Day 4- Sunday 30 May

I wore a hole in a sock today. I have never walked so much in my life.

So, trying to be a bit shorter for your attention spans, n'est-ce pas? Woke up, got out and went to the street market, and bought a kiwi and a box of strawberries, because I was told to try them. True to what I'd heard, they did seem to be sweeter than the ones that you got in the United States, but this may be because it's been a fair while since I've had one. The big thing we did today was a student group self-tour, where we followed directions given to us to see some more major monuments that we hadn't covered on the walking tour the day before. First, I made my group go to the street market, because unbelievably they hadn't been yet, and we shared a meat pastry, an apricot pastry, a chicken kabob and an unbelievably fresh piece of quiche that was amazing. Went to Notre Dame again, because the others hadn't been there, and then to Hotel de Ville, where in its courtyard a promotional event for the French Open [tennis] was being held; there was a large screen projecting it, temporary courts set up where you could wait in a long line to play a game of tennis, a kid's court and other smaller activities. It was really bizarre. After that, more walking around historic places that won't mean too much, got back to the hotel and found that the program director had dropped us off some raspberry pastries [haven't eaten mine yet, it's staring at me], then went out for dinner.

While a group member was using an internet cafe, I took a quick tour of the Luxembourg garden, which had one large pool and was surrounded by very stately houses, or possibly museums, it's hard to say sometimes. I think I liked it better than les Tuileries, though it did not have a round pond with kids floating sail boats in it. More people were playing tennis in this park, some crazy good older guys and an eight-year-old girl who kicked butt. Then, dinner in a cafe about half-and-half tourists and Frenchies, and this was fun; I had creme brule with raspberries in it and split a plate of escargot, and both were reaaaaally good, dudes. The creme brule had a stranged cooked sugar topping, and I'm told the inside is custard, but it tasted like pudding better than any pudding I'd had before, and the escargot was nice, like gum, you could just keep chewing it and wouldn't bite into any fat like you would find in beef or chicken, and it was flavored with garlic and something that made it lime green. Got a bit turned around coming back, no biggie, while finding the apartment that two of the students were going to move into, got back to the hotel and found that hole. Market food, pastry, escargot and creme brule; today was mostly a day of good food :)