Jingle Blogs

Today is my last day in Paris and I've had a very different but very lovely Christmas all the same.
Christmas eve consisted of me watching re-runs of the Royle family in bed and hiding from the rain before going to pick Michelle up from Gare du Nord and then returning to Gare du Nord to meet Olivia off her Eurostar later. 

We meandered through the rain to Notre Dame where we queued for a while, regretted opening Olivia's umberella shaped present before finally getting inside. The atmosphere was really Christmassy, so much so that I had to tell everyone around me just how Christmassy I felt. We spent an hour listening to the choir sing a 'mash up'* of carols and hymns before heading to get the last metro home.

We woke up on Christmas morning at quarter to 8, ridiculously excited for the day to begin. It appeared Santa had made his way to the hostel and we swapped presents and ate copious amounts of chocolate for breakfast. When the time came to start cooking** dinner, we took over the hostel kitchen in Christmas jumpers to prepare our festive English inspired feast. Words cannot describe how happy I was with mashed potato and gravy. After an hour or 2 of washing up and drinking wine I had to go to work. 

The majority of people staying in the hostel at the moment are backpackers who couldn't make it home for Christmas so whilst I was at work it was lovely to hear people skyping their families all over the world to wish them Merry Christmas and sharing their experiences. Some impromptu games of 'Who's in the bag' and 'heads up' took place during my shift in true Christmas style. All in all a very different but still very special day, and one I'm sure I will never forget.

I spent my last day in Paris, packing*** and going to see the tower and fighting through the crowds on the Champs-élysées for the last time before I left. 

I haven't completed everything on my bucket list, but this just gives me reason to come back to this wonderful city.

*choral technical term
**microwaving counts
***sacrificing things I didn't need to make room in my case

England, I'm coming at ya.

Christmas face

Presents :)

The aftermath

Christmas friends

Gravy.

Christmas table

Last day in Paris.

Simply blogging a wonderful Christmas time...

Hold onto your hats; this is a big one. 

So last Friday I had a ticket, for the right day I might add, to the 25 years of Pixar exhibition at a new museum that had recently opened by the Seine. After getting considerably lost and cold on the way I finally made it and it was worth the walk and the 14 euros entrance, it contained the story boards and original sketches from well known Pixar films and was interesting to see the differences of the names in English and French. Fun fact of the day, Mike from Monsters inc. is called Bob in the French version. 

Olivia's friend Katherine was here this weekend and on Sunday we went to the Shakespeare company bookshop which is amazing. There were literally books everywhere, balanced on every ledge and surface; the kind of place that if your Mum was around she would say 'don't touch anything, don't move, in fact let's not go in'. On finding the piano upstairs I had to have a little play but the shop was so quiet I didn't carry on for long. I would recommend it to booklovers to put on your 'places to visit' list as I've never seen anything quite like it. Another fun fact courtesy of Katherine; Bookshops are in decline in every country except France. I then had the greatest macaroon ever and we meandered around Paris. 

Sunset from the roof of La Fayette

Monday started off with a visit to Jardin de Luxombourg in the winter sunshine before heading to Gallerie Lafayette and Printemps, two huge department stores in Paris to do some Christmas shopping. Both department stores have amazing roof terraces and we were lucky enough to be able to watch the sunset over Paris from the top which was simply beautiful. We headed from here towards Opera to find somewhere to eat, we found a little brasserie where we were complemented on our French which is always nice and ordered snails. Now the best way I can describe the taste is it tastes like the smell of soil mixed with garlic, which isn't as bad as it sounds but still not the greatest thing I've ever tasted.
We then went for farewell drinks with Lorna who left Paris today for Christmas, was lovely to catch up as always, but kind of sad as this begins the long goodbye saga...

Tuesday was just as busy as Monday, we visited the Catacombs, which are underground tunnels where the bones of all the people buried in the cemetarys in Paris were deposited when they were ruled to close. It was pretty incredible the sheer amount of bones there and also kind of odd. 
After this we went Christmas shopping again because we didn't get enough of crowded shops and sweaty people in our faces the previous day, before heading for something to eat. Finally we went to the theatre to see My Fair Lady. I'm certain we were some of the only English people in the audiance, the musical was 'subtitled' in French, which was interesting in a geeky kind of way although I don't envy the person who's job it was to accurately translate cockney into French. It was a fantastic production and I really enjoyed it!

