the eiffel tower actually is cooler than i thought. and larger. i saw it all lit up and sparking while the france/new zealand rugby game was on. we watched the game from my aunt's place later. i wanted to go out and join the fun once they won, but jet lag shut me off like a light till the next morning. worlds collided when i brought my aunt to my friend sarah's for brunch the next day. she's the same as always. lots of friends, lots of stories, sharing food. a friend of hers who wandered in offered to take me on a motercycle trip around paris later this week. why not? so we had wonderful vegan brunch and heard about sarah and her roommate's adventures getting their work permits and sarah's crazy job as a pastry maker in a big parisian department store. my aunt said it was the best vegan meal she'd ever had. on our way over we walked by a fruit market and i selected fresh figs. i've never even touched fresh figs before. they were ripe to bursting, some already had crystallized syrup oozing out. those were for sarah and i'm dying to get my own. oh, and so far my french has proven sufficient to:
get minutes on my borrowed cell phone
ask where the bathrooms are
order drinks and dinner
ask for (and receive) directions
woohoo!

oh, and we went to the centre pompidou, a modern and contemporary art museum. it's a real monstrosity: 6 floors, boxy, with esclators on the outside and all the ductwork and framework exposed, like a borg cube. even in the galleries you look up and see all the ducts and pipes and electrical wiring. i find it spectacularly ugly, although riding in the escalators was fun. they are in big plastic tubes, like they have in hampster cages, and you look down on an enormous plaza where people gather to watch street musicians.