A Frugal--Maybe Squeamy--Moment in Paris

Well, after all the anxiety with the visa chronicled earlier, Frugal Son is now in Paris! He'll be wandering around a bit before he begins his semester in Nantes. Oh lucky boy. He is living my dream. One of them, anyway.

So, here is a bit of an email, describing a squeamy moment.



It’s now 1pm and I’m in the Tuileries where I just had lunch. Lunch was a delicious and, more importantly, FREE pizza courtesy of wasteful American tourists. A huge gaggle of Americans—must’ve been some sort of school trip because there were about 20 kids and 5 adults—came to the hostel last night and left this morning. I know they left because they were making such a racket this morning so I went to the window and saw them all gathered in the courtyard with their luggage. I also noticed that a couple of them were holding pizza boxes which I assume were left-over from the night before.

I went about my business getting ready for the day and then at about 7:45 I went down to the cave to get breakfast. On my way down, I noticed two pizza boxes left on the table but, for the time being, I ignored them. For breakfast I had chocolat chaud, jus d’orange, pain chocolat, AND a section of baguette (with butter and confiture de groseille…what exactly are groseilles?). Feeling quite satisfied I went out to the courtyard and of course I had to check out the pizza boxes. JACKPOT! Inside one was a FULL pizza (probably 9” in diameter) with jambon, olives, capers,Coeur d’artichaud et champignons. YUM. The other box had about half of a pizza but I didn’t take a good look at the toppings because I was absolutely smitten with the first one. I sat at the table, surreptitiously scanning the surroundings to see if there were any straggling Americans who might claim the pizza. After checking to be sure that no one was watching and preemptively opening my backpack, I moved the full pizza box to my bag and zipped it up in one fluid motion. Then I briskly walked out of the hostel and began my day.

After St. Chapelle I walked along the Seine, past the Louvre and to my present location where I found a nice shady spot to eat lunch. I thought I was going to be able to stretch the pizza to be both lunch and dinner but I was famished so I ate the whole thing. Too bad I couldn’t fit both boxes in my bag. In the shade, with the wind, it’s actually almost chilly after sitting down for a while! I think I’ll wander around here a bit more and then head across the river to Musee d’Orsay. Update later.