Tonight at work I decorated a Christmas tree; it's officially Noel à le d'Artagnan!
 9 more days here and I intend to enjoy every last minute in this fantastic city! 

Sunset over Paris

Remember that day we went up the tower...

Monday called for another meal out, this time with my fellow Northern and French studying pal Briony and her friend Fi, big shout out to you both, lunch was great, the wine was greater and the company was the greatest. I then went to Briony's nearly finished flat, got over emotional at a sofa and a glass of proper squash before heading back home. 

We then headed to Auchan on a Christmas tree buying mission. We accidentally stumbled upon the British section in the supermarket. Olivia proceeded to very excitedly shout about all the British food she had forgotten existed, much to the amusement of the rest of Auchan's clientele. It pretty much went downhill from here when we got far too excited in the decoration section and ran the risk of our room looking like Santa's grotto. However we now have a festive room and it's lovely, except the lights, which only have ones setting- flashing. 

I'd not had a pint in a while...

The flashing lights did add a shite-club'esque vibe to our predrinks on Monday night, we eventually made it out and to O'Sullivans, yep I'm doing a module in 'Irish drinking establishment's in Paris' studies as part of my year abroad and what. I paid 8,20 euros for a pint of strongbow, wept for a while then all this was forgotton as they played Mariah Carey 'All I want for Christmas is you' and all was right with the world. 

Once again our taxi experience was enhanced by the worlds greatest taxi driver- Mathieus. Now I should point out that although it may appear like it, it is not compulsory for French taxi drivers to tell you their name, Olivia tends to demand it from them in order that we can tell them all about every intricate detail of our lives in Paris. "Excusez-moi monsieur....taximan. Comment appelez-vous?"

We told him how our mission was to battle the British stereotype of being terrible at languages, ironically in probably the worst French he had ever heard. Mathieus, on behalf of Britain, I apologise. 

Before the dreadful revelation...

Hostel food simply wasn't an option yesterday, the only thing that would make me feel semi-normal again was a Mcdonalds. It hit the spot and then we headed towards Jardin de Luxembourg. We went the wrong way and never made it, this was just a sign of things to come. 

We then took the metro to the tower as we had tickets to go up, it was just the most perfect sunny day and we should have made it to the top just in time to see the sunset across the city. We visited another Jewish war memorial on the way, and took an unacceptable amount of edgy photos of everything Parisian before ambling towards the tower. Now I should point out how excited I was to be going up the tower, and having already bought tickets online we wouldn't even have to queue, so we practically skipped up to the woman on the gate tickets in hand, so ready for the adventure ahead. 

"Ces billets sont d'hier" 

Yes. Olivia had indeed bought tickets for Monday not yesterday. So we didn't make it up the tower. We did however manage to see the sunset from Trocadero overlooking the tower and the city so all was not lost. 

In terms of the bucket list, I've managed to remember a night out and keep my shoes, but the tower remains unvisited for now...

Did I mention I loved Paris...

My Parisian bucket list...

I've realised I'm more or less on the home straight, so to speak, now I have 19 days left in Paris and want to use them to their full potential to ensure I leave with a list of things I have done, rather than a list of regrets of things I haven't! So here's a short list I have compiled of things I want to do before I leave:

Number 1; Go up the Eiffel Tower.
Yes I've been here 3 months, and no I haven't yet actually gone up the tower. I am however, going up on Tuesday and I hope it doesn't disappoint, as avid blog readers will know, I am a big fan of Tour Montparnasse and I'd hate for the actual Tour to not live up to all of my expectations. 

Number 2; Go on a Parisian night out, actually remember it and return home with both shoes.
As much as I love a good night out with a beverage or two, I seem to be unable to remember much of them, hence this insert on the bucket list, but I'm not making any promises, wines pretty cheap.

Number 3; eat a snail, or frogs legs or something else stereotypically French.
I have been a massive fan of eating out but so far have managed to steer away from the frog-legged snail eating establishments, but I don't think I'd ever forgive myself if I spent half of my year abroad in France and didn't experience at least one of these highly priced 'delicacies'

Number 4; Watch the sunset from the top of the Arc de Triomphe.
I've wanted to do this ever since I first went up the Arc. It's easier now the sun sets at a more reasonable hour. Sorry about the photos that will probably be posted everywhere along with my comments about how beautiful the world is.

