Next Stop Paris

Croatia

2007-09-19T14:47:00.000+02:00

A few weeks ago Daniel and Sue (friends from Sydney) came and stayed a few days with me in Paris, and then we went to Croatia together for a weeks holiday on a boat in the Adriatic Sea. Dan and Sue arrived on a Wednesday, and I was working for the rest of the week, so I only saw them at night and since they were trying to squeeze as many of the sights of Paris in 2 days we didn't really go out partying at all, but we did go out for a nice dinner and drank plenty of French wine and just hang out and caught up on all the gossip (including their recent engagement!).

On Saturday morning we flew to Dubrovnik where we stayed one night in a cute little apartment with a gorgeous view over Gruz harbour. Unfortunately it was at the top of about 300 stairs and our very unhelpful (read lying bastard) cabbie, dropped us off at the bottom and told us it was just one flight up (if you look at the view from our apartment in the photos below, we climbed up stairs from basically the water level). So, unable to hail another cab when we realised his mistake (deliberate lie), we had to drag our bags up the stairs ourselves (much to the amusement and sympathy of the locals living on the hill), which took over an hour and resulted in Daniel getting mild heat stroke!

The next morning we went to the old city of Dubrovnik and walked the city walls and then strolled around the city and eat lunch in a cafe by the sea. The old city is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen and the views from the walls are amazing. The old city is almost entirely paved in marble and has numerous churches and gorgeous stone buildings, beautiful squares and fountains and little streets lined with shops and restaurants. The city is surrounded on two sides by the sea and visitors can walk all the way around on the walls, which offers great views of the city, and out over the sea to the nearby islands and up and down the coast.

In the afternoon we check-in on our boat and met up with Daniel’s friends that were on the trip as well.. Unfortunately as I had booked late I was in a below deck cabin that was quite hot and stuffy, and a bit cramped but I didn't spend much time at all down there except to sleep so it didn't bother too much. We ate dinner on the boat with the other (20 or so) people who would be on the trip with us then went back to the old city to a very trendy cocktail bar looking out over the water. It was full of beautiful people, and was beautifully decorated with pink and purple beanbags, huge couches, and very trendy lighting. We spent several hours there before heading back to the boat for our first night aboard.

For the next week we spent each day traveling from island to island, with numerous swim stops along the way usually at smaller deserted islands, or little coves along the coast. We ate breakfast and lunch each day on the boat and each afternoon we arrived at a different island where we spent a few hours wandering around and the evenings eating and drinking at the bars and restaurants. The coast was gorgeous and the water was super clear and on most days warm enough to stay in the water for hours at a time. The weather was perfect - warm and sunny but with a nice coastal breeze.

The main islands we went to were Korcula, Hvar, Mljet and Sipan. The first day we went to Korcula, which was quite big, with a cute little town and a pretty old city, and some nice restaurants and bars. In the evening we went to cocktail bar that was atop an old tower accessible only via a ladder, so our drinks were winched up via a lazy waiter sort of thing from the bar below.

The next days was Hvar (the most touristy island) whose harbour was full of million dollars yachts and is apparently very a popular holiday spot for the rich and famous at the moment, and quite a party destination. The island was full of trendy bars, cafes and nightclubs. That evening we had a fabulous meal and then numerous cocktails, finishing up at a famous bar called Carpe Diem.

The next day we headed for Trstenik, a tiny village of less than 100 people. We had a bit of a look around and then spent a fairly quiet evening as we were all very tired from the night before. The next morning we went to Mljet, which was my favorite island. We had nearly a whole day on Mljet, which has a large national park which includes two large lakes. We spent the morning swimming in the lakes, which are super salty - thus very floaty. In the afternoon we rented quad bikes and zipped around the island, through a few cute little fishing villages, through the forest and along the coast. In the late afternoon we caught a boat out to an island on the largest of the lakes, where there is an old monastery.

The next day we headed for the last of our islands - Sipan and spent the evening in another small town, drinking cocktails and playing cards. On the last day we went back to Dubrovnik where we had the afternoon to look around again, and spent our last night eating a huge meal, and drinking in our favorite cocktail bar we discovered on the first night.

The next day everyone else left early in the morning to catch flights but I had another night at Dubrovnik as I had booked an early flight for Monday morning. So I spent my last day at the beach in Dubrovnik, which was quite nice - but super touristy. The next morning I had to get up at 4am, and flew back to Paris and went straight from the airport to work.

Croatia

Bordeaux

2007-08-21T14:32:00.000+02:00

When I returned to France after 7 weeks in Australia I was expecting to return to work pretty much straight away but as it turns out I couldn't start for another few weeks. I had to have a "welcome to France" interview and a medical exam first, which was scheduled for mid July. So in the mean time I went down to Bordeaux to stay with a friend of mine (Sandrine) whose parents live down there.

Apart from being one of the main wine growing regions in France it is also a really nice city. Apparently until a few years ago it was a dump but it has been done up (all the beautiful old buildings have been cleaned) and it is a really nice small city, with lots of little pedestrian streets lined with shops and cafes and quite a few gorgeous old buildings in a similar style to Paris.

The first few days I spent just walking around Bordeaux and hanging out with Sandrine. In the evenings I ate at home with her family and then went out with Sandrine and her friends in the evenings. Her family was really friendly and very nice tome - cooking lots of vege food (which I am sure they are not used to doing) as well as delicious pies and desserts! Later in the week Sandrine and I went to St Emilion which is a gorgeous medieval village known for it's wine. We tried some wines and walked around the town that was situated on a hill over looking the vineyards.

