Right up my alley and I didn’t even know it

I got up, had a cup of coffee, went to the market picked up a few things, 

(look at those lovely potatoes)

(If Martine only had a microwave…)

(I had both kinds of this Fish at Lacy the other night)

(Those lovely mushrooms)

(They certainly don’t let anything go to waste.)

came back and had brunch. Then I headed towards my girlfriend, but apparently there was some sort of an uprising at the Bastille so I sat in traffic in a bus for quite a while ( never fear I had my knitting! That is an interesting thing. A little girl was fascinated by what I was doing and another lady wanted to know what I was making. It’s always a conversation starter.) and they made us all get off few stops down the line got on another bus and they made everybody get off of THAT bus a few stops later. I was sitting by an elderly lady who said it was probably the Arabs, who were causing the trouble. I wasn’t sure. I just knew I couldn’t get where I wanted to go.  But, I finally made my way to see my girlfriend  via the metro.

(Look at that girls butt, I don’t think it’s the one God gave her. It was even more alarming straight on. But I couldn’t get a good picture of her.)
It is all crapped up like I expected, but hoped for better. It is actually worse frapped up then I expected, very restricted which made the crowds thick.

Regardless, I found a nice quiet little spot to sit and paint while away my afternoon pleasantly. I did have a 12 ft wooden fence in front of me.  Wonder what they are going to do with that wood to repurpose it? 

Getting back was easy but the grave/manifestation was going doing place du la  Nation and the police were out in full force!

By the time I rested a bit and went back to the metro it had broken up though there were a couple of people wandering around trying to stir up trouble.  (I found out this morning it was over the rape trial going on here.)

The buses however were still not running so back to the Metro.  I was early for my dinner reservation (I had left

Early because of the transport issues) so went back to place Eatrapade to entertain myself with the EIP people. Yep I’ve given it an acronym! Emily in Paris = EIP

(this joker was trying to impress the woman on the bench behind him, I thought he was gonna fall in the fountain.)

(this girl must’ve made her mother, the woman in the green sari, take her picture at least 10 times, when they finally walked off, she was still apparently pouty about how her picture looked to her.)

When I got to the restaurant all the tables out front appeared to be full

(Thanks to EIP there’s lots of pedestrian traffic to watch when sitting out front of this restaurant now because it’s pretty close to the place/square.)

 

and the server had me sitting in the back corner of the restaurant, I think maybe so we could chat, but I really wanted to be outside because today was the last projected ( per the weather chanel) beautiful day before I leave. She found me a spot, moved some people around a little bit,  (I get tickled at how they can fit you into a place, where as an American, you think you could never get to, but they just pull out the table so you can get back in between the others and sit down. It was lovely I sat between two ladies with a sweet little poodle who minded her own business the entire meal (and incidentally, once upon a time had her own passport!)  on the ladies lap nonetheless! And there were two other couples on my right. My meal was delicious the pear gratin was everything I had remembered and it was lovely to have again.  

I’m going to have to try to make it when I get home if I can find a willing guinea pig. My main was a pork (it has the feel of a cutlet), it was very tender with a mustard sauce and vegetables. 

I could not eat it all after eating that whole pear. And I was not going to leave any of that. Pear!

Getting home was easy easy, the bus was running again!  There were tents out hawking things, pretzels, and Kougan Aman. One of which had to come home with me for breakfast.