It's Saturday night. We are just back from dinner with our Santa Monica friends. They are here for the year, living on Ave. Emile Zola in the 15th. We met when Emily and Isabelle were in 3rd (and 4th) grade together. Paula and I were room parents for Lisa Bartoli's 3rd grade class. Paula's husband, Jean-Laurent is professor of economics at UCLA (and now Cal Tech) taking a sabbitical here in Paris. They also have a 4th grade daughter, Juliet. They were here 4 years ago for a year and they come every summer, Jean-Laurent is 1/2 French and grew up here.

We met at a Vietnamese restaurant very near by on r. Dante, just off of r. St. Jacques and Saint Germaine. We were seated in a non smoking room below...great! It is such a fun meal. Spring rolls, chicken brochettes, fish with coconut and curry (M and D). The girls have shrimp dumplings (S) and Shrimp brochettes. All yummy.

We walk out...the night is clear and climb back up the hill and toward r. Moufftard. They know of a great ice cream place that makes ice cream cones in the shape of a rose. We have a hard time deciding on flavors they all look so good:

Melon + Mango: Emily
"Kinder": some chocolate chip variant: Sarah
Banana + Chocolate: Deb
Coconut + Maron (chestnut): Guess who?

We walk back toward the Pantheon..it's all lit up and the air is warm. We say goodbye and wish everyone a good year.

Tomorrow is our last day here. We have decided against Joel R's restaurant...we read some reviews and it seems too snobby to us (and we checked the menu and it seems a bit too much innards/sweetbreads etc.). We are thinking something casual like Crepes....
We have to pack up tomorrow night and get ready to take the train early (10am) on Monday morning...this is earlier than we have been waking up!!

More tomorrow.