Walking tour day

It's picture time!

Here we are in front of the Palais du Luxembourg, now the seat of the French Senate, which overlooks the famous Luxembourg gardens. I didn't bother taking a picture of them, though, because there's not much to look at in February. Paul (blue coat, backpack) told us that it would be beautiful in spring, and that little French boys would be sailing toy boats in the fountain. Precious!

That fugly skyscraper in the background is somehow visible from like everywhere in Paris. It was apparently built in the 70s before the anti-ugly-building laws, and it's one of the few skyline eyesores in the city.

The Pantheon, where the "great men of France" (and Marie Curie because she's just that cool) are buried. Paul was telling us a story about how the oldest French survivor of WWI (until recently there were two, age 110 and 112) was going to be invited to be buried there as a nod to his patriotism, but both of the men adamantly refused because they disagreed so strongly with the politics that brought France into the war. As Paul said, "Quite a political fervor, at over 100."

Would Phaedrus approve of this restaurant? (See Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.) We've been seeing these next to McDonalds (le MacDo!) a lot. That's Elizabeth, whom I met at the airport, posing in the picture.

Paul took us out for a group dinner on Thursday night. The restaurant was underground in this amazing 13-century building that was originally a church, hence the vaulted ceilings. For an appetizer I tried something called terrine de canard, which was kind of a firm pâté made of duck meat, served with pickles and eaten on baguette bread. The second girl from the left in the picture ordered an entrée that consisted of some sort of stuffed intestines. The brave among us tried a piece, and it wasn't bad. Mostly like bratwurst. P.S. If you're wondering about all the wine glasses, Paul definitely didn't order a limitless supply of red wine for the table.

This picture is mostly for Justin's ogling pleasure, since it was probably the best chocolate cake (gateau trois chocolats) that I've ever had. The spoon coming out of nowhere in the left of the picture is Erin putting some of her white chocolate mousse cake onto my plate for tasting.