with the roar of cars and the lulling of the cafe bars the sweetly sleeping sweeping of the Seine, lord I don't know if i'll ever be back again

I woke up yesterday morning after the party in a dark bedroom and looked at my watch. To my horror, it was already 11:30! Fortunately, after I stumbled into the den and started talking to another just waking guest, I learned that we had gained an hour over night.

I took advantage of this unnaturally bright morning in rural France to explore Nico's yard, which appeared much bigger at night than during the day. I realized that the darkness behind a first row of trees led to a few acres of agriculture! I only know that some of what was grown was radishes (because we ate them the night before), but otherwise it was all a mystery. I saw the "old house", still on the property, built 200 years ago, a goose, some chickens and some hay.

When people tell me that they live in "the countryside", I usually don't believe them. I assume they are describing their neighborhoods so because in comparison to Los Angeles, they are accustomed to significantly less development. But usually I expect something more or less suburban. When we got in the car to drive back to Troyes, I saw that we had spent the night in a tiny village of old buildings, a historically designated church, surrounded by farmland.

Unfortunately, the next train to Paris was at 12:20 and there would not be another until 3:45, so I decided to take the former with L, one of Claire's friends that I had heard much about in L.A. before actually meeting her two nights ago. This was to be the final train ride of my trip. I was glad to have company, because otherwise I might have felt sad.

I met up with Julien and Nicholas around Tour Marbourg and visited with their friend Marie, who was taking a short break from studying philosophy. We listened to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band while eating falafel sandwiches and talking about how bad a recent French movie was, that none of us had seen.

Last night, Julien took me to the Pop In, a great bar where he used to work (and where Nicholas currently works.) Here, i was able to use real life examples to make clear the definition of the work "hipster", which I had taught him a few nights before. I really enjoyed this bar. We have ones like it in L.A., but never this happening on a Sunday night. Of course, I was also made much more comfortable that for an hour they were playing a Smiths compilation.

I also heard a lot of English, both American style and U.K. I wondered whether this was because this was a bar very popular with English speakers or if there are so many visitors in Paris at any time that there are bound to be some in any good bar. Hmmmmmm....