This weekend I had a visit from Ken, a friend from the Western Massachusetts era of my life. He arrived on Saturday afternoon, which was the first really beautiful afternoon of the spring. Needless to say, every inch of green space in Paris was mobbed. We walked through a couple of small parks where there were some people playing ping-pong on the public outdoor ping-pong tables. Then we arrived at the Jardin du Luxembourg. Having only ever gone to the Jardin du Luxembourg in the winter, I have never seen it crowded. Even in French in Action videos, it's never really crowded. Not like it was on Saturday. Wow. Ben, dis-donc, il y avait du monde!

We went into the Saint-Sulpice church, which was very pretty. And we walked along the Seine, then through the Marais. We stopped for an aperitif on the terrace of a cafe near Chatelet, and then we had dinner on the rue du Pot de Fer (Iron Pot Street), near the rue Mouffetard. Our waiter apparently decided that we did not order correctly, and so he brought us the things we should have eaten. And we ate them, and they were delicious. After dinner, we met P. and K. for a drink at Dandy's. There was bonding over enjoyment of board games (I am so not surprised that Ken and Danielle are avid players of those weird European board games like Settlers of Catan or Ticket to Ride). So much so that we decided to have P. and K. over to play games on Sunday night.

On Sunday morning Ken and I got up and headed for the Louvre. But it was absurdly crowded. So I took him past the Comedie-Francaise and the Opera, and then we got a sandwich and walked along the number 8 Metro to the Musee Carnavalet. The Carnavalet was not crowded at all, and there were some different rooms open than when I went before. I could go back to the Carnavalet once a week, I think. It's a new experience every time, because they open and close rooms like that. At one point Ken stepped on a rug, and got yelled at by the security guard. And you know they could have put in a barrier to make sure no one stepped on the rug, but that's not how the Musee Carnavalet rolls. We also saw their French Revolution collection, which is much more curated than their other collections. And very impressive.

We had dinner at a Corsican restaurant near the Centre Pompidou. I had the Beef Carpaccio, which turned out to be thin slices of raw beef on a green salad with parmesan cheese and a vinaigrette dressing. It was really good. And we drank a nice bold Corsican wine.

Ken had wanted to go to a game store to buy a game, but none were open on Sunday. So we ended up playing Scrabble. We played three games. Katie smoked everyone in the first game, then P. ran away with the second game (on his second or third turn he got 81 points for Plaza on a triple word score with the Z on a triple letter score). The third game was really close, though.

Ken left Monday morning, and I went with P. to Pierre Frantz's seminar on eighteenth-century French theatre on Monday afternoon. "Seminaire" basically means "lecture" in France. This one was pretty great. I'm definitely going to continue to attend. I kind of wish I had started going in the fall.

I found out yesterday that I got a fellowship for the entire 2007-2008 academic year. Kudos for me!