Gay Paree 2024 day 7

last full day. Lots of snails i'm tellin ya. Nicole stays in the house now and was there working from home everyday because the Olympics asked people to work from home. She's originally the friend of Martine and ? across the street. So Nicole had a housemate all summer and unfortunately it was bob.

cute lil round about near the house

our boulangerie was closed the whole time for summer vacay. look at those prices. a normal baguette has only gone up 5 cents in 11 yrs and it seems like that's true with most things at the baker

ryan and i were battling with getting our deadlines done every morning. The one time i have an editorial assignment due in the last 4 yrs had to be when i was in paris.

Le Bonaparte. Look at those guys. Would you.

le bonaparte is expensive but the views and ambience are nice

that olympic balloon in the tuilleries

Place Vendome on our way to meet Lori

met Lori at this wine bar La Goberie. Lori is from hawaii and her sister was jen's sisters best friend and they're still friends so it's a small world. Now lori is married to a frenchman and they have kids and were actually in Hawaii the same time we were but Lori had covid so we didn't see her.

my disaproving face as bob and ryan eat korean hot dogs in Paris

Get 27 is a gross menthol drink

we hooved it over to Belleville, Edith Piaf's neighborhood. Its still a little grimy and edgy. I think my fav bar has been Aux Folies, such a diverse crowd in every way including age. Just really a cool bunch of young and old and counter culture and businessmen hanging out at this corner bar.

Le Baratin for dinner. The craziest menu, so much so i didn't know most of what this was. We google translated Canette de Racon and it said canned racoon and it was so french of a place we were like oh i guess they do that here. After wondering if they'd help us they finally did and we did have a reservation i had to make in french so i always wonder but in reality in france and even paris they just take their time. The food was amazing

i think duck steak marget de canard, tuna steak

just look at those juices, that is a job so mean for baguettes i want to cry

this veal was somehow like air puffed and had a crazy texture.

would be cool to have a couple sauveterre steak knives

on the way to the airport. bob was staying 2 more days and had to clean and stuff

Ryan was low energy that day cuz he was falling victim to Covid19! I was also feeling bad 2 days later so my prize for waking up at home the next day was covid. That is what you get for traveling to paris for a week and going hard. Bob and Jen never got it though. 

Final Paris thoughts: Its been 11 yrs but it seems the same to me. I had to update my google map and it seemed like 85 percent of the places were still in business. My guess is that partial socialism helps small businesses especially through covid. The french still take the time to enjoy life. I morn for not having so much green space and public space and having a super walkable city free from excessive traffic. As usual the quality of life there is greater than nyc. Of course theres things here they dont have there like prospect park off leash hours. Paris feels like a nice mix of city and relaxed. You could squirrel away in a quite corner of the city and barely know you're in paris or you can find nightlife and bars and restaurants and people watching. Oh the people watching. You just don't have a cafe/bistro on every corner set up explicitly to drink inexpensive but good wine and people watch unabashedly. Maybe they do a better job and helping mentally ill people in france. If we had to live somewhere maybe Paris would be a great option. With my rudimentary french we were able to get around and they do still appreciate the attempt. Bob got to do a bunch of stuff he couldn't do solo. We got to relive paris and be young again for a week and even do some new stuff. Having ryan there was awesome and a real spirit booster cuz he such a jolly guy who's down for anything and we all wanted to show Paris. à la prochaine fois paris