C'est inévitable.

Nous sommes malades. Carla and I have come down with some European bug -- or perhaps it is from California and Carla brought it here. So today I stayed at home, which gives me time to get caught up on this here collection of stories.

Seen in this picture is Carla making soup in the 10 pound Le Creuset Dutch oven she insisted on bringing from California. It contributed 1/5 of the permitted weight to her suitcase, which shows you the devotion she has to it -- there is no telling how many shoes she had to sacrifice. However, she has made me a believer in this pot; and her fresh and healthy soup made the effort well worth it!

We have discovered one of the best stores for us busy people: Picard, specialists in surgelés. Not surgeries, or sugarless food. But frozen food. ("Surgeler" means to deep freeze.) Seen above is the exciting atmosphere: numerous deep freezers containing all kinds of fruits and vegetables, fish and quiches, desserts and desserts and desserts. And most of it is extremely cheap! Visiting Picard gives me the crepes. People somberly walk through this colorless maze accompanied by happy muzak -- frostbite for the ears.

The metro is necessary for moving around this big city. And sometimes dogs accompany their owners. This little dog had an exceptionally long and fast flapping tongue. You can see that, like the wings of a hummingbird, I have captured the extrema positions at which the tongue spent the most time. We could estimate the speed of the tongue based on my shutter speed, but let's not ruin the moment.

On Sunday we had out BFFs over for brunch. Carla made some excellent potatoes and scrambled eggs. I made tea and fried four thick slices of bacon. Our BFFs brought some very nice Pain aux raisins, and pains du chocolates. After a couple of hours of eating, talking, and eating, we went for a nice long walk until late in the afternoon.

We passed by the opera house where we will be going to see Mahler's 3rd Symphony -- with accompanying ballet! You might not be able to see it in the picture at left, but at the top of the stairs were a couple dozen goth kids and skaters "hanging out." At first I thought they were trying to be the first in line to see the show. Hey, what's that smell? No respect for Gustav. Kids these days.

Word of the day: goûter. This can be a verb, meaning to try, to taste, or to enjoy. It can also be a noun, meaning a snack, or a children's party.