is the greve over? j'espere. but if no, there are always tartes.

i do not want to speak too soon, but i feel as though the strike is beginning to let up a bit. but shhh, i did not write this and the cheminots will not get pissed off and make the strike unbearable again. the last three days have been a challenge getting to and from work. two and a half hours was a pretty standard amount of time for me to get to work this week, and that's only one way. i must say, however, that i have learned a lot more about the city and means of getting around because of this incident. i learned how to use the bus, for example. and the buses are really quite the lovely way to get around! you can actually see paris. (i do a lot of window shopping while im on the bus.) most days have involved at least a half hour walk, if not an hour and a half, depending on the traffic on the streets and which metros are actually running at a normal rate. you have to be quite strategic in how you plan how you will get to where you need to be - when i go to work, i would rather leave later rather than earlier, as if you leave earlier, it will be busier and you'll just be all the more pissed off when you get to work, even if you would arrive ten minutes later if you took the later trains. not that it actually mattered this week, as it was impossible to gauge when i would actually arrive on the western side of paris while walking out my door. i just had to be ready to go with the flow, take whatever i could take, and walk however far i had to.

i nearly passed out/threw up on the metro monday morning. i was under a lot of stress this past weekend and ended up getting a migraine on sunday night and continued right through monday and into tuesday. well, there is not much worse than being smooshed in the back part of the metro with a migraine. i started feeling out of it and really woozy around the st. augustin stop, and by st. phillippe de roule, i had to get off. i did not want to be the 'american who threw up on the metro.'

anyway, as tomorrow is thanksgiving, we were able to leave work around 4 this afternoon, so i bolted to the metro and just got on the train (the 9 is running about one train every 7 minutes now - quite the improvement, as it was one every 45 minutes a couple days ago). i was able to sit the entire way back to republique - huge improvement. i was home in 45 minutes - it felt like i hadn't gotten home that quickly (yeah, i think 45 minutes is really quick now) in what feels like decades.

(oh, the photos in sepia are from the chatelet metro station - i was going to transfer to the line 1 towards la defense, but when i saw this mob of people waiting to just get on the platform, i opted to take some pictures, peace out, and search for a bus.)

it was still daylight when i escalated up from the metro, and i decided to go get a pastry and sit in parc des buttes chaumonts for awhile. well, the patisserie i planned to stop at was closed, but i opted for a good walk around the park first (and then went on the tarte mission). i walked up to this great little gazebo-esque thing and checked out the sun setting behind sacre coeur. i kept hoping that they would light sacre coeur up while i was standing there. i hate the montmartre area cuz it's soooooo seedy, but i just love sacre coeur. it is beautiful!

it was really a lovely evening for a walk. it has been kind of rainy here as of late, but today was clear and a bit warmer. as the sun went down, you could feel the damp crispness of the season creeping towards winter, but still holding onto fall and its red and orange leaves as long as possible. my nose felt cold. i touched it and it was. i only get that really cold nose feeling when its late fall. im really looking forward to it getting colder, though. that means christmas. and the holidays in paris are just beautiful.

after my little stroll, i decided to find that pastry. i have not had a real pastry for a few days (and when i say real, i do not mean a croissant or a pain au chocolat - yes, these are real, but i wanted a fancy pastry, a tarte, a mille feuille, an eclair, something rich and extravagent) and i have been craving one desperately! every day when i finally make it to work after two or so hours in transit, i walk by a patisserie and so badly want to reward myself for going to work. but then i resist and hope that my friend and i will take a break and get pastry. it has not happened lately. sad.

BUT i got my pastry tonight! i found a darling little boulangerie/patisserie on avenue simon bolivar and i bought myself dinner. a piece of quiche provencal and a 'tartelette aux fruits rouges." i love the literal translation for that - little tart of red fruits. my quiche was divine and i am making rich, delicious dark hot chocolate to go along with my red fruited tart.

if you all were on the edge about coming to paris, hasn't my raving about pastry changed your mind?