Number 5; Go to Bois de Boulogne.
This is another place I've wanted to visit for ages but have never really got round to. It's basically a forest on the other side of Paris, but I very much miss the countryside and thought it might make me feel almost home to be surrounded by trees.

Number 6; Visit the Pixar exhibition.
I got ridiculously excited when I saw that this new exhibition had opened. I'm not usually a fan of art, but when it's Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Ratatouille I'm prepared to queue down the rue.

Number 7; Visit the 'Regards sur les ghettos' exhibition at the Shoah Memorial.
After hearing about this I've wanted to go and see it for ages. I am a huge fan of photo exhibitions and this one is of photos taken inside of the ghettos in which the Jewish community found themselves in Nazi dominated areas, something which you may have gathered from previous blogs really interests me, I think it's important that exhibitions like this exist for people to not just remember what happened but I find photos make something like that seem so much more real and allows us to relate more. http://regards-ghettos.memorialdelashoah.org/teaser.html

Number 8; Learn to like coffee.
This might not be achievable in 19 days but I really want to like coffee. I don't think I've disliked something but wanted to like it more, drinking a cup of coffee has such a sophisticated edge to it. The standard work conversation usually goes 'Tu veut un café?' 'bohhff...chocolat chaud s'il tu plait'. 
I'm not in the coffee drinking club, but it looks like a fun place to be from where I'm sat, on the outside, looking in with my hot chocolate. 

Number 9; Buy some tacky Parisian shit.
The shops are everywhere, and I think all my wonderful family and friends deserve some tack to clutter up their lives with. No, no, I insist and you're very welcome.

Number 10; Go back to Franglish!
I blogged about Franglish in like my second week here, and I'm yet to go back, not for not wanting but because I work evenings and then fill up my evenings off with wine etc. But I really want to go back before I leave not only is it really good for my French, you get a free drink, which is hard to come by in Paris!

Number 11; Purchase a Christmas tree.
Our room looks very unfestive. This needs to change. 

Number 12; Go swimming. 
I bought a swimming costume in my 2nd week here as I live pretty near a nice pool. It's still got the tag on, need to give it at least one outing before I leave!

Number 13; Visit the Shakespeare bookstore.
I love bookshops, this ones named after the most famous writer in British history, I kind of owe it to him to pay it a visit.

Number 14; Introduce the French to mince pies.
They're missing out and they don't even realise. I'm here to help.

Number 15; Eat a macaroon.
I love macaroons and they're everywhere, why have I not eaten one yet?!

That about completes my bucket list but if you want to submit any wild suggestions for my remaining time here go for it, I'm all ears*.

*I hate that phrase, sorry. I'm not, at most I'm 7% ears.

Happy Sunday!

Here's a bucket to illustrate.

Counting down to Christmas...

I love Christmas. I think being away has made me realise that Christmas to me is not just a day, it's a warm feeling, a time to spend with family and friends and eat copious amounts of food without feeling guilty.

It's the build up to Christmas, the first time you feel Christmassy and have to tell everyone 'I feel festive, do you feel festive?, isn't everything so Christmassy?' the moment when you find the perfect gift for someone and the look on their face when they rip open the paper, the first time you hear your favourite Christmas song that you'd forgotten about for the rest of the year.  For me it's the silly traditions we have in our family that even though we grow a year older each year, will still stay the same. The misheard lyrics 'keep drinking beer Mary' and 'Stop the camel', the 'remember the Christmas when' stories and sharing these stories with others, knowing that no family's Christmas is the same but they're all so special. 

Of course the food. Eating until your trousers no longer fit, then having to take an afternoon nap to be able to fit in more. How the first bite of a mince pie brings memories flooding back from previous years yet you still aren't sure whether you 100% like them, and the smell of turkey, stuffing and mulled wine is one only associated with Christmas. 

Although I'm sad I won't be at home this Christmas day, and things will be a little different to what they have been for the past 19 years, I know that it will still be special, because there's just something about the day that makes it special. Who could not embrace being in Paris on Christmas day?

As I open each door on my advent calendar, I do feel a little bit closer to Christmas and to coming home, and this is a reminder to enjoy every minute I've got left here. I shall endevor to embrace a French Christmas as well as keeping some of my home comforts that the day just wouldn't be right without, with the help of M&S. Although I'm not sure the carol service at Notre Dame will compete with Netherton Carol Service!

