Paris!
Today was a straight shot to Paris: around two and a half hours on the autoroute. But first things first: it was time to yell about not having a flushing toilet. I'll leave the specifics to Chloe's guest blog entry, but suffice it to say that she kicked ass.
As for the drive: The GPS brought us in via the peripherique and to an underground parking garage flawlessly; it really is worth its weight in gold. We had a quick lunch at a brasserie on blvd. St. Germain and then went to meet the contact from the apartment rental. Gail had found a small, but amazingly situated apartment on the rue Maitre Albert, which is a small but surprisingly loud street in the 5th. We pulled the car around, dropped off the luggage and then chloe and I headed for the gare montparnasse to drop off the car. This last part was a bit of a farce, since there are NO signs anywhere for where you are supposed to return the car. It turned out to be a parking garage a few blocks away from the actual train station. A hearty "screw you" to National for not giving us ANY information about returns. I did get to yell at one of the car rental guys and argue with him in french, which is always fun.
Anyway, the important point was that we returned the car in one piece, and we didn't have to drive it in Paris anymore! All in all, it really was a fantastic little car though:
excellent gas mileage, comfortable and good ergonomics. Why is it that we can't buy this car in the states again? By the end of the trip it had also become a bug graveyard. Let's have a moment of silence for all the bugs who gave their lives for our transportation:
Have fun cleaning those off, National! Don't even bother with a pressure washer -- you're going to need a putty knife and a wire brush.
We took the metro back to the 5th, but stopped along the way to buy some gauffres to improve our spirits after the stressful circling of montparnasse. A woman tried to do the old "Let me just look at the menu board, and then I'll slide into line in front of you" trick, but Chloe was having none of it. She's one tough cookie!
Since we had a feeling that things would be closed tomorrow, Chloe and I headed to rue de Rivoli to try to find here some maternity clothes. Here she is after a successful visit to Xsara. 
Next was Dehillerin
Where we could only really sumon the nerve to buy one of those cool silicone madeleine molds. I guess we'll have to find a recipe for madeleines now! I hemmed and hawed over a fancy mandoline, but decided that for 120 euros, I might as well buy a Cusinart. Dehillerin is so cool though.
From Dehillerin, we went to le Forum des Halles where chloe found some pants, and I found a few shirts and a new pair of pants. I tried to get some more minDV tapes for Kenji (he had taken an unprecedented FIVE tapes by this point), but the lines were way too long. Finally, with acheing feet we walked to Balzar to meet the parents for dinner.
Where gail and chloe had the poulet fermier (we used to have that in our cafeteria at the ESRF!), Kenji had the veal, and I had the lamb chops. For dessert, I had the tarte au citron, CZ had the tarte tatin, and kenji had the diabetic-friendly creme caramel. Gail was desserted out by this point.
