mal

Jeremy left for the States Monday morning. He got out just in time. Everyone has been sick around here lately. I'm not surprised. The weather has been awful--hovering between 20 and 40 degrees with alternating snow, sleet, wind, and rain. I've heard it's the worst winter in 35 years. Ah, well. If spring in Paris is as wonderful as everyone says, perhaps this is just a way for Nature to make us earn it.

Anyway, Monday morning I woke up feeling like I had a basketball inside my head and someone had been standing on my chest all night. The pharmacies here can dispense stronger drugs without a prescription, so hopefully I'll feel better soon. But this is one of the nastiest colds I've ever had.

I think my friend A.L. had the same thing last week. He was very excited to take Jeremy, me, and some of his friends to a restaurant called "Le Coin de Verre" two Fridays ago. But he wrote early in the week saying he had "mal a la gorge." Jeremy and I had just made plans to go to Ireland, so we agreed to postpone the dinner. I didn't expect we'd reschedule, but A.L. was very excited about this restaurant. He's a wine buff (even more so than most French), and this restaurant gets good bottles from all over the country and sells them at the same rate as the stores.

Last weekend, Jeremy and I met up with A.L. and his friends in front of the Colonel Fabien metro station and walked down to Le Coin de Verre...