Paris, Part 2

I arrived on a Monday, which was somewhat unfortunate, since I had originally been planning on arriving on Sunday, when my gracious host would be home from work.  Since it was a Monday, I would be arriving while she was still at work, so she recommended I wait for her at a cafe near her apartment, where she would meet me when she got home from work.  So took the Roissy-Bus from the Airport (CDG) to the Opera Metro Station, where I took Line 8, arrived in the 7th Arrondissement, ordered a cafe at little restaurant right off the metro stop and waited, bleary-eyed, for her to arrive.  Soon enough, there she was! 

I hadn't seen Dawn in several years (since we met up in Boston, where she was studying a MIT--yes she's a smart one--and I was auditioning for grad school at NEC.  We had a great day in Boston!), but we were close childhood friends, so it was fun to see her in such an exotic locale.  Dawn took me back to her apartment, an adorable yet tiny studio in a beautiful French apartment building with a bakery at the bottom of it.  Dawn explained to me that as a foreigner in France, it is very difficult to find an apartment in Paris. Most places want references from other Parisians, which is obviously impossible if you've never lived in France before. So she had to live in an apartment essentially sublet from someone else, very far from her work, in a very expensive part of Paris (on the other hand, being an expensive part of Paris, also beautiful, central, and right near the Eiffel Tower, so don't feel too bad for her!). 

After dropping off my suitcase and freshening up, we met up with Dawn's friend from work (post-doc in something science-y, involving fluid dynamics I believe), Arthur, for dinner.  I think I had duck, but I couldn't swear by that at this point in time.  At any rate, it was a nice meal with a couple glasses of wine and some profiteroles with chocolate sauce for dessert (that I DO remember).  After our leisurely, Parisian meal, we meandered over to the Eiffel Tower and hung out for a while to catch it blinking on on the hour before heading home to crash.  The Eiffel Tower looks magical when it sparkles.