Halloween in France!

They don't *really* celebrate Halloween here (although Juliette and her friend did go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood....I asked for an explanation but no one could give me a real one...I guess people hand out candy, but only a limited number of houses or something).

Mariene and I decided far in advance that our Halloween was going to be spent at Pere Lachaise, so we dragged Lewis and Scott (Mariene's friend who was visiting from Bristol) with us. It was a GORGEOUS day outside, and the leaves were beautiful!

It was the perfect day to be there. Mariene has relatives buried there, which made it even cooler.

And lately, I've fallen in love with the Jardin du Luxembourg, which I'm been trying to stroll through as much as possible on my way to whereever else I'm going. The other day, I sat down to read my copy of Les Miz, and it is *infinitely* cooler to be reading about how Marius goes to the Jardin du Luxembourg everyday in order to try and meet Cosette for the first time while I'm sitting in the Jardin du Luxembourg.

(My view as I read the other day).

People usually talk about Paris being beautiful, and while Paris has a lot of beautiful things in it (art, statues, pastries, etc), the Jardin du Luxembourg was the first thing that actually made me realize why people describe the city as a whole like that. I'm sad that my parents will be visiting when it will lack all color and be too cold to go strolling through!