Two hip chics from the US walk into a Turkish tea salon, escorted by an Albanian, Moroccan and an Algerian... Yup, that would begin to describe our first night in Paris. Tracy and I befriended they guy who runs the Internet cafe across from our hostel. After 20 minutes in his shop, he invited us out for the evening. As luck would have it, June 21st was a huge music festival in Paris where bands played for free all over the city. We, with the entourage describe above, went to the tea salon, smoked hookah (the non-drug kind), drank sweet mint tea and danced to North African synth pop. I know, it sounds a unreal, but this is no movie script :-) It was fantastic. To be droll, last night we saw Harry Potter (in English with French subtitles). The French laughed first at all the "jokes" before we heard the actors deliver their lines. Very funny. And, at the end the whole audience sat through ALL the credits!

I've enjoyed seeing Paris again with someone who has never been here. I am amazed at how familiar the city layout is and at my ability to read French. I'm also horribly embarrassed at how awful my accent is. Mon dieu! We are about to board the superfast TGV train to Marseille (3 hours!) and trek around the South of France for a few days. Hope the weather is better. Paris has been overcast with occasional rain. But we should hardly complain. First bad weather in four weeks! Au revoir.