Tightening the Belt (A Good Thing!)

This weekend I realized that I had to tighten my belt a notch -- literally, not figuratively -- because with all the walking around we've been doing, I have apparently lost a few pounds notwithstanding my consumption of baguettes, cheese, tarts, pain au lait (God help me if they had pain au lait easily available in the US; I would weigh pounds); non non-fat lattes with sugar; non non-fat milk, butter, etc., etc.  So my girth is not a problem for now, even though my cholesterol is probably higher than when I got here (and I'm not at all sure it was a model of good health when I left).

This afternoon was another "Vivre Velib" afternoon.  Suzie told me to go out on my own, so I took a Velib from the station near our apartment, pedaled to the Place d'Italie, went into the big shopping center there and looked for a video camera (to replace the one we've had for a number of years, which has died on us, the mechanism that puts the tape into and out of the camera being stuck permanently, it seems, in a half-in, half-out position), a new "sac" to replace my backpack (Suzie remarked on something I had already noticed, which is that French men don't use backpacks, but rather satchel-type bags that are held on the side or slightly in front of you, useful both for keeping pickpockets out and also for making sure you don't bump someone with your bag on the Metro; Suzie said that my backpack, while functional, marks me as a tourist), and a book (I looked in FNAC but never did quite find anything I wanted to buy bad enough to face 15 minutes in the check-out line).  After that, I walked around the Place d'Italie in search of a Velib to ride back.  Here's what it looked like there today:

As is typical, the Velib station I found had no bikes that worked. The one that seemed to be OK was missing a nut on the mechanism that allows you to raise and lower the seat, meaning that I risked having to ride a bike suited for a midget if the seat were to slip down. So I got on the Metro instead and rode south, getting off a couple of stops later, where I found a Velib station with functional bikes, took one, and rode it home. There, Suzie was studying and cooking a stew (a pot a feu, she calls it now). The stew smells delicious, my wife is cute, and life is good.