Day 9

crème de marrons.

Wait ... What?

Everything that I just typed into the note, and thought I copied? Well, I actually deleted it. All that poped up was creme de marrons. Boo! The retelling will have to wait until tomorrow.

Crazy morning, trying to make calls to Medtronic. During the middle of the night, I happened to check my blood sugar. 150 = great. Tried to enter it into my pump. Got to 150, and it wouldn't stop. Kept scrolling upward. The only was I could exit was to take out the battery. I kep doing this for about 15 minutes, until I got the message, "button error." No kidding. As if I couldn't have figured out that the buttons were going crazy. Ended up getting out my spare pump, which is a really stripped down one, setting it up, and going back to sleep.

In the morning, I called Medtronic. Firstly, I loathe talking on the phone. There are certain exceptions, but they are few and far between. Second, I loathe trying to dial internationally. Third, the phone would occassionally go silent, even though the call timer was still ticking on. Needless to say, when Parisian Home looks at the phone bill, they are probably going to wonder why I made so many calls to the same number, in such a short period of time. Anyway, finally got the situation settled, and Lee said that they would send me a new pump. I gave him the apartment phone number (this took. A few times, until I was sure that I got all the dialing codes right), and told him to send it to the rental agency, since I don't know how to explain to a courier how to get to my place. That settled, I could finally get on to enjoying the Saturday.

We decided to go to Amiens. Well, that is, until we got to Gare du Nord, and found out that the train tickets cost 41 euro each. Fumbled about for ideas, until we found a McDonald's (I can hear you groaning) where we could use wifi. Had a light and flaky croissant. Only in Paris would Micky D's have a separate pastry section with edible pastries! Looking at the Paris map, we picked Bois du Vincennes as a viable option. Quick stop at an Italian market (on the way to the nearest Carrefort, totally missing the Franprix on the nearest corner) for lunch-able type things, and we were off.

Wandered through a charmingly overgrown section of the park until we got our bearings. Well, Alex got our bearings, and I just enjoyed the morning. Passed by fields where families played, and circumnavigated a small lake before settling on a bench to eat our sandwiches en pleine aire. Talked about church, which I wish was more universally open and less rigid.

More wandering, in the direction of the Chateau. Most times I have to take a second to differentiate between chateau and chalet. Large and impressive on the outside, especially with the grassed-over moat, it was rather cold and grim inside the walls. The restrooms, on the other hand, we're glorious, after trekking through the bushes. The sun came out for a bit, and we enjoyed it for as long as we could. Like Little Miss Muffet, I was visited by a spider, which I quickly flicked away.

Over to the catacombs, but we were ten minutes too late for the last entry. However, we got ourselves to the Cimiterre Montparnasse, and hunted grave sites. Satre and de Beauvoir. Sonia Sontag. Baudelaire. Tried to find Man Ray and Guy de Maupassant, but they eluded us and remained undiscovered. Did happen across a rather serious looking Asian guy, who asked us to take a photo of him with a grave. The inhabitant thereof was Alekhine, a famous chess player. The guy was passing through Paris on the way to somewhere else for work, and staying with family. Quite adorably geeky and earnest. I noted that it was a shame that he didn't have chess pieces for a game, since the grave had a blank chessboard carved on the top. He got very enthusiastic, until Alex noted that it would be considered rude. But really, why not? I read once about a man who wanted, instead of a tombstone, a bench placed under a shady tree, with his and his wife's names carved onto it. A lovely invitation to sit, and contemplate. I'd like to think that Alekhine would have wanted people to pay tribute to his love of the game. Apparently Alekhine was not a natural prodigy, but studied intently for 15 years, and eventually beat the grand masters.

Also ran into and extremely helpful older gentleman. Or maybe I should say that he was extremely eager to be helpful. I understood about two in five of every word he uttered. He wanted to point us in the direction of graves that he thought were particularly interesting. When we would agree, and start to walk, he would then point out something else. He "helped us" for about 20 minutes. Really, he was very nice and one of the more gregarious and cheerful people that I've met in Paris.

Back to the apartment for a brief respite, and then hunger moved us. Since Alex didn't want to go to a restaurant where there was a lot of "faffinf about" over three courses, we checked out a few options. Then, he decided that he'd rather cook. I agreed, as long as I bought the ingredients. So, we retraced our steps to the Franprix, and loaded up a basket; Alex with cookables, I with items from this list. http://cowgirlchef.com/2010/10/19/paris-supermarket-souvenirs/ (darn trying to link to something on this iPad)! Because if I'm going to bring souvenirs, I'd better try them first, right?

Alex cooked a marvelous meal. The best I've had on this trip so far. Salad with freshly stewed tomatoes and squash, apple, cucumber, goat cheese, and almonds. Chicken with lemon rind cut into the skin ,topped with tomatoes and onions, in a sauce a could sop with bread for days. Leeks and mushrooms cooked in creme fraiche. Mashed potatoes (my one contribution to the making of dinner was peeling the potatoes with a knife, as there was no veg peeler)' seasoned with grainy mustard. I was suddenly very envious of all the friends who live near Alex, and can pop over for dinner on any given night.