a couple photos of the seine, and new shoes.

The weather here is gorgeous. The other day I went for a walk along the Seine; I had a lovely picture of the sun on the water, but I got so caught up in the frenzy of deleting over a hundred Loire photos from my camera that I accidently erased it. Oops.



I walked along the island that runs through the middle of the Seine for a fair distance. I was, in succession, surrounded by a mob of German tourists in backpacks, surrounded by a mob of French mothers pushing baby strollers, surrounded by a mob of Amerian tourists, and then, when I thought I was free of them, I walked right through a wedding-photo session. They were a very cute young couple, maybe 25, Asian, very sparkly in general; I couldn't figure out, though, why they were doing their wedding photos underneath a bridge. Later they drove by me in a giant black SUV piloted by two stern-looking old men. And then I ran up on the Statue of Liberty.



And crossed to the other side of the Seine and took a boat photo. Skye met a girl at one of her open mikes who lives on one of these boats; she apparently has stories about people coming to her parties, getting drunk, and falling in the Seine, which is probably the nastiest river to fall into, ever. At least it's not the Revolution and they're throwing corpses in it.



Printemps was perhap less successful than I'd have liked, but in addition to a headache I got these shoes. They are possibly the most ridiculous shoes I own. They're sold as "bath shoes," which probably just means that they're so shoddily made Printemps won't vouch for them holding up in anything but a shower. Oh well. Can we ignore how weird my feet look in this photo, and focus on how weird the shoes look in this photo?



Gosh they're bright. That's the imprint of my jeans in my leg from sitting on it funny, in case you're wondering why I look all wrinkly.

adventures in boot-buying.

My new boots! This picture is so funny-looking, but you try taking a picture of your own shins.

I am nothing if not efficient. I went out at 12:30, visited four shoe stores (one of them twice), and at 1:30 had bought these. And they were only 69 euros! Cheapest boots in Paris. The salespeople did give me funny looks when I asked for size 41. Once, I tried on a pointy-toed pair, and the 41 was just not happening with that toe, so I asked if they had a 42, and the woman stared at me in shock for a moment before she said, Those do not exist. Those are very big.

Then at the store where I finally bought these, I tried on a suede pair. Generally, from what I've seen of French shoe stores, you try them on yourself -- meaning, they have all the boxes sitting out, and you just grab it. Some places do not work this way, but as a rule French shoe stores are much more self-service than American ones. Anyway, so I got out the size 41s. A saleswoman came over and looked over my shoulder and asked me, Are you sure those are the right size? Because a 41 is very. big.

Yes. Yes it is. And yes they are.

I also finally got my host family a present -- chocolate (free samples for me! It was delicious) and flowers. No, I am not creative. Sue me. The florist told me what kind of flowers they were, and it sounded like "camellia," but I looked that up on Wikipedia and they definitely are not camellias. I have absolutely no idea, but they're pretty. And they're in a pot with soil, so they'll probably live a while. Hope the de Lassagnes like flowers, because they're stuck with these.