So I discovered why people in Paris seem to walk around carrying baguettes all the time.. according to my guide book, 80 percent of Parisians eat bread with EVERY meal!! That's nuts, especially considering how slim they all are - I swear I have seen no more than a handful of overweight people since I've been here and nearly all of those were probably tourists. It's absolutely ok to walk along eating a baguette.. I have seen many people doing just this, walking with a paper wrapped stick, tearing and eating! One advantage of this day long bread habit is you can buy fresh bread right up to the evening - I still can't quite get the hang of this though, I buy my baguette one day then use it to make sandwiches the next, very un-french of me.

The hostel where I'm staying has a free breakfast, which I don't have because I can't eat croissants or cows milk, I don't drink orange juice and I wouldn't eat a baguette for breakfast, so the only bit of the free breakfast that interests me is the coffee.. but the last three mornings the coffee has not been ready yet when I've been down there, so sad! This has had me puffing and harumphing like only a sleep deprived caffeine addict can and leaving to buy one from one of the thankfully numerous cafes in the streets around. This morning I thought I'd cracked it and have already had two espressos from the coffee machine in the hostel reception, in anticipation of the breakfast lady being late but as I type this I can hear her down in the kitchen banging away and I feel sure that this will be the one morning that the coffee IS ready. Having had two, I really don't need more but will I be able to resist the lure of a free one at last?? Watch this space...

My french speaking is going well.. ish. I'm generally fine if I can work out in my head what to say and I can listen to a reply and respond to it although I sometimes have to think for a minute or ask the person I'm talking to to repeat themselves. But it really throws me when I speak in french and the frenchies reply to me in English! This basically fries my brain and I can't go back to french, the extremely friendly guy working in Loving Hut last night did this to me and we ended up having a conversation in pigin frenglish about what was in the really tasty dressing that came with my crepe champignons et tofu!

This evening I want to go to see the ballet if they have any cheap tickets left, or perhaps the opera if there are no affordable tickets for the ballet. Am just waiting for the kitchen to open so I can have my petit dejeuner then I will be off out to the musee d'orangerie this morning to see Monet's Water Lilies and other works. I barely slept again last night so we shall see how far through the day I make it before I crash!