Soaking Up Paris

This past weekend was B's last one in Paris for a while.  So, naturally, we lived it up.

We biked all around the city, on Paris's new "take and leave" bike system, Velib.  I highly endorse it.  The seats were way more comfortable than those in Amsterdam where I walked like John Wayne for two days after riding them.  Plus, it's a cool vantage point of the city.  However, there are a couple negatives.  1 - Paris is not as bike oriented as some other cities in Europe (e.g. many of the bike lanes are also the bus lanes.  Not exactly comforting to hear a huge multi-ton bus rushing up behind you on Boulevard St. Germain).  2 - Velib doesn't accept American credit cards, so unless you have a European card with a chip in it, you are out of luck.  Just another example of the French not taking advantage of the money we are always trying to give them.

Speaking of that, B and I headed to the Hotel de Ville to go ice skating on Saturday.  At Christmas time, the city apparently puts up a temporary ice skating rink.  It was freezing out, but the sky was blue, the sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.  Perfect weather for ice skating (I should know, because in Texas we have outdoor ice skating rinks year round.  Ok.  So, that's not exactly true and I've never in fact ice skated outside, but it seemed like perfect weather. Ok?).  Anyway, despite the fact that I thought it was a perfect day for the potentially dangerous sport, the city of Paris seemed to think otherwise.  They have the rink all set up, but for some inexplicable reason it is not yet open to the public.  The city undoubtedly missed out on hundreds of people who would have paid a slight fortune to go ice skating on a beautiful December day just before Christmas in front of the Hotel de Ville with its huge Christmas trees.  Of course, this is France, and there is rarely a logical reason for anything so I don't know why I am surprised by the fact that it is not yet open.

Despite the disappointment of the closed ice rink, we had a great weekend.  Here are a few photos of our adventures...

We biked to the 16th arrondisement where you can view the Eiffel Tower from a hill.

We checked out the holiday displays at Le Bon Marche, a famous department store in Paris.

We waited in line in the Marais for...

this bit of awesomeness known as a falafel.

Ignoring the cold, we did what the locals did and ate our falafel right there on the street.

Then we just soaked up all the sights.

And decided to enlighten ourselves with some culture at the gardens of the Rodin Museum.  If you haven't been to the Rodin museum - GO!  The gardens are amazing and only cost 1 euro to access.  There are sculptures throughout, views of Paris, and flowers galore - all are breathtaking.

The Thinker resides in Rodin's garden.

Who needs someone else to take a photo of you in front of The Thinker when you have this handy extension on your camera?  Apparently these two tourists don't.

We also indulged in hot chocolate, coffee and a caramel tart one afternoon, a welcomed break from the freezing cold weather.

And finally, we gave in to our utter need to not eat bread, wine, cheese or anything coated in rich sauce and went to a sushi bar.  It was my first experience eating sushi from a bar with a conveyer belt that brings around different types of sushi that you just grab from the belt.  It was a lot of fun, and I learned one thing: if I ever want to open a sushi restaurant, I need to have a conveyer belt.  Why?  Well, because it's so exciting that customers don't realize how many plates they are really getting until they get the bill!