les vacances

I am officially on spring break. Easter break, actually; it strikes me as somewhat odd that France, being such a resolutely secular country, insists on calling this les vacances de Paques. Anyway, I have two weeks. From Tuesday to Saturday I'll be in Barcelona, and from Sunday to the next Saturday Mom will be here. I'm allowing myself to actually feel like I'm on break now, because I finished my European Union paper -- twelve pages in French in a subject that is totally new to me, no paper will ever be hard again. Actually I still have to do my footnotes etc, but today I'm celebrating. I.e., Skye and I are going shopping. There's this semi-legendary French department store called Printemps (fittingly, "spring") that we have to check out. Obviously.

The weather is ridiculous -- mid to high sixties and sunny all week. (Here. In Barcelona, it's supposed to rain, Tuesday through Friday. Oh well.) There are a bunch of museums I want to go to (Picasso museum, museum of medieval archaeology, the Orangerie, where Monet's waterlily paintings are), but I think they're all going to be closed Sunday and Monday because of Easter. How inconvenienced I am.

What I really want is a sugar crepe. I am addicted, and the crepe stand near my house has been closed for a week. These people are not allowed to take a vacation right now, I need crepes! Now if you'll excuse me. Perhaps there are some crepe stands over by Printemps.