Links!

I know a few of of the people who read this are planning trips over here, so I thought I'd add links to a few websites that might be helpful. A couple of them are in French, but I've seen people set up Google to automatically translate websites for them. This results in the sort of stilted, translator-speak you'd expect, but it's still comprehensible.

Yesterday we had a break in the weather - the sun actually came out and the rain stopped for a while - so we had a nice day of wandering around. The goal was to go buy sweaters, but our destination store, an oasis of decent basics called Uniqlo, turned out to be closed. There was an angry mob of confused shoppers outside the door and a nervous employee trying to look nonchalant as he blocked the way. Electrical problems, apparently.

Across the street we saw the window displays at the Galleries LaFayette, and they are truly frightening, featuring dancing robot teddy bears in scenes from Mamma Mia! and Hairspray. In one scene they appeared to be frenetically destroying a Chrismas tree, Godzilla-style. It did not seem right.

Today it is Armistice Day, a national holiday; just now I heard a ton of church bells ringing and realized it was 11:00. The rain is coming down again and we won't be doing much walking if we don't have to. Plans involve baking things and braising other things, plus a lot of reading.