These days, I am more likely to accept invitations that take me to New Places than I am other invitations. So when a friend invited me to “France” to watch the World Cup quarter-final match, I suddenly became a soccer fan! (Not really, but it was a ticket in and fun anyway).

The best part of the game (for this non-soccer fan) was half-time, when we went exploring and discovered even more New Places in the embassy that even my friend (a frequent Embassy visitor) didn’t know about.

We went outside, around the corner, through another door and discovered a French café with real French pastries and coffee!  Down another hallway (Hey, nobody stopped us!), we discovered a cafeteria,

and then—beyond that, a fancy, formal French restaurant with tablecloths and everything! (Turns out these are open to membership from the public).

But we didn’t stop there! We saw a sign for a biblioteque (library) and kept exploring, finally asking a nice gentleman, who took us through doors with his security badge to the library.

At that point, abandoned by the nice gentleman, it was a bit of a challenge to get back to our starting point and the soccer game. One locked door after another, but we finally emerged on the other side of the building, scampered around to the main entrance and slipped into our seats, breathless with our adventure, and just in time to catch the second half.

(Oh, and France won!)