la france, je t'adore

i am in paris, france. it is a most enjoyable city, called "the city of lights," and the boulevards are bustling with frenchmen, baguettes, and cigarette smoke; the air smells of sugar coated on pastries, espresso comes when you order "cafe," stone fountains adorned with sculpted angels, heroes, or Joan D'Arc are found on most corners, the facades on most apartment buildings put the finest brownstones in the city to crying shame, the saliva produced from the populace uttering the french language collects in the gutters and surges into turbulent rivers that carry small children and farm animals away, never to be seen again. a small casualty for a tongue of such exquisite aestheticism. it has made me swoon countless times, almost straight to the ground, where still-burning cigarette butts and half-eaten crepes wait to sully my face.

kevin and i have been on two free tours -- the first with a charming young chap from smalltown texas whose knowledge of parisian history was not only surprising but highly improbable, almost to the point that he must have been lying. however, i believed it all, as this was more attractive than denial, since he talked of van gogh, picasso, bloody battles, beheaded kings, and revolutions. today we walked for four hours with a girl from boston named mary who i fell for completely, mainly because of her unbridaled comedic reposes amidst a fury of historical speech, humor that kept me laughing and stories of revolution after revolution, beheading after beheading, dethroning after rethroning after revolution again, accompanied by a seine that seemed to flow with blood on a constant basis for a good five hundred years. she warned us not to drink from it.

tomorrow we journey to the louvre perhaps, or the tour eiffel. regardless of where we go, i know we shall have a splendid time, and i shall eat at least one pan au chocolat. and a crepe avec creme de marron. and three more assorted pastries. and then five more pastries.