la vue depuis ma fenêtre

voilà the view from our window at 32 rue saint placide. for the next two months we will live here, in the heart of saint germain. 2 blocks from the rue raspail open air market. 4 blocks from the jardin de luxembourg. a step away from le café nemrod. our (very) local café is always packed, and we decided this must mean it's good. testing our theory, last night we went for dinner as soon as chris got home from his first day at work (à 20.30! bit of a mix-up on the metro). we went comme c'est typique in paris - e.g. what is "dressed up" for an american, as you can tell:



one must not be mal élevé here, which so far includes everything from not getting properly dressed for the day (i know my family has laughed at my no-sneakers rule when touring paris, but it's quite serious if one wants to really fit into a neighborhood without becoming the local american joke!), to murmuring instead of speaking en haute voix, to not swinging one's umbrella like a bored five year old (ok, i might have made that one up by myself, but i think it's probably accurate).

on the other hand, it's not at all to mal élevé to open and close the window in one's lingerie. the young french lady directly across the street from us does it all the time, and i must confess no blush comes when i do the same. i think it has something to do with l'esprit séduisant that is so infectious here. there is nothing wrong with getting pleasure from looking pretty, from looking at someone pretty, or from being looked at as pretty.

et de ce fait, i resolve to always get dressed for the day and la vue depuis ma fenêtre est toujours si belle.