the beaujolais nouveau

One of the most loveliest Parisien nights ever. Just got back from the Le Saint-Médard across the street to welcome the arrival of the Beaujolais Nouveau, a nice, simple red wine from the Beaujolais region. My lovely landlord invited me and played live music too! He's so great. I think he knows how shy and hermit-like I am. But he really insisted that I come. We were talking on the stairwell and he was all, "Please, if you can, join us! It's just across the street! But if not, that's okay..." He's so sweet!!

Invited bunches of people, but it's kind of hard when there's a metro strike going on. Luckily, Kristin and Keisha made it since they don't live far. Walked in, and Landlord Chris was playing his accordion and singing in the corner. We couldn't find a place to sit so we went upstairs. Keisha got frites, Kristin got a café-crème, and I got a café noisette and a nutella crèpe. We also got a small bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau to share later.

This place is absolutely gorgeous. Dark wood tables and chairs, and pinkish wallpaper. Very warm and cozy. We talked about how amazing Paris is, how lucky we are, how fast everything is going. Our convo ranged from fashion to French dogs. It felt so good to be young and in Paris. Keisha was saying how amazing this experience was, how no one will ever understand what this year will mean to us except ourselves. It was lovely, just talking and taking our time in between bites of crèpe and sips of wine. It was great and so un-American. Back home, we're used to gulping our food, never really savoring it. The wine was also great: simple and light. This older woman behind us heard us talking, and she spoke English and asked us what we were studying. She was really sweet and even took our picture for us. She told us how her daughter studied abroad just for 6 months but that the experience changed her like no other. We asked her what she did, and she's a film scholar! She said she does research. She told us about her kids who are also in the film industry in New York. What a world. God never ceases to remind me about film. He even sits a Canadian film scholar behind me at my local bistro.

When it died down, we went downstairs. I said hi to my landlord as he was playing a song. We sat down to listen to the music, and this lady handed out sheets so we could sing along. Old-school karaoke. We stayed for 6 songs, then parted ways. I waved goodbye to my landlord before I left. God I love my quartier. I think I should go to that bistro at least once a week for coffee until they know me.