give me a day off and a bottle of wine and watch what happens.

alexis and i began our monday (i had it off, as sunday was veteran's day, and my work recognized it on monday) with a trip to notre dame and a quick jaunt up 400-some steps to see the towers and gargoyles. holy coolness. i know, it is ridiculously touristy, but it was a monday so i didn't feel like such a stupid tourist. and wow, what a view! unfortunately my camera battery was dead from saturday night's craziness and of course, i did not realize this until i had taken the metro to hotel de ville, walked to notre dame, bought my notre dame ticket, and walked up the tower of notre dame. i guess ill just have to go back with a certain two people...

LESLIE...

AND MY MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yes, nancy is coming to paris. HOW EXCITING IS THAT?!!!!!!!!!!! that was my 'secret' a few days back...i've been given the go-ahead to post said information.

CANT WAIT!!!

so anyway, ladies, i have plans for you...and they involved the towers and gargoyles of notre dame, along with me and a fully-charged battery. start doing your squats and lunges and get those legs ready to go up those stairs.

after alexis and i descended the numerous amount of steps, we headed off to jardin du luxembourg, stopping for a sandwich a emporter on the way. it was a really beautiful day, clear, sunny, not too cold. a crisp autumn day. perfection. we were unable to find french children riding shetland ponies (ok, i dont hate children as much this week as i did last week), but we did find a few old men playing chess. and we found the statue of the statue of liberty.

we then made our way to les halles and to my bodum store. i say, 'mine,' because it is. i love this store and it loves me. i bought a travel french press mug and am very excited to try it out. i need to find some coarsely ground coffee first. then ill let you know the final decision on the product.

we then got a bit lost heading to the centre pompidou, but we did see some ridiculously sexy policemen on rollerblades (rollerblades are generally so unsexy, but not today), one of which i managed to play some mad flirty eyes with. i think i could date a policemen, especially a french one.

continuing right along (desolee, i have to discuss sexy men), we finally found pompidou. i left alexis to putter around there and i ran home to charge my battery (we had plans for the night) and to run some errands before my week of work began.

after a quick trip to monoprix, some cleaning, and some doing of the nails, i made my way back to pompidou to meet alexis. when i arrived, i asked what she wanted to do. my question was responded to with, "i want to sit and have a drink." well, that sounds right up my alley. i asked where. "how about up there?" was her answer as she pointed to a salon du the above my favorite papeterie in paris. we made our way up there, only to be greeted by a very cute irish looking french man. we asked for red wine. he asked how many? no, we did not one one. we did not want two. (glasses, that is.) we wanted a bottle. and a very large bottle of beaujolais is what we got.

two hours, a piece of chocolate cake (that was over-microwaved by aforementioned cute irish-french guy), one bottle of wine later...we were drunk. as skunks. and as always happens, we had become friends with cute irish-french guy. as it was nearing the 8 o'clock hour, we knew that we had to make our way to place de la concorde to hop on the ferris wheel before the tour eiffel started its twinkling act. off we ran, but not without getting the name of our guy and an invite to return the next night (too bad the metro strike started when he wanted us to come back...sorry, cutie cute, im not walking home from pompidou).

oh, his name is maxim.

i think that's how you spell it.

off to concorde we metro-ed. as it was a monday night, no one was there and we had the pick of ferris wheel cars. as we were quite beaujolais-ed up and as we are quite chatty and happy in such a state, we made friends with one of the ferris wheel operators. this is what i like to call...

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 101...

he loved us so much that he let us stay on the ferris wheel for a few extra spins. sooo much fun!

with regards to this video, i apologize. i was a bit drunk and the coastie accent made it's out to play...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRtelZ6BGW0

(and im sorry but my upload thingy on blogger was going too slow. just click the link.)

when we were done, he asked for my number (ew) and then opted to give me his. goody.

we then made our way towards opera and to the department stores. galeries lafayette was lit up last week and printemps lit up monday. we bought a cone of roasted chestnuts and strolled our drunk asses past the beautiful christmas windows. it was nine o'clock and time to go home. cake and chestnuts do not soak up a bottle of wine. we came home. and passed the f-word out.