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.