Bonne annee de paris!

When I am in the presence of English speakers, my french flies right out the window, however I can say I did get to impress a couple of friends of mine in paris. Well it was easy you see, our friend Jo hadn’t seen us in 2 years, so when I busted out with some broken french, he was rightly impressed and even complemented my “r’s” .. but I can’t say I made any real progress this trip, but at least I hadn’t lost too much, which was my real concern..

We stayed at connie and mehdi’s apartment, and we had a blast. I chatted with connie non-stop. Those of you who know her can attest to the fact she’s a real talker herself. We went grocery shopping and bravely warded off colds with hot liquids and oreos. We patiently waited for her lost luggage to be delivered (which did come, thankfully). We looked at every single picture she has– which was a real treat, and her 80s prom pics are a must-see. I also loved the entire album dedicated to all the cats of her childhood. Philippe & connie & mehdi had an ongoing tetris battle – I don’t know who won actually, but it was great seeing them act like little kids “NO WAY! gimme that – I’m gonna beat your score!”

Med was busting buns at the office that week on a deadline, and skated in under the wire when he came home on new years’ eve, so we all celebrated. I had plain-ol-regular apple juice, since the "100% pure apples" cider I found turned out really to be 4% alcohol ,.. oh, right.. TECHnically it’s fruit, yes, but the science of fermentation prevails… sigh, oh well. A small price for a healthy baby.

We took the VERY CROWDED subway up to the river Seine and stood on the bridge by the assembly nationale bldg. We watched the fireworks from very close, and had our backs to the sparkling, illuminated tour Eiffel. All the boats were stopped for the show in the middle of the river, and some hooligans were setting off some smaller works nearby, it was just enchanting

By the time the fireworks were over, the full bottle of champagne had kicked into gear for my “dates”. we walked like the monkees and sang and made merry most of the way home. At home Philippe was playing guitar out the window and connie was telling a dancing guy the street to “get down” (they live on a busy street) .. med snuck off to bed and I was laughing at the show going on in the living room.