La Promenade Plantée

On Friday afternoon I went for a walk along the promenade plantée in the 12th arrondissement with my friend Kristin.This is one of those beautiful hidden spots that I would never have discovered if someone hadn't told me about it.
We walked for a few hours...my feet were hurting by the end but it was worth it. It was a gorgeous 70 degree day. Earlier we had met another friend for lunch in the little park by the Tour St. Jacques, which was nice except for the fact that we made the mistake of sitting on a bench right under a tree that the pigeons must have designated as their toilet. I was the first victim to get pooped on.It took us a surprisingly long time to figure out that we needed to move. All in all there were 4 incidents during the course of our lunch.Here's Kristin on the promenade.This is the view from my window later that evening.And here's one of me in my window...

Cat-sitting in Place Monge

This is the cute neighborhood where I was cat-sitting last week. It's a great little area in the 5th (quite close to where I used to have class).This is the apartment where I stayed.

Visitors!

On Wednesday my friend Robin, along with her friend Becky, came to Paris for the day. They zipped down from London where they're spending a week on vacation.It was great to have visitors!They crammed in a lot of sight-seeing and eating in their 24 hours in the city!They walked from the Tour Eiffel to the Arc de Triomphe, down the Champs Elysées to Place de la Concorde, through the Tuileries to the Louvre, along the Seine to Notre Dame, across to Ile St. Louis and on up into the Marais, and back to Hotel de Ville--all that between about 11am and 6pm. Then we went home for a quick wardrobe change and back to the Marais for dinner. I had to go to the Prefecture in the morning so I met them at Concorde. Our feet were hurting and we were exhausted, but it was great!Breakfast of coffe, juice, croissants, bread, jam and fromage blanc.

Sunday stroll through Montmartre

My roommate Céline and I went on a walk Sunday afternoon to recuperate from our Transatlantic Anticapitalist Party that we had hosted on Saturday night.It was cool but sunny, and we took a long stroll through Montmartre...A street with some of the prettiest apartment buildings in our neighborhood, according to my roommate...The lovely Céline, who is the best housemate anyone could ask for...Charming buildings in Montmartre...There are lots of these....A statue of St. Denis at the spot where he supposedly lost his head.Cat on a roof...

My camera would never take a picture this good...

...so I can't take credit for it, but I'm putting it up here anyway so you can see what the Tour Eiffel looks like at night.

The following are a few photos of some parties I went to last week:My friend Mathilde and me at her Carneval partyVarious strangers at the party(I don't know anyone's name....)Dinner party chez Kristin and Mike, with Ariane, Jerome, Anne Gaelle, Natacha, and Hakim.

Château de Vincennes

On Wednesday afternoon I (plus a friend of a friend who was visiting Paris for the week) headed out to see this medieval castle just outside Paris. My roommate had told me that Vincennes is nearly as impressive as Versailles and yet almost completely overlooked, though it's extremely accessible to Paris (it's just a metro ride away from the city center.) Built in the 14th century, it looked just like a storybook castle--it had a moat (albeit currently empty) with a drawbridge, all sorts of turrets and nooks and passageways, its own chapel, and a dozen or so buildings making up the complex.Numerous monarchs resided here for at least part of the year until Louis XIV decided to set up house at Versailles instead, and then the chateau became a prison, where the likes of the Marquis de Sade and Mirabeau were held.That's it for fun facts about the Château de Vincennes; here are a few more photos (most of them courtesy of Adam):




It was bitterly cold and we were thoroughly numb after spending several hours walking through the castle and grounds, but after looking at this view of the forest just beyond the fortress walls, I vowed to return when spring is here to go for a walk through the Bois de Vincennes.