To quote my mother, “Well, that’s a fine howdy ya do.” Both Diane and I seem to have gotten acute food poisoning from our comfort food meal of pasta, red sauce and broccoli last night. It was a miserable night. We’re both recovering, but we were both pretty weak today. We skipped breakfast and had a slice of dry toast for lunch.
This morning, I did manage to step downstairs to the bike shop and pick up a giant bike box. Of course, while struggling to get it up the narrow spiral staircase, I ran into, for the first time since being here, the building custodian. He just seemed more worried about whether I was going to throw all the cardboard into the trashbin than me dragging this thing along the walls and ceiling, but a lot was lost in communication and it was a moment I was actually happy that I couldn’t speak French. Anyway, it is now in our apartment. Diane does not seem that impressed.
We did a bit of nearby shopping today. I finally bought a new wallet and key chain. I like the larger European size wallets. Thereafter I went to the library while Diane took a snooze.
Thanksgiving doesn’t exist in France. Even the American Expat community must make big compromises. Turkey is completely unavailable until Christmas. I scoured the internet for potential Thanksgiving dinners, but had no luck. There is a Cajun restaurant called “Thanksgiving” very close to our apartment which might have been a possibility had our stomachs not been so adverse to spice today. Diane wore her Thanksgiving socks that Lauri gave her last week.
Ultimately, we went out to La Defense to a quintessentially American institution for Thanksgiving dinner: (… drum roll , please …) McDonalds. I had the Big Mac Maxi Menu avec frites et Coca-Cola Normal. Diane had cheeseburger avec frites et Coke Zero. Afterward, we had McFlurrys. It was good. So far it is staying down too.
There was a big Winter Wonderland set-up at La Defense, which we strolled through quickly. We were very cold, so rushed home.
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