A Day in (and under) Paris May 14, 2009

I did head for Paris yesterday in the end, and gambled with the weather. As it turned out, it didn’t rain at all and was even quite warm with a peek of sunshine. Certainly enough for people to be out lounging and picnicking in droves in the Jardins de Luxembourg. I didn’t get everything on my list done, but I did see the things I most wanted to see. I ran out of time as I wanted to get the train back before 5pm in order not to have to pay extra on my train fare, but my feet were aching so much by that point I don’t think I could have faced walking round all the other things on my list! I can always do those another time; I doubt very much it’ll be the last time I go to Paris.

To begin with I headed the furthest south in the city I’ve ever been, to Place Denfert-Rochereau and the Catacombs. Although macabre and a little claustrophobic this was something I really wanted to experience. I had it down on my list to do on my first “grown-up” trip to Paris two years ago, but never got round to it.

Walls of bones in the ossuary

The Catacombs de Paris are an underground network of tunnels leading to an ossuary containing the remains of around 6 million people. They were created in the 18th century as a solution to the problem of disease caused by Paris’ many overcrowded city cemetaries, in particular the Cimetiere des Innocents which was in close proximity to the sprawling and busy food market of les Halles. The transferral of remain from les Innocents began on 7th April 1786 and continued for two years, with the remains being carried in carts accompanied by a religious procession under cover of darkness. Remains from all the cemetaries of Paris were deposited in the Catacombs until 1814. It became somewhat of a curiosity, with many noble men and ladies paying visits to the Catacombs. They were eventually opened to the public for a couple of days each week, and are now open every day except Mondays. The section of catacombs which are open now is 2km long, but in reality most of Paris is hollow underground! The carrieres are the former quarry galleries, of which some are open to the public, and then of course there are the vast sewer network which follows the street layout, and the 14 metro and 4 RER lines! All this tunnel-work under the city means that there is a whole department whose job it is to keep track of all the tunnels, maintain their strength and monitor all new building work to ensure no collapses occur.

As well as the Catacombs I had a small list of curious places in Paris that I wanted to see; such as the oldest tree, planted in 1601; the oldest house, built in 1407, and a wall with a cannonball from the revolution of 1830 still embedded in it. I had lunch in a lovely café called Berko on Rue Rambuteau, which consisted of a salmon and spinach quiche, salade du jour and a small sweet tart for €9.50. It looked like this;

Lunch

Pudding

Unfortunately the two cake shops on Rue Rambuteau I wanted to visit; Pain du Sucre and Pralus, were both closed, so I continued on my wandering tour of curious places to an Astrological Tower near the Louvre entrance to les Halles, an ornate entrance to the Palais Royal metro station and a WWI mobilisation poster still on a wall of a building near Place Concorde. By that point my time had run out, so I didn’t get to see the Chinese house, art nouveau building, or the house designed by the same architect who did the curly-wurly metro signs I like, but never mind they can wait for another day!
As always, full sets of photos can be found here: Album 1, Album 2 Album 1 also contains photos from trips in 2007 and 2008; yesterday’s pictures start with the Catacombs on page 2.

I didn’t get back too late in the evening so I went out with Sonia and some other Erasmus/ISEP students to Retroviseur to enjoy the usual Wednesday night Jazz. They were actually selling a CD of their music for 5 euros, which I considered a good investment. I didn’t take any more film as I was too involved in conversation but as I plan to take mum and Alan there next week I might take some then.

I will leave you with a couple more photos from Paris.

Jardins de Luxembourg

A hazy Eiffel tower overlooking Place de Concorde

Rain, more rain…and some cakes! May 12, 2009

Well I’m not impressed because it’s now chucking it down and it’s forecast for rain and even thunderstorms in Amiens and Paris for the entire week. I was planning to go to Paris tomorrow, which had been the only sunny day forecast, but I’m not keen on the idea of going in the rain. Although half of my trip will be indoors or underground (in the metro and the Catacombs), much of it is also outdoors seeing various interesting and unusual architecture and monuments off the usual tourist trail. All I need is one sunny, or at the very least dry day!

I didn’t go to the AG yesterday as I needed to get laundry done that had been put off from Friday, and as the AG is bang in the middle of the day it was too awkward to do both. I haven’t heard the results of the vote but I don’t think it’s any different. To be honest I really don’t care at this point either; even if the blockades came down I wouldn’t go to class for just one week.

On Saturday the internet went down which was rather irritating and left me with little to do. I went to town, wandered around a bit and browsed a 2nd hand bookshop where I bought a 1940’s french travel guide to Great Britain. Should be an interesting read, not only from the point of view of the era in which it was written but also because of it’s French perspective! It even contains a chapter on Cornwall. I also indulged myself and bought some macarons (little round confections somewhere between a meringue and a cake that come in all sorts of flavours) from one of the best confectioners in town, near the cathedral. On my last trip home I bought some from the airport after having read much about them on a foodie/travel blog I read; MyKugelhopf (link in the list on the right). These are Parisian macarons I’m talking about; very different from macarons d’Amiens.