I like to think that Christmas brings with it a feeling and wherever you are, you will still get the feeling.

Hope you're all enjoying the Festive season wherever you are!
Always makes me smile...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83tRxjPj5bo

I can't believe we ate the mini bar...

4 flights, 4 metros, 2 buses and 4 trains later and we're back from the best spontaneously booked trip to Cologne. 

Myself and Olivia worked together on Sunday evening, this doesn't happen very often so is a bit of a novelty and we treated the few residents who were around reception to a fantastic rendition of Fairytale of New York and a rather over enthusiastic game of charades. 

Then we were up at 6 the next morning to start our 'holiday'. We managed to get to the airport via metro and bus without any major issues. We had the usual panic at security where despite having packed our own bags and meticulously checking them before leaving we still feared we may have accidentally packed a bomb but all went smoothly and we had breakfast before heading to the gate. 

Now previous to this trip I had only been on 3 planes in my 20 and a half years of life. Yes, 3, once I flew there and got the ferry back. So naturally I get very excited by the whole flying process. But I think as I never got a plane as a child, I never had a chance to ask all the questions in the world that I would have usually asked my Dad and he would have bullshitted his way through an answer that would suffice to shut me up. Olivia unfortunately took the brunt of these questions that I now at the age of 20 needed the answer to. 

I'll give it to them, airberlin are doing it right. Free snacks and drinks on every flight. Bravo. 

Finding ourselves in Germany was weird. It was so strange to be surrounded by a language that I didn't understand or speak a word of, except 'my hat it has 3 corners' I can recite that till the cows come home. Thanks Dad. 
Despite this we managed to navigate the train system and find our hotel, that was right next to the station.

Now what follows is a rather humorous anecdote, which I think was a combined result of us having lived in a hostel for 3 months and traveled for 9 hours that day. 
We got into the room, were naturally overwhelmed by the fact it was a hotel and there was a bath and actual duvets. We ate all the food in the room, what we didn't realise was we had eaten the mini bar. We opened the pretzels, neither of us like pretzels. It was a foolish error that was set to cost us around 6 euros. We decided to hide the packets and hope they thought they'd forgotten to provide us with any...*

We then headed out into the centre in search of the Christmas Markets. After a 45 minute circular walk we reached them, which turned out to be 5 minutes from our hotel. 
We meandered around the markets had the best piece of chicken on a stick I have ever encountered, and managed to scout out the only French creperie in Cologne. It weirdly felt like such a relief to be able to speak French to them.

After a Baileys hot chocolate we decided to head back to the hotel as it was cold and we'd been up since 6.

I then took full advantage of the hotel's bath. I hadn't had a bath in over 3 months and considering I usually bath more than the Romans did, that's a pretty long time. 

The next day, after an awkward mime conversation with the cleaner, we went in search of the Lindt Chocolate museum. It has it's own chocolate café and when on holiday it's practically obligatory to have cake for breakfast. So we obliged. Along with the greatest hot chocolate I have ever tasted.

The chocolate museum was as amazing as I remembered it 7 years previously, and I probably got more excited this time.

Our flight back was far more exciting than the flight there, I'd never flown at night before hence; more questions. To just make things even more exciting, they served free mulled wine on the flight, so the whole cabin smelt like Christmas.
On arriving in Berlin, we had 7 minutes to go through security and board our connecting flight, which turned out to involve us going on a bus for 10 minutes to actually reach the plane. 
We ended up sat next to the most multilingual woman. She was reading her German paper, asked us to pass her a blanket in French and then explained to me in English that 'no they're not cleaning the plane, that's to clear the fog and allow us to fly'. I had found the woman who could answer all my flight based questions! After a delay of 30 minutes we were finally in the air for the final time of the day. We finally arrived back in Paris and had that coming home feeling.

I had such a good two days and it was so lovely to experience Germany at Christmas again, it does it so well. 

*the conclusion to the mini bar related dilemma. We checked out, she asked 'did you have anything from the mini-bar' I confessed. Couldn't deal with pretzels on my conscience. 

I've resisted uploading all the photos in the world and will put an album on Facebook but here's a snippet. 

Breakfast!