Little fuzzy cute things

I had heard from Sabrina and various sources on the internet that there are several animal markets that take place around Paris where you can buy pets. The most intriguing aspect of this for me was the fact that you can buy a pet chipmunk! Not that I'm in the market for a pet to further cramp our 300 square-foot apartment, but I was curious just to look. I love animals.

However, I failed miserably at actually finding the market with the chipmunks - perhaps it wasn't operating the day that I looked. At any rate, we found a strip of pet shops on Quai de la Mégisserie along the Seine where I was able to fawn over the kittens, puppies and other little creatures. I didn't take any pictures of them because once you've seen one adorable kitten you've seen them all. Anyway, it was forbidden in several of the shops.

Along with pets, there were also many plants and garden accessories for sale, so we were able to photograph what Charlie described as his worst nightmare:

Across Pont au Change, we also had a great view of Palais de la Justice de Paris (where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned prior to being executed). And, not far beyond it, lies Sainte-Chapelle.

I swear, every time you turn around in the city you find yourself at the foot of some important monument. We declined to enter either of them, however.

Instead, we crossed the street to visit a little kiosk filled with antique books. We were too poor to buy any of them, much to Charlie's dismay, but he was content just to look for a while.

We were getting hungry so we wandered toward Pont Neuf, the oldest standing bridge that crosses the Seine in Paris.

I gotta say, this must have been some damn fine construction because this baby still looks new to me.

After some zigzagging through the neighborhood trying to find a place that wasn't filled with tourists (which was no easy task so close to the Louvre). We eventually found a nice little cafe on a street corner and sat down for our first proper restaurant meal together.

We decided to be brave and order a couple of typical French dishes. I had roasted rabbit over tagliatelle pasta with a tomato sauce:

Yummy bunny

Charlie decided to be really REALLY brave and ordered the andouillette, a tripe sausage known for its distinct fecal odor. Even the waiter tried to dissuade him from this one. But it is said to be delicious, so he went for it.

He managed to eat 2/3 of it. I could smell it from across the table and opted not to try it.

For dessert we had tarte fine aux pommes with caramel ice cream and a couple of espressos. Mmmmmmmmm...

This was our last day of true freedom before classes/orientation started, so future blog entries may be few and far between.

I'll leave you with a picture of the resident chef in his new uniform.