Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Italy comes to Paris

So I believe I last left off telling you that 2 friends of Lory's were coming in from Torino, Italy.  What a fun weekend!  Both of the ladies, Bea and TiTi, were fabulous and spoke some English, which is always a plus in my book!  We picked the ladies up from the train station here in town on Friday afternoon and the fun started soon after!

First I will back it up just a smidge and say that on early Friday afternoon I got a hankering to do a little bit of sightseeing around the town I'm currently living in.  Here are a few snaps from my walk around town.

Here is the church...it's about a 2 min walk from the house and also the closest bus stop!


I like this picture 'cause I think the trees are a bit odd and cool looking.


This is the Don Jon, which I was told basically means "castle" it even has a moat!


And of course, random bathrooms on the street are always fun and interesting to look at.

Okay, so after we picked the ladies up from the station Friday afternoon we came back to the house where I had some new experiences.  The first was trying a Panache which was beer and sprite mixed together, or something similar at least.  Afterwards we had a "make your own crepe" party which was pretty exciting.  You poured the batter onto a little skillet like machine and then you could fill your crepe with whatever toppings you like.  We had cheese, tomato, mushrooms, ham, and cooked hot dogs cut up into little pieces.  Since I was new to all this, here is how my first crepe turned out...



Let's just say I wasn't a "natural", haha! My second try proved to be a success, however!


"Look, Ma, no holes this time!"

On Saturday myself and the ladies did a little shopping at a nearby strip center called The Croix Blanche.  I didn't buy anything but had a fun time looking around and seeing how the fashion varies from France and America.  Saturday evening Moez and Lory (the couple I'm staying with) had their neighbor's over, Jean-Pierre and I forget his wife's name!  Apparently Moez and Lory were over at their house a few weeks ago for dinner so they wanted to return the favor and invite them over.  It was recently Lory's birthday so that was part of the occasion as well.  Lory cooked a fabulous dinner of Shrimp Risotto, Chicken in a cream sauce with peas, and salad.  And of course for dessert we had home made tiramisu...these people like to eat!


Needless to say, I was stuffed after the delicious meal!  On Sunday me and the ladies took the RER into Paris to continue the shopping craze.  We walked down the Champs-Elysees which is the famous street that has all the designer stores...Louis Vuitton, Dior, Chanel, etc.  We walked into the Sephora and I was in heaven! You should see the place, it's quite incredible!  Afterwards we walked over to the Latin Quarter near the Notre Dame Cathedral.  Took a gorgeous picture of ND at dusk with my iPhone...

After walking around the latin quarter I decided to exchange some money at one of the foreign currency exchange booths....NEVER AGAIN!  I seriously got robbed!  The only thing I bought the entire day was my own money!  I exchanged $100 dollars and got a whopping 47 EUR! Along with the crummy exchange rate was a 12.5% fee!  So I have learned that the post office is actually a better rate afterall! Even though the money exchange was a bummer, just walking around Paris and seeing the sights puts a smile on my face...


Here's a bit of a creepy story for ya.  On our way back from Paris, me and the 2 ladies were on the train and saw a gentleman get on and start staring at me.  I actually didn't really notice it but TiTi did and told me not to look at him.  Well at one of the stops a girl that was sitting pretty close to us, got up and got off.  The creeper then moved and sat in her seat to be closer!  Finally it was our stop to get off (or so we thought). We go stand by the doors of the train to exit and sure enough here he comes...are you kidding?!  Well we soon realize we weren't at the right stop to get off, so he exits and hangs a right while we stay on.  Just as the train is about to close the doors we see him turn around and go the opposite direction!  I guess he realized we didn't get off!  Thankfully he wasn't able to get back on and we left his ass in the dust!  I'm glad the women were with me, otherwise I may have had to round-house kick him in the face.  I do carry mase on me at all times which is a nice little weapon to have!  Tomorrow I must get up fairly early to head into Paris to meet with the girl I'm supposed to live with in the city.  Ciao, my friends!

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