Another day we did a wine tour of Medoc, which involved visiting some chateaux as well as getting a bit of history of wine making and a tour of the cellars before tasting the wines. I wasn't that keen to do a tour but the wineries don't do the cellar door thing over here, so you have to be on a tour to do wine tasting, and in the end it was actually quite a good tour.

On the last day we went to the beach. It was my first French beach experience and I really enjoyed it. First we went to Dune de Pilar - Europe's largest sand dune, which was huge!! The beach on the other side was fairly quiet (for a European beach) and we spent a few hours swimming and hanging out at the beach. Afterwards we stopped off at Arcachon, which is a famous beach holiday town. It was a cute town but the beach was packed and very European, with boats and people, balls and toys everywhere, children’s rides along the beach, and stands selling ice cream and junky souvenirs. It was quite kitsch but I am glad I went.

The last night was Sandrine's birthday so we all went out to dinner to a lovely French restaurant and had a 6-course meal. They even made special vege food for me - I had fettuccini with truffles as a main. It was the first time I had tried truffles and I loved them!

Here are the photos. They are a bit mixed up between all the places I visited:

Bordeaux

So since then I have had my welcome to France thing and have started back at work. Not a lot has been happening (Paris in august is completely dead). I have just been hanging out with my friends and getting back into Paris life - ie hanging out in Cafes drinking wine. But tomorrow Daniel and Sue arrive (friends from Sydney) and on the weekend we are going to Croatia for a week. So stay tuned for more news and photos from that trip!

China

2007-08-06T11:03:00.000+02:00

I am now going to go backwards in time and fill in some of the gaps of what I have been doing in the last few months. So i'll start with china.

As I wrote ealier there was a bit of drama getting my visa for china sorted out, but I did finally get my passport back and and made it to Hong Kong. Unfortunatley I didn't have any onward ticket booked due to the last minute date changes. I tried to buy a ticket at the airport in hongkong but this turned out to be just extremely expensive, so I ended up catching the train into Hong Kong and then getting an international train to Guangzhou - a large city a few hours from Hong Kong but inside mainland china. From there I bought a ticket to Biejing which turned out to be very cheap - so it was worth the effort.

I finally made it to Beijing where I stayed for a couple of days with Sitt. I had already been to beijing before and done all the touristy type stuff so I just spent my time there hanging out with Sitt, meeting his friends, going out to dinner and bars and that sort of thing. I did spend one day walking around a traditional chinese area, with a nice lake and some of the last traditional housing left in the centre of Beijing, which was pretty cool.

After a couple of days in Beijing Sitt and I headed down to Chengdu , in Sichuan province, South western china, which is famous for it's spicy food, it's tea houses and the world's largest panda reserve. Although it is a huge city (9 million people) it is actually quite chilled out. The people are calm and friendly, and there are some nice parks and cute little tea houses everywhere.

We meet up with a friend of Sitt's (another Rebecca) and her sister down there and the four of us stayed at a lovely, but noisy, hostel together (which had two very cute piglettes as pets). We hired bikes from the hostel and spent most of our time there biking around the city, checking out temples, parks, drinking tea and just hanging out. It was great to be there with Sitt and Rebecca, as they both speak mandarin. It made life a lot easier and we got to speak to a few locals, and try out some local food and do some stuff that would have been impossible if none of us could speak the language. One day Sitt and I went out to visit a "museum" of Maoist paraphenalia run by an old local man. He was hilarious and the musuem itelf was just the back section of the guy's house, which was stacked full of pictures, statues, old ads and propaganda posters and everything else with Mao on it.

One evening we all went to see a Sichuan opera which was excellent - having seen a Beijing Opera last time I was in China I knew what to expect - it is not much of a opera - more like a show of costumes and acrobatics with not much story. But it was extremely well done and the costumes were amazing.

One the last morning before I flew back to sydney we went to the panda reserve. It was huge and there were heaps of pandas around - several babies and a large number of adults. They were so cute. And they ate so much. They eat up to 40 kg of bamboo a day and just while we were watching a group of 4 pandas demolished a large area of bamboo!

China

French Residency

2007-07-18T15:50:00.000+02:00

This is just a quick update to let everyone know what has been going on. I will try to go back later when I have more time and write more about my holiday and put up some photos and stuff like that.

Basically I went back to sydney (via china - more on that later) to sort out all the paper work for my french residency and to apply for my visa. The hard part was supposed to be over - I already had the permlission to work in France (My company applied for that in March), I just had to get a visa. It was supposed to take 2 - 3 weeks and I should have been back in France by the 1st of June but my file was held up in Paris and I didnt end up get my visa until the end of June.

I finally got back to France and thought I could start work straight away but as it turns out I had to have an interview and a medical exam and sign a contract with the french government promising to integrate into french culture (very similar to the "australian values" crap John Howard is trying to introduce in Australia). Anyway I was given an appointment for 17th July and I couldn't start working before then. So in the mean time I spent a week in Bordeaux staying with a french friend of mine (Sandrine) at her parents place (more on that later too).

So Yesterday was the day of my "welcome to france" and I spent several hours at the department being shuffled around to watch a video about life in france, have a french language test, an interview and a medical exam. In the end I finally got my certificate to start working, so here I am back at work two and half months after I left.

I still have to go to the prefecture next week to apply for my residents permit, and in september I have to do a full day of "Civic Training". But basically I now have the right to live and work in france for pretty much as long as I want to.

