This morning began inauspiciously, as I woke up late, sore in several places, and with a bit of a cold.  However, I quickly realized that this was not a sign of the universe's evilness or my oncoming death but simply the likely result of a lot of tromping around over the past few days.  I packed up my netbook and adjourned to Starbucks, where I spent the morning writing and produced three thousand (not necessarily very good) words, as well as finishing Northanger Abbey, my second Jane Austen novel of the trip (I read Pride and Prejudice before that; I am now reading Emma, which I haven't read in years due to the necessity of rereading Pride and Prejudice with such frequency; after that I will read Persuasion, which it is possible is the I have not already read, or maybe there isn't one).

In the afternoon, I cooked up my potatoes (half of which had already gone bad due to my delaying) and string beans in a big pan with some pre-cut bacon I found at the grocery store (here bacon comes with chunks, not strips).  It was a bit odd at first, since I was worried the potatoes would never soften, and then there was a lot of liquid in the pan (from the bacon?  or the beans?) that I had to pour off.  But in the end it turned out all right; most of the volume is beans with just a bit of potato, and a healthy amount of bacon.  I have decided this is probably similar to what French people eat for vegetables (actually, from what I've seen, it is not, because I did not have it with a cream sauce).  After my bout of domesticity, I took a walk in the Marais, eventually making my way to a bookstore I hadn't been to.  This was a tiny and actually friendly bookstore, and I had an interesting conversation with some of the expatriates hanging out there, most of which was about how American is evil because we are too attuned to convenience and not attuned enough to the liberal sensibilities of recent college graduates, but some of which was about places I should explore in the city.  After leaving the bookstore, I went to Picard, a specialty food store recommended by the expatriates, which carries only frozen things, and bought more frozen food than I probably need for a week, but now hopefully I will get to try lots of interesting things without all the bother of constantly being in a restaurant.

In the evening, I bestirred myself to go out again, and wandered the left bank window-shopping, then hung out on a bridge and took pictures while the sun was setting.  So, all in all, a pleasant and varied day.