Crepes and sexual harrassment

I went to Paris this weekend to visit an old friend who relocated there. Having already been to Paris, I didn't have much of a touristic itinerary, which was nice considering that it was the start of the World Cup. Hence, shortly after my arrival on Friday we went to the Eiffel Tower where they had set up a giant screen, to watch Mexico vs. South Africa and then France vs. Uruguay. It was cool to watch the game with all the excited Frenchies and hear them all sing their national anthem at the beginning but unfortunately, the game was a real bore as not a single goal was scored. Thus, I amused myself by listening to the French announcers. A stark contrast to the animation of the Spanish-speaking world, French announcers are quite monotone. My favorite announcer moment was when one said, "Allez victorie, non?" (Go victory, no?) to which the other replied, "Ah, ouais." (Ah, yeah.)

Other weekend activities included wandering around Montmartre, dancing in a couple clubs, surviving the Paris metro, strolling down the Champs-Elysees, eating crepes and managing to get invited to a wedding. In the end, we decided not to go because we felt that it might be awkward explaining that we had met the groom at his bachelor party the night before...

All in all it was a pretty nice weekend. And while I won't go into extensive detail on why my blog is titled thus, let me just say that yes, there are plenty of Frenchmen who are complete gentlemen... however those were not the ones who flocked to me this weekend. Incidents throughout the weekend piled up and after enduring an hour and a half cab ride to the airport where I was propositioned for sex nearly the entire time (the driver did pause occasionally to change the music and think of words in the two languages I understand), my final straw was being told I had to take off my featherweight cotton cardigan at airport security so that the three young security guards could get a better look at my chest whilst scanning my bag and flirting with me. Flipping out in the security control certainly did pass through my mind, but I thought better and decided that getting to leave Paris without visiting a jail was reward enough for not decking one of them.


Other interesting Parisian sights...

The line to get in to shop at Louis Vuitton:

The mass of Algerian soccer fans who gathered at the top of the Champs Elyssees after the game. "One, two, three, Vive L'Algerie!" was their chant:

This little kid with a budding mohawk was pretty cute:
Princesse Tam-Tam:
At the crepe shop in Montmartre:
Tiny Eiffel Towers for sale at the Sacre Coeur:

Francisca and I at the Arc D'Triomphe: