Rant.

I don't rant verrrry often, but when I do its very important!  Okay, not really.......

I swear Paris eats my shoes.  I have gone through more pairs of shoes since living in Paris than I have the last 10 years of my life.  I will admit to buying a couple of 20 or 30 euro pairs from H&M or wherever, and I fully expected them to fall apart...but I just had to say goodbye to my expensive pair of Cole Haan flats and will have to say goodbye to my grey boots before I leave...I'm just hoping they last through our ski trip!  My Merrell's have a hole in the heel, I've thrown away countless pairs of flats and sandals...even my Chaco straps are wearing down!  They're suppose to be indestructible!  It is quite disappointing.  I don't know how this city affords to keep themselves in shoes.  Spring and Summer clothes have been recently put in the window displays on every street in Paris and its no fun that I have to choose shoes over clothes!  Don't get me wrong I do love shoe shopping, and have more pairs of "fun" shoes than "practical" shoes but its more of a "have to" thing now than a "want to."  Buying colored wedges and purple heels with bows on the top is way more fun that practical shoes!!!!  

And yes, I am aware that I walk more here than I do at home...but I guess the term "pounding the pavement" hits harder here than when I can just hop in my car and go somewhere.  Grrrrr.....

What have I been doing the past couple of days?  I can easily tell you, not a lot.  A girl in my class did a presentation today on her home country of Kazakhstan, and I have officially added it to my travel list.  Astana seems like such a cool, modern city with amazing new-age architecture to boot.
Other than that......

Making dinner fun.  Had a wee bit of trouble with the 'S'.  

I was wandering around Montmartre with Marie-Césare the other day and we passed by the "best baguette in Paris" boulangerie.  Rue des Abbesses is home to "Au Levain d'Antan" who was voted in May of 2011 to have the best baguette in all of Paris.  Every time I think about popping in, its a Sunday and they are closed or just closed for some other silly reason.  So, I made the choice go in the tiny shop and pick up une tradition with Marie-Césare.  The baguette was the longest baguette I've ever bought, I would say about 2 feet long...maybe more.  So awkward to carry a two foot long bread baton so I just hoisted it under my arm and looked like every other French person meandering through the brick paved streets of Montmartre.  

We got it home and Marie-Césare immediately wanted un bout de pain, which I'm actually surprised she could even wait that long.  We both tore off an enormous chunk.  I was expecting something more flavorful, crunchier, with a denser crumb.  What I got seemed like a generically produced, light, and very flavorless bread.  Like something you might find at Kroger in the United States.  I was actually highly disappointed.  (Luckily, you only pay a euro or so for a baguette so you're not down the hole too much.)  I prefer the baguettes at my boulangerie around the corner.  At least for now anyway...until we decide on a new meilleure baguette de Paris in 2012...

Who will it be?!