Day 5

Up early and able to shower with the door open, as Alex stayed on the barge with the London crew!

To school in the morning. Luckily the shoes and gel inserts seem to working well. Our class was in a smaller room, as Tuesdays a larger class has need of the main classroom. I do see where the other students are behind me, but there are many things that I still need to learn. Pour example, j'ai besoin de look up comment de pronounce est-ce que. I think I will look up a guide for French pronunciation rules, or ask Christine if she has one. Today, we conjugated appeler. The first e has an u sound in the infinitive. However, when conjugated in the present tense, the e takes a short e sound when the l is doubled, in the je/tu/il form. Thus, I call the house translates into j'appelle la maison.

We talked about things to do in Paris during June and July. I mentioned the summer solstice music festival, which happens on the 21st. And there are open air movies in July.

Back to the apartment after school. Stopped for a cheese and egg crepe on the way back. It needed a bit of heat to make it a more tasty. Did my homework for the day, then decided to head out to walk through the Champs Élysées before going to my Genius Bar appointment. Sadly, the camera shows only a black screen when opened. It happened quite suddenly, as I was emailing photos to myself. No bonks or anything to disturb the iPad. So, I ended up emailing all the photos to myself, just in case I need to exchange it for another. A bit disheartening for such a newly purchased item.

My new shoes are quite wonderful, especially with the gel pads on the balls of the feet. I feel like I am walking on squishy clouds. It was a bit icky at first, but when I take off my shoes, I can feel the pain of the blister, and I thank the Gods of Foot Technology that gel pass exist. Really, my feet feel better with my shoes on, than off. I think this is a first in my lifetime.

Took the metro out to the Clemenceau station along the Champs Élysées, and walked through the garden areas. Down through the Tuilleries, and over to the large fountain at the east end of the garden. Sadly, there were no children sailing boats in the fountain, but there was plenty of sunshine, and a few empty chairs. As I had plenty of time before my supposed Mac appointment. Lovely.

Finally got to the right entrance to the Carousel Louvre, and descended to see the inverted glass pyramid. Got to the Apple store, and it was packed. Got up to the Genius Bar. Tried to check in, but they couldn't find my appointment. Turns out my appointment is tomorrow. The bar was so busy that I wasn't even given the option of an appointment today.

Since the weather was so nice, I decided to make my way to the Jardin de Luxembourg. Slight detour to one of the Gilbert-something stores, as I got pulled in by some Paris books on sale. Both heavily discounted to about 10 euro. Decided to think on it for a night and reevaluate in the morning. Got over to the Luxembourg and started to wander around, when I felt a few drops fall on me. All of sudden, the blue sky seemed to have disappeared, to be replaced by a leaden gray canopy of clouds. Tossed around my options, then decided to return to the apartment for my jacket and umbrella. As I arrived to Place Maubert, I saw that the queue for the bakery was out the store. Decided I had to have a piece of that. Ordered a tartelette chocolat and a baguette. And the baguette was warm! Decided this merited some cheese, so I stepped over to the fromagere next door, and got a lovely creamy cheese with some spices on top (like a tart in and of itself), and got myself back to the apartment with a gleeful smile on my face. Bon appetite indeed! The tartelette was so richly delicious that I had to save more than half for later.

Finally, with jacket on and umbrella in hand, I took the metro to the southern end of the Luxembourg. It started spitting drops again. Really, it was quite lovely, since the pronounced dewiness kept so many people away, and I got to enjoy a lot of quiet. For some reason, I associate the Luxembourg with the final short in "Paris, Je T'aime." even though I know it's not the same place.

When I got back to the apartment, there were a few groceries on the bed, but no Alex. I didn't have to wait too long, until he came back with some more things. And made some excellent gnocchi for dinner! What a nice surprise! For my part, I like to cook, but only for dinner parties. I confess that I find cooking for myself to be boring, and lots of work. Not only do I have to do the cooking, but I also have to wash all the dishes. Really, I think I want people to appreciate my cooking and thank me for it. Somehow, I never seem to be able to thank myself enough. Anyway, the food was quite lovely, and I happily cleaned up all the dishes. This task was made easier because Alex bought dishwashing soap. Apparently I've been using hand soap, with dismal results.