Friday, Nov. 28 - Meeting new friends

Another day without a rigid schedule. We first went out this morning to try our debit cards in the BNP Paribas ATM, (Bank of America partner) . Lloyd had received an text informing him that his card would not be accepted so it was with some trepidation that we approached the machine. It worked! What a relief.  Remember the days when we only had to carry our Am. Exp. Travelers Cheques? On the way back to our apartment (at approx. 9:30am), we saw a long line in front of a local store that specializes in foie gras. At first we thought they were simply shoppers who were waiting to enter the store as it opened. But upon closer inspection, it was simply customers who were waiting to enter until other earlier shoppers departed.

Can you believe this line!!?? We never figured out what the attraction was or why there was a run on foie gras--another one of those travel mysteries!!

Lloyd had previously arranged to possibly meet up with a fellow Internet blogger. Paula and her husband live in the Wash., D.C. area and happened to be on the same plane as we were. We have some mutual friends who also visit France, so it's nice to be able to compare travel notes, experiences, and ideas. They were staying in the Montmartre area, so we decided to meet over there. Paula had heard of a bistro (Bistrot La Bruyere) that had received good reviews so we we met there and had a delightful several hours together. 

It was small, but very busy--obviously a very popular restaurant with locals. The food and the wine were both delicious and we were able to exchange travel experiences as well--a long way to travel to meet new friends, but it was fun.

On the way back to our 'hood, we walked past some of the famous Paris department stores such as Galeries Lafayette that have already begun to fill their windows with fabulous Christmas decorations and animations to delight children of all ages:

(Sorry for the reflection.) Even the inside of the Galeries Lafayette has already installed its upside down, highly decorated Christmas tree in the interior of the massive atrium that opens to the roof of the store many floors above.

Apparently Paris merchants have also hopped on the "Black Friday" bandwagon--if you can call it that. We couldn't figure out why this particular Friday seemed so crowded in the Paris downtown shopping area until we got back to the apartment and turned on the news. That's when we heard that Paris store owners have begun big sales to correspond to our day-after-Thanksgiving sales. I must say the shoppers were much more orderly that some of the Walmart/K-Mart shoppers we saw on TV who pushed/shoved/grabbed and stumbled their way through the door to the bargains.

Here most everyone was dressed in black, but there always seems to be someone or two who want to make his/her own fashion statement:

What can I say?  The woman in the center of the picture is wearing some sort of feather coat--perhaps she is descended  from some French robin or pheasant and who knows what the orange-haired woman dressed in the plaid coat was thinking when she walked out of the house this morning!

Back to the apartment for a quiet evening--dinner of Thanksgiving leftovers; some things never change no matter where you travel.