La fantaisie est un perpétuel printemps...

...or so says the little box of fake grass Brigitte gave me from a press tour a while back. Either way, spring is finally in the air here in Paris! I've been quite busy with all the papers I have, so I don't know how much I'll be able to enjoy the outdoors in the next two weeks - but starting on spring break, I'll have written four commentary papers, three exposés, three dissertations, and taken two finals. Whew!

This will be a quick update, because I have to leave for class in a half hour... and I'm off to London tonight!! A little mini trip, from Wednesday night to Friday night, but I'll be with my girl Grace and she knows her London so I am sure I'll be able to hit all the highlights! It will also be weird to be in a foreign country where I actually know the language (although I'm curious to see if there will be accents that I won't understand at all). Oh, and we'll also be seeing The Hunger Games. Sorry I'm not sorry.

Last night, I went to my first French theater and felt quite classy amongst all the sixty-somethings. Told you I live like a retiree. It was with Emmanuelle Béart, who is as known for her acting skills as she is for her awkward lip-plumping-surgery-gone-awry (oops). It wasn't really noticeable in the play, except at the end when she was bowing and obviously can no longer smile normally. Anyhoo, the play was pretty good and I actually could understand it and knew what was going on, score one for me. Highlight of the evening was the métro ride home, during which a man (wearing skin-tight neon pants, troll doll earrings, and nothing but a denim vest up top) sat in the middle of the aisle with a keyboard playing a backing track, and pulled baby dolls out of his backpack and had them "dance" to the music. Never a dull moment on the subway...

On Sunday, I went to the Salon du Livre, which is basically every book nerd's dream, where all the French publishing houses set up mini-libraries where they sell all their new books, have famous authors doing book signings and readings, and general book-nerdyness ensues. The place was packed! I limited myself to only buying one book because I knew if I got started I'd probably leave with no money left to pay for rent and then I'd have to live on the street... but at least I'd have something to do? Here are some pictahs:

Oh, and then François Hollande showed up. And he stood right next to me. And all the journalists took my picture. No big deal..... here's a photo I snagged of him after he walked past. Check that bald head:

Famous by association.

Anyway, gotta run to class and then I'm off to Londontown!!! I'll leave you all with some pictures of several procrastination walking tours I've done around the city lately in the warm weather:

I see you, architectural juxtaposition.

Covered walkway aka France's first shopping mall.

Cheers!

x R.