Travel Karma

2007-05-02T15:25:00.000+02:00

To be honest I don't really believe in Karma but up until now I have been very lucky in all my travels. I have never missed a flight or lost luggage or really had any kind of major problems, and I have done an awful lot of travelling. Unfortunately this time I haven't been so lucky. But after much stress and drama I finally have my trip home all planned.

First of all I still don't have a definate answer about my french working visa. The department of employment rang the HR girl from company a few weeks ago to say that there were no particular problems with my application and that it was progressing (whatever that means) and that they would ring her back in a week with more information but we haven't heard from them since. Apparently after the Department of employment gives my company the premission to hire me, they send my file on to another department who decides if I am a suitable person for france (i think this involves checking if I am a criminal and stuff like that). After that it is sent to the consulate in sydney where I have to apply for the visa. I don't fully understand the procedure nor does the HR person at work and the only information I have been given has been from her, in french, over the phone (as I am a consultant I don't work at the offices of my company). So it is all a bit hazy but it seems, if all goes well, I will have my visa by the end of may. But as I mentioned before I have to actually be in australia during the final stage of processing and as far as I could work out that should begin around may 10, although this is uncertain as the department of employment was supposed to ring us with a date and they refuse to take phone calls about the status of visa applications.

I had been putting off planning the trip back to australia until I had more information about my visa and what dates I was expected to be in sydney but since that didn't happen I decided 2 weeks ago to go ahead and book things anyway using the guestimate of may 10. My work visa finished on May 1 so I decided to stop of in china to visit Sitt (my best friend, who lives in Beijing at the moment). The planning was left a little bit to the last minute as I was waiting to hear about the date for my french visa, but two weeks ago I left my passport at the chinese embassy in Paris to get my visa (this in itself was a bit of a drama as they didnt know if they could process a non eu citizen at the paris consulate but they finally decided it would be ok) and they told me I could pick it up last friday, which was also my last day of work. Friday morning I woke up with food poisoning. I was violently ill all day and since the visa must be collected before midday and by 11am I was still in no state to go to the embassy I decided not to get my passport on friday but to pick it up monday morning. Since I didn't fly out until wednesday afternoon I thought that would be fine. I arrived at the embassy on monday morning to find it locked with a note stuck to the door saying the embassy was closed until thursday due to chinese public holidays.

Since my flight left wednesday afternoon and they had my passport there was nothing I could do but change my flight from Paris to thursday. Luckily there wasn't any particular problem changing the date but unfortunately I had already paid for a non-refundable ticket from hong kong to beijing, so I have lost that money, and to make things worse the flight the next day was booked out. After many phone calls, website checking and sending sitt on a mission to local travel agents I was still unable to book a flight. The cheap airlines won't issue e-tickets and there is not enought time to send the tickets to me, and the only other available tickets are outrageously expensive (several hundred euro each way) and also mean I have to wait 9 hours hong kong airport. So I have decided to fly to hongkong without a onward ticket and try to book one at one of the counters at the airport. It should be OK as there are many airlines and flights but they could be very expensive. My back up plan is to catch a train 2 hours to guangzhou and get a flight from there as they are much cheaper and less likely to be booked out. Since I arrive at 7.30am I have plenty of time to sort something out but it could turn into a bit of an adventure.

So now all that is left is to get up early tomorrow, pick up my passport and go straight to the airport for my 2pm flight. I am praying that all will go well tomorrow and there won't be any problems with my passport or visa. I can't wait to be sitting on that plane! The whole thing has been such a drama.

I am flying from hong kong to sydney on May 10 and heading down to ulladulla for a few days to relax and catch up with my parents. I should be back in sydney on the monday where I will probably spend the next 2-3 weeks doing paper work and catching up with friends, and depending on what is going on with my visa I should be back in france and back to work by June 1st.

So for all of you in sydney I am looking forward to catching up with you all. And everyone keep your fingers crossed that there are no more flight/passport dramas and also that my french working visa comes through.

If there really is such a thing as karma, I think I must be even by now.

Amsterdam

2007-04-19T10:41:00.000+02:00

I think I mentioned last time that I was thinking of going to Amsterdam over Easter with Nick and Pauli. We left the booking a bit late and had a hard time finding accomodation but we did eventually find a fairly nice hostel in central amsterdam. We had wanted an appartment or at least our own room but we ended up in a four bed dorm which turned out to be fine. The girl we shared with was quite nice and we didn't actually spend much time at the hostel anyway.

I arrived late friday night so that night we just had a few drinks at a nearby bar. Then next day Pauli planned out a list of places to go and see. We started out the day at the Van Gogh museum, which was pretty good, but was missing many of his most famous pieces. Nick, who complained about not wanting to go, ended up spending the most time looking at paintings and it was Pauli and I that got bored! After that we went of to get lunch and after huge pizzas and a few beers, we never really made it to any of the other things on Pauli's list. We wandered around a little bit more and then finished the evening in a coffee shop.

This came to be a regular pattern - Pauli would plan a list of things to see, we would visit the first on the list and then end up in a bar or coffee shop and not see anything else on the "the list". But we had a great time and ended up seeing most of the things Pauli wanted to see. We did a nice boat ride through the canals and visted the Heineken museum (which was packed, and consisted mostly of advertising material and stupid little "rides" and games - but at least we got a few beers).

