The (Almost) End of the Night

After dinner Khalil and I walked due north-east, almost to the edge of Belleville. We passed really close to the Pere Lachaise Cementary, but since it was almost midnight, I thought it better not to suggest a visit. Didn't want to get eaten by zombie Oscar Wilde.

The neighborhoods in the area were really ethnically diverse, and exteremely lively. However, we were both getting a bit tired so we decided to make just one more stop before heading back. We picked a place at random and it turned out to be a Kurdish restaurant, but the waiter couldn't serve us refreshments unless we ordered food, so we ended up having kirs and pastis at a corner bar of the non-Kurdish variety.

Afterwards, Khalil, as befits a man of science, was smart and took the metro to his hotel. I, on the other hand, was a total mo, and walked an extra hour home to get to know the city better.

Khalil, Tartare, and a Library

I met Khalil right by the Hotel de Ville, and after introducing ourselves, we set off to look for a place for dinner in the Marais. We wanted to look for a restaurant with outdoor sitting, but it was a beautiful night and everything was packed.

We finally found a table at Les Philosophes on Rue Vielle du Temple. I ordered steak tartare with potatoes, a glass of red wine, and a huge bottle of Perrier.

It was a fun conversation. Khalil is Egyptian, a linguistics scientist from New Haven, and in Paris for a conference. He's currently working on research concerning the "r" and "rr" sounds in the spanish language and I learned all sorts of fun facts about the different sounds and physical involvement of the letter "p" (like a very highbrow The Electric Company). He also does advocacy work for undocumented people and the incarcerated. Ummm...I talked about how much I like cheese.

Oh...the toilet at Les Philosophes was very interesting. First of all, I did drink the huge bottle of Perrier, so I'll freely admit I was in a hurry to use the bathroom and did not notice that I went into the women's by mistake. However, I maybe would have missed the wonder that was the women's toilet. It was a toilet with a view!

The bathroom was in the basement level, but inside the stall was a window through which you could see a very nice old fashioned library. I'm not sure if it's an active library or just for show, but I did worry for a sec about someone looking at me from the other side. The other very, very sad thing is that the books are not reachable, which, really, makes the whole thing more of a tease than anything else. C'mon, would at least one accessible magazine to pass the time kill anybody?