, J + B to the Funiculaire. They rode it up while I walked up the steps. The city was completely socked in with fog...you couldn't see much of anything. Loads of tourists, loads of street artists harassing you to have your portrait drawn.

We went into Sacre Coeur and looked around. The interior of this church is much more beautiful than Notre Dame-- with a round of arches behind the pulpit that allow you, when you walk around the perimeter of the chapel to look up at the marvelous painted ceiling.

Back on the street we went to the square and had lunch at Au Cadet de Gascogne. R + I had salade de tertre-- hot goat cheese salad. My favorite! Judy had onion soup and Bill had brochette de bouef and frites.

Afterwards we wandered down the hill to Boulevard de Clichy-- past the thousand sex shops and onto the Metro at Place Pigalle where we went uptown with Judy to Rue Honore-- the high fashion street. This is the street with the Hermes shop, the Dior shop, the Galliano shop, and the Chanel shop, etc. Lots of euro-trashy ex-model-type women, lots of older wealthy women and a fair number of complete couture victims wearing a bit of this and a bit of they. They're the ones who look like clowns in their gold chain belts, pointy-toe snakeskin stiletto boots, fur coats, cropped camouflage pants and jaunty hats and sunglasses. We stopped in a little bistrot for a campari and soda before heading home. Also stopped at Monoprix to pick up some pate for later. There were a couple of men in the Monoprix demonstrating wine from their vinyard. It was a father and son. They had small plastic wine glasses for us to taste from. The wine was very good: Chateau la France Medoc, Cru Bourgeois, Mis en bouteille au Chateau. Promo $6.99!

Our friend Laura Dodge took the train up from Grenoble to spend a couple days with us. We met her at the hotel at 5:30 or so-- toasted with some red wine and headed over to Judy and Bill's. Laura stayed in a beautiful top floor room with a view out the back courtyard. Her bathroom had a little skylight.

Hors d'oeuvres at J+B's: pate, foie gras, blinis with caviar and creme fraiche and cheese. The wireless connection of Bill's neighbor hasn't been turned on for days, so he's again been sharing his connection. I tried to instant message Martin, but he was nowhere to be found. Our friend Dave was on line, luckily, and he was kind enough to message with me, and CALL Martin on his cell phone and serve as an intermediary for us. Thanks Dave! Turns out our phone in Seattle had been turned off early. Martin will be moving us to a new apartment on Saturday and Sunday-- and I'm just partying in Paris! Thanks Martin!

We had dinner at Bistrot des Vosges-- onion soup and vin rouge. We dropped Roberta off at the hotel and went out at about 11:30 to check out the Friday nightlife.

We walked around the Bastille area-- rue Amelot, rue Daval-- there were gangs of young Parisians milling around the streets. It felt a little bit like an amusement park-- with the only amusement being teenagers and brasseries. We ended up at L'Iguana. We found a table on the second floor and ordered a Red Lion (a red gin and juice drink for Laura) and a Manhattan (avec Maker's Mark, s'il vous plait)-- inexplicably garnished with a green maraschino cheery, a piece of strawberry and a single raspberry! Laura accidentally spilled her whole tall drink on the table and into my lap, which totally horrified her (No worries, Laura!). She ran downstairs to get the waiter-- while she was gone I managed to pull from my little brain the word for napkin-- and I asked a girl at the next table who gave me a very sympathetic look-- serviette, s'il vous plait? She gave me her napkin and I mopped myself up. The waiter even brought Laura a new drink. We laughed and finished our drinks and went back to the hotel. Final word on cocktails in Paris: expensive and weak. Better to go with vin rouge or apertifs.

Tomorrow we will wander around the Marais.