Chapter 49: 2M, Love Tim Hortons

nerd blog post #55

Paris continued to be wonderful.. Saturday, I ventured out for a lot of exploring. I started by checking out a hotel that I may stay at with Winter visitors. Nothing against hostels, but this hotel rivals hostel prices with it's one star elegance. It's actually pretty great - clean, friendly, and in a cool neighbourhood. From there, I walked to the Latin Quarter and saw where my pal, Doc Walker, lived last year. He was a prof of mine at Queen's and remains a good friend. If anyone else ever lived in Paris, I'll go and look at your house, too! Then I went to the Abbey Bookshop, which is the Canadian one I visited last time. The owner, Brian, is very nice, and I spent about an hour there talking to him. He invited me to the bookshop Christmas party, and I might go. We also talked about Toronto, theatre, and Paris at Christmastime. It was really nice.

I met RtC after his work and we had some dinner and then went to the clown's birthday party. It was at a bar across from their school, and many clowns were out to celebrate. I now know quite a few of them and enjoy hanging. Always great to see Viktor, too! It was a good night.

Sunday, I stayed in and did some work for part of the day, and then went and had a coffee at the bakery RtC works at. It's called the Rose Bakery, but is more of a restaurant. It's owned by a British woman, and they often hire English-speakers to work there. It's kind of fancy and expensive. RtC is the royal juice man, and makes freshly squeezed juice all day long.

From there, we went to the American grocery store (The Real McCoy) to buy cornbread mix, pumpkin pie filling, and cranberry sauce for the Amerirennes Thanksgiving party in two weeks. It was strange to see all of the products that I'm so used to seeing on Canadian shelves, but haven't seen since..

I had found something on the internet, and dragged RtC on an hour's walk to find it. I kept it a surprise. The Great Canadian Pub!! Featuring such specialties as pancakes with maple syrup, Moosehead beer, and Tim Horton's coffee. The door handles were hockey sticks, the football game was a-playin', the crowd was eh-ing, and it felt like home. When I opened the menu, however, I saw that a bottle of Canadian beer was about $11, and a Tim Horton's coffee was $6. Not like home. Wanting RtC to taste the magic of a Timmy Ho's coffee, we split one. What a treat.

This reminds me of a time I laughed so hard I almost died. I was with SLS, and we had just ordered Tim Horton's coffee. I take mine with two milks. They write "2M" on the lid, to distinguish it from SLS's black coffee. He looked down at my lid and said, "Oh, isn't that nice! To Em, love Tim Hortons!" I lost it.

In the evening, we met up with my favourite German clown, Michael, and head to ... where else? The bowling alley! We had to wait a bit to get a lane, but it was worth it for all of the strikes those pins had to handle from the Hinckster. I didn't win either game. Next time, clowns.

I came back to Rennes on the train this morning and have taught one of my morning classes. Coming back on Monday morning is always really tiring as I have to get up around 530am... But it's the cheapest ticket of the week, and gives an extra full day in Paris, so is worth it.

Tonight, Foun and Lucie are coming over for dindins. I don't know what I'll make them after that delicious treat last Monday, but ... I smell my specialty, Roly Polys. I'm not sure how the rest of the week will pan out.

I hope everyone enjoyed their week-ends.

With love,
Hincks.