Paris Part II

For Dan, our time in Paris was a series of bizarre and gross accidents. The first night I arrived, we got a restaurant recommendation from our hosts for dinner. The communication was rough. The French people don't seem to have great English, just enough to get by. The waiter had a difficult time understanding us, and we didn't quite understand the procedure. Finally we had literally pointed out what we'd like to eat without any idea what most of it was.

Dan was daring though, he saw escargot on the menu and jumped for it. Yep, snails. I get weirded out by shellfish, so I had no intention of trying escargot. When the food arrived, Dan was two utensils he was unfamiliar with. One was a poker, presumably for pulling the little guys out of their twisty homes, and the other was probably a holder-gripper-dealie. Dan, trying to fit in and be proper, tentatively attempted to grasp the snail. It immediately went flying out, bonked off the plate, and bounced down his dressy button-up. I stifled inappropriately loud laughter while he grabbed it. There was butter and pesto from the sauce all down his shirt. He pulled his napkin up awkwardly high to hide the obvious stains.

But that was just the first day. The second day we had another lovely dinner without any sacrifice of a shirt. As we walked home we got a gorgeous view of the Eiffel Tower. At the top of every hour, the whole tower lights up and the lights sparkle. It's so gorgeous. We stood gazing at the sparkle, and shared a romantic kiss. In the middle of this lovely moment, Dan looks down and proclaims "I'm standing in shit!" He had stepped in a fresh pile of dog poo. From then on his shoes stayed outside the apartment.

Yeah there's more! The NEXT day, we were on our way to do a little bit more sight-seeing. First we got some lunch, then we started walking along a path. We were feeling good because there were flowers all over, and our meal went really well (communication is improving, so is our French!). Then suddenly I hear a plop and Dan is looking stunned. He's searching himself, and he finds bird poop all down his leg. He wiped it off with leaves, and we continued on our way.

Despite the messy mishaps, Paris was lovely and we had a great time. I wish I could live in that city for a year and learn French. The ambiance is just amazing. Our next trip will be around Sweden with my parents in May, then to Norway in July with Dan's parents!