Out on the Ville

So, I'have had the chance to go out a few times here in Paris. I went to the theater, to dinner and to have drinks in some interesting places.


This is the lovely theater where we saw a "spectacle" (the French term) with four musician/comedians. They played a wide variety of music - from Renaissance, through classical to modern music - with two violins, a viola and a cello. There was a blues song that they played all together on the cello - the cellist played as normal with a bow and the strings, another guy plucked the strings, the third guy held his bow to the bottom of the strings to make them give off a more metallic sound and the last guy sang while occasionally using his bow on the long, thin piece of metal that was the base of the cello. I only wish I knew the name of the song they played, because I know I recognized it.

(Sorry for the quality of this picture. I tried to get a picture of the posters by the entrance of the theater, but the spotlights on them made the poster half white.)

(Voilà, the poster half covered in light.)

I went out to dinner the last day of the introductory French classes with the other American and Canadian students in the group. It was a buffet, and I would just like to note that the manner in which the American students attacked the food as soon as it was brought out is really no different than what the French would have done. I saw a buffet of French people first-hand in Montoire, and at that buffet I had to worm my hand around a few people at the corner of the buffet table just to grab some cheese and fruit. Also, there were three of the teachers from the courses we had just finished, and the oldest lady was pretty much as bad as the students - trying to get to the food as soon as it was brought out.
We had a good time, even though not everyone got very much food or wine. It was all tasty, and, of course, it was a good excuse to get together and hang out.

The restaurant was down this "passage" - it was actually called a passage and not a street or boulevard or anything. And if we hadn't been very alert at the time (because we ran into two other MICEFA students who were convinced that we had already passed it) we would have walked right by it. It looked like a big doorway to a courtyard or something. Paris is full of little nooks and crannies like that though.

And here I am with two of my new-found friends, Jennifer and Christina, at the Bistrot du Passage. (And no, I didn't spell bistro incorrectly. Sometimes, the French spell it with a T on the end.)

After dinner, I went with a bunch of New Yorkers to the main street by the restaurant, and miraculously there were wine and wine glasses!

We passed around a few bottles, someone went to buy some more, people were singing, someone bought pizza... and then there were a few other things that happened that are just too wrong to mention. I would like to say that I did not sing or drink too much. But I did block someone from view while he did something inappropriate in public. I tried to balance integrity with being a team player, and that is just what happened.