Amsterdam has some of the worst food in the world. Everything is deep fried. One of the most popular food chains is called Febo which is basically deep fried food vending machines. You put coins in and can choose from a wide variety of deep fried stuff (deep fried cheese, sauerkraut, and various unidentifiable meat products) adn also hamburgers. I tried the deep fried cheese option and it was kraft singles style "plastic cheese" wrapped in pastry and fried. I felt sick for the next hour as did nick and pauli who tried some of the meat versions. All the bars sell "deep fried snacks" and the staff are not sure exactly what it is them. And the huge paper cones of chips smothered in mayo are famous. We tried some of the various deep fried snacks but mostly ate in italian/asian/other restaurants which were not too bad.

We spent alot of time wandering the streets and along the canals, which are gorgeous, and we were lucky to have really nice weather. We spent most afternoons drinking beer in one of the many squares, and the evenings sitting in bars and people watching. We spend a few evenings hanging around the red light district - fascinated by the behavour of some the girls in the windows, and more so by the potential punters. Definately a good area to people watch.

Anyway we had heaps of fun and really liked amsterdam. Next it is my turn to go visit Nick and Pauli in Leeds as they have already visited me twice in Paris. But first I have to get my french working visa! I still don't know whether I will get it but I should be getting the news this week, so expect another update soon.

Amsterdam

Madrid

2007-03-13T13:55:00.001+01:00

As usual it has been a while since I last updated this blog and a fair bit of stuff has been happening.

A few weeks ago I went to madrid for 4 days. It was a bit of a last minute decision. I just realised I had a weekend free and plenty of RTT days (kind of like flexi days) available so I decided to take a couple of days off and go to Madrid.

I spent most of my time in Madrid wandering the streets, checking out the beautiful parks, squares and buildings and eating tapas and other local specialities like churros. I really loved the big squares and the architecture is great - a real mix of styles, which is a change from Paris. The metro is really good, and it is nice, clean, easy city to get around, and the central part is really quite small.

I also went to two fantastic museums - Reina Sofia and Thyssen-Bornemisza. Both of which had large modern art collections including works by Dali, Picasso, Miro, Georges Braque, Juan Gris and heaps of others. The Prado is supposed to be one of the best art galleries in Spain, but I decided to give it a miss as I am not too interested in classic art.

The hostel I stayed in was gorgeous and right in the middle of Madrid and I met some friendly french girls there there and we went out to a few bars together.

Madrid

Last weekend an old friend of mine, Bec, and her husband Peter came to visit me in Paris. The weather was gorgeous, sunny and warm (you know you are living in Europe when you refer to 15 as gorgeous) . Bec had never been to Paris before so we spent most of the weekend walking around showing off the sites of Paris and hanging out in cafés and eating gorgeous food. It made me realise all over again that Paris really is one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

It was really good to catch up with Bec and Peter, they have just moved to London after several months of travelling through north and South America, so it was great to hear all their stories. While the weather was great from wandering around Paris, unfortunately it wasn't too good for photos but anyway I have included all the photos from the weekend here, as Bec and Peter had a problem with their camera so they wanted to copy some of them.

Bec and Peter in Paris

Apart from all that, I have been just hanging around Paris as usual. Hanging out a lot with VikiLee, and my other friends here. I am planning to go to Amsterdam for easter with Nick and Pauli (other friends from Australia who live in the UK now) but we haven't book anything yet so that could still change.

Other than that I don't have anything else planned as I don't know what is going to happen with my visa. My dossier for the visa is finished and has been lodged with the appropriate department, so now I just have to wait for a response. If all goes well I have to go back to Australia to get my visa (it is a crazy rule but I have to return to Australia to get it) , so I am planning to go back to Australia in early may for about 3 weeks or so and also hopefully go via Beijing to visit Sitt on the way over. But all of that depends on my visa and how long it all takes, and I probably won't know for sure until a week or two before I am supposed to leave. So everything is a bit up in the air at the moment and it is kind of hard to plan anything.

Friends

2007-02-08T14:24:00.000+01:00

Despite the cold I have been having quite a lot of fun lately. A few weeks ago I went to a nightclub with Alison and meet an Australian guy (Peter) there. It turns out he lives just around the corner from my place and we know a few people in common. I caught up with Peter again on Australia Day, when I went with a bunch of other Australian friends to CafeOz, an Australian bar in Paris which I usually avoid. They had a big party organised for Australia Day and we had a really fun night there.

Last weekend Peter had a cocktail party at his place which was heaps of fun, and afterwards the last few hangers on (Alison, VikiLee, Vicky (my hairdresser here who lives just across the road from Peter), Peter and myself) finished the night off in a bar in the latin quatier. On Tuesday night the same group (minus alison) had dinner at VikiLee's place. The four of us had heaps of fun, talking and laughing all night and ended up in the bar next door at 2am having vodka shots and long island iced teas. We plan to all get together again this saturday night and go out to a club.

I finally feel like I have a nice little group of friends. All of us are in our early 30's, live in the same area and are single (except for VikiLee). Although I have meet alot of people here and made some good friends I have really missed having a group to go out with. I have been really good friends with VikiLee and Alison for ages, and I have known Vicky for a long time too, so although this little group has formed just recently it feels a bit like old friends.

When I first came here I didn't want to have Australian friends - I wanted to make french friends. I do have a few french friends now, but in the end the best friends I have made are Australian, and while I still feel a little strange about that, I also realise it was unrealistic to think I could fit into French society so easily. It is such a closed culture and so different. Although Paris is packed with foreigners almost no french people have foreign friends. I don't think it is necessarily because the french don't like foreigners, it is just that they very rarely make new friends and their whole way of socialising is so different. All the french friends I do have here have lived overseas and have lost a bit of that really frenchness and have learnt to socialise in a different way.

