Bon vivant

Paris is magnifique and exhausting! We are walking everywhere and have seen Notre Dame, Saint-Chapelle, the Left Bank (although we got sidetracked by shopping and never made the DaVinci pilgrimage to Saint Sulpice), the Rodin Museum and the Picasso Museum, with the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, and the Eiffel Tower tomorrow. I really wanted to go to the Pompidou, but there's always next time. The thought of another museum may cause me to pass out.

Waistline be damned, I am eating everything and anything I want - rack of lamb, croissants, cafe au lait, bière blonde, you name it. The walking to and fro and climbing four flights of stairs to our flat is keeping my jeans from bursting open. The food here is absolutely incredible. The Marche across the street sells this great, inexpensive Côte du Rhone - I plan to bring home several bottles. Plus there is this great Moroccan food stand, from which emanate the most tantalizing smells. We served a tagine and a roast chicken from a rotisserie around the corner when Monica's friend Emilie and Andy came over for dinner. How do French people stay so thin?!

The only edible that has freaked me out so far were the live snails. Monica ordered them at a small restaurant near Emilie's house; someone told her they were cockles. After I tried one, I heard someone mention that they were not dead yet, but I chose to pretend the wine was hitting me hard and ignore it. I don't think I will ever eat mollusks ever again.

Tonight we went to this amazing Spanish tapas place - Caves St. Gilles. (forget Barcelona, this is the best!) I think we are still drunk. My Spanish came in handy with the waiter, even though it couldn't get us a table. No worries, being relegated to the bar didn't make a difference after a couple bottles of wine and once two platters of food arrived, one hot and one cold assortment. We practically licked the plates.