until last weekend i had never been to paris before.  i had made a few brief stops in paris on the train to provence, but i had never been in the city.  now that i have spent a whopping three days in the city of lights i can report that i liked it.  it's beautiful and the food is delicious.  well, much of the food is delicious.  on our first night i ordered something called an andouillette.  i knew it was a sausage, but i was not aware of the details.  since the french are obviously known for their cuisine, i was certain that i wanted something decidedly french.  when i took my first bite i was shocked and surprised by how strong the flavor was.  it wasn't bad.  it was smokey, rich, and very distinct.  then i chewed.  and chewed.  and chewed.  you see, andouillette is a sausage made from coarsely chopped bits of stomach and intestine.  wikipedia says, "their strong smell can be reminiscent of feces and may offend people unaccustomed to the dish."  mine didn't smell like feces, but i got sick of it very quickly.  marleen suggested that i order something else, but i insisted on not being a wuss, and i ate the whole thing.  i didn't want to be the foolish tourist who couldn't handle the local cuisine.  instead i was the foolish tourist who forced himself to eat what was paid for.  it was quite a chore, but no one was injured.

speaking of cuisine, i watched a BBC program about the normans last night.  i sought this program out because i was told by another bloke named jim turbert (i know of three including myself) that turbert is a norman name.  anyway, it is because of the normans that the english language is so diverse.  in 1066 england was conquered by normans who had settled in northern france (normandy) for a long time, and they brought the french language with them.  when they took over, thousands of french derived words were added to the english language.  interesting, eh?  i thought so.

our paris goals were not to see as much as we could in a short period of time.  we wanted to relax, and see some stuff, and not stress out if we couldn't see all of the splendors of the city.  so , we did not go into the louvre.  we thought that would not be relaxing.  we did hit several of the outdoor attractions including the eiffel freaking tower.  i've wanted to see the eiffel tower forever, and it was not disappointing.  we went inside to enjoy the fantastic view, but walking around it and staring at it from different angles was more rewarding.  its awesomeness is magnified by the fact that there is nothing remotely as large in its proximity.  giant skyscrapers are impressive, but imagine how insane it would be to see the empire state building standing alone in a field rather than in a city block surrounded by other large buildings.  shit is crazy.  the eiffel tower is super cool.

so yeah, we'll probably go back to paris sometime.  i suppose i have to go inside the louvre to do battle with the masses of crazies who want to snap digital pictures of the mona lisa.  i suppose i should also go inside notre dame.  there are lots of things we didn't do, but our trip was relaxed, and everything we did was quality except for the andouillette.

goodbye,
jim