Sunday & Monday - we'll just write them off...

I manage to sleep in until 10:30 am - the alarm clock isn't working - it's been 9:30 for the past 3 1/2 days. Oh well. Skies are overcast - the plan is to go to 1e and find the store on rue de Rivoli to exchange my voucher for my Metro Pass. FYI - it's cheaper to buy in advance, you just have to print the voucher and bring it with you. After my March trip I felt like a pro on the Metro. Unfortunately, I haven't quite been able to get my bearings so far on this trip. I went to purchase 2 tickets, since I wasn't sure how many I would need to get to rue de Rivoli. The total was 3 Euros 70. I only had a 20 euro bill, so I went ahead and fed it into the machine - and in return received 2 Euros 10 back. Sigh - that was a costly mistake. But on I go - it isn't until I'm in front of the store to redeem my voucher for my Metro pass that I realize I've left the voucher back at the apartment. Ugh! 
On my way back to the apartment I stop to show the Metro Attendant my receipt showing that I got shortchanged. He tells me I have to go back to the station where I bought the tickets to get a refund. I make my way back there, since I have to go to the apartment anyway, long story short - the manager arrives, speaks decent English and is happy to help me out. Now who said the French aren't hospitable? In the meantime, I've also realized that I don't have two important phone numbers with me. 1) Jim Haynes for the secret dinner Sunday night and 2) my colleague Brenna who happens to be in Paris at the same time and we're going to meet up, when I call her. Ugh!

Luckily - I buy a phone card call my mom in Ohio and walk her through accessing my Yahoo to locate the numbers. The afternoon has slipped away and I'm now preparing for the infamous Jim Haynes dinner. In a nutshell, this American Ex-pat who's been throwing these Sunday night dinners in his Paris salon (aka home) for the last 30 years. Just email ahead of time, get on the list and you’re in. Sounds like a plan. He even has a great website www.jim-haynes.com and a TV. commercial about his Sunday night dinners http://www.aftereight.co.uk/meet_jim/, which have become known worldwide.

All very cool, unfortunately it's a bit (a lot) overrated. Basically, we get there and find 79 other people crammed into his small one-bedroom apartment like sardines. The menu is American Thanksgiving dinner, which was nice, but eating while standing up, in a sauna with 79 other people isn't what I was envisioning. Oh well, we tried it. I paid my 25 Euros, kissed Brenna and Morgan Au revoir and headed for home.

I returned home at midnight wet (it began to rain) and annoyed, only to wake up Monday morning with a resurgence of my cold from the week before. :-( No bueno. I decided to take Monday to recuperate and that did the trick. I'm definitely in my groove again with Paris. Stay tuned for today's activities to follow.

Sorry no photos...yet.