April 5th Saturday

I got up at 11:00am, ate cereal, and got dressed. I went with Adrienne to meet Heidi at the library so that she and I could return books. It was our last chance to see Heidi before she started her hellishly long bus ride to Berlin.

Adrienne noticed that there was a wine tasting in the lobby of the main building. What better sendoff could you ask for? We went over to see what was up. We bought a glass for €3, which we could keep, and then headed around to do the tastings. We tried a few different ones. We tried red, white, rosé. I wanted to buy a bottle of a very lovely rosé for my parents. Adrienne insisted that she pay for it as a gift to them. It was called “Suivez-moi jeune homme” (follow me young man). It was very light and fruity and hardly the normal rosé taste. I think my parents will like it. We said our goodbyes to Heidi and wished her luck. Then Adrienne and I set off down the street holding a bottle of wine and a wineglass. We were set for a party anywhere.

When we got home I flopped in bed for a bit. (Wine tastings often do that to me). Then I got up and had some vegetable soup and bread for lunch. After lunch I typed in my journal and chatted with friends online while Adrienne took a nap. Don’t worry. She doesn’t drink so she was just tired, not drunk.

Adrienne and I decided to go out to dinner that night. We wanted to go to a restaurant instead of cook for ourselves. Before we could head out, though, I had to head over to pay rent to our landlord. I told him we were going out to dinner. We wanted to go to St. Michel because we knew it was cheap. He said, “Oh you can’t go there! It’s solely a tourist place now. Maybe 20 years ago you could go there but now it’s just for tourists.” Instead, M. Choupin pulled out a map and recommended some areas for us to go. He said they were nice restaurants but not too expensive. He also told us that he and his daughter were making chocolate mousse and asked if he could put it in our fridge when we got back. I told him it was fine and that we should be back by 10pm or so.

Adrienne and I set out and walked to the nearby area that he recommended. We looked around but it was still too expensive for our tastes. I believe the main plates were still around €20. It’s cheaper than where we live but just not what we were looking for. We continued looking and ended up wandering into St Michel anyway. I was beginning to get very hungry and quite cranky. We looked into some of the kebab places but they were either full or didn’t have food that met with Adrienne’s limited diet. (That’s diet as in what she can eat safely, not diet as in trying to be skinny.) We finally found a cheap Franco-Tunisian place. It took a while to order let alone get our food. I was really cranky and horrible company at this point. I mostly stared angrily at the wall and tried not to think of how hungry I was. Finally our dinner came. I had couscous with lamb. The couscous and lamb were delicious. There was also a bowl that had different vegetables in a broth. It was good poured over the whole dish. I felt much better once I had eaten.

We were running much later than we’d told our landlord and I was worried he was staying awake waiting to put the mousse in our fridge. We rushed to the RER and took that home. We knocked and M Choupin and Ombeline gave us the chocolate mousse to put in our fridge. They were also very sweet and gave us a smaller bowl that was for us. They would pick it up the next day.

I talked to my parents on Skype and typed on my journal. Before I knew it, it was 4:15 am and I was going to bed. I never know why I stay up so late. It always comes as such a surprise.