While I did spend 15 of our 18 days at Jane in a hazy fog of fever and hunger, we did manage to do a little exploring on the remaining 3.

After the doctor ran tests he gave me Cipro. That’s what they give you when you have anthrax. !! So…you can pretty much imagine how it shut my system right down. The good news was that all the tests showed I was a very healthy woman. I just probably ingested a mean bacteria or parasite (parasite?).

‘Can you tell me the last time you ate before you felt sick?’ he asked.

I can! It was the meal I had before I went to Victor Hugo’s house.

Victor Hugo.

Little did I know that while I was enjoying my last lunch in Paris, consumed with heady thoughts of somehow being intertwined with Victor Hugo’s life, he was putting me in my place by unleashing a legion of French bacteria on my tummy to make me les miserables. Jeeeeeeeeeeeeze! Soooorrrrrry Victor Hugo.

Here is a photo of the The French Bug in my tummy—

he sort of looks like Victor Hugo doesn’t he? Ok, maybe more like Salvador Dalí.

I told the doctor I couldn’t possibly be that healthy, I have been sick once a month, every month since last October. He said, ‘Well are you abnormally stressed?’

Who me? Nooooo! Don’t be silly.

But let’s look at the fun things that happened down at Jane–

The Playground

Grammy (who marvelously came to help) took the baby over to a playground. If you remember, the Parisian children were adorable and lovely at the playgrounds. Here in the West Village there were 2 boys of about 5 playing in the sandbox with a million toys. The baby waddled over and the 2 boys gathered up everything they could fit into their little arms and cried, ‘BAAAAAABY!!!’ Then they ran to the other side of the sandbox. Completely unfazed, the baby would waddle over to them again and the same thing would happen, ‘BAAAAABY!!!’ Finally they asked Grammy, ‘Why does that baby keep following us?’ Grammy just shrugged and said, ‘I don’t know.’

The Counter Offer

Negotiations continued.

Perry Street

I took the baby for a walk one day on my favorite street in New York, Perry street. It’s an idyllic old street with beautiful old townhouses. As we walked I noticed a group of people standing in front of a stoop getting their photos taken one by one. There was a chain across the stoop and a sign that read,

‘Please no photographs on the stoop. Be respectful, this is someone’s home.’

Well, clearly their sign wasn’t having the desired effect, but I wondered why people were stopping there and I thought…’is that where Heath Ledger died?’ Can you believe I thought that? How morbid. But you should see how many people flock to the Dakota to see where John Lennon died. So I had to go find out…I went up to 2 women who didn’t speak English. I think they were Russian. I said, ‘Excuse me, what is this?’ while I pointed to the stoop. ‘Sex and City,’ they both replied with big smiles on their face.

What??? Sex and the City?

‘Carrie’s stoop!’ they beamed.

Carrie’s stoop. People were coming down to Perry street to have their photo taken on the stoop that was used in the TV show. Amazing. That is amazing to me. If you google Carrie’s Stoop you will see countless images of young women posed on the stoop in various outfits. I would make fun, but if I were 24 and with Dru, I would go get my picture taken on that stoop too. Actually, I wouldn’t.

A Haircut

I got a haircut that was supposed to look like this…

but instead looks like this…it’s not quite right is it? Or maybe I just want to look like Cate Blanchette.

The Chelsea Market

I really like the Chelsea Market a lot. It’s been around for ages and it has a great many specialty shops and lots of ‘farm to table’ happening. I love this kind of thing, this is my kind of thing, my kind of people. But when I went there with the baby in the stroller just to get more bananas, I was so surprised by how crank-a-liciously mean and miserable everyone was.  I had a baby for heaven’s sake, not a rabid, wild boar in a stroller. But my goodness people COULD NOT be bothered. They didn’t hold the door, they were annoyed by the stroller and would block my way so I couldn’t get by with it, they would make these loud, heavy sighs when I said excuse me to pass them. The baby’s big, blue eyes did nothing…NOTHING! His powers of good were useless against the evil forces of the Chelsea Market.

A few days later Michael took him down there and when he got back he said, ‘have you been to the Chelsea Market yet? Everyone there is so cranky!‘

A Birthday Dinner

We went to Le Pescadeux for a dear friend’s birthday and it was also my first, solid meal in just about 2 weeks. 2 weeks!! And do you know what I had? Oysters. And they were delicious. Le Pescadeux is in SoHo  and they serve French Canadian Sea Food. So as you can see, I was clearly taking a risk. But you’ve got to get back on the horse sometime. It was a lovely evening.