23 April: Saturday Morning, 7am
I think I've kicked the jetlag that has kept me in bed until the late hours of the morning (and filled a minimum of 12 hours of sleep the first two nights). I've been up since about 6:30am when the sound of rain began to fall in the courtyard outside our apartment. Mrs. Facade is still asleep, so I've made my way to the salon area of the apartment (i.e., the landing that holds the day bed and treacherous course to the bathroom) to do some typing.

I think we're fully embracing this honeymoon/vacation, as we enjoyed a three-dessert day yesterday. The first was at a cafe looking out onto the square outside the Pompidou Centre--the inside-out designed building that's also the museum of modern art. We just needed a little extra something to go with our mid-afternoon cafe grande (double espresso; you don't get drip coffee here in Paris, thankfully), so Mrs. F had a creamy dual-chocolate mousse (half white chocolate) and I went with a creme brulee. Ah, so decadent. And the perfect capper to an afternoon of walking through Notre Dame and a couple of floors of the Pompidou Centre.

From there we marched off the calories walking down the Champs Ellysee, which is divided into two parts--one, the tree-lined boulevard that you typically think of; the other, a commerce-lined boulevard chock full of the trendiest and most fashionable stores around. We ducked into the Virgin Megastore and fulfilled some of my CD craving (the newest Buddha Bar collection, the new Tahiti 80, and a French rapper named Kerry James, whom Mrs. F discovered at the listening station).

But we were there not for shopping, but to climb the Arch de Triumph. Yes, you can go to the top (I didn't know that before this trip)! You do have to hump it up a 284-stair circular stairway (that can get a little dizzying if you're not quite happy with heights--just don't look up or down the center), but the view is fantastique as the Arch rises above all the buildings in the surrounding area. (You won't find a building over 4 or 5 stories, save for cathedrals, museums, and the like.) You also get a sense of the very ordered design of the city, overseen by Baron Hausmann, which radiates the main grand boulevards from the circle of the Arch.

Well, after that hunger-inducing experience, we headed back to our neighborhood (excuse me, arondissment) of the Latin Quarter where we dined at one of the few all-vegetarian restaurants in Paris. It was quite good (vegetarian cassoulet and lasange between the two of us), and we finished it off with two tarts: strawberry/rhubarb for Mrs. F and a vegan lemon tart for me (recommended by an American woman college student at the next table, who's studying in London and hopes to open her own vegan bakery in LA someday).

We finished the evening off by wandering into the Luxembourg arrondisment (adjacent to the Latin Quarter), sitting at yet another cafe (this time with a kir--white wine with a bit of blackberry liqueur), and topping it all off with a cone of gelato.

Not sure what will be in store for us today. We had thought about visiting one of the Saturday fruit/vegetable markets, but if the rain keeps up we may have to consider some indoor entertainment. Hopefully it will clear soon so we can get back to our favorite activity: sitting at a cafe.