last post from paris
i can't say i'll be sad to say goodbye to the miraculously deflating blow-up mattress but i have grown quite attached to the urine smell of the metro... in truth i am quite sad to leave paris and two weeks have flown by rather speedily; most probably a due to my busy lifestyle here (one can't really kill too much time in a 25square-metre appartment - thats why the cafe culture is so big, along with the fact that during winter it would be too god-damn miserable to do anything else but sit indoors). the weather has been quite pleasant, if a little cold, but the odd spot of rain hasn't marred the experience at all
spent a lovely day with charlotte, our old buddie from certlado and rome who now teaches english in dijon. she got a day-trip ticket up to paris and i got up at the ungodly hour of 7am (which incidentaly is a pre-daylight hour) to meet her at the train station. we indulged in a patisserie breakfast of croissant and coffee before setting out to the flea markets to meet lucy. worthy of note this time round was the country-style creperie with bbq. you can get a savory crepe, made from a wholemeal mix, and basically have a bbq'd snag with cheese, egg and mustard/ketchup. basically a road-side hotdog and absolutely top-quality. the rest of the afternoon was spent back in paris proper where we ambled through the luxembourg gardens and stumbled upon a fantastic photo exhibit documenting 20 years of modern chinese history. at first i thought yann layma's (the artist) images were slightly cliched and euro-centric; for example, the use of the term "westerner" when the artist referred to himself in the blurb was somewhat misplaced at times. but as i viewed more of the 108 "photo's of the dragon" exhibit the portrayal became more and more diverse. not necessarily objective but at least there was a large distribution of different images that painted quite a good picture of modern development in china. i guess if you take photo's over 20 years you're bound to come up with some good-ones and more often than not layma was in the right place at the right time. if anything the exhibit re-fulled some passion for some research on china for a thesis next year....
the day with charlotte concluded at a great little cafe overlooking the seine opposite notre-dame where they do a seriously good hot-chocolate (you pour your coco in to taste: not too bad).
that evening we hung out with our parisian friends who delight in chic-ing it up with an apperitif or 7 at their appartment before taking us out to dinner. unfortunately the restaurant we planned to dine in was over-flowing and, being the non-chalant young kids that they are, they didn't book. so we settled for overpriced slop in an up-market diner down the road in which we disregarded all protocol and shared several 'all-you-can-eat' carpaccio meals around to the waiters disgust. annabelle tried her hardest to organise a birthday bottle of complimentary champagne to no avail despite her tidy acting skills. her failure, i believe, is a matter of "the girl who cried wolf" because apparently she tries it on everytime they go out.
the french restauranters don't really go for the meal sharing thing here; and the following day we experience similar indignance - even in an arabic-african restaurant attached to the mosque (which had a very cluttered and casual feel and). the waiters only agreed at great length to providing us a spare bowl in which to share some of the cous-cous and tagine dishes.... thankfully the food was so damned good (especially compared to the night before) that the personality didn't spoil what was otherwise quite a lovely birthday lunch for lucy. the remainder of lucy's birthday was spent lazing around at yahn's appartment with katie and their gang. katie being the sweetheart that she is made a birthday sign for lucy which was intended to be hung over the railing but my command over the paris metro and suburbian lines is so shit-hot right now that we got there before she finished. not to worry as we hit some red wine and then sung happy birthday over an apple crumble that was very tasty despite the lack of several key ingredients. marcus and other aussies in greece taught the this french crew some delightfully familiar sayings, so we went on to "smack some piss" in the form of 22 vodka shots (not each, but in total) as a birtdhay finale. the train ride home was needless to say rather relaxed.
so aurevoir for now paris - this afternoon we catch the tgv and speed down to poitiers where liam will no doubt be dressed in something garishily aussie just incase we miss him on what will most probably be an empty platform. in truth i can't wait to see the lad! photos a-comin soon...
spent a lovely day with charlotte, our old buddie from certlado and rome who now teaches english in dijon. she got a day-trip ticket up to paris and i got up at the ungodly hour of 7am (which incidentaly is a pre-daylight hour) to meet her at the train station. we indulged in a patisserie breakfast of croissant and coffee before setting out to the flea markets to meet lucy. worthy of note this time round was the country-style creperie with bbq. you can get a savory crepe, made from a wholemeal mix, and basically have a bbq'd snag with cheese, egg and mustard/ketchup. basically a road-side hotdog and absolutely top-quality. the rest of the afternoon was spent back in paris proper where we ambled through the luxembourg gardens and stumbled upon a fantastic photo exhibit documenting 20 years of modern chinese history. at first i thought yann layma's (the artist) images were slightly cliched and euro-centric; for example, the use of the term "westerner" when the artist referred to himself in the blurb was somewhat misplaced at times. but as i viewed more of the 108 "photo's of the dragon" exhibit the portrayal became more and more diverse. not necessarily objective but at least there was a large distribution of different images that painted quite a good picture of modern development in china. i guess if you take photo's over 20 years you're bound to come up with some good-ones and more often than not layma was in the right place at the right time. if anything the exhibit re-fulled some passion for some research on china for a thesis next year....
the day with charlotte concluded at a great little cafe overlooking the seine opposite notre-dame where they do a seriously good hot-chocolate (you pour your coco in to taste: not too bad).
that evening we hung out with our parisian friends who delight in chic-ing it up with an apperitif or 7 at their appartment before taking us out to dinner. unfortunately the restaurant we planned to dine in was over-flowing and, being the non-chalant young kids that they are, they didn't book. so we settled for overpriced slop in an up-market diner down the road in which we disregarded all protocol and shared several 'all-you-can-eat' carpaccio meals around to the waiters disgust. annabelle tried her hardest to organise a birthday bottle of complimentary champagne to no avail despite her tidy acting skills. her failure, i believe, is a matter of "the girl who cried wolf" because apparently she tries it on everytime they go out.
the french restauranters don't really go for the meal sharing thing here; and the following day we experience similar indignance - even in an arabic-african restaurant attached to the mosque (which had a very cluttered and casual feel and). the waiters only agreed at great length to providing us a spare bowl in which to share some of the cous-cous and tagine dishes.... thankfully the food was so damned good (especially compared to the night before) that the personality didn't spoil what was otherwise quite a lovely birthday lunch for lucy. the remainder of lucy's birthday was spent lazing around at yahn's appartment with katie and their gang. katie being the sweetheart that she is made a birthday sign for lucy which was intended to be hung over the railing but my command over the paris metro and suburbian lines is so shit-hot right now that we got there before she finished. not to worry as we hit some red wine and then sung happy birthday over an apple crumble that was very tasty despite the lack of several key ingredients. marcus and other aussies in greece taught the this french crew some delightfully familiar sayings, so we went on to "smack some piss" in the form of 22 vodka shots (not each, but in total) as a birtdhay finale. the train ride home was needless to say rather relaxed.
so aurevoir for now paris - this afternoon we catch the tgv and speed down to poitiers where liam will no doubt be dressed in something garishily aussie just incase we miss him on what will most probably be an empty platform. in truth i can't wait to see the lad! photos a-comin soon...
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