Marlene…

Today was pretty chilled, woke up around 10...then lounged around and then got ready to leave just before 12. I walked down to Hotel Deville to meet Marlene as I wanted to show her the falafel place that Pierre and I went to but we couldn’t find it...I had the right address and even double checked on faecesbook ( I did that on purpose ! ) and Google, but there was nothing where it should have been. We walked around for about 15 min before I got extremely irritated with the situation and wanted to kick the shit out of something.

We decided to just go find somewhere else to eat...on walking back I nearly shat myself as someone had a stuffed real/fake white cobra in a warning pose, ready to strike in a window display... I almost jumped into the road both times I walked past. F!@# that thing scared me...I think the only thing that can really dissipate my aggression is fear J

Anyway, we found a restaurant in the place des terreux called “Opus” (place de terreux is where the Bartholdi statue is, the guy that designed the statue of liberty).

Marlene ordered a bottle of Badoit which is the only eau gazeuze (sparkling water) that is available in 1ltr (btw, here as in most of Europe, they use cl [centilitre] as a liquid measurement, 1 cl = 10ml) which was flippen good.  It has a very vine carbonation which gives it a much smoother mouth feel and doesn’t make you feel as bloated as most sparkling waters do.

Marlene ordered tagliatelle au trios fromages (tagliatelle with 3 cheeses) which tasted to me like cream with some chevre...couldn’t really taste any other cheese although she said she could taste some sort of Roquefort sauce. I had the plat du jour which was a chicken thigh and leg roasted in the oven, with a salad and chips (the special was with fuscilli but I didn’t feel like pasta). The chicken was nicely cooked and came with some julienne peppers which were sweetened by being charred, the smokey sweetness of the peppers gave the chicken an almost barbeque flavour to it.

Afterwards we went to the Häagen-Dazs store and I got caramel beurre sale (salted butter caramel) and Marlene got banoffee....mine was soooo good. That was actually my first time having Häagen-Dazs

We then just walked around until Marlene had to go to work and then I walked back home, passing some stores which were like Biggie Best, trying to find some linen for mom but all I could find were curtains and towels and stuff...flippen expensive. Some of them around 100 euros.

When I got home I showered and then went to chill at the Basillique (Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière )lookout point to read a book and snack on a baguette. It was around 6pm and the sun was still shining brightly. I watched as people came and went, some reading, groups of girls laughing and chatting, even an old couple sitting down to enjoy the sight and some guy with a push scooter just chilling there having a beer. Its amazing how people will walk past and stop to admire the view of the city...I suppose you could compare it to capetonians enjoying the view of Table Mountain on the way home from work. People would literally walk past, stop for a few minutes and then continue. Even at night, people gather there and chill, bathed in the bright light of a few lights behind the plaza.