Macarons de Paris

Macarons d'Amiens

Macarons d’Amiens are more like the coconut macaroon cakes familiar in the UK, except they don’t contain coconut but are based on almonds, honey and fruit. They have been described as a “soft biscuit” and the taste compared to Italien amarreti. In contrast, the Macarons de Paris are based on meringue and are what most French people would think of if you just said “macaron”; it is the traditional form whereas the Amiens macaron is a speciality of the Picardie region. The Parisian macaron is much lighter, and consists of two meringue shells sandwiching a layer of cream. The curious thing about them is that although the outer shell is crunchy like sugar meringue, the inside is softer and more like a cake; I’m not quite sure how they engineer that! What I love about them is that they come in any flavour you can think of; the patisseries usually do a run of a few different flavours and change some each time, and there seems to be an unwritten competition among the most renowned names to create the most bizarre flavour! My favourite is caramel au beurre salé; caramel made with salted butter. It’s simply amazing, and I bought three of that flavour! To make up the half dozen I picked one each of fruits rouge balsamique, rose pétale and mirabelle. That would be red fruits with balsamic vinegar (amazing flavour, definitely a close favourite to the caramel one!); rose flavour, which was nice but too perfumy and I probably wouldn’t have it again; and plum brandy, which I haven’t eaten yet. They had about 5 or 6 other flavours on offer; some the usual vanilla, chocolate etc, and they had some other fruit flavours like lemon but I can’t remember the rest. When I eventually get to Paris, part of tour will be to some patisserie addresses highly praised on MyKugelhopf, so next week I shall probably have more macarons as well as some other delights!

It’s still raining heavily so I don’t think I will get to the supermarket today. I can last until Thursday before I really need to go so it’s not disastrous. Today I might do a bit of cleaning and tidying up, not sure what else. Indoor activities anyway! There isn’t much left for me to do until it gets to next Monday really; Monday and Tuesday I will start packing, do my last load of laundry, and give my room a deep clean so I only have to give it a quick wipe on Friday morning. On Wednesday we’ll go for a day out somewhere, probably Rouen, and on Thursday I imagine mum will want to do a bit of shopping in Amiens. My plan is to pack at least half of my stuff before they arrive late Tuesday, so that I don’t have to spend all of Thursday packing instead, just a few hours. In just 10 days I shall be leaving French soil!

Brussels : City of a Thousand Languages April 12, 2009

The Mannekin-Pis, an icon of Brussels

Sonia and I were granted our wish for great weather this weekend; after leaving Amiens in a dull and unpromising grey morning, we arrived in Brussels just before midday to wonderful sunshine and a warm city. It took us a while to find our hotel because the map I had printed from google was wrong. Fortunately Sonia had also written down directions and hers were different, so we tried those and found it! For the price (€30 each for a twin room, 1 night) the hotel St. Anne was amazing; it seemed to be brand new, everything gleaming in a white, minimalist and modern-art style. Breakfast was a generous buffet, included in the price and featuring bacon and eggs as well as the usual continental fare! It was just a short walk from a raft of restaurants, bars, shops and the main old centre of town, so ideally placed for us.

After we had checked in and relaxed for 5 minutes, we headed out to start exploring, deciding to go to the furthest point out and work our way back. So with street map in hand we navigated uphill through the Sablon/Marolles area, to the Palais de Justice and viewing point at Place Poleart for views over the city. On the way back down we wandered through the narrow streets of the old quarter, peering at the old antique shops, and the amazing number of fancy window displays in the chocolate shops, until we reached the bottom and the teeming corner where the Mannekin-Pis stands. This tiny statue/fountain stands barely a foot tall and is constantly surrounded by a melee of tourists having their picture taken with it! Just a short walk into the centre of this area brings you to the Grand Place, surrounded by the magnificent buildings of the Town Hall, King’s House and ornate Guild Houses.

Something we did as we were walking round the town was try to find various comic-strip murals that have been put up as part of the 2009 celebrations of the comic strip. I bought a guidebook including map from the Comic Strip House and in the end we managed to see about half of the murals. Some were too far out of our way to walk to, but most are clustered in the centre of town so it was those that we saw. In keeping our eyes out for them we also came across many other pieces of street art or sculpture, all unusual or of much higher quality than your average graffiti! My favourites out of these were some graffiti sketches of pigs, which now adorn my computer desktop! To round off the afternoon, we decided to go back up the hill to wander through the large Parc de Bruxelles, between the old Palais Royal and the Parliament building; but since our feet were aching we got the metro this time! It was lovely in the early evening sunshine, and the park was full of families and couples who had obviously been enjoying some of the first nice weather of the year.

