I Need a Bowl of Pho

As much as I love French food, after nearly two weeks of it day and night, I felt that I really needed something different (similar to how I had to take a break from macarons). So when N suggested that we get pho for dinner, I happily agreed. N took me to Pho Banh Cuon 14 (129, avenue de Choisy; M: Tolbiac) and we ordered a couple bowls of pho. Maybe it was because I was craving Asian food, the pho tasted absolutely heavenly. It was also one of the cheapest meals I've had in Paris. A bowl of pho was 7 euros, and N and I joked about how everything is relative. He had just come back from Ho Chi Minh City where he was studying Vietnamese and a bowl over there costs about 50 cents (but there is definitely a lot less meat), and I was saying that a bowl of pho costs about 5 dollars in US and has more meat. Either way, I'd happily pay for another bowl of pho in Paris.

After dinner, I told N that I really needed to find a hotspot with cute guys because I haven't seen any place worthy of a Q for a long time. We headed over to Bastille where a lot of pubs and bars are. We walked up and down Rue Du Lappe but to my disappointment, I didn't see any bars or pubs with an attractive clientele for us to check out. In the end, we decided to go to Balajo, which is a Latin/ballroom dancing club, and I was quite excited when I saw it because I didn't think I'll get a chance to ballroom dance in Paris. There was a 12 euro cover but the bouncer was nice enough to let us in for free. The club was full of couples dancing away (swing, salsa, etc.) but it was definitely catering to an older clientele. Most of the couples there looked like they came on a regular basis and some were really good. We enjoyed watching them for a while and decided to give it a try ourselves (N was really good). Despite the lack of eye candy, I really enjoyed watching the couples dance and had a lot of fun. For those who enjoy ballroom dancing, Balajo is definitely a fun place to check out.