Bohemian Soiree

This morning we visited the Musee d'Orsay. It is my favorite museum in Paris, and so of course I had a good time. The tour guide was okay, not great. She spoke softly and had such a thick French accent that it was really hard to understand her. This was certainly the case when she pronounced names. For example, she asked if the kids knew who Rehmbrahhhnn was. They all said no. I said, "Y'all, Rembrandt" and they all said, "ooh yeah." Then she made fun of my Americanized pronunciation. Whatever. For lunch I joined Fabienne and two of her friends at school in the cafeteria. Normally, the older men all drink wine with their lunch, so it didn't surprise me when they were having two little bottles because there's no class on Wednesday afternoons so they can drink up. But what did shock me was when the principal whipped out a cigarette and started smoking. At school!! omg.

In the afternoon, Fabienne and I went to the Musee Grevin, the wax museum. It was fun taking pictures with all the kings of France and famous Hollywood actors. Then we came back home to rest a bit before tonight's big dinner. Fabienne's roommate Annabelle, from when she studied in Charleston, happened to be in town, so Fabienne invited her and her girlfriend Marlene (that's right) to dinner with us and Gille, a very close friend of Fab's, plus his boyfriend Cedric. So it was me, Fab, a lesbian couple and a gay couple all out on the town for dinner. How bohemian of me! I LOVED Gille and Cedric. They were so funny. I have no idea what Gille does, but Cedric works for a magazine like People or US Weekly, but in France. So he knows all the celebrity gossip, and they are both movie fanatics. We discussed the Oscars, movies, Lady Gaga, and Britney Spears, among other things. Meanwhile Anabelle and Marlene were like the exact same size, had the exact same hair cut, and happened to be wearing the exact same top. It was sorta odd, but hey, whatever. Roll with it. I had a Pot au feu for dinner, which is a typical countryside French dish. Basically it's just beef stew, but it sounds a lot better and tastes really good. Ice cream for dessert. I'm totally exhausted from this busy day and from trying to listen to three people speak in French simultaneously!