Walking back to the hotel tonight, with the side streets eerily devoid of any activity, one would think the city of Paris has been hit by an apoloyptic event, when in actually, it's World Cup madness as France plays Morocco in the quarter finals. Every bar that doesn't have a television now has one on a table facing outwards and the spillover into the streets would make any person who has fear of crowds run for the hills. Unless the people there are also watching. At any event, it's been a long day capped off by the arrival of my friends from Los Angeles. After spending over an hour on the tarmac due to a mechanical failure (which thankfully happened on the ground and not in the air), Holli and Nicole arrived exhausted, but ready to barrel through the evening ahead.

Even though we knew they wouldn't get to the hotel til well after 3, John and I spent the day close to our arrondissement. After making even more footwear purchases, we finally completed our goal of buying French knives. I even got a true French rolling pin. Despite what some may think, it's not to hit my husband over the head with, but one never knows after I spread out the pizza dough on our new French pizza pan what may happen with it. Just in case, keep an eye out of the latest Dateline episode.

Speaking of that NBC staple of a show, my NBC friends were troupers after they showered and felt refreshed enough to walk a bit before we headed for dinner. (We took note of Holli's room number as hers is much bigger and will have way more room for the amount of things we buy.) I took them to eat at a place that is very special to me - Fratelli Italian restaurant where I first took my mom and John on our respective trips. The atmosphere is idyllic, the food fantastico, the wine is superb and each time, the company has been something out of a dream. Holli, Nicole and I survived so much chaos at NBC that it's a wonder we left with our sanity in tact. But, here we were, sitting in a Paris restaurant, laughing about the absurdity of those times. You never know where life will take you with the people you meet on your adventures. I never take for granted the friendships I've made, and I'm sure if we stuck around the streets tonight, we would have made more friends. We left the ladies to slumber and had some wine at our new favorite -and empty - wine bar) The bars in the neighborhood as I'm sure they are in every arrondissement  are packed. One waiter even told us from the doorway to take our pick of the tables on the sidewalk. We, of course, opted for ice cream with chantilly of course. As of now, France is ahead, and either way, the streets are going to be packed for hours and we'll hear the noise all the way up to our hotel room. I think I'm tired just from the sheer amount of shopping we've been doing this trip, and I fear we'll need to remodel again just to fit all of our new shoes. For me to live through another construction zone would surely be an event of apocalyptic proportions that would make even the French shiver in the heat.