Champagne and The City of Lights

Things are still going really well over here. I have made my first french friend in Paris! I met up with a friend of a friend (Sue's friend) named Vanessa who is French and lives in Paris. She is really nice and we have been out a couple of times and on friday night I am going out with her and a group of her friends.

Yesterday I went to Epernay in the champagne region to visit the Moet and Chandon House with an aussie guy I met in the hostel who is totally crazy about champagne! We had a really great day. We got to taste sevral types of Moet including a premiere blend which can't be bough outside of France (It was VERY good) and we got to go down into the cellars where they make and age the wine. It was really cool - there were literally millions of bottles stacked up everywhere in all stages of production. We learnt all about how they make the champagne and saw the vintage library where they keep heaps of bottles from every year. Each year the wine experts open one bottle from every year to see how it is aging. They have bottles in the library from as far back as 1860! We also went to another wine house, Mercier, which I don't think you can even buy in Australia but is quite famous here in France. We tasted some of their vintage champagnes and looked around the cellars there too.

I also went to look at a flat last night. It was quite nice, although quite old and small but I think that has to be expected in Paris. It is quite central and in a nice area (near Port Royal) and the girl, who is also my age, seemed nice and can speak some english. I don't know if I will get it yet as she is interviewing several other people but it is a good start and now at least I have an idea of what to expect.

Apart from that I have been spending most mornings in internet cafes looking for flats and jobs and spending the afternoons wandering the streets and checking out different areas of Paris. It is all so gorgeous! Most evenings I have been going out with people from the hostel. A couple of times we have gone up to Sacré-Coeur and sat on the stairs overlooking Paris. It is gorgeous up there at night. The church is all lit up and you can see all the lights of Paris. There are always heaps of people up there drinking wine and playing music and just hanging out. I have also been to see The Eiffel Tower at night which is also pretty cool. It is all lit up and every hour they have a bit of a light show and the whole thing sparkles. It is kind of tacky but also kind of cool.

I hope you guys are all going well. Send me some emails and let me know what you are all doing. I miss you all heaps already!