Carla&Friends Day 12: Rain and Apéro

For some strange reason, I can't recall at all what we did during the day. I'm pretty sure that I took the day off and hung around with Carla and one other of the group while the rest of them attended the French Open (Roland-Garros), but I can't recall our precise paths throughout the day. All I remember is that at some point that afternoon, Carla and I split off from the group to have a "small" apéro with two friends from the staff at my residence building.

These were the two people that I worked with for a large part of the year as the mediator between the University of Chicago, and the Résidence Lila. They were always friendly and kind enough to help me find a place for my sister to stay when she visited in November and April, so we took them out for dinner the last time they were in town. In exchange, they offered to organize a "little" apéritif before dinner tonight, although there was nothing small about it.

We met in the new workplace of one of them, which is a new student residence in a rehabilitated shipping building on the banks of the large canal, bassin de la villette, in the 19th arrondissement. Between the two of them, they had brought a sweet and strong white wine that dated from 1971 (seriously!), a large roll of pâté de foie gras, strawberries from their family's garden, some wonderfully stinky cheese, a delicious hazelnut sponge cake (called a creusois, and some macarons from La Durée. As you can imagine, this was practically a meal in itself.

The original plan had been to walk to the parc Buttes-Chaumont, but it was rainy and cold that day, so we just ate in the cafeteria in the residence building. Nonetheless, it was a great time and it was really nice to hang out with them again outside the context of work. As we parted ways, Carla was feeling a bit tired (and tipsy from all that wine), so we headed back to the apartment for a bit.

From there, DJ (who was back from a wedding in the States) invited me out for drinks and pizza at Resto Rigoletto (a little bar/restaurant near Porte des Lilas), where we caught up on the past weekend and enjoyed some delicious pizza. Mine was a mountain of ground beef and vegetables, with a raw egg cracked on top (rather common here). After a long night of commiserating and eating and drinking, we wandered back to our humble abodes and checked out for the night.