Day two in Paris and we have settled into a routine. Lance goes to lectures all day and Kristin runs around Paris and eats cheese. Army, I forgive you for Anniston, Alabama!
Actually I sat in on the morning welcome briefs and lunch. All I will say is this is quite an impressive group of people he is joining. Nope, I'll say a little more. There wives are freakin awesome! Almost every spouse I've met has that little gleam in their eye which seems to say, "Sure I'm game for anything! Let's go!" And then they actually say it and then we hit the road.
Jayne and I went to see our friend Valerie at her apartment - amazingly, some FAOs are unfortunate enough to get Europe and live in Paris rather then Africa and live w/e there is malaria. We knew her from Monterey and Ft. Gorden so it was great to touch base again. It was also great to see the Paris-themed baby quilt I made for her son, Charles, up on the wall.
The four of us (me pushing Charles)went to a few of Val's favorite grocery stores and marveled at all the fancy (and smancy, they have it all here) brands. Quick au revoirs at 5:00 and Jayne and I were metroing it back to the hotel. By 6:00, all of us were in taxis and at 6:30 having a social at the Ambassador's residence. A word about the Ambassador's residence: "Wow." It reminded me so much of Versailles with huge mirrored walls and gold leaf decorated wall reliefs. It was quite impressive. We didn't get to explore the house very much as we were all doing the "And where are you from?" thing in what appeared to be a main reception hall.
Later, the smart ones among us went back to the hotel and went to bed. The rest of us (and don't cha know I dragged Lance along to this) went out to dinner at a nice little restaurant close to the Louvre. Not on the more affordable Latin quarter side though. We all had a laugh wondering at $35 champagne cocktails and making fun of each other's orders and generally having a great time. Lance had French Onion Soup and, as I knew what that tasted like and wanted something more adventurous, I had foie gras. Yeah, I know! But when am I ever going to be in Paris again and have this opportunity? It felt so wrong but tasted so good. Here's a picture:
Honest to goodness, my thought just before eating my first bite was that I have eaten Spam and Veal so my food karma rating is pretty low to begin with. Might as well try something new! Glad I did but, like the unfortunate things we ate on a whim in Korea, I don't think I need to order it again. So then we WALKED BACK TO THE HOTEL which I toughly encouraged and totally regretted because I was wearing lovely formal shoes. It was a riot though, the group us of tumbling down the empty-ish streets of Paris, telling war/shopping stories from the last 6 months. Again, a fun group of people.
And then we arrive at the hotel safely. And then we went to sleep quickly. That was day two.
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