vivi and squishy do paris

After three days of frenzied tourism, I am back, and Squishy should be safe in her bed back in the states by now. I've got over 60 pictures in my camera to wade through, and plenty of stories to bore you with about all the stuff we did. Instead of one long windy post, I'll do a synopsis, and will expand on a lot of these in the next few days. So, without further ado, Dispatches From France presents What I Did on My Parisian Vacation:

Tuesday

• Arrived by train to Gare de l'Est. Struggled through two metro stops to our hostel in the 12 arrondessment
• A Little Research Goes A Long Way: found out the hard way that the Catacombs are closed until May and the Museum of the Middle Ages is closed on Tuesdays
• Spent two hours playing on the Eiffel Tower; discovered batteries in camera are dead and will have to wait for nighttime to recharge
  
• Back to the hostel, dragged the luggage up four flights of stairs (there's a reason it's called a YOUTH hostel)
• Dinner in "Little Athens" aka the Latin Quarter
• Picked up a couple of books at Shakespeare and Co.
• Moseyed over to the Hotel de Ville to gawk at the neon before heading back to the hostel
• Stayed up late chatting with Mark (Boston), Nik (most recently London), Kate (Oz) and Alex (New Zealand) before retiring to our room, shared by an Argentinian and a Taiwanese

Wednesday

• After a breakfast of hard rolls and cafe au lait, head back out into the world
• Spent a couple of hours at National Museum of the Middle Ages, home of The Lady and the Unicorn, dodging school groups at every turn
  
• Back to the Latin Quarter to eat lunch at "Au Bon Couscous," where we didn't eat couscous
• Visited the very interesting archeological crypt at Notre Dame
• Scooted up to Pere Lachaise, where we were dragged around by a very strange tour guide and were nearly locked in
• looked at the funky fountains at the Pompidou Center and popped inside for a quick meal at the cafe on the first floor
  
• took our time heading back to the hostel, where Squishy repacked and I hung out with the aforementioned folks whilst sipping on a beer bought from a coke machine since the shop on the corner was closed before heading up to find two new roommates, both from Japan

Thursday

• dragged all our luggage down to the "secure luggage room" (the basement), as we had to be out of the room by 10am
• window shopped around the 12th before meeting Auntie M and Jason for an early lunch (which was really really lovely - thanks for coming over you two!)
  
• Having learned from our mistakes, we'd hired a taxi to come take us to the airport
• While waiting for Squishy to check in, asked a nearby security guy (in French, thankyouverymuch) how to get to the train, who in turn asked how much blue jeans are in the states (I said $30 - $40, but really, hell if I know)
• Hugged on Squishy (that'll be Southern for "embraced warmly") and wished her a safe trip, and headed on to the train, back to Gare de l'est, and made it in time for the 3:15 back to Troyes
  

I'm very sorry to report that we didn't do any shopping for the soldes, as we were far too into tourist mode to try to tackle hoards of fighting women over shoes. Sorry I let you down, Coquette.

More details and pictures to come....