We chilled at the hotel for an hour or so until it was about time for dinner, and in the process of searching for a good looking place we experienced the multiculturality of Brussels come to life! Anyone who has been in the narrow streets of the St. Germain area of Paris in the evening would recognise the scene; tiny cobbled streets lined with restaurants on both sides, all with tables and menus outside until there is barely room to walk between them, and all with maitre d’s touting for your business, trying to persuade you that theirs is the finest menu or the cheapest price. And also as you find in Paris, the different world cuisines tend to gravitate towards each other; so you have little Italy, Greek street and Chinatown, the German style, French style and the list goes on. In the event, Sonia and I battled our way through all of these to emerge in Place Agora Plein; a blissfully quiet oasis after the noisy, crowded streets we’d just escaped. We picked a small, simple place who didn’t hassle us and had an equally non-fussy dinner of steak-frites. Sonia got her long-awaited bottle of Kriek cherry beer, which I tried and liked, and I chose another beer which turned out to be a success; Lindemann’s Framboise (raspberry) beer. After dinner we went to find Delirium Café, a famous bar which has over 2000 beers on offer. The bar itself was incredible, never mind the beers they serve; it was covered in beer signs, trays, mats, mugs, bottles; all stuck to the ceiling and walls or indeed cemented into them. It was packed and playing lively rock music; the pictures don’t do it justice and in retrospect I should have taken some film! We only stayed just long enough for another beer and to take in the atmosphere, since we didn’t want to be up too late with a full day to take in more of the city in the morning.

We did manage to get up early, had a good breakfast and then checked out, leaving our bags to collect later. First on the agenda was to head back up to Sablon to explore the market that happens on weekends. I had hoped there would be a good book market there but as it was the stalls were mostly brick-a-brack, pictures, jewellery and antiques. Never mind, I still came away with 5 early-1900’s postcards and two pieces of jewellery, so I considered it a success even if there were no books to be had! Again we wandered back down to Grand Place through the myriad streets, admiring the architecture to be found on every corner. And then a treat; the Museum of Cocoa and Chocolate! No sooner have you bought your ticket and they give you a tasting; this is my kind of museum! There were displays of everything from the horticulture of the cocoa plant, to processing, manufacture, historical methods, medicinal traditions, chemical properties and even chocolate fashion! There was also a small kitchen where a very friendly lady showed us how individual chocolates are made; from the solid 5kg block of chocolate that is melted, how to know when it is the right consistency; filling the moulds and allowing the excess to run out to leave the shells, and finally once it’s solidified, how to make it into a praline. And yes, we got more tastings! After this it was about time for lunch, but we only grabbed a quick light salad because both Sonia and I were craving chocolate, and more specifically the traditional and famous Belgian waffle! We bought our chocolates for later, but the waffles were for now; I opted for strawberry and chantilly cream whereas Sonia added chocolate sauce too. For the rest of the afternoon we browsed the shops and found some more comic strip murals, but all too soon it was time to fetch our bags from the hotel and metro back to Gare du Midi to catch our TGV back to Lille.

It is a strange experience crossing a border by train; no one checked our passports and it didn’t really feel like we had gone to another country! Part of this I’m sure is to do with the fact that Belgium is also largely French speaking, although of course Dutch and German are equally used. Another factor is that even in Lille, just within the French border and an international hub with trains running between Belgium, France and the UK, the three languages begin to appear on signs, so already the cultures are being mixed and you begin to feel like you’re in an international place rather than one particular country. I titled this post “Brussels: City of thousand languages” because I swear I heard every language known to man and more besides in two days there. Apart from the three “biggies”; French, English and Dutch, there were also German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Russian, Greek, Chinese and many other Arabic and Asian languages I couldn’t begin to identify. Evidence of cultural migration was everywhere; in shops, restaurants, services and just in the people walking down the street. It really is a completely international city, and somewhere I would definitely consider spending some time in if ever I needed to improve a particular language. I would say French and English were the two languages I heard most; and even though I spoke to people in French I was often answered in English, at least after a couple of sentences. This irritated me a bit because I don’t think I sound obviously English when I’m speaking French now; indeed I was always either asked “do you speak English?” or the person in question had heard me speaking English to Sonia before the language was switched. I can understand that, just as I try to always improve my French, the people I was speaking to may have been trying to improve their English, but I can’t help feeling that it was the “default-to-English” syndrome again and assumption about my level of French. One incident has stuck in my mind and that was when I was buying my waffle; there were no prices listed so when I got mine I had to wait until the vendor told me how much, which she did whilst turning away into the kitchen so I only caught 4… and not what came after. So I got four euros out and gave that to her, so she repeated how much more was needed. I heard “five”, in English (she’d heard me speaking to Sonia), so I gave her 5 cents, she shook her head and repeated herself; this time I heard what sounded like “five teen”, very badly pronounced, so I queried her; “fifteen? quinze?” in English then French, and she shook her head again, finally giving up on English and told me “cinquante”; fifty. At last! If she had just stuck to French, we would have understood each other perfectly and she could have moved on to the next customer already. The default to English syndrome really annoys me sometimes, especially in cases like this. I realise that for people who can’t speak French (or any other language) well, it is necessary, and I’m sure that I will need it in Dresden later this year; since I don’t speak a word of German. But when you have started speaking to someone in perfectly good French (or any other language) and it’s just a simple transaction why on earth must you switch to English!!

