Friday night I ended up going to this "american" themed party on a Peniche - a boat - docked in the 5th/6th. It was a beautiful night in terms of the view. The temperature was a little chilli to stay on the dock all night, but we managed. I was supposed to go with Paula and some of her friends however Paula hooked me up with one of her friends I had met earlier that week at sushi dinner named Patrick. Paula was supposed to join us later. I met him in the 8th where he lives and we took a taxi over there. You were supposed to dress up for the party "american" style but we both decided to be lame and were much happier that way. When people asked what we were dressed up as our answer was New York'ers - hey why not! There were people dressed up as indians, hippies, police men, cowboys, etc. A good majority of people weren't in costume however. Had a nice time just chit chatting with Patrick and getting to know him. We stayed on the board for a couple hours and then around 1h30 decided to head off. He was heading to St Tropez the following day and had a 9hr drive ahead of him and I was exhausted with my lack of sleep that week - so were were both lamely yawning constantly on the boat and decided that was the sign to sign out. Rather than taking a taxi directly from the boat, we took the opportunity to walk a little. I haven't found much time to just explore and walk around and see the streets as most of the time I'm heading somewhere to meet someone and I take the metro and miss the scenic route, but this time I felt like I got a whole tour of a number of arrondissements. We left the boat, walked past the Seine, through Palais Royal, saw the glass pyramid at the Louvre, walked past Place Vendôme and onto rue St. Honoré. It was so nice to see these places at 2am as the streets were dead. We got to look at all the "chi chi" luxury stores on St. Honoré's windows when all the tourists were sleeping, walk past Sarkozy's house... It was a wonderful night.
The next day I woke up to my doorbell ringing...it was Gigi. She had come over at 11am as we were going to go and do errands in Barbès area at Tati and surrounding stores as she needed stuff for her vacation. Gigi is now on her way to Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia and Italy and has left me alone for the week :( I'm so excited for her, however this week at work is going to be tough as I won't have my lunch buddy or someone to rigole with. She will be back Monday, so is unfortunately missing my fathers visit from Thursday to Monday morning. We chilled at my apartment for a little while and then headed up to do some shopping.
That night I had been invited by Florent, the graphic designer at work, to a BBQ he was having at his house in Savigny-sur-Orge, outside of Paris. I organized that Paula and my cousin Daniel would come with me. Daniel is in town adventuring by himself for a week and thought it would be fun for him to experience some real French teuf'ing. Gigi unfortunately couldn't come because she had to meet the group she was going on vacation with very early Sunday morning and wasn't ready for her trip yet. Dan and Paula came over and we headed to the RER C. It was my first time taking the RER (the train that takes you to the banlieu of Paris) and it was super easy. Flo said it would take us an hour to get there, however it was much quicker. He and his friend kindly picked us up from the gare and drove us to his house. It was so nice to get out of Paris and chill in a real garden. Everyone was super friendly and it was nice to see the same guys from Amsterdam and that had come over for my picnic on the 14th of July as well. I also saw Cindy again - she was one of the girls from Amsterdam that I didn't hit it off to well with then - however she was super nice this time. This goes to prove my theory about French girls - it takes time for them to feel comfortable and then be nice to you. By the end of the night, she was offering to connect me to a French cousin in New York.
Paula ended up heading back to Paris that night as she had a check-in early the next morning, but Dan and I stayed. Flo had offered for us to sleep over and we took him up on his offer. We went to bed pretty late and the next morning chilled a little while and then headed back to Paris by mid afternoon.
It was a beautiful day yesterday and I had no plans for when I got back. I wasn't in the mood to go to the gym, and rather decided it would be nice to go for a walk. I got Paula to take me on her "death march" - the walk she goes on a couple times a week through the 8th, 17th, 9th and 10th arrondisement. After that night walk with Patrick, I was motivated to see more and more! What we had completely forgot about was that yesterday was the end of the Tour de France, so as we approached the Champs de L'Elysse, we saw the mounds and mounds of people that had come to see the final laps of the race. We unfortunately missed the end, but got to see the teams and ryders pass.
We returned from our walk, showered and met up again to go to the 11th to meet up with her close friend Bernadette at this Mexican restaurant they frequent a lot. It was absolutely delicious. It is so nice to have something different from French food sometimes.
What is up for this week? Well, work is going to start in a couple hours, after I wake up at the gym. Who knows what it will bring this week. I truly hope it will be less stressful than last week but I'm not holding my breath. Tonight I am having drinks with a friend I met at a soirée before Amsterdam and then tomorrow I am having a picnic with Paula, Dan and Lindsay at Ile St Louis and heading to Notre Dame to see it before. Wednesday I'm hoping to just take it easy and Thursday DADDY comes :) I am super excited for him to come and I think he is even more excited than me. He told me that this past weekend he made sure to sleep A LOT as to be ready to do the fete this coming weekend!
All I can say is I hope for "NO STRESS NO STRESS" - that for you Ms. Kiki Bassoul.
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