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