Day 2

Ahhh, sweet sleep!  We went to bed last night around 9:30 and I didn’t wake up until eight this morning.  I had a light breakfast here at the FIAP and then at 9:30 Mungyun (or something like that) and I, the only two who wanted to stay in this area and were awake, set out to find the Monoprix again and a place to exchange some of our dollars for euros.  We got to use our French many times along our way at two banks and a post office to find out where we could do the exchange.  It turns out there are only a few places that can exchange with the closest being in Montparnasse a bit north of here.  The two of us then wandered around looking for a Metro entrance that actually sold tickets as the majority of them don’t.  Along our way I was able to successfully ask a man at a bus stop where we could buy tickets and he was nice enough to give us two that he had in his wallet.  I do love helpful generous people!  The Metro was surprisingly easy to use and in no time we were walking up the stairs and onto the main square in Montparnasse.  After asking yet another nice person where the exchange was, we followed his directions and were successful.

Montparnasse

It is such a nice area around there, as is everywhere I’ve been so far, so we did some exploring around the shops and that is where we found this street accessible rooftop complete with small gardens on the side, an apiary, and a small café.
The view was quite nice as you can see and so typical of this area.  The trip back was uneventful, and we were then able to catch the Metro back down, stop by the Monoprix for an adapter and shampoo, buy a truffle for Kimia whose birthday is today, and walk back to FIAP.  It was a full but rewarding morning of exploring and confidence building in our Paris navigation skills.  Even the homeless people here are classy.  One man had a rather large tent set up on the sidewalk complete with a rotating fan and house plant.  Not too shabby!  I am now waiting for our afternoon meeting and dîner typiquement français at L’Hydrophobe a few minutes walk from here.  Well, once again my internet time is almost up.

Much love to all of you.

-Kate Alice