What am I up to? On a day-to-day basis, not a whole heck of a lot. But I just got back from my daily lunch on the Champ de Mars, where today a brass band was playing "Build Me Up Buttercup," inspiring me to write an entry. The best moments in Paris are those little random ones.
Not so random moments from this past weekend:

Subcontinent's Visit
Subcontinent and her parents were passing through Paris and we grabbed dinner with them Friday and an ice cream lunch and shopping session with them on Saturday after I got off work. It was all kinds of fun, and it reminded me of how much fun we had when we were in Paris together last time two years ago.

The Trip to Bruges
We rented a car (and that was quite a to-do, since the usually amiable if a little slow National was this time just slooooow and then they ran out of cars even though we had a reservation and then we went over to Avis and then...but you know what, we got one in the end so I'm not telling that whole story) and drove up to Bruges on Sunday with Mom driving and me navigating. We decided that Lille is a black hole, since we got lost around there on the way up and on the way back for unrelated reasons, neither of which were our fault. Finally we made it and our hotel was clean and pretty and, most importantly, had an ENORMOUS bathtub. If you've ever talked to me about bathtubs (not exactly the most scintillating topic, but oh well), you'll know that I love them, and put up with showers because I like to be clean. But tubs I really love and since, nowadays, I only get to enjoy a nice soak when I'm at home in Damn-Big-Midwestern-University Town, I was very happy to find one waiting for me in Bruges.
We spent the afternoon wandering around town. We took a boat ride on the canals and the river (which, for comparison's sake, cost the same amount as a ride on the Ferris wheel in Paris but while the Ferris wheel ride lasts five minutes, this lasted half an hour and included a spoken tour). We visited the Gruuthuse. We had drinks at the 400 beers bar that Dad insisted we go to on his behalf. For dinner, we ate the best mussels I have ever had in my life. I'm never eating mussels again, because these were so good.

Dear God.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel and made an early night of it, since we were both so exhausted from our rental car fiasco. The next day, though, we got a lot in. We climbed the bell tower, made famous by the movie In Bruges, saw many churches and medieval/Renaissance houses and even touched a relic said to contain a bit of Jesus Christ's blood. Yes. We also ate ice cream, had tea, and saw the béguinage before starting to drive home at three. We were supposed to get the car back my nine and we thought that would give us an hour and a half safety cushion. We ended up getting the car in at 8:20, thanks to the Lille Black Hole of Doom, which on this end manifested itself through framers on tractors spread out across the auto route, protesting something or other. We had to take surface roads for several miles, and we had to find these roads ourselves, since no one has thought to set up a detour.
We made it back to the apartment tired, but happy on the whole with our quick trip into Belgium.

Bastille Day
The day following our return was Bastille Day, so neither of us had to work and we had the chance to relax a bit. Relaxation in this case meant going to see Public Enemies, which brings me to three things:
1) Johnny Depp can actually exist in a movie without making me crack up and/or roll my eyes. Well done Johnny. You actually freaked me out a little bit.
2) Chicago films SO WELL. Love it.
3) Baby Face Nelson. Was he this nuts in real life? In both this movie and in O Brother, Where Art Thou he was portrayed as nutso and trigger-happy. Compared to his antics, all the other random violence in the film looked positively rational.
After the movie we relaxed some more, ate dinner, and then went for a walk by the Seine to watch the fireworks.