So anyway, I feel more and more like i am settling in here, my french has improved and I feel much more comfortable with that now, my flat is great and I have a good group of friends. Now all I need is a visa so I can stay a little longer. My company is in the process of organising the paper work required to sponsor me, but it is harder than I first thought, and I have heard of a lot of Australians having their visa denied even with a company to sponsor them, so I just have to wait and see.

Happy New Year

2007-01-12T15:53:00.000+01:00

Happy new year to everyone. I hope you all had a great christmas and new year.

I spent most of my christmas holidays in Ireland. I flew into dublin and spent a couple of days there before catching the train to Killarney to spend chrismas with my brother. I had a great christmas day with James. I brought lots of french wine and some other french christmas foods over and we cooked up a huge meal. Some friends of James's came over for lunch and we spent most of the day eating and drinking. James and his flatmates had bought and decorated a huge tree and hung stockings over the fireplace which we had burning all afternoon. Unfortunately there was no snow but it still felt like a traditional "cold" christmas.

After christmas I headed up to Galway on the west coast of ireland for a few days. Galway is a gorgeous city and has a great pub scene with lots of really good traditional music. I went out a few times to see some music and I even got to see two of the River Dance dancers "Hunting the wren" (ie dancing) in one of the pubs, which is a tradition from the galway area for 26th december which invloves locals parading through the streets in weird clothing, and singing and daning to traditional music, and stopping by local pubs to do a small performance.

I also did a day trip down the coast to the cliff's of mohar which are stunning, and stopped on the way to see a few other interesting spots in the area.

I spent new year's back in Paris. Nick and Pauli (friend's of mine from australia who now live in leeds) came over for a few days and brough Kim, a friend of there's, along as well. We spent most of new years eve eating and drinking (way too much) and then at around 11 we headed over the Champs Elysee with a couple of bottles of champagne (and half of Paris). Luckily it was a very mild night and we had lots of fun hanging out drinking our champagne. Afterwards we went to a bar in the marais to meet up with a few of my friends and then walked home in the early hours of the morning.

Unfortunately Kim had to leave the next day but Nick, Pauli and I spent the entire day in our pajamas, lying on ly bed watching millions of episodes of Arrested Developement and eating pizza. On tuesday we did some Parisian stuff, walked around the Opera district, saw the christmas decorations at Galleries Layfayette and had some wine and cheese at Bercy village and walked around the bibliotheque Francois Mitterand. In the evening we had a nice meal at les philosophes in the marais. The next day it was back to work for me, and back to leeds for Nick and Pauli.

Since then I haven't really been doing alot alot of my friends are still away and I have had a cold, so I have mostly been hanging out at home watching TV. Last weekend I caught up with an australian friend Naomi, who is moving back to australia. I also went to her farewell on tuesday night, which was a bit sad as she was one of the first people I met here.

I don't have much planned for this weekend either, although I will try to brave the crowds at the Sales, which are very very good over here. Almost everything is reduced in all stores by nearly 50%, but they are always a bit crazy and crowded. Next week my best friend here gets back from australia and the week after some more friends return so hopefully I will be busier then.

Here are some links to some photos from Ireland and also from New Years.

Ireland - Part 2

New Years 2007

Ireland

2006-12-13T13:28:00.000+01:00

Last week I took a couple of days off work and flew over to Ireland to visit my brother who lives in Killarney in south west Ireland. The town of kilarney is gorgeous, with brightly painted buildings lining the main streets. The area around Killarney (The Ring of Kerry) is absolutely gorgeous. I hired a car for 3 days and James drove me around and showed me some of the best spots in the area. Killarney is surrounded by Mountains, lakes and gorgeous forests, filled with creeks and waterfalls and moss covered trees. It is also not far at all from the coast so on saturday we drove out to one of the nearby beaches. It is the first time I have ever worn gloves and scarf to the beach, but it was great. I haven't been to the beach for 6 months so it was nice to walk on the sand and hear the sound of the waves. The whole area is gorgeous, and there is so much space! I felt very far away from Paris.

James has a great house which he shares with 4 others, all of whom are really nice and friendly. Friday was James's birthday but he had to work in the evening so we celebrated on saturday night with a few drinks at his local, followed by a lovely Italian meal and then a lot more drinking at a local bar/nightclub.

It was a fabulous break, and it was so nice to get out of Paris and get outdoors. I will be heading back over there for christmas and will probably going to Dublin and Galway while I am over there. I have been pretty slack with posting photos so here is a link to some photos from the weekend.

Ireland - Part 1

Dimanche

2006-12-01T11:09:00.000+01:00

Sundays in Paris can be a little strange. Everything is closed, there is no one much around, and there isn't alot to do except hang out with friends and eat. The sunday before last I had a true Sunday in Paris. The day started at the Baron Rouge, an old style wine bar near Bastille which still has the old oak barrels of wine from which you can fill empty bottles. I went there with VikiLee her husband and a friend of her's from australia, as well as a few other friend's of hers that live in the area. At this time of year (oyster season) they sell huge plates of fresh oysters out the front. I didn't eat the oysters but I did go for a cheese plate which came with three huge chunks of different gooey moldy cheeses, which looked a bit weird but tasted amazing and drank some gorgeous sancerre (both white and red) and some brouilly.

After that we went to a nearby bistro which still has the original decor from 1900. It is not flashy but it is gorgeous.We had a huge meal there which (in true french style) lasted several hours and included several bottles of gamme (red wine) followed by a digestif, I had an absolutely amazing raspberry digestif that I have never tasted before. We finished off the day at nearby bar and drank cheap cocktails.

