Paris 2005: Day 2

During our conversation the previous night Laurent said he had some more Christmas shopping to do the next morning, so we decided to meet in the afternoon. I planned on spending the morning at Les Puces de Paris -Saint-Ouen, a huge flea market in a less than savory suburb of Paris. Laurent was a bit apprehensive about my decision to go there, but it was the one thing I'd researched and planned several weeks prior to the trip.

I woke up early and had breakfast at the hotel, and then headed up on the metro. I actually got there quite early and many of the stalls hadn't opened yet, so I roamed about in circles as the stalls opened up. There was truly amazing furniture there, but as I wasn't in the market for anything heavy, I just admired it and walked on. After a couple of hours of roaming, I walked into this hole in the wall second hand clothing stall and ran smack dab into the most. awesome. Gucci shoes ever. They were 50€ and I managed to talk the woman down a whole 5€ *eyeroll*. Anyway, with my gorgeous shoes stowed safely away in a blue grocery store bag, I headed back to my hotel. My friend Laurent called me just then and I told him about my wicked awesome purchase, which he promptly suggested was a fake. Bastard. What do you think?

Anyway, back at the hotel I took a quick nap and then got ready for my first ever meeting with Laurent.

Laurent is my first and oldest internet friend. Sometimes circa 1999 I was sitting in my apartment in Toronto, planted in front of the computer and roaming the internet. You know, much like right now! Except for it being dial up. Anyway, my ICQ beeps and I get a message from someone named Laurent, from France. Those were still the days where I was scared of the internet stalkers and such, being utterly convinced that somehow if I answered people from Toronto, they'd find out who I was and show up knocking on my door, so I never used to answer messages from people I didn't know. For some reason, the fact that Laurent was overseas and probably would drown on the swim over, I answered. Now that I think back on it, I think he even started his message with a "Shalom", which made me think he was Israeli. We got to chatting and chatted for several hours over a few days. We soon switched to email as back in those (dark) days, you had to pay for the internet according to usage.

We've stayed in touch on and off over the past 6 years, updating each other with our lives and getting to know each other, so I was stupid excited about meeting him FINALLY.

At abour 3pm I got a call from downstairs and rushed down to the lobby. Yay! Laurent was so great! The little bugger would not let me snap his picture, so please take it on my authority that he is gorgeous and funny and clever and soft spoken and entirely lovely altogether. Isn't it nice when your internet friends don't turn out to be the freaks you anticipate?

Anyway, we hopped in his little car and drove off to Montmartre, which is a touristy part of town, home to the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur and Place du Tertre, as well as a rich artistic history. As soon as we got out of the car, Laurent turned to me and asked: "Are you a sporty girl?". After a few more steps the reason for his questions became clear. You have to climb about eleventy zillion steps to get up to the church.

Seeing as I was starving we stopped into a little restaurent at the bottom of the stairs. While we were waiting for my order (Laurent wasn't hungry) he whipped out a little metro map of Paris and started marking it up with all the places I needed to visit during my stay. I tucked into a nice steak and then we shared a chocolate fondant. At this point, a developing theme of making fun of my coffee consumption first reared its ugly head, as well.

Energized by the first lick of food since my early breakfast, we hit the stairs, which Laurent insisted I had to take two at a time. I'm sure I made some sort of comment to the tune of "bite me" at this point, but I don't recall my precise phrasing. We got to the top of the stairs (not that bad) and I was treated to this view (click the pictures for a larger view):

After walking around for a bit inside the church we stepped outside and headed towards Place du Tertre, which is filled with all sorts of souvenir shops, cafes, and "artists" who try to get you to pose for a picture and then charge a king's ransom for the hideous results. Look! We must have *just* missed Britney Spears sitting for her portrait! Such a pity, really.

We walked around the square, popping into shops here and there and then headed back to the car. We took the REALLY scenic route back to my hotel while Laurent pointed out all sorts of interesting sites as we drove by them. When we arrived back at the hotel he walked me to the door and we parted for the evening, having made plans to get together again on Tuesday evening.

Posted by raptorgirl at December 27, 2005 06:39 PM