April 7th Monday

I was able to sleep in until 1:00pm. Finally! It was actually a call from Leonel that woke me up. He was a Euromaster that would be heading to Italy the next day. We scheduled to meet for dinner and say goodbye that night.

I called Casey to see if I could keep Lana and Glynnis out of her hair while she wrote her papers. We scheduled a meeting with Lana and Glynnis. I ate some cereal, showered, and got ready. I went to meet Lana and Glynnis at the metro stop. We decided to get some lunch. They really wanted McDonalds. I kind of squirmed at the idea but finally agreed to take them to the nearby place. We left with Adrienne and walked north. We crossed the Seine and came up to the intersection by the Louvre and Tuileries.

We’d passed some police and now came up on a group of people. They all looked like they were waiting for something. I then remembered that today was when the Olympic torch was supposed to come through Paris. Everyone was still there so I assumed it hadn’t come by yet. We decided to wait. We didn’t have to wait long. Soon a caravan of cars and police were coming down the street. The police pushed us back against the sidewalk. Different skaters and runners came by sporting sponsor logos. Finally, the police cars got thicker and we saw a knot of runners around the torch runner coming toward us. As they passed in front of us on the street, some bikers on the sidewalk behind us rode and chanted “Libérer le Tibet! Libérer le Tibet!” (Free Tibet.) It was amazing. We didn’t even plan on it and stumbled upon the Olympic torch! I’d only seen it once before when I was younger. I couldn’t believe I had just seen it in Paris!

We were full of excited chatter once it passed and everyone cleared up. We continued on our way to McDonalds. I had no complaints of their craving now. If we hadn’t been heading there we would have missed it completely. At Macdo, I ordered the Royale Deluxe with fries and a Fanta. The burger had some awesome Dijon mustard on it.

With our bellies full we walked back south toward the Seine. We saw that the torch and vehicles were going along the opposite side of the Seine. We decided to run and catch up to it. It was a long distance to catch up. We ran as best we could after our greasy feast. We caught up to the parade just as it was coming up to the Assemblé nationale. I saw the last of the runners around the torch runner getting on the bus. I realized later that this was right after they had doused the torch and they all got on the police bus. We kept walking and were then in the midst of a huge group of protesters. People had Tibetan flags and were waiving them and chanting. The police held them back as the vehicles drove through. The last one was an armored bus that held the arrested protesters. As the bus passed, they pounded on the windows and the crowd cheered for them. There was a lot of intense energy but I didn’t see anyone seriously attack the Olympic group or start any fights.

We milled about as the crowd slowly dispersed. Then we walked toward my apartment. We ended up going to the library so that we could drop off a book. Then I took them toward the Saint Germain des Près church. I got a nutella crêpe there. We walked around and it started raining. We ducked into a café and sat down for some drinks. I had a glass of the Côtes du Rhone and then followed it with a glass of the Côtes de Provence. It was €9 total.

After our drinks, Lana and Glynnis headed off on their own. Adrienne and I went to Sciences Po to wait for Leonel. We showed up a bit early and waited for him. He wasn’t showing. We waited for a bit longer. He still didn’t come. We waited for a total of 30 minutes and then gave up on him. We walked home. Just as we got home, though, I received a call from Leonel. Apparently he got stopped in the metro and they asked for his ticket. He had dropped it somewhere so they told him he could either pay the fine or go to the station with him. He had to pay €80. I wanted to stay home but Leonel was very distressed and just wanted to go get dinner. I agreed to meet him.

I met him in front of one of our school buildings. We took the metro (much to his dismay) to St Michel. He showed me a Japanese restaurant there that he loved. I had jasmine tea to drink. For dinner I ordered Menu A for €6.50. It had chicken meatballs, chicken, beef with cheese, rice, salad, and soup. It was a pretty good meal. I finished it off with a perle coco (literally a coconut pearl). It’s like a little ball of rice dough with coconut on the outside.

I said goodbye to Leonel and wished him luck. Then I took the metro home around 11:00pm. When I got home I chatted with Casey online. We were going to Tours the next day and we needed to plan the trip and plan when we were meeting at the train station.

I packed a bit and then went to bed around 3:15am.