Last sunday wasn't quite so indulgent, but I spent the entire afternoon waking around my new quartier, taking advantage of the unusually mild autumn to spend an entire afternoon outdoors. There were heaps of little streets I had never ventured down before and all of them were gorgeous. I am now really living in "Postcard Paris". The 5th is one of the more exclusive quartiers in Paris but, being in a university area, there are heaps of second hand book stores, independant music stores, and cosy cafes, mixed in with exclusive boutiques and flashy restaurants. The latin quartier and the pantheon are only a 10 minute walk away but I tend to avoid those areas as they very crowded and touristy, my corner of the 5th is much more residential. In a park just near my appartment I stumbled upon the ruins of an ancient arena from 195. I also found a vegetarian cafe (very rare in Paris) down a little side street, and a cave à vins (wine store) which is open on sundays (extremely rare). I ended the day on rue moufftard (a famous and gorgeous little street behind the pantheon) where I met up with alison for a cheap meal of cheese fondue.

Chez Moi 2

2006-11-08T17:44:00.000+01:00

Quite alot has been happening since the last time I updated my blog. Firstly Dad came to visit me for a week, and James (my brother) also came for a couple of days. It was great to see them both. Dad had already done a tour of Paris, so he had been to all the main attractions so I spent the weekend with him showing him around some lesser known but interesting areas of Paris, like rue Moufftard and the Canal St Martin, and the back streets of Montmartre. We ate pastries for breakfast and cheese and wine in the evenings. On sunday we went to Montparnasse, an area in Paris which is famous for it's creperies, and ate some really good crepes for lunch. James arrived on Monday, and we decided to stay in as James hadn't had much sleep and dad was getting a cold. We ate lots of cheese and wine and talked alot. The next couple of nights we spent going out to (french) restaurants and drinking in Irish pubs (not very french but James needed some good guiness).

In the middle of all that I was searching for an appartment, as there had been a change of plans and I suddenly had to be out of the house by the end of the week (ie the day after dad left!). So I spent most evenings going straight from work to visit appartments before meeting Dad and James for dinner. So that was a bit stressful. I saw so many tiny flats and weird or run down places, that I thought I would never find anything decent, and every good one seemed to be snapped up in seconds. Finding a decent sized flat in Paris is a challenge! Eventually I found a nice place in the 5th which I am very happy with. It is very close to the centre of Paris (about 20 mins walk), close to the latin quatier where there are heaps of bars and restaurants, and very very close to rue Moufftard which I really like. It is a great area, much more lively and nicer than where I lived before, and closer to my work. The flat itself is smaller and not as newly renovated as my last one but I actually like it more. It feels more homey. I moved in on the weekend and so far am very happy there. I am sharing with a 30yr french guy, who seems very nice.

I ended up spending last week sleeping at various peoples places as I couldn't move into my new place straight away. Also the weather suddenly changed last week, from very mild to freezing within a day, so I was very unprepared. So saturday I spent the entire day shopping for wollen socks, tights, gloves, scarfs and warm layerable jumpers and jackets. I am still getting used to all the cold weather gear, like wollen tights under jeans, and wearing 4 jumpers at once, under a thick coat etc. It is all a bit strange, but so far I am holding up OK even though it has been 4 degrees when I am going to work! But it is going to be a long winter for me I think.

On saturday night I went to see Pete Tong (superstar DJ) at Mix, a very modern, fairly new club in Paris, with Alison. I had a really great night. I hadn't been out dancing for months and although I was tired from spending the entire day shopping for winter clothes, I ended up dancing all night. The music was great and the club was really well designed with great visuals and a huge dance floor with a big mezzanine level above.

Sunday lunchtime I dragged myself out of bed and meet up with VikiLee (who is now one of my best friends in Paris) and her husband and son for brunch. We went to a great place which is famous for it's brunches, and had the most fantastic food. They have heaps of homemade jams and confiture de lait - which is kind of like nutella but better and in many flavors - white chocolate, pralene etc. with great bread and pastries, as well as eggs and an amazing salad. I ate so much I could hardly walk and then afterwards we went to the movies to see "The last kiss", which was quite good.

Last night I went to the Australian embassy to watch an aussie film called "The caterpillar wish". It was quite good, but the ending was crap. I had never been to the embassy before and I was surprised how big to was. It actually has a cinema inside (where we saw the film), as well as an art gallery and library and heaps of stuff.

So I have been pretty busy lately, but I am feeling really good. I am happy with the way everything is going here, I love my new flat, my french is getting better and better, and I have made a couple of really good friends now. Work is also going quite well. It isn't the most interesting job I have ever had but so far I don't mind too much. I think because it is in french it makes it seem more interesting than it actually is.

Flat Hunting

2006-10-18T19:16:00.000+02:00

Well I haven't updated this blog for a while so I will try to remember what has happened since last time. Shaun and Sonia stayed with me for a weekend which was great. We didn't really do anything particularily news worthy but it was lots of fun. We went out to dinner and walked around Paris. It was really great catch up.

Since then I don't think too much has been going on. The weather has been a bit colder but it is still quite nice. I had one final outdoors even before winter - drinks on one of the bridges over the Seine which was gorgeous as always, I will definately miss doing that over winter.

I meet a really friendly Aussie girl called VikiLee and we have been hanging out heaps. She lives not too far from me. We have been out a few times and I went to her place last night for dinner, and we went to a really nice bar on sunday afternoon and had cocktails. She has been living here for 4 years and is married to a really nice french guy.

