Strange days indeed...

I've been MIA for a little while. Mainly because I actually went and did some real research this week. And while that's good news for me, it's not all that thrilling to blog about, so I haven't updated in a while. That, and I really haven't had a lot to talk about.

However, I went out and attempted to do things today, and it turned out to be a bit of an odd day, with some highs and lows and just flat out weird things happening. The more I thought about it, the more I think today was just an appropriate cap to a kind of strange week.

Some of the highlights and lowlights this week:

Parisian weather. Holy mood swings, batman. Starting as early as last weekend, the weather was, from what I can gather, unseasonably warm. Tuesday felt like June, at almost 70 degrees. Then the bottom dropped out and it was in the 40s and rainy (which to me sounds more like what I'd expect of Parisian weather in March). Today was predicted to be sunny and around 50, which made me think that going out and walking around would be a good idea. It's been in the mid-40s again though, and cloudy, which makes it feel even cooler. And it's supposed to be below freezing tonight. More of a "stay in bed" type of day (which, incidentally, I did for most of the day).

Another lowlight... I discovered my freezer doesn't keep things frozen all that well. This came to my attention Thursday when I bought a container of Haagen Dasz Vanilla Caramel Brownie ice cream (to soothe my sore throat, of course), and it had all melted by Friday. I found this quite odd (and distressing... all that ice cream, wasted!) as my other frozen food seemed to be staying frozen. Or so I thought. Flash forward to tonight when I opened up a frozen steak filet that I planned to have for dinner, and was greeted by the smell of rancid meat. Vom. On the plus side, at least now I think I know why my refrigerator was smelling a little funny...

Still, it hasn't been all bad. As I mentioned, I actually went and did some research in the Archive Center at the Musee d'Orsay, so yay for me. And the real feather in my cap was that I managed to get in on Friday and get through the afternoon without resorting to speaking English with anyone there! Score! And I'm starting to find my way around a little easier too. I don't (always) have to stop and look at the maps in the Metro stations to figure out which direction I'm supposed to go, and I'm getting a little more comfortable with squeezing into packed cars like sardines with everyone else in Paris and not falling over when the train starts to move.

So this brings me to today, which was full of it's own highlights and lowlights. I had big plans for today... well, bigger than just sitting around in my apartment doing laundry. I had planned to go to Gobelins, one of the old textile manufacturers and a patron of Redon's in the early 1900s. This is apparently still an active manufacturer, but they have a gallery where they display their collection. However, after looking at their website, it said the gallery is only open when there is a special exhibition... and the current special exhibition is "Thrones." (Not "A Game of Thrones," which would be awesome. Just "Thrones," which is significantly less awesome.) And the picture on the website just showed a line of chairs set up. Thrilling. So I decided to save the 6 euros from there and put it toward the admission fee at the Musee du Moyen Age. Normally, I wouldn't really care about the middle ages, but I've walked past this museum about 7 times now since I've been here, and they have The Lady and The Unicorn tapestry, which I've liked since I was a little girl.

I had also planned on trying to get over my fear of eating by myself in restaurants and going to the brasserie across the street because I've been dying for some quiche. I had built myself up and was totally ready to just walk right in, sit right down (hehe), order myself a quiche lorraine, and spend a few hours being Parisian. None of this happened, however, because I didn't actually get out of bed until noon, and by 2 pm, had just gotten out of the shower. And since the museum is only open until 5:45, I didn't want to spend my whole afternoon at a restaurant and then have to rush through the museum. So instead, I headed out and just grabbed a croque monsieur from one of the take-away stands nearby.

A quick side note... I've decided to become a croque monsieur connoisseur. Never in my life did I think I would crave a grilled ham and cheese sandwich like I do here. I remember learning about them in my high school French class and thinking, yuck... And I still don't particularly like ham. But there is just something about them. Simple comfort food at its finest (and the inspiration for my blog name!).

So, armed with my croque, I set off for the museum. But eating and walking is never fun, especially on the busy streets around here, so I quickly thought of some place I could go sit and eat, and then be on my way. After all, grabbing a snack and eating it in a park is just as Parisian as going to a cafe, right? I finally "settled" on the Place Dauphine, on the Ile de la Cite, where I could sit and enjoy my croque at a leisurely pace. There were only a few people there, so it was nice and quiet, and I sat on a little bench and ate and read an e-book for a bit. Now as nice as this was, I can imagine that 10 more degrees and sun would have made the experience much more pleasant. But it was enjoyable nonetheless.

However, time was a-wastin', so once I finished eating, I didn't want to linger for too long. And it turned out that I was a little farther from the museum than I had thought, but it was a nice walk. I got to stroll along the Seine and crossed over to the Left Bank at the Fontaine Saint-Michel, where - I kid you not - a brass band was playing Hey Ya by Outkast. This is part of the reason the Blvd Saint-Michel is becoming one of my favorite walks in Paris. Unfortunately, by the time I finally got to the museum, it was 4:00, and I didn't particularly want to spend 8.5 euros to spend less than 2 hours in the museum, so I just decided to skip it. That's right, I'm 0-2 on the day so far. Go me. But since I was over there, I wanted to stop at a Carrefour market nearby and pick up some groceries, and to see how it compared to the Carrefour city place closer to my apartment. So I took the Metro from the museum which took me basically right to the Carrefour. Such service.

Another side note. The platform at the Cluny-Sorbonne Metro is lovely. It has the usual posters and maps and things on the wall, but on the ceiling, it has mosaic decorations, and the names of famous French historical  figures inscribed, also in mosaic. Pretty cool. Although, I found Courbet and had to scoff.

When I got to the Carrefour, I was met with an impressively big grocery store. Unfortunately, it's probably too far away to go to regularly, but that's ok. I was able to get some cleaning supplies for the apartment and pick up some extra essentials. Like crepes. :) This is a money saving venture... I now have crepes that I can heat in the microwave, and slather with either raspberry preserves (for Becky), creme de marrons, or Nutella, and I don't have to spend 3-5 euros on them from the take-away stands. Hooray! I was also introduced to macarons, which are like meringue cookie sandwiches filled with buttercream or jam. Yum.

Afterwards, with groceries in tow, I headed back to the Metro station so I could get my perishables into the refrigerator (which does work, unlike the freezer). As I was waiting for the train a the platform, the weirdness began to pick up. First, I was messing with my bags and trying to put my credit card away when I glanced up just in time to watch an old man do a face plant on the platform. Now, because I'm a terrible person and didn't see what had exactly happened, I didn't do anything about it. And he got up and seemed to be fine. But it seriously seemed like he just fell over, face first. Strange.

Then I got on the train, and was followed on by some street performers, who started playing the accordion and singing to the car I was in. Special. They were nice though and the guy even stopped playing the accordion mid-song to let me out of the car when it got to my stop. Yay random Metro performers!

I was finally getting close to home so I could get my poor groceries put away, when I got stuck going up the escalator behind the slowest old man in the world. He was seriously walking right in the middle of the escalator so I couldn't get around him. I finally bolted past him when I got out of the station, and got to my apartment. I punched in the code to open the door and as I was going in, the same slow man was approaching, and opened the door to come in too. So apparently the slow man lives here. And not only that, he lives across the hall from me. And, despite being the world's slowest walker, he is apparently an avid jogger, because when I went to take my trash downstairs, I ran into him again as he was going out. Wearing white short, short, too-short jogging shorts.

Whew. I think I'm spending the rest of my night hiding out in here.

Stay tuned next week for.... OMG REDON EXHIBITION!!1