Paris-dise

1. Salted Caramel and Pistachio macarons from Ladurée

2. Chels, Marine and Inez

3. Gettin' frisky

1. Antique markets at Marché aux puces de Saint-Ouen.
2. Wood-paved floors.
3. Corsets. Imagine having your stomach in your chest.
4. Crèpe au nutella et à la chantilly (the best cream in the world).

Dinner at Le Relais Gascon. 12EUR Salades GEANTES. Inez, Claire-Ellen and Marine. Chels asked for her face to be removed.

CHATEAU DE VERSAILLES

1. 2. 5. 6. The Gardens

3. 4. The best part of the day. The back part of the gardens; which turned out to be free....

7. Le Chateau

8. In front of the of the Golden gates of the Chateau

9. Map of the Palace. It's huge.

Turned out that every Tuesday (the day we decided to go) it is obligatory to pay to access the gardens because there's a muscial water show. This is what we paid 7.5 Euros for. I've saved you the trouble of paying to go see it for yourself and uploaded it here. You tell me if it was worth it.

This is the view from our apartment. Jealous? Yeah.

Sitting on the Seine eating dinner after a day wandering through the 6ième

How to be a T.O.U.R.I.S.T.

I don't understand why anyone would subject themselves to this. Okay you're away from home but you don't have to announce it in capital letters (stereophonic sound for my St Caths girls) to the world.

Observe how
1. Man is casually carrying around an ipad to take photos. But no that's not enough, you need 3 different angles, with 3 different cameras and probably 349857 photos just in case you can't perfectly capture the 3 boys splayed across the grass like starfish. In front of the Sacre Cœur. Please someone tell me why.
2. Woman has chosen to buy a rain poncho with Paris and an image of the Eiffel Tower on the back of it. There's another 2 in the background if you look closely. If you were at home and it started raining, tant pis right? What in the world possessed you to walk into a store and buy 3 plastic ponchos with the city you are in branded across the back? It's like me, being in Sydney, and deciding to buy a yellow and green plastic poncho with SYDNEY and a boxing kangaroo plastered on the back and strutting around Bondi. I really don't believe that being in a different place gives anyone permission to be a complete and utter nuthead.
3. Small girl is starting a new trend; clipping a brochure to your head to protect the head from UVA/B rays (as well as sitting in the shade).

It's like when people travel, it's cue to take everything you wouldn't wear and put it into a suitcase. Is walking in Paris more difficult than at home? Why are you wearing that polo and runners combination?

I am a tourist. But I don't feel the need to do this. Do you? I carry all the same stuff with me, plus a camera and a little extra cash. But really, why? Why does this happen? Please someone explain.

It's happening

On the 13th my travel buddy finally arrived! And it hit me that this is actually happening, it was like my trip was really starting. Within the next 4 months or so we are travelling to over 10 countries and many many more cities. In August we will mow through 4 countries, I can't comprehend that even now, but it's happening, it's definitely happening.

The first thing Chelsea makes me eat is: exhibit 1. a brioche smothered in butter and nutella. I personally am not a huge fan of butter and the idea of eating a combined mass of sugar and fat makes me feel sick, but I can acknowledge the sickly goodness of this and that it would be heaven if I were a massive junk food fan.

2. Home for 10 days.

3. Taking advantage of the good weather. For a few days the weather here was worse than it is in Sydney, and it's winter back at home. However it's cleared up since the 14th, so it's all good.

4. 5. feu d'artifice de 14 juillet à Place de la Concorde.
6. Chels, Marine and Churros
7. Barbe à Papa SUPER GEANTE; yeh it's about 5 times the size of her head

It's awesome to see a familiar face and refreshing to be able to speak English. However I still want to speak French because on est a Paris et il faut qu'on en profite! And now we have Marine to correct us so what a waste if we didn't!

Paris je t'aime

1. 3. Jud
2. Not exactly sure what was going on
4. 5. Bal des Pompiers a la caserne Blanche
6. 7. Views from Pont Alexandre III
8. Garden along the Seine

After 2 and a half weeks in here and living like a local, I finally feel like I've begun to settle in.

• I get verlan and I can sometimes talk fast and actually contribute to conversations. 
• It's become impulse to say "non merci" to vendors who wander the streets and into restaurants/cafes/bars selling roses. 
• I'm getting to know the 9ieme and 18ieme pretty damn well and
• I've been able to hold my hunger off to about 9pm every night.

Also,

• I haven't gone a day without drinking.

