When did I become a sappy, romantic fool?

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Geo: 48.8567, 2.35099

Took a short walk along the waterfront. I would have liked to walk for longer, but it was too cold. Grabbed a huge kebab for lunch. It was quite tasty except for one thing - the bastards forgot the yogurt sauce!!! That's the best part! On more than one occasion, I have dreamed of bathing in doner yogurt sauce ... while eating gelato ... I wonder if doner sauce would make a good gelato flavour? Oh, what a fool I am to be thinking of such silly things - of course it would be good!!!

I also finally tried the chestnut puree/vermicelli. It was served with crumbs of some sort of dried cream. Bad. Definitely not worthy enough to be made into a gelato flavour. For food, getting its own gelato flavour is actually quite an honour. It's comparable to winning a Grammy or an Oscar. In fact, I would rather be made into a gelato flavour, instead of winning a Grammy or Oscar. I imagine I would taste like a mix of won tons, rice, soy sauce, and all the flavours of gelato I have ingested so far (too many to count).

Off to the airport - I had forgotten to pick up a fridge magnet in Switzerland, so I bought one at the airport. As to be expected, the airport prices were higher than the already obscene prices in the rest of Switzerland. The flight was rather uneventful.

I arrived in Paris and ... ahhhhhh ... like my return to London, it felt like only yesterday that I was here. After all that I have seen in my past three trips to Europe, London and Paris are still some of my favourite places. Perhaps a slight edge can be given to Paris.

I bought a carnet of 10 metro tickets - I don't want a repeat of two years ago when I destroyed my body by walking around Paris far too much. With all these tickets, I have no excuse to NOT take the metro.

The first sight that greeted me as I stepped out of the metro station was the Louvre. I smiled and thought to myself "I'm home baby!!!". I checked into the hostel - it has a great location, but is kind of dumpy. I also wish that they had toilet seats. All I know is that like all men, I don't have the best aim. I am NOT sitting on that!!! There's also a terrible chemical/disinfectant smell everywhere. It reminded me of the days I spent in an insane asylum babbling about gelato and Spanish women.

I had emailed Naoual and Caroline (Parisian girls I met in Prague - see blog entitled "The Sausage Party Finally Ends!!!", for further details) a few weeks ago to see if they wanted to meet up for a drink. We were supposed to meet up tomorrow, but I said that I would call Naoual when I arrived, to finalize the details. She suggested that we meet up that night instead ... I have to admit that while I wanted to come back to Paris to visit the city, I also really wanted to come back and see if there was a shot for anything to happen between us. Honestly, I was hoping that Caroline wouldn't show tonight so that I could spend some time alone with Naoual, and get to know her a little bit better. What is it with me and these grand gestures I seem to do in Europe? Going halfway around the world to find a Spanish girl, going to Paris to find another one ... it must be the heat and the gelato.

I grabbed dinner before meeting her. Two years ago, I had the most amazing cheese penne at Pizza Oskian (a recommendation from my friend Kelly, who had gone to Paris just before I did). I've tried making it myself, but it's never the same!!! I hoped to taste it again, so that I could figure out their secret. The place was pricier than I remembered.

It was a great feeling sitting there and waiting for my food. My first ever dinner in Paris was here, and it felt like I was coming home for a familiar meal. It doesn't sound like anything special, but after over 90 days on the road, small things like this can actually be quite meaningful.

I started with a warm chevre salad - placed on triangles of bread, broiled, and then placed atop greens and tomatoes. Very good. The baguette was crap, like last time. In fact, it probably was the same baguette and had been left out to go stale for the past two years.

As I choked on the dry baguette, I anxiously awaited the penne. If I can't figure it out this time, I will submit a sample to a lab, and have them run a spectral analysis to determine its components. It finally arrived and ... it wasn't the same!!! Noooooooo!!!! What happened??? Did they change the recipe??!!? How could they??!??!?

I felt so dejected as I left the restaurant. I checked the menu posted outside - I had ordered the wrong penne!!!!! Why? Why??? WHY!?!??!??! I am such a fool! The feeling I had at that very moment was like the feeling you had when the twist in the "Sixth Sense" was revealed. I felt like a character in an episode of "The Twilight Zone". Oh, the horror!!!!

Off to meet Naoual - perhaps the sight of a cute Parisian brunette would make me forget the horrific event that had just occurred. I was very excited to see her again - I met her at a metro station near her apartment, and immediately noticed that she was as cute as ever! It turned out that Caroline was busy ... just like I had hoped!

We wandered around a little bit and found a place for a drink. We did some catching up, but that didn't take long - we only really knew each other for a few hours before meeting again today. The smoke in the restaurant started to bother her eyes, so we went out for a walk. We walked all over town - I've seen almost all of "tourist" Paris before, but it was extra special tonight because I had my own private (and very cute) tour guide to tell me what everything was.

Paris is a great city for wandering around aimlessly, especially at night. When the sun goes down and the moon rises, Paris has a timeless and classic beauty. It's difficult to describe with mere words - it's something that you have to experience for yourself. At that point I couldn't say it was a magical night - but I was enjoying my time with Naoual and found many attractive qualities in her.

I walked her to her apartment and we paused in the building's doorway. I don't know if it was the streetlamps or the stars, but the way the light both subtly illuminated and cast shadow across her delicate features ... wow ... the warmth of her smile made the cold imperceptible that night ... sigh ...

At that moment I wanted nothing more than to lean down and kiss her gently on the lips. And if this were a movie, that's what would've happened, but this is the real world! Despite getting a few mixed signals that night, once we reached her place, I was quite sure that friendship was all that she was after. It was decided that I'd call tomorrow to set up dinner with her and Caroline. We said goodbye and I was off.

I glanced at my watch as I briskly walked to the metro - it was 12:45. I was pretty sure that I would miss the last train; of course, I knew that would happen when I offered to walk her home. I figured it would be worth it just to see if we had a shot at anything more than friendship - and in the end, it was still worth it. Despite the evening turning out differently than I had hoped for (and having to walk 30 minutes back to the hostel), the night still wound up being magical, after all.

Paris is a unique place - what makes it so special is that there are so many amazing things, and magical moments waiting to be discovered. They can be quite unexpected, and you never know where you might find them. Sometimes, they can even be found in the doorway of an old apartment building ....

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Photos

a
The warm chevre salad. If you look closely, the salad looks like the face of a fly, with the chevre being the two eyes, and the tomato being the mouth. Perhaps the chef is a wannabe abstract artist. Or perhaps I had too much wine that night!

b
The cheese penne. The WRONG cheese penne. It might've been good, I suppose. But after my disappointment of getting the wrong dish, anything would've tasted like crap!

c
The pyramid entrance to the Louvre.

d
The Louvre.

e
The problem with wandering aimlessly is that you end up getting lost. I gave Naoual a hard time about being a Parisian, and needing to consult a map to figure out where the heck we were. Hmmm ... perhaps I should stop making fun of women that I'm interested in? Oh, who am I kidding? That's like me giving up gelato - it'll never happen!