Le début de mars

The beginning of March has been wonderful...so far. The weather here right now is lovely, and keeps getting better. It rains off and on somedays, but when it clears up it is so beautiful. There is a word for this kind of weather here, I think it is jubilee, but I am not positive. I think I got sick at the best time, because now I am fully recoverd, rested, and ready for spring!
For the past two weeks, all the children in France have been out of school on "holiday." So all the parks have been filled with kids. It is so cute to see them play. My favorite thing to watch, in Luxembourg Gardens, there is a little stand where you can rent little sail boats and put them in the fountain. Yesterday, the fountain was filled with all these little boats, and the kids think they are the greatest things ever invented. Also, I have found that contrary to popular belief, the French are very into exercising. The parks are always filled with joggers, and there are rollerbladers everywhere and bikers too. I went running around the park near my appartment, Monceau Park, this morning, and I felt like I was running around a track because there were so many people.
Last night I went to a very interesting restaurant. It was this fondue place near the Moulin Rouge and Montmartre area (kind of a sketchy area at night). Anyways, this restaurant was recommended by one of my travel guide books, and it is widely known because they serve wine in baby bottles! Yes, welcome to France, wine in baby bottles! The restuarant is actually supposed to resemble an insane asylum, so there is writing all over the walls and you have to climb over the tables to get to your seat, well some people do. Nonetheless, the fondue was pretty good and so was the wine.
Last week, there was a 6 nation Rugby tournament, and we went on kind of a pub crawl to watch the games. Sports here are so great! We got seats to watch the England vs. Ireland rugby match last weekend, it was awesome, and the pub was filled with people from each opposing team. It was so fun to watch!
I am headed to Ireland on Thursday for a few days. I cannot wait!
Oh, and my good friend Billy is here this week, so Claire and I have our first shot at being tour guides! This should be interesting.