Anyway here are the photo albums: Brussels 1, Brussels 2, Comic strips, statues & other street art

Jazz and skating April 3, 2009

As promised there is a jazz video in tonight’s installment! I went out with Sonia and an assortment of her friends on Wednesday night; to begin with I got the bus over to Sonia’s accommodation at Castillon – it was further out of town than I thought! We sat around drinking and chatting for a bit and then walked into town to St. Leu. One of the bad things about living in Castillon is that there is no evening bus service and the streets are small, quiet, residential with bad street lighting – not good for walking alone! It’s surprising (or perhaps not, we are in France after all) that the route between town and a major uni accommodation area would be so badly serviced. Anyway jazz at Retroviseur was great, we got there a bit after 10 and left at midnight; me and one of Sonia’s friends were both going to get the last bus back to campus so we walked Sonia most of the way to Castillon and then came back to St. Leu for the bus. Here is the compilation I made of the music:

Yesterday I managed to sleep half the day away and in the afternoon did laundry; nothing more exciting than that! Today I got up a bit earlier and went skating this afternoon with Sonia. It was good, didn’t really work on much but it was a quiet session and above all it was nice to have someone to chat to. After skating we walked into town and stopped by Alice Delice, a fancy cookware shop that sells posh pasta, coffee, chocolate etc as well as cooking utensils. Most days at 4.30 they have a short cooking demonstration in the mini-kitchen downstairs; today it was making banana muffins with blue and yellow lemon icing. It was fun to watch and we got a little taster of the muffins at the end!

I’ve had a couple of emails today from the International Office. The first was asking what courses I had been taking this semester because they apparently didn’t know, and had any of them been affected by the strike. I replied telling them they did have a list which I gave them to send to Keele for me at the beginning of the semester, and that all of my courses had been affected to some extent by the strike, but I could come and explain everything to them on Monday. Then a bit later on someone else in the office sent out a general email to everyone asking for lists of our courses that have been affected by the strike. This struck me as a bit late in the game; it’s like they’ve only just accepted or realised that this has affected us and will impact on exams! Anyway I will fill out this list and go explain it to them on Monday, and hopefully might get some concrete answers at last! Even if they have nothing to say I am still emailing Keele on Monday to outline what has happened, what I have to show for this semester and what I intend to do.

Back in France Again February 28, 2009

Well I’m back again, and although I enjoyed my week at home it absolutely sped by and I couldn’t believe it was time to leave again this morning. My flight over to Exeter last Friday didn’t go completely according to plan; although there were no hitches getting to the airport and the plane took off on time, about halfway through the flight the captain came on and told us they’d had a weather update from Exeter which informed them of some low-lying fog which might prevent us from landing there. He said they’d review the situation when we arrived but that we may have to land at Bristol instead. When we got to Exeter and started the descent, it was clear it was taking much longer than usual. About 20mins after we should have landed we got an update to say that we were just hanging around a bit longer to see if it cleared, as the fog was a bit patchy, but that a decision would be made soon. After a further 15 minutes of circling (I later found out we were stacked with 3 other flights), with visibility less than half the required distance and not improving, they made the decision to divert – but we went to Southampton instead of Bristol, along with two of the other flights. The fourth went to Birmingham. We landed at Southampton at about 10pm, and were told that onward transport would be arranged to take us to Exeter. The first coach that turned up was quickly filled with families with young children who were given priority, and it looked like it would be a while before any more coaches would arrive.  At about 11.30 I managed to get in a taxi that was drafted with a family of 3 who had flown from Aberdeen. We arrived back at Exeter (which was very foggy, along with most of the surrounding area) at about 1.30, where mum had waited for me. We finally got back home to Truro just before 3am, about four hours later that it would have been if we’d landed as scheduled at Exeter. Not an experience I would care to repeat, but it could have been worse!

