day 18 - Paris (part 3) the Man-day!!

today was deemed “man-day”
and “girl-day”
the boys splitting off to kill time while we let the girls
do girly shopping things that would only bore our manly men pants to tears
we met M and C at 9:15 to walk to the Bastille area where our boat was leaving
the girls waved good-bye to us around 9:45 while our boat pulled away
with the speed of a disabled tortoise
we then spent the next 2 hours creeping up the canal
G loved it
I almost fell asleep 2 or 3 times
sitting in the sun and moving so slowly sort of lulled me into
an extreme state of jellyfish relaxation
at the end of the ride we passed the Science and Art museum
which Gavin enthused over due to the giant silver ball out front
“I want to go to there!!!” he exclaimed
unfortunately we were dropped off a bit too far away from it to go back
so we caught the metro back into town
Cody had sweetly lined up a trip to a store with a vast collection
of Star Wars figurines
after a quick and almost nasty lunch at a dodgy sandwich shop (I’m to blame on suggesting this one!)
we took G into the comic book shop
he loved it
gazing intently at transformers
Star Wars figures
and other toys that caught his interest
he was looking for the rare Jango Fett
Boba’s father
we crossed the street to another store
where G intently scanned the shelves for Jango
a couple of times I said “Come on, we gotta go now.”
and Gavin said “Daaad…I’m still looking for Jango”
his patience paid off when he finally found him
I enjoyed buying his prized Jango
“You’re such a nice Dada.” he gushed
our Manday continue as we walked past the Notre Dame cathedral
contemplated going to the top of it
looked at the line wrapped around the side of the building for 5 seconds
and decided to move on
we hit a cupcake shop and another pastry shop on the way back to our apartment
the girls checked in a let us know they were still hours away from wrapping up their shopping
so we had to figure out something else to do
we decided to walk to a large vintage clothes store called Come On Eileen
when we got there I found a sea of over-priced, dodgy vintage clothes
and nowhere to try anything on even if you found something
in the basement we discovered two Swedes stripped down to their underwear
trying pants on in the middle of the store
so you might ask…why is someone from Texas (which has great vintage clothes shopping) doing this?
boredom and curiosity
Cody took us to the French equivalent of Tower records next
FNAC
it was interesting browsing the cd section
I even found an F Nourallah disc
we walked back to the flat
the girls still weren’t back yet
so we waited a half hour
when they finally arrived around 5:30
they told us some tragic tales of the French work ethic
in which 5 places they wanted to visit
with store hours clearly posted saying they should be open
were in fact closed
the doll museum
which Jayme desperately wanted to visit
even had it’s rude curator smoking a cigarette out in front with a closed signed on
they said they had to try 2 or 3 times to get him to actually tell them what was up
instead of muttering and making hand motions
he finally said “Well, look at the hours of operation right here…”
the sign said they were supposed to be open
anyway they still had some more shops they wanted to visit
or peer at from behind CLOSED signs
so they went out again
Cody went back to his apartment
G and I stayed in
2 hours later Jayme came back
of course they had experienced more unexpected store closings
around 8 we walked over to M and C’s place
they cooked up the rest of the pasta from the other night
we had a nice time talking
while Gava played with Jango
around 10:30 we walked home
we were passed out by 11