A French-feeling day

  A big group of the SAG went along with our professor to the Puces de Vanves (the fleas of vanves= flea mearket), which specializes in antique dealing. 

  It was so fun to wander up an down looking at all of the precious things that used to belong to other people. How do you judge the price of something someone once loved? It was fun to barter a bit and see the customer-dealer interaction in French. That's one thing I'm really missing, verbal sparring, the occasional complexities of my conversations in English. It's just not the same when you only have the vocabulary of a kindergartener...if that.

  After the market I went for a nice stroll with some of the girls. Policemen were swarming the square in front of the Hotel de Ville, it looked like there was a strike that was about to start? We didn't stick around long enough to figure it out.

We ended up at the Conciergerie, which was where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned before her execution (well, other people were imprisoned there too, but I don't feel like giving a history lesson).

    Puis (then), we went to the Tuileries and sat on the wall overlooking Place de la Concorde. It's weird to overlook a place that was so beautiful and dreamy-looking and think that it was also a place where over 1,000 people were slaughtered. It's odd how most monuments are built over places that were formerly places where humanity demonstrated just how in-humane it could be.

  Someone had heard of a lovely fondu place in the Marais and I got to be among the lucky few who tried it out!

  I had never had a proper fondu and was super excited to try it out. The ambiance of the restaurant was so cool--our table was in the basement and the room looked like an old wine cave! The service was amazing, by far the speediest I've come across. The fondu was yummy--so much cheese! We got one mild one and another one with a bit of Roquefort, and we proceeded to eat. and eat. and eat. It was a bit pricier than I was expecting, but very much worth it. I would definitely recommend this restaurant.

Care for some cheese?

  And that was my French-feeling day: market, walk, strike, prison, fondu. Loved it!

P.S.

  Oh this little guy? It's just something I picked up at the market. He now lives on the lapel of my winter coat.