I didn’t do much on my week at home; I did some gardening, got my hair cut, did a bit of shopping particularly for books and helped mum out at work a bit. On Thursday I went to see Confessions of a Shopaholic (good funny girly flick) with Emma and then we went for Pizza Express after, where after much deliberation and a bit of flirting she finally plucked up the courage to give our very fit waiter her number! I look forward to hearing the outcome of that… I managed to get some of my food fixes; Pizza Express was one of them and I also had a pasty, fish and chips and an Indian takeaway, although we never did get Chinese in the end. I feel like I’ve eated so much but really it wasn’t, it’s just that my eating habits are very different while I’m here in France so when I go home and back to normal meals it suddenly seems enormous! Much appreciated though, I do like good food.

The trip back today went without any problems really; my train from Paris Nord was delayed by about half an hour but not enough to make much of a difference. I have already booked my flights for the Easter holidays because they’ll only get more expensive if I leave it, and with the small aircraft they use on that route there would be a small risk of the flight I want getting fully booked. I have no plans to go anywhere until then at the moment, so I’m looking at the longest stretch of time I’ll have been here since before Christmas; 7 weeks. It doesn’t seem like that long but I have a horrible feeling it will drag because I’ve got used to only being here for a short period before going home, and because for the time being the strike continues so I have more free time than originally timetabled. Mum says she might grab a weekend over here to make up for the one she missed before Christmas, which would be great, but I’ll believe it when the flights are booked! If I get really bored I might see about organising a weekend trip somewhere. The one-day demonstrations and continuous strike still continue, despite the fact that the government has now assured the unions that no positions will be laid off in 2010 or 2011, just in 2009, and that the whole reform is going to be completely rewritten. The unions still aren’t happy though and want all plans for reform to be scrapped entirely and for any future reforms to be open for full discussion before they are drafted and announced – basically so they could kill the idea before it took root in future, instead of having to fight it as they are now. The government is clearly moving backwards though so perhaps this strike will end before the semester does.

One last little thing; I got thinking about the blog this last week and how I would like to continue a “daily life” blog after this year has ended. However, I clearly can’t continue it on here since this was set up specifically for this year and it wouldn’t make much sense to write about other stuff on a blog called “A Year in Amiens”! To that end, I have created a second blog, called “Life in Cornwall” (there is now a link on the right hand column), but it won’t just be about life in Cornwall, but also life at uni and travelling elsewhere. I expect I won’t post too frequently on it for the time being since this one is the current focus, but while I’m home in the holidays I probably will.

Off on my holidays! February 20, 2009

Not much to report from the last couple of days, I just thought I’d briefly check in before I head home for a week. Had a couple of lectures but not many; my one remaining lecture on Wednesday was cancelled because the President of the university called a suspension of lectures for an afternoon of meetings and “reflection” on the crisis affecting the education system and the actions being taken to combat it. Then there were more small demonstrations on Thursday morning so another one of my lectures was cancelled, and I’m ashamed to say I didn’t make it to my 8am lecture this morning because I overslept, but I really didn’t sleep well last night.

After the holidays, the strike will have technically lasted one month, but because one of those weeks we wouldn’t have had lectures anyway I suppose you could say it’s still only been three weeks. However the government aren’t budging any further on the issue; the only ground they’ve given has been to appoint an intermediary to carry out a review and possibly alterations to the reform, but they still insist the reforms will in large part go ahead as planned in September, and so the teachers and many of the students are continuing to protest. Yesterday students at the Sorbonne staged a sit-in in one of the amphitheatres and between 200-300 students were forcefully removed by police in the middle of the night. Valérie Pécresse has said that the intermediary is currently drawing up a second draft of the reforms and that it will be presented to her “over the course of the coming weeks”. And of course, she will take her time looking over it before sending it back to the drawing board no doubt. I think this is going to turn into a stalemate between the government and the unions; who will cave first when it becomes apparent that this could go on indefinitely, or at least until the reforms are pushed through in September? At this point I can see the distinct possibility of this strike continuing right up to the end of semester. Political processes are rarely done in a day, and actually the rest of the semester only comes down to a few weeks now. After this week’s holiday, there will only be 7 teaching weeks left until Easter, and after Easter most modules will have their assessments almost immediately, at least in a normal situation. If it takes another 2 or 3 weeks for Pécresse to get that report, and then another 2 or 3 weeks to review and revise it….well that’s the semester gone then! There is a possibility that some of the lecturers will creep back to work, even if their unions or the faculty in general is still supporting the strike. I have certainly picked up on notes of apology or guilt in the replies of the lecturers who are on strike, when we ask them ‘how much longer? Do we bother trying to write this essay or not? Have you left us any notes this week?’

Anyway, we shall have to see. These things can drag out for weeks and weeks or they can suddenly change in a day, no one seems to know where this one’s going. I am going to deal with my final packing and tidying now and then head off to the airport. While checking online that everything was running as normal this morning I noticed that the morning flight to Exeter was delayed by about half an hour, but there’s no obvious explanation and nothing indicating mine is affected. Cornwall, cat cuddles, beaches and food here I come! I have concluded that the one and only thing I truly miss and crave while I’m in France is food. My list to satisfy this week includes; fish and chips, Chinese takeaway, Pizza Express and Lobb’s farm shop pie. I don’t know what it is but everything about food is different here, even things that to all intents and purposes should be the same.

