Un Noël de Maigret

Today I had my French Conversation final where the professor had a 20-30 minute conversation with each student. She gave us 30 possible topics ahead of time (all topics we had discussed as a class during the semester). I was comfortable with 29 of the 30, as the last one was about an optional book we could have read. Before I drew my topic out of the envelope, I told the professor that I would take any but Maigret (the book we "read," a book in a mystery series) and if I got Maigret, I'd go crazy. Well, what do you know...I got Maigret! Luckily, I was able to tell her all of the reasons that I didn't like the book before moving on to discussing her children. Luckily, I think she just wanted to see if we were conversational, and the topics were just a means to do so.

Never the less: Karma's a bitch. The one time I don't read a book (hello, I'm abroad, there are other things to do), is the one time I actually needed to.

Why couldn't I have been quizzed on a book I saw a woman reading on the Metro yesterday (probably her first book in English)?
It was called: Hands on Mr. Janitor Man... a 30-page trashy romance novelette. Classic.

Yesterday, Harrison and I went to a Jewish bakery/deli in the Marais...it was almost as good as Pratzel's:


Kelly (a friend from Kenyon) and I went to La Grande Arche yesterday, the modern arch in La Defense (the business area of Paris).




The sunset from the top was unreal:



After, we stopped at a Christmas market nearby.