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Thursday Afternoon and Evening in Paris

We started our walk on the Ile, making the obligitory stop at Bertillion to see what ice cream flavors they currently have (yes, mint and blood orange where avaiable!). We made our way past Notre Dame, to edge of the Latin Quarter and found Rue St. Germain and walkted in the direction of my sister’s school. After picking up a few creps (sucre and banana nutella) from a recomended street vendor, we walked around peaking our heads in to cute boutiques and shops. We ended up settling at a Hemmingway favorite, Cafe de Flore, for some tea (which, mind you, was 6 euros a pop — the Hemmingway/Sarte tax). After my sister left for class, Ami and I continued around the general St. Germain area, doing more window (and acutal) shopping.

We walked to Le Senat and observed a protest happening, with riot police, molotov cocktails and the works. It was acutally a bit insane. The riot police, with the shields and all where moving around, not acutaly doing any riot protection, but the streets were blocked off by barracades and by officers. The protesters, from best we can gather, were exploding things, throwing glass bottles at the police, and trying to pull down the gilded fence around the senate house. After getting bored of watching the police “keep the peace”, we made our way to St. Suplice and were greeted by a Madagascar-ian vendor fair, where people were selling all sorts of goods from that country. And why wouldn’t you see that, right? It’s Paris after all.

We met my sister and her friend back at Cafe de Flore and walked for what seemed like ages towards the Marais to get falafels. We arrived at L’as de Falafels, a Israeli falafel joint, which hands down, unquestionably, served the best falafels I have ever had. Today, I think we’re going to continue to explore the Marais, go get North African food for dinner, then hit up a club in the evening.