Birthday weekend in Paris February 2, 2009

I am happy to report that the weekend in Paris for my 21st birthday was a great success! I arrived by train from Amiens, mum and Alan flew from Exeter and dad from East Midlands, and we all managed to convene within a couple of hours of each other in a café next to our Hotel near the Luxembourg gardens. The café and the hotel are both directly over the RER line B; the nearest station is less than 20 yards away and so with every passing train there is a great rumble and, as we discovered, the cupboards rattle even on the first floor! We checked in and left our bags in the hotel and went out to spend the day in the city, starting with a walk down Boulevard St Michel to the river, and then down to Notre Dame. There were no queues so we went inside, which was a first visit for everyone except me, and pretty much new to me too since the last time I went in was about 11 years ago, on my first trip to Paris. After this we went to les Halles shopping centre, built on the site of the old produce and cattle market which was moved out of the city when the authorities decided it was too disease-ridden to remain where it was. The new centre is built in glass and metal reflecting the style of the old Halles, and much of the old structure (without it’s glass) has been left.

I bought a Mango t-shirt and a dress but overall the sales shopping didn’t produce the bargain finds I’d hoped for. My presents more than made up for this though; I recieved books from Mum and Nan, other assorted presents from Nan included a CD of music from 1988, a mini iced fruit cake, cat playing cards and a bookmark, whilst I got jewellery from both Mum and Dad; a matching necklace, bracelet and earring set of beaten pewter spirals from St. Justin jewellery and a three-gold (yellow, white and rose) link bracelet from the Birmingham jewellery quarter respectively. Sophie from Keele also sent me a lovely pair of Pilgrim flower design earrings which I wore to dinner on Saturday night.

Dinner at les Deux Magots was wonderful; the restaurant was cosy but not crowded, traditional but not old, and the service was professional but not clingy. Overall it felt special and not at all stuffy or pretentious. I had millefeuille of goat’s cheese and tomato to start, followed by veal stew in white sauce with rice for main and crème brûlée for pudding. This was of course washed down with wine and some bubbly to toast the occasion. While we were eating we all noticed that the place was constantly busy; when we arrived, and the whole time we were there and when we left. It was a complete mix of people there as well; old and young, couples, groups, friends, and solitary figures with notebooks and papers. Some had full meals like us, others just a drink or a salad, some sat there all evening and hardly ordered a thing. Some people seemed to have come especially for dinner but many others just seemed to have dropped in after a day’s shopping for a coffee and a chat. I was glad that it has not lost its original ethos of a casual meeting place for friends and strangers alike, and has not become self-important as a result of its significant history. At the end of the evening I picked a single white rose from the huge bouquet in the middle of the restaurant to press as a memento of the occasion.

Sunday brought not much of a lie-in because we all wanted to have plenty of time in the Louvre before Dad left in the afternoon for his return flight. We had breakfast in a café on the riverside corner of Boulevard St. Michel and then walked down to the Louvre. Although it’s out of season, it’s free (as are most museums in France) on the first sunday of the month, so it was busy. We started off by heading for the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo by way of the Winged Victory (my personal favourite) and then explored the Greek and Egyptian galleries, along with the Medieval remains of the old fortress. We left to have lunch off Rue de Rivoli and then saw Dad off to the airport. For most of the rest of the afternoon Mum, Alan and I went to the Eiffel tower, and indeed up it, as far as the 2nd floor. This was quite an achievement for Mum as she is scared of heights! She did manage a walk around the platform although on the inside edge and with Alan between her and the fence! Again this wasn’t a first for me but it has been 11 years since I last went up and the view of Paris was better than I remembered. En route to the Tower on the RER line C, we noticed a man sat in the carriage we were in who had a tabby kitten on a lead! The kitten seemed quite happy, although curious and unsure of the noise every time the doors opened, but not trying to wander off. Most of the time he sat on the man’s knee, wobbling around with the train’s movement trying to stay balanced! I would have taken a picture it was such an unusual sight, but I think that may have been a bit rude!

