catch-up

When I said, about a month ago, that spring was beginning, I lied. I didn't know what spring was. My eyes have now, however, been opened; my heart sings with joy, my skin thrills at the sun's caress, my hair waltzes with the wind, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. The point is, THIS is spring in Paris.

Sunday was, I think, the first real day. It had been cold and rainy before, but Sunday was warm and sunny. After services, Harry and I walked down the Champs Elysée and Avenue Montaigne (where he was haunted by Ladurée bags), did some lèche vitrine in obscenely expensive windows and then caught a bus to Montparnasse. We ate amazing chèvre chaud salads at a café, and soaked up the sun there for a couple hours, goaning at tourists and the monstrosity that is the Tour Montparnasse. We then strolled back to my apartment (by way of the Luxembourg Gardens, obviously), and picked up my laptop for another café session. By 7pm I was ready for another 6 hours of baladering and caféing, but I had to leave for dinner at K's new apartment. Harry and I split on the subway (I took my inagural ride on line 13), and I headed up to the 18th.

K lives, almost literally, under the Sacré Coeur. It's crazy. His new studio is beautiful... I envy him his kitchen so! The flat gets tons of light, and there's plenty of space to entertain, as it has a bedroom niche, unlike most of the other studios I've seen. He's loaning us his apartment for tonight's seder (more on that later), so I had to take a shopping bag of food and stuff over early, check out his kitchen/dining area/kitchen utensils, and do some nosh prep. I brought over the chicken soup I had made the night before - I think my apartment still smells of it, yum - and made charoset and brisket there. I then worked on my exposé while he made us dinner. We had coquilles St. Jacques on a bed of watercress with some sort of jalepeno seasoning; it was amazing, but I don't want to give the recipe away. While the brisket cooked (three hours on the stove, yikes), I worked and he New Yorkered. It was terribly companionable. Again, thank God he'll be in New York next year.

Anyway, that was the amazing Sunday. I hope you're all jealous.