I was finally persuaded to risk my life and take advantage of the city bikes. Mathieu signed us up for Velib, so we just swipe our public transportation passes at any of the bike stations all over town and have a free 30-minute ride for free. I know our ride to the Eiffel Tour the other night surpassed the free limit but I'm not sure yet what the paying rate is. It's an incredible system, especially when the route includes bike lanes:
My first excursion via Velib was a quick ride to Bastille, where I had a soothing sheesha to reward my bravery. Now I'm ready to take on scarier rides, like the uphill climb from school to home. Lately there haven't been any bikes to be found near school, so I've been walking home through Buttes Chaumont Park:
Classes are still amazing and I'm still obsessed with my teacher. My evenings are riddled with "my teacher said this" and "guess what she thinks about that", but Mathieu has been a champ about this woman entering into our lives. My class went out to a salsa bar the other Friday night and he got to meet all the 15+ personalities that I spend my mornings with. My Chinese classmate Naiqun and I have also been going to the pool each week - City pools are all over Paris and a 3-month membership is only 19 euros. That wouldn't buy a single yoga class! Since Naiqun told me she can't swim, I've been giving her informal lessons.
Last week, as we were hiding out in the kiddy pool doing little exercises, an older man came up to us and gave a paternal 5-minute speech about how we could teach ourselves to swim. Then he retrieved 2 kickboards for us and bid us good luck. When I took the kickboard for a spin to demonstrate for Naiqun, he appeared again out of nowhere, full of joy for me and my successful traverse across the kiddy pool by following his instructions. His proud smile was adorable. What's more, mere minutes later a young guy doing exercises near us took us under his wing as well, even demonstrating the breathing and kicking drills to do. It was like a makeshift Good Samaritan Day. We were tickled.
After swimming, we sometimes set out to explore parks or museums. Here's Naiqun and our Vietnamese classmate fighting in front of the comic book windows at the Palais de Tokyo:
For a new story for Girls Guide to Paris, I've done a couple more interviews, some of them spontaneously... One day I stumbled upon this chocolate shop and got swallowed up in the aromas and friendly banter with the owner for over an hour. It was good French practice, apart from moments when English- and Arabic-speaking clients entered and needed a translator. I benefited from hoards of free samples and learned about chocolate flavoring and molding. Here is a part of the creator's shrine of projects spanning the past few decades (the white pharaoh is white chocolate):
We recently got to host our friend Julien, who used to work with Mathieu in Cairo on the metro and is now living in France, coordinating again with Mathieu to build a high-speed train line. He inspired us to climb the Sacre Coeur for this lovely view:
Last weekend Mathieu and I went to the flea market at Saint Ouen, which I believe my parents visited 20 years ago, and followed the tranquil winding pathways browsing antiques and random junk with a friend from class and her own Frenchman.