I love it. I've already moved out into an amazing apartment in Montmartre with friends and it's amazing. But I know I can have this anytime. Being completely immersed in a different culture is the most rewarding experience in the world and I know I'll do this again; spend six months, a year, more in Paris. Soon. I've fallen deeply, madly in love with Paris, its culture and its people. Being told that I have a good accent, that I speak French really well....best feeling in the world. I still have 6 days left but every now and then I feel like I've left already. Oh dear getting all nostalgic in here.

La vie parisienne

 

1. 2. 3. Sacre Coeur

4. Judith

5. View from the Musée de Montmartre

6. Au Lapin Agile

7. .... don't remember what this place was called.. shame on me...

8. Place Des Vosges

9. Super old house

10. 11. 12. Friday night I watched the sun rise

Some observations

All Parisians smoke. It's not a stereotype, it's a fact. I've met one person who doesn't smoke and I can't imagine how they don't, I even believe, if I lived here for long enough; I would start somehow. It doesn't help that a packet is 6 euros compared to 20 australian dollars at home and that's still expensive apparently.

Parisians are very passionate about politics and philosophy and often talk about deep and meanginful things. When I think about what it takes for me and the people I know to talk about stuff like that you really begin to see the cultural differences. I've witnessed heated discussion about who voted for who at this years french election and when I was asked about how politics works in Australia my thoughts went to our ranga bogan prime minister and our double-y bogan opposition leader and I managed to establish that the main two political parties are labour and liberal but liberal is actually conserative and not liberal and they're more or less the same thing at the moment. 

The french people have revolted against the residing power, there has been much war even within the city of Paris. They're very persistent and passionate people that know how to argue and I think it stems from their history and the amount of conflict that their country has experienced. And it makes me a little jealous that we don't have that at home. Except at the end of the day I still love how easygoing life is in Australia and wouldn't change it for the world.

The streets in Australia are all straight. Streets in Paris wind and twist without end and I love it. there's always something around the corner. There is no such thing as a purely residential street; there is always a cafe, a gallery, a little store, or something.

Eating: Breakfast is small and sweet. A baguette with jam/marmalade/some sweet spread, or a croissant, or cereal that somehow contains chocolate. Kind of miss bacon and eggs with avocado and bread, wholemeal bread, or mulitgrain, rye. Lunch is normal. And then I have to wait a minimum of 9 hours for dinner.

I've been here for 2 weeks but I still feel like I'm dying by the time it comes to having dinner. I've accepted that I have to be a weirdo and announce at around 6:30/7 that I am hungry and have to buy something small so that I don't pass out when it comes to 9, 10, 11pm, even midnight. I'm used to eating small amounts, constantly. I'm pretty sure I look like a gluttonous pig.

Alcohol is the same price as water.

Normandie

Spent the weekend in Normandy in the north of France for a 20th birthday. Needless to say.... it was amazing.. Not meaning to brag or anything. Never having experienced a 3 day party in the country I didn't know what to expect but it more or less involved not sleeping for 2 nights. I didn't manage to take many photos but here are the best of what I have:

1. Les beaus mecs francais!!! hahah Xavier, Bricky, Nath and Judith. Not sure about some of the spelling sorry.
2. ""
3. Spinach
4. The beautiful creature that I'm staying with and who has welcomed me into her home and into her life.
5. Horsie.
6. Pitched tents in a backyard scattered with apple trees. I really wish I'd taken more photos now.
7. Kitty.

Ran out of supplies after the first night so went to faire les courses for everyone.

Paris

I don't really know how to start with Paris...

1. Hotel de Ville
2. Centre Pompidou
3. Beside le Centre Pompidou
4. (below) Notre Dame

I can't speak proper English anymore it's weird. Je me suis encore balader le lendemain.........
1. Home for 2 and a half weeks.
2. Wandering around Paris through the 9ieme,10ieme and 18ieme, got lost, several times. Amazing walk though.
3. Managed to navigate myself to Montmartre, where I'll be staying from the 12th to the 23rd with Chelsea. The view from the Sacre Cœur.
4. View from behind the Sacre Cœur.
5. A cute cafe behind the Sacre Cœur. Overpriced (given, in the Paris)
6. Cafe des 2 Moulins - from Amèlie

The night after Judith finished her last exam we went out to celebrate. I am really incredibly lucky to be able to experience Paris through the eyes of a local, really incredibly lucky, it's unbelievable. Whoever says French people are snobby have no clue what they're talking about. Spent the night drinking on the 5th floor of a Parisian apartment, then drinking on a bridge on the Seine. The photo above cannot do the view justice. There were love padlocks scattered across the length of the bridge and you could see forever into the distance on either side of the bridge, the Seine, the night, the spotlight from the Eiffel tower revolving around in the sky getting into bed at 3am nghhhhhhhhh I'm lost for words.

There's a lot more to post, hopefully I'll be able to get the rest up soon.