Paris Day 4: May 21st, 2009

Electricity was in the air, or so it sounded, when we awoke to a buzzing sound coming from the hallway at 4 AM. The fuse box was humming and they only way to make it stop was to flip the switch above the drawing that looked like a big battery and go back to sleep. In the morning nothing seemed to be off or affected by the switch being off, so off it stayed. Later in the day, I bravely and flipped it back on and it was silent. All seemed well, but as we learned the next day, after the same thing happened, we realized that the giant battery was ACTUALLY the hot water heater and that the buzzing was the thing being heated up at night. We found that out the hard way on Day 5 when there was no hot water for showers. But that is skipping ahead, because the rest of the day was still to come.

Today Jayme and I had our fancy girl date, while Cody, Salim and Gavin headed off for Men's Day. Jayme and I dropped them off for a canal ride (the same one Amelie skips stones on) ride that starts at the Bastille and goes right through the middle of the city up to the Parc de la Villette. There were Star Wars and Knights planned for later in the day as well.

Once we waved goodbye, Jayme and I started our mission to eat as many treats in one day as two women (one who is nearly 6 months pregnant) could. Please behold the list we accomplished:

1. Picked up salted caramels de Breton at the fresh market
2. Had a pre-breakfast snack of hot chocolate and a tartine avec confiture et buerre at a cafe.
3. Bought macarons, tart de citron, guillamettes, and two croissants. We promptly ate our croissants.
4. Walked to la museé de la poupeé, which was supposed to be open, but some surly guy smoking cigarette couldn't be bothered to tell us why it wasn't and instead sort of motioned to sign out front (which still said open) and said it was closed.
5. Walked to L'Ecritoire, to buy some lovely envelopes and things, and it too was closed, this time for renovation. It had better be open before I leave this town in 3 weeks!
6. Walked to Shakespeare and Company so I could look up the address Pierre Hermé and Laduree.
7. Walked to Patrick Roger and bought more caramels and some chocolate.
8. Stopped at a different office supply store and bought some lovely little notebooks.
9. Walked to Pierre Hermé and bought more macrons, some nougats and some hot chocolate powder for Jayme to bring home.
10. Stopped at a café on St. Sulpice and ate chevre on toast with salad. Had some macarons as dessert.
11. Stopped at a Fancy Perfume store and bought pefume for Jayme.
12. Headed back to the Marais and visited many stores, buying many lovely trinkets along the way.
13. Met back up with the boys and headed back to our apartment to have a lovely pasta dinner with wine and breasd and more treats for dessert.
14. Collapsed into bed, full, tired and happy.