Finally we capped off the day with a quick dash back to the Louvre before it closed in order to see the Crown jewels, whose room had been closed off earlier in the day. We just had time to see it all and take some photos before the stewards started ushering people out. Dinner was traditional French cuisine in one of the side streets off Boulevard St Michel but all too soon it was time for me to collect my suitcase and head back to Amiens. I really enjoyed the weekend, not just because it was my birthday but because I really enjoyed the family time, and it’s made me look forward to my week at home in 3 week’s time even more. Although it was cold all weekend, it was sunny. This morning however we woke up to snow in both Amiens and Paris, and mum and Alan experienced a couple of hours delay in their flight departure. When they did eventually get back to Exeter there was no snow there as they’d expected, and it has all melted here after this afternoon’s rain. Temperatures look to be rising slightly over the next week so hopefully a bit more sunshine than snow will be the order of the day! Here’s a few pictures to sum up the weekend:

Old les Halles overlooking the new structure

Graffiti seen from my hotel room window

The two statues of les Deux Magots

The Pyramid entrance to the Louvre

Looking up the Eiffel Tower from the 2nd floor

Looking west from the Eiffel Tower

The full albums from the weekend can be seen here and here. I’m waiting for some photos from mum’s and dad’s cameras and will probably post some more later on.

A Night Out and A Day In January 24, 2009

A few different things make up today’s post; firstly I’ve booked my flights home for the February holiday. As it happens I’m going home rather than to Keele now, which is a shame in a way as I won’t get to experience Keele with all my friends still there again, as when I go back in September the majority will have moved on and graduated. Ah well, these things happen. Instead I will get another week at home and some more time with friends and family there.

Last night I went out with Alice, Joe, and Joe’s visiting girlfriend for dinner and drinks, partly as a catch-up and partly to distract me from recent events in my personal life. The others (Katie, Vicky and Oli) are in the UK at the moment for various reasons, so it was just the four of us. We ate at Steak Easy, an American-style restaurant, and then went for drinks at My Goodness, a (predictably) Irish pub. My Goodness is a favourite student haunt in Amiens, especially among Erasmus students but although I’d heard alot about it this was the first time I’d made it there! A pint of their cider is expensive, but very good! Unfortunately I slightly overate at Steak Easy and the cider didn’t help my stomach any so I wasn’t feeling 100% to appreciate it fully. Next time! Overall it was a good night out and made a nice change from the quiet and early nights to bed I’ve been having recently.

In contrast today was a quiet day in; spent catching up on sleep this morning and then ploughing through some work this afternoon. I did 150 sentences of Spanish grammar exercises and then followed that up with reading the first Act of a play; La Double Inconstance (Marivaux) that I need to study for Wednesday. There are only three acts so I should be able to read it and the prologue and “keys to the text” section that accompany it as well. This is for the Litterature: Theatre module that I’m taking, for which we study three plays in all. Once they arrive in the post I also need to start studying the three works of poetry for the Litterature Comparée: Poesie module, which are Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Horace’s Odes and Baudelaire’s “Les Fleurs du Mal”. Heavy stuff! I do admit to finding some amusement at the lecturer’s pronuciation of English place names and other words in her introduction about Shakespeare on Friday, but I shouldn’t really – my French probably sounds funny to them! In a strange coincidence, the unsuitability of the French language to rock music was brought up in the lecture and then again today in a BBC article Dad sent me the link to; New Lingua Franca Upsets French. In the lecture she used the example of French rock groups singing in English because the French language doesn’t suit the cadence or style of rock music as a contemporary example of the reason Latin poets didn’t ever consider writing in the style of Greek poets; because the Latin language was not seen as able to fit the cadence of Greek poems. As it happened Horace was the only poet to adapt the Greek style to Latin. The article brings up the example of rock music as an example of the insinuation of English into French culture (something which is generally resisted and resented!) While I don’t agree with all the points made in the article I do think the concept of English being tripped up in it’s global spread by a business-pidgin version is quite interesting.

Anyway one final link for today! While the weather here in Amiens finally seems to have calmed down, the south west of France and north of Spain are bearing the brunt of a rather more severe battering, with devastating consequences; European Storm Death Toll Mounts

Marché de Noël December 17, 2008

I put off the christmas shopping yesterday, partly due to the grey and drizzly weather and partly to laziness, but I’m glad I gave in to that because it was much nicer today! I cracked the last of my christmas shopping, save for one or two small additional items I might pick up from duty free at the airport. It was nice because I could just wander aimlessly instead of trying to battle through the people on my way to do something else, as has always been the case before now. I had some chichis – long twisted sticks of fried dough rolled in sugar, and the obligatory vin chaud. I actually splashed out a little extra to get the souvenir mug (white with the red Marché de Noël d’Amiens logo on it)! I obviously can’t tell you what I bought, because some people reading this might be receiving the gifts in a week’s time! The exception to that is the little suitcase I bought, one that’s small enough to go as hand luggage but big enough for a short-trip bag. I’m going to need the extra space to bring things back this time; there was no way I’d fit it all in my one, medium suitcase. It’ll be useful for travelling over christmas and in the future as well. I might go back to town tomorrow afternoon after I’ve had some time to reflect and if I think of anything else I need, but apart from that I just have a 1hr spanish comprehension exam tomorrow morning, then I have to do laundry and start to pack. I’m going to have to pace myself though; given that I shouldn’t need to leave Amiens until lunchtime on Friday even if I want to be hours early for my flight, it’s going to be no good if I find myself sitting twiddling my thumbs with everything packed by 4pm tomorrow! I blame nan for this gene that makes me abnormally efficient at packing! I shall leave you with some photos again, this time from the market.

