Une autre journée chère à Paris

A successful yet expensive day in Paris.  I bought a few much needed goods from Monoprix and the pharmacy.  I’m planning on wearing my new Keds sans socks, and so I needed to pick up a pair of insoles so that they don’t start to get smelly (not that my feet get smelly…).  I picked up a few pairs of new black tights, so that I’m nice and modest when I enter all those gigantic, respect-demanding Italian cathedrals.  I also picked up some more body wash; even though I’d love to be a dirty, free-spirit for the entire trip, I think I need to spare Kelsey and Chrissy the misery of dealing with that.  I also ran to the pharmacy and picked up some more allergy meds, since we all know how much I love them.

I also started doing some more research on Italy…restaurants and sightseeing and such, and I came to the realization that I was in dire need of a guidebook for…guidance?  So I ran to the first English bookstore I know of, San Francisco Books.  Great bookstore, but lacking on up-to-date travel books.  I then went to Shakespeare and Co. (my favorite!), but unfortunately there was a pile of boxes taller than me standing between me and the travel books, and there was no moving them without being a hassle.  I instead asked the cashier where I could find some English-language guidebooks for Italy, and she directed me to a Canadian bookstore called the Abbey Bookshop.  This one, too, was only a few minutes away, so I walked over and was astonished by the entire wall that was filled with guidebooks for any city or country you could imagine.  After much perusing, I picked one out and was satisfied: it was a 2007 edition by Rough Guides, and it had a lot of maps, pretty pictures, Italian phrases, and of course lots and lots of information about lots and lots of cities.  As I handed over my 27 euros (still pains me), the owner offered me a cup of coffee (definitely made up for the 27 euros) and we chatted a bit about Italy and Cinque Terre, which he absolutely loved.  It’s strange, all the nicest people I meet here in Paris aren’t Parisian…

Anyways, all the Italy talk made me hungry (are you really surprised?), so I walked over to Delizie Follie, my favorite little gelateria, and had a little cup of praline- and pistachio-flavored gelato, which I proceeded to eat while sitting along the Seine.  Could a girl spend a more lovely afternoon?

After class, I started packing up my backpack (did it shrink since the last time I used it?).  After much deliberation, I can tell you one thing that absolutely will NOT make it into my backpack: jeans.  The reason, you ask?  They may or may not fit by the end of this trip, and I’m not about to let THAT put a damper on my pasta-eating, wine-drinking, gelato-tasting extravaganza.  Skirts, dresses and leggings…check.

Note to self: swim home.