On thursday night I went to see my first French Play. A friend of Vanessa's was acting in it, so we got free tickets. It was quite good, and although I didnt understand it all, I got enough of it to follow what was going on. Afterwards we had drinks with Vanessa's friend and a couple of others and we ended up talking heaps having a really great night. And it was the first time I have been out with a group of french people in a noisy bar and actually understood pretty much everything and was able to take part in the conversation without feeling too stupid. Then on friday night I went to a Party with Vanessa which was also really fun, and I ended up staying quite late.

Sandrine, the french girl who gave me some french lessons in sydney before I left, has just arrived back in Paris so I went to her place for dinner on sunday night. It was great to catch up with her as we got on really well in sydney.

At the moment I am looking for a new appartement. I always new that my flatmate would be moving out towards the end of the year but it was never decided exactly when, but I knew it was coming up. I am looking to share a flat again as it is quite difficult to get all the required paperwork together to actually rent a flat (and it is quite expensive to rent alone). So now I am in the middle of visiting appartements, scanning the internet for ads, sending emails, making phone calls and stuff like which is quite tiring. So far none of theplaces I have seen have been all that great but I have one to see tonight adn two tomorrow, so hopefully one of those will be OK.

Dad arrives on friday night and is staying for a week and my brother is arriving a few days later (just for a few days) I am really looking forward to seeing them both. So hopefully next time I write I will have lots of news about my week with dad and james, and a fab new appartement ...

The last few weeks ...

2006-09-24T21:22:00.000+02:00

I haven't written for a while, so I will try to catch up on what I have been doing lately. A few weeks ago Niko and her friend Natalie came to stay with me for a few days. Unfortunately they could only make it for a few days during the week but it was great to see them and catch up. We had a picnic one evening by the Seine and ate lots of gorgeous cheeses, one of which I hadn't tried before which has ash in it, and was really nice. Another night we wandered around the marais and had dinner in a little jazz bar, and the last night we went to Montmartre and had dinner in a lovely restaurant.

I can't really remember what I have been doing since then, I have been to a few movies and a few dinners, and a few bars. Nothing unusual. Work has been going quite well, but also no real news there. I am feeling alot more comfortable there now and am kind of used to the working culture now.

Yesterday I went to the Chateau de Versaille, which is the most famous chateau in Paris. It is huge and gorgeous and has lovely, massive gardens. The weather was really nice (probably one of the last warm sunny weekends before the weather changes) and I had a great day looking around the various buildings and gardens and fountains.

Today I meet up with an aussie girl I met recently for an english style brunch, which was fabulous. The french really don't do big breakfasts so it was the first big breakfast I have had since coming to france. Afterwards we wandered around bastille and drank some wine on the terrasse of a little cafe.

So that really is all my news. This weekend Shaun and Sonia are coming to stay with me, which I am really looking forward to. So I guess I will have more news for you next week, and maybe some more photos.

Paris, je t'aime

2006-09-06T21:16:00.000+02:00

The last month or so has been a bit frustrating as I have mentioned - the language, the culture and basically just trying to fit in here, and I was starting to wonder why I came here.

But last weekend I remembered why I am here, and realised once again that Paris really is one of the most beautiful and amazing cities in the world and I have fallen in love with Paris all over again. The gorgeous little streets, the fabulous food, the wine, the museums...

Friday night I went to a party on a boat (there are heaps of them all along the Seine), which had a nice deck with tables and chairs, and two rooms below, one playing cheesy dance music, and the other salsa. I chose the cheesy dance music, not being a bit big salsa fan, and not wanting to shame myself in front of a boat full of people who appeared to experts. After a few hours of dancing I emerged above deck just in time to hear the engines roaring, indicating we were about to take a cruise down the river. Normally the (nightclub style) boats stay moored all night and I had no idea we were planning a cruise, and since it was already 2am I had assumed we were staying put for the night. So Alison and I decided to have a glass of champagne on the deck and watch Paris float by, which is always amazing no matter how many times you see it.

Alison and I walked home sometime in the early hours of the morning (I live very close to the quay) and Alison slept on the couch. The next afternoon we went to the Paris Mosque, which has a gorgeous garden and courtyard all decorated in amazing turkish tiles, and serves turkish food and tea. We ate some baklava type sweets and drank turkish tea and soaked up the atmosphere. Afterwards we wandered up rue mouffetard, a long narrow little street in the middle of Paris lined with fromageries, cafes and little shops, and stopped at cafe on a cute little square with a fountain. We stayed there for ages drinking some gorgeous sancerre (my new favorite white wine) and watched the people wander by. After a little more wandering around paris, we ended up in a tiny smokey wine bar, playing old french music with a funny old french guy serving drinks behind the bar. I only stayed for one glass of wine before I decided it was time to go home and get some sleep.

On the first sunday of every month in Paris, many of the museums are free, so a group of my Australian friends decided to go to the musée de l'orangerie, which is an old art gallery in Paris which has only recently reopenned and has two oval rooms each with 4 huge painting of Monets water lillies, as well as several rooms of other paintings from modern artists such as cezanne, picasso and renoir. The other paintings were nice of course but the Monet rooms were spectacular. Afterwards we sat in a cafe in the Jardin de Tulleries and drank some wine.

I think this weekend will be a little quieter but on tuesday, Niko (another friend from Australia) and a friend of hers from Germany (who I have met a few times in australia) are coming to stay with me for a few days, so I guess there will be a lot more eating, drinking and exploring Paris all over again.

