Days 3-5. Glorious.

The past 5 days have been pure joy. It has been in the 60s and sunny, and I have never seen Paris with so few tourists. It's almost eerily quiet and with next to no Americans, which is, naturally, perfect for us.
Saturday ended in a night of truly epic proportions. Lets just say we ended up home in the very late evening/early morning after having made many new friends.
On Sunday we got an (understandably) later start, heading over to the Seventh and one of our old stand-by cafes, La Marquise. There is a chevre chaud salad that is the stuff of legend, and it was truly delicious.
Side note: my cheese tolerance has diminished considerably since I was last in Paris. Sad. We then wandered to the First, near the Concorde and Place Vendome. We went to La Duree for macaroons, which I had never tasted before and completely lived up to expectations. The rose petal flavor was especially delicious. We then walked down the rue Faubourg Saint Honore, home to many favorite aspirational stores, but I was most excited to worship at the altar of Hermes. Their windows are unreal. For dinner, we went to a brasserie that Maeve discovered in her Taschen book on Paris, Le Chartier. It was a classic French establishment and lots of fun for the people watching alone. Given the events of the previous night, we allowed ourselves no distractions that would interfere with getting a good nights sleep, so we put blinders on and went straight home.
Yesterday, we woke up early and set off to conquer the Louvre, which was great. I'm currently reading a biography of Cleopatra, so I was especially into the Egyptian and Roman artifacts. Maeve, museum warrior that she is, fought her way through the crowd in front of the Mona Lisa and got a photo of it without any Japanese tourists in the way - the mark of a true pro. The end of our time there was a little intense. All the exit signs started contradicting themselves and we felt like we'd never find a way out. There are worse things in the world than being stuck in the Louvre, but we were relieved to be free. We decided to decompress at a favorite fromagerie on rue de Seine, but when we got there, it had been replaced by some ridiculous candy store. RIP Fromagerie 31. Having been denied our lunch of cheese, we, somewhat depressed, wandered the 6th near the Place St Germain and found a tabac to serve our purposes. It's pretty difficult to find a place in Paris that isn't delicious. After a late lunch, we went to the tea garden at the Mosque, which is beautiful, and sat outside with Moroccan tea and hookah for a couple hours. Not bad, right?
Last night, we went to La Bocca, a great Italian restaurant in Montorgeuil, the Second arrondissement, followed by La Coeur Fou, a favorite bar nearby. Then, deciding we couldn't be good forever, we ran over to the Eleventh to our own version of Mecca, Ave Maria. We were able to fit in one drink before they closed, and made some friends. One of the women we spoke to owns a restaurant near Hotel de Ville, where she invited us tonight.
One of the things we've noticed this time around is how easily we're meeting people, speaking French (wine doesn't hurt), and making legitimate social connections. It's a pretty amazing feeling. I feel like I'm having a completely new conception of what Paris is, compared to my previous experiences.
I've kind of exhausted myself with this, so we're off to go for a walk around the Ile de la Cite at dusk. Hopefully the line to get into Notre Dame won't be too long and we can see the last bits of daylight through the Rose Window.

More later!