MaryMD

Today we had to move out of our garret by eleven in the morning, so we all showered up (though not together) in our surprisingly forceful and surprisingly hot shower, and then carted our things over to Geoff's to stash for the day. To repay Geoff for his generous storage, we took him to brunch at the little cafe at the end of our street where we had our first meal in Paris and we all got croque Madame. Croque Madame is the same as a croque Monsieur, but with a fried egg on top. Croque Monsieur is a ham sandwich with the outside of the bread smothered with cheese and baked. It's fabulous. While we were at the cafe a police music video featuring a very young Sting was playing. Inexplicably. My parents have had ... read more

Nice slow morning today. The decision had been made yesterday that the weather was too iffy for a day trip to Giverny, and it certainly started out cold and cloudy. The hope had been to go to a few museums, but upon consultation with our museum passes over an astonishingly large pile of pastries, it seems that most museums, and certainly the ones we'd been hoping to see are closed on Tuesdays. While contracting type two diabetes we consulted the pass for places that were open on Tuesday, and landed on the museum of art and metier which had a church I had hoped would interest mom (not, as it turned out) and exhibits about the history of communication, construction, scientific instruments and other innovations. I especially enjoyed the part where they have the first iPod, ... read more

Good god I love the bread in Paris. The bread in italy was like something scraped off a homeless person and left in the sun to rise by comparison. I've been eating so much of it, however, than I'm in danger of having no clothes left that fit, so this morning, after waking up to basically both my parents sitting on my feet, we had a healthy breakfast of fruit and yoghurt. I have adopted the French custom of heating milk before adding it to coffee, and it seems to infinitely improve the taste somehow. I will probably keep it up once I'm home. During breakfast dad read to us about Luka Rocco Magnotta, a Montreal porn star who is the main suspect in the case of a murdered Concordia student who was dismembered and then ... read more

Woke up in Paris this morning to the devil chuckle. The devil chuckle is the sound our neighborhood crazy person makes. I've only heard her through the window, never seen her. She moans, and then chuckles like a possessed doll from 1952. And no, unfortunately it is not a nice French "hon hon hon" kind of laugh. Oh and also woke up to my dad sitting at my feet quietly working on his computer. I sleep in the one main room that isn't the bedroom, so if I don't wake up I become the snoring, drooling middle of the room morning entertainment, like a brain damaged wolverine. While I finished posting the blog I was supposed to have finished the night before, the parents went out to get pastries, and I must commend them on a ... read more

Today we left the lovely Torri in sabina for Florence, Milan and Paris. We got an early start and hugged Geoff goodbye until we'll be seeing him in Paris on Friday. The drive back to Florence to return the rental car and catch the train to Milan was mostly uneventful, though our attempts to avoid tolls was thwarted by the fact that those routes would be so much longer. Tolls are a little scary here, the first step is the first toll, where you have to go to the correct lane to get a ticket. Then you hold on to the ticket until the next toll station, where you hand it to a surly person and pay. And of course, we were slowed down by having to get brie and ham baguettes from the wonderful rest ... read more