An Inpromptu Night in Paris December 14, 2008

As the title might suggest, I ended up spending a bit longer in Paris than I planned! I managed to get up early enough to get the fast train yesterday morning, and was in the capital by 10.20am. I got in touch with Aide and met him and the rest of the group (Robert, Suzanne, Natalie, Alice, Sophie, Brandy and Katherine) at Place de Concorde, which is at the opposite end of the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. Half of them decided to go on a london-eye type ferris wheel while the rest of us made a start wandering through the Christmas market. This was actually a lot smaller than I had expected and I think Amiens’ is better! Once back together again we carried on meandering up the Champs Elysees, browsing the shops – especially good for Nat and Suz who’ve been living in Concarneau, Brittany – much like being in Cornwall in terms of shop choice! We also grabbed some lunch and by this point it had warmed up enough to start raining. We wandered all the way up to the Arc de Triomphe, and then back down the other side of the Champs Elysees where we stopped off for a while in Louis Vuitton, and gawped at the extortionately priced, diamond encrusted jewellery. I can now say I have a Louis Vuitton bag now though, and it was free! That would be the clear plastic one they gave me for my wet umbrella as I came in the door, presumably to stop me dripping on the merchandise…..it does have the LV logo on it though! Not long after we left our group started to diminish, as Rob had to leave to get his train back to Bordeaux. The rest of us metro’d to Galeries Lafayette to see their christmas decorations and peruse the shop, particularly the food section! It was completely packed in there, there was barely room to move in the crowd. Their decorations were impressive though and we got a good view of the blue Eiffel tower from the roof, although it was so cold, rainy and windy that taking pictures was a trial! At this point we’d also lost Sophie to her train for Le Havre, and the remaining 7 of us headed back for their hostel near Montparnasse to get ready for dinner. I decided to go for dinner with them although it would be tight to get back for my train; the last one was at 9.50pm. We metro’d over to the Latin quarter (around Notre Dame) and found a good fondue restaurant, although with the grumpiest waiter ever! He was actually drunk, we concluded. The restaurant was busy and he ushered us upstairs and got annoyed when we went to sit at a table that had 7 place settings; no no, that was for his reservation of 12 (there was an adjoining table), and we crammed round one that was set for 6. It didn’t matter so much as we were going to order four fondues and share anyway, but when he got round to taking our order he was watching his reservation table settle in rather than listen to us. And then he did listen to what we ordered, seemed perplexed at the idea of serving four fondues to 6 people but wouldn’t explain why, and then asked us to repeat it all again because he hadn’t written it down the first time! I was already seeing either my dinner or my train going out the window; if I tried to do both I’d have to wolf down some food and then run. In the end I decided I would stay and crash in the hostel, as they had spare mattresses in the room and didn’t think anyone would mind. As it turned out the food was very good at this restaurant, but we still had to contend with a refusal when we asked for more glasses for the water and more plates to share food round; apparently this was too much washing up! It was when he knocked a bottle of water over on the table next door that we decided for sure he must be drunk! We rounded off the evening with some photos by Notre Dame and a drink in a bar near the hostel. No one batted an eye when I walked in with them, and I even went down to breakfast in the morning. I walked out while the others were busying reception checking out, and no one noticed. To be honest I don’t think they’d have cared anyway, it wasn’t as if I took a bed that could have been sold to someone else. We made an early start this morning so that we could go over to the Eiffel Tower and Trocadero to take some pictures; as it turned out it was such a grey morning that half the tower was shrouded in mist, but it still made a good photo. We had lunch in a retro cafe near Gare Montparnasse, where Aide’s train to Angers and Nat’s, Suz’s, Brandy’s and Katherine’s trains in the direction of Rennes left from at midday. Which left me and Alice, to have a little wander round the smaller Galeries Lafayette and christmas market before parting ways at the metro to head for Gare de Lyon and Nord and our trains to Morteau and Amiens respectively. I was back in Amiens at 4pm and felt for Alice who had the longest journey of all of us; a train from Paris to Dijon, change for a train to Besancon and finally change for a train to Morteau!

Anyway I shall end this post with some pictures I took over the weekend….

Morning sky in Amiens

Frozen fountain in Place de Concorde

Christmas decorations in Paris

Galeries Lafayette decorations

Road of the Fishing Cat!

Notre Dame de Paris

Eiffel Tower lost in cloud