Ethan and Shruthi

This past week, our friends Ethan and Shruthi visited Paris. They got really lucky, because we had the first solid week of pretty good weather in months.

Last Sunday David rolled out of bed early and picked them from the airport. He brought them back to our aparment and we ate breakfast before heading into the city. On the way to the metro we took a detour through the market, picking out various pig parts and looking for strange vegetables.

We decided to take it easy on the jet-lagged and hit a big tourist spot first: the Champs-Elysées. The Charles deGaulle Etoile was surprisingly quiet, so were able to get some good pictures of the Arc de Triomphe. Then we strolled down the street to the Renault restaurant for lunch on the terasse.

Next we walked the rest of Champs-Elysées to the Place de la Concorde to see the fountains. Then Dave had to get ready for his trip, so we gave Ethan and Shruthi a few Paris books and parted ways.

On Thursday night I met Ethan and Shruthi in the city again for dinner at Comptoir Gastronomie. They were really pleased with their meals and I was happy to share my favorite duck place.

This is where I learned that Ethan had tried pigeon the night before. And liked it! Wow, I haven't had the guts for that gastonomic adventure yet.

After dinner we walked to the nearby St. Eustache for photos with the big cement head.

Then on Friday, after I had picked up Dave from the airport, we all met for dinner in another place that Dave and I had tried and liked earlier. Although Dave and I were a bit late, and Ethan and Shruthi got a bit lost, so we met later than originally intended. And while Dave and I were looking for them, we were delayed by at least 15 minutes by the swarm of rollerbladers that pass through the city every Friday night. It's really fun to watch if you're not in a hurry to get anywhere.

Anyway, dinner was late, but we didn't mind, except that when we finally left we had missed the last metro trains of the night. Walking back to their hotel was feasible for Ethan and Shruthi, but Dave and I were more than a reasonable walk from home.

The choices were Velib bikes or a cab, so we took the cheaper-and riskier-route of renting bikes. We took bikes from the Notre Dame, along with other late-night train-missers, and pretty much guessed our way north to Levallois-Perret. The ride took about 40 minutes, but it was a mild evening, and traffic was light, so we enjoyed it.

At the border of Paris and Levallois-Perret we easily spotted a station to drop off our bikes. And-this was the risky part-there were available spots. Whew! After that it was only a short 20 minute walk back to the apartment. Not too bad, and much better than a cab.