On Friday, we took a coach from Gloucester Road to the Waterloo International station. We passed through security and passport control and boarded a Eurostar train. The ride was so nice! It was quiet and smooth. We went out into the countryside towards the Chunnel. It didn't take long to go through this tunnel that goes under the English Channel. It was only 20 minutes. The train stopped at the Gare du Nord station in Paris where we boarded another coach that would take us to our hotel which was the Mercure Hotel. It is right next to the train station Gare du Lyon.Callie and I had signed up to be roommates in a double room, however the hotel had run out of doubles. So I ended up with a private room. The moment I entered my room and saw the huge bed (two twins pushed together) and a bathroom all to myself I was excited! It was so nice not to have to share a bathroom with one and a half floors worth of people!
It was around 7:00 when everyone came back down to have a little powow with our tour manager, who was a language professor from the school. She gave us a map and told us that there were plenty of places to eat near the Bastille, which is near our hotel. Christine and Cyndie was given the suggestion to go to a little place that was off of San Michelle near Notre Dame. So we decided to walk towards the Cathedral.
A notes of caution: 1. Unlike England, the French drive on the right side of the road - American style. 2. Don't be shocked if you see a man using the Seine as a bathroom.
When we got nearer the Notre Dame, which is only about a thirty minutes walk from the hotel, I pulled out my camera. It was gorgeous!We got to the right street, however at that very moment it began to rain. Heavily. With only two umbrellas amongst the four of us. Callie and I each shared with Christine and Cyndie. We finally had to seek shelter under an awning of some nearby place. Despite my attempts to stay dry, I was soaked from my feet to my knees. Once the rain had subsided we continued on our quest for food.
At one point a woman speaking French asked me where some restaurants were. I told her in my broken French that I don't speak French. So she asked me in English. We pointed her and her husband towards the river we had just come from. It wasn't much further and we finally found the restuarant we were seeking.
The place - I don't even know the name - is not where tourists go. The waiters didn't know a lick of English. Christine and Cyndie tried to order two glasses of wine, however they ended up with a whole bottle. The menue was both in French and English, however it wasn't descriptive at all so even though we knew what type of meat was in the dish we didn't know how it was prepared.
Callie and I went safe and had chicken. It turned out that it was a chicken on top of rice and was covered in a tomato base sauce with peppers in it. It reminded me of a dish that my mom made one time. Christine got what turned out to be a steak and chips (french fries). Though poor Cyndie ordered Salmon, which she thought was would be cooked or smoked. No. It was raw - fresh, but raw - and it came with lettuce with no dressing. However, she was the type of person who doesn't mind eating it with several slices of a baguette. We got desserts that were in even better than the dinner. Cyndie had a Peach Melba, which is a half a peach covered with heavy ice cream. Callie had a Apple tart, and Christine and I shared a tart that was topped with apricots - we think.
As we ate our meals, two Frenchmen sat next to use at our table. At one point they asked us, in English, where we were from. Cyndie and I said Texas to which they responded with "George Bush." Callie said Arkansas and they said "Bill Clinton," and finally to Christine's Chicago it was "Al Capone." They did the same with our names. For once someone didn't relate my name to Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. Instead they said Dorothy Parker, who was a writer. We asked what they're names were. One who sat next to me was Christoph, and the one next to Callie was Stephan - which they asked if we in America had names like Stephan and we said Stephen or Steven (pick the spelling that you like).
Once we had paid our waitress, we headed back to the hotel. On the way we paused in the Shakespeare & Company bookshop. It's a very cute little place that is right on the Seine. They have the Shakespeare books, but they also had other types of literature, including the entire collection of William Blakes poems. If I opened a bookshop, it would be exactly like this one. I loved it.
I finally got back to my room around midnight. As I relaxed in bed I turned on the TV. It was very clear that the only channels, other than CNN, that were in English you had to pay to see. So I settled between Blade III in French and MTV in German and quickly fell asleep.
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