Down time

January 5th Saturday

We decided to sleep in a little and just worry about getting ready for the meeting with Jacques. I had been staying up pretty late and waking up relatively early. Because of the time difference I feel most awake at bed time. Once again I was woken up by a phone call but this was from Heidi. She was concerned about the apartment. After I hung up with her, I called and left Jacques a message saying that we were very sorry but since our friends had already decided on living there, we were going to cancel our meeting that afternoon. It seemed a waste to spend the time to travel that far out when we knew we weren’t taking it. We had a free afternoon. I was tired of trying to get things done and indulged in an afternoon of staying around the apartment. My mom was messing around with Skype and accidentally called me. We talked for a little while. My dad and brother got on too. After I disconnected, Adrienne talked to her family on Skype too. They talked for a while.

For dinner, we met up with a friend of Adrienne’s who was in town. Whitney and her sister were staying in a hotel near the Louvre. The lobby looked like it had been decorated to try to match the Louvre’s interior. There was an Egyptian looking bust in front of a wall made from large stone bricks.

We wandered through the streets looking for a nearby place to eat. We decided on a place that was a less expensive than the other restaurants we’d seen but still pricier than I was hoping on finding. The proximity of it won out since our dinner companions had been to Versailles that day. The place was called Café de Rivoli. I looked at the formules but was uninspired by the offered main dishes. I ended up getting the Rivoli Park Sandwich. It had chicken, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and came with a fried egg on the plate. I was one of the first done because I was very hungry and Whitney and Adrienne were talking and catching up. We decided to spring for dessert. Three of us had crêpes and one had chocolate mousse. It was quite good.

The weather had turned drizzly and cold as we stepped out of the restaurant. We dropped the sisters off at the hotel, took a few pictures and went home.