One last Parisian weekend

This was our last weekend in Paris, which is sad. :-(
Friday Megan had a class visit, so I decided to wait for her by taking myself out to lunch at Angelina's, one of Paris's most famous tearooms. It is most well-known for its very dark, rich, African hot chocolate, and its millefeuille pastries, and I decided it was time to try the hot chocolate. Going to a cafe or tearoom by yourself is very French, so I took my copy of Orgeuil et Prejuges (Pride and Prejudice) and went out to lunch. I ordered the hot chocolate and a croque-monsieur, and took my time admiring the tearoom and reading my book. The menu said that people like Coco Chanel, Marcel Proust, and some other famous people had eaten there several times. The room itself is absolutely beautiful, and really big. Ornate decorations, a pastry counter, etc. I had a great time people-watching, reading my book, and enjoying my delicious hot chocolate and sandwich. The hot chocolate was just as delicious as its reputation would have you believe. The cafe is on the Rue de Rivoli, in between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde, so I decided to walk up to the Christmas market on the Champs-Elysees. I walked from metro Tuileries all the way to George V (about 6 metro stops, or maybe 1 1/2 miles) in about 30-degree weather. Looking at the shops on the Rue de Rivoli and then the market on the Champs-Elysees made it go by fast though, and I felt very Parisian with my tearoom lunch by myself and my walk. Then I went home to warm up and wait for Megan, and later that night we went out to dinner with the rest of our crew, Becky, Hayley, and Maria, at a really good Chinese place in the Latin quarter. Then we met up with Maria's cousin Orlando, and went to Shakespeare and Company (the English bookstore near Notre Dame), before heading home.

Saturday Megan and I decided to explore Chinatown. Yes, Paris has a Chinatown. We checked out my guidebook and went to a restaurant (that actually turned out to not be that good, but it was still interesting to go!), and saw one of the strangest McDonald's I'd ever seen. It was shaped like a Chinese temple and had a take-out window on the side. The highlight of the trip was that we got to take the tram home. After a few hours warming up and getting dry at home, we went out to see some Christmas lights! (even in the rain) We started at the Champs-Elysees to see the lights on those trees and the Ferris wheel at the Place de la Concorde, then went to the Hotel de Ville to see the lights show there, and finished up at Notre Dame to see the big lit Christmas tree. Then we went to our favorite Latin quarter hang-out, Indiana's, for our last Mexican-food-in-Paris, haha.

Today we went to the Louvre for the last time, because our host dad had been telling us we needed to go see Napoleon III's apartments, and I wanted to see some Italian paintings that weren't the Mona Lisa. Not only did we see all of those things (Napoleon III's rooms were beautiful, his interior decorating style is really nice, and full of lyres, yay for Alpha Chi!), but we almost walked into a fight...After pressing the button for an elevator to head up to the Italian paintings, the door immediately opened onto three guys wrestling and yelling "Bouge-toi!!" and "Ne me touche pas!" We walked away really fast so we wouldn't get hit as the noise spread and Louvre workers came running...we still don't really know what happened but we saw one of them walking away in handcuffs about 20 minutes later. Good stuff. After that, we finished up our souvenir shopping, and went looking for some of the chocolatiers that were in this NY Times article that Gabby sent me, but of course they were closed :-( I figured since they were near the Louvre they might not be closed on a Sunday, but ah well.

And now I have no more procrastination methods to avoid studying for my first two finals and finishing the bibliography for my last paper...
Last night/this morning Megan and I were very happy to learn that UR football won the semifinals game against Northern Iowa!!! The championship game is against Montana on Friday night and I am so glad I'll be home to watch it! Even though I hate football it's still exciting that UR is in the championships!
4 days til home...both a sad and happy thought.