Food, food and more food

2006-08-28T21:39:00.000+02:00

Nick and Pauli came to visit me over the weekend. For those who don't know them they are friends of mine from sydney that I haven't seen for nearly a year and a half. They have been traveling around South America and are now living in Leeds. We had a great weekend eating and drinking and sightseeing (mostly eating and drinking).

They arrived on thursday and first night we had dinner at a cool cafe, not too far from my place. On friday while I went to work Nick and Pauli went to the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe. Friday night we went out to dinner in the latin quarter where they could try snails and duck orange, and I could have my usual, chevre chaud (warm goats cheese salad) and cheese fondue. Afterwards we sat on Pont des Arts and drank a bottle of wine, before coming home and drinking a couple more, and chatting for most of the night.

Saturday (when we finally got out of bed around lunchtime) I went to the patisserie and bought a tonne of pastries for breakfast and afterwards we went to Sacre Coeur and wandered around Montmartre and Pigale (the red light district where Moulin Rouge is). On the way home we stopped at the supermarket and bought heaps of kinds of cheese and some vege tarts for dinner and decided to buy 5 bottles of wine, as the shops are not open on sundays here and the plan was to save 2 for the next day. We went back to my place and gorged ourselves and managed to drink all 5 bottles of wine plus an extra one I had at home. Pauli passed out sometime after 3, Nick and I went to bed when the sun came up.

Sunday was a bit of a challenge but Nick and Pauli managed to make it to the Louvre by mid afternoon and I met them there a few hours later (I didn't want to go again). Afterwards we took a boat ride down the Seine, and went to a restaurant in the Marais for dinner. The food was fabulous, the tomato tart looked so good I wished I had taken a photo of it, and it tasted even better. Nick and Pauli both raved about the steak tartare and the creme brule was the best I have tasted so far and was huge! We ate so much food we could hardly walk back to the metro!

Sadly they left this morning, but promised to try to return again soon and I am hoping to go visit them in the UK.

As promised here is a link to some photos from the weekend.

Nick and Pauli in Paris

Aug 28, 2006 - 23 Photos

The Outsider

2006-08-20T20:38:00.000+02:00

I have been feeling a little homesick and strange lately, and feeling more like a foreigner than ever. I think it is partly because now that I am working this is no longer an adventure - this is my life now. So I have been thinking alot about home, and about my life here and what I wanted it to be, and what it actually is turning out to be. It is also partly to do with the culture shock, which I have felt a lot more strongly at work than I did before. Even though I have several french friends here, all of them have lived overseas before and speak some english, but the people I work with are all very french and very different to what I am used to.

I am also finding the language barrier more and more frustrating. I guess now that I am working and living a "normal" life here I feel like I should be living a more french life, I should be able to speak better and have more french friends. I still find it very difficult to make friends if I speak only french, I don't feel like I am myself, I am not really able to be funny or subtle, and I speak slowly and often can't find the right word to describe what I want to say.

The weather has also been terrible here, it has rained almost every day for 2 weeks, and rarely gets above 20 degrees. Also Paris in august is very strange. All the french leave Paris and, apart from the centre and the very touristy areas, the entire city feels empty. Alot of the shops, bars and restuarants are closed for the whole of august. All my local boulangeries are shut and I have to buy bread from the supermarket!

But I am actually feeling alot better about it all now. On friday night I went out for a couple of drinks with Alison to an Irish bar in latin quatier. We ran into some people we knew and ended up staying until until 7am. It was the first really big night out I had had for ages and even though it was very unfrench I met alot of cool people and had a fun night.

Yesterday (afternoon, after we dragged ourselves out of bed) Alison and I decided I would feel better if I got to know some other parts of Paris so she took me to some areas I hadn't been to before, which were just gorgeous. We spent hours walking around the city and stopped at a bar for an apertif and dinner and then walked all the way back to the centre of town. Everything looked amazing, all the gorgeous buildings, the tree lined streets, and little shops and bars and I remembered why I came here.

Today I went to the musée d'art modern again (my favorite art gallery in Paris) to see a temporary exhibition (a retrospective of Dan Flavin) which was amazing. Afterwards I went for a walk around the 17th arrondissement which I don't know very well but is really french and quite cool and I stumbled across a really nice park with a lake full of ducks and black swans. Later I went to Cour Saint-Emilion, a very cute little stoney village like area with lots of trendy bars, not far from where I live.

So now I am loving Paris all over again, and am feeling alot better about living here. So in honour of my new french life, I am sitting here at my computer drinking a glass of bordeaux and eating warm goats cheese, and feeling quite french.

Fontainebleau

2006-08-12T10:49:00.000+02:00

I don't really have any news for you, but last sunday I went to Fountainebleau, which is a gorgeous forest about an hour from Paris, famous for it's amazing boulders and sandy soil. It was absolutely gorgeous so I wanted to put a few pictures up.

More news soon.

Learning Curve

2006-08-06T10:12:00.000+02:00

The first week at a new job is always a bit awkward. For me it usually involves reading lots of documentation, attending meetings about things I don't understand, having no idea what any of the processes are and inevitably forgetting everyone's name. So my first few days at work have been pretty much the same but on top of all that I have been struggling a little with french work culture and the language.

I have spent most of the last few days with a constant feeling of uncertainty, never really sure what I am supposed to be doing. I have no idea when to use "tu" and when to use "vous", when to use someone's first name and when to use "monsieur", when to kiss or when to shake hands (alot more often than you would think), whether to use salut, au revoir, bonsoir or ciao (which are not as interchangable as I had thought), and a million other little things that i never think twice about at home which are just different here. But in spite of all this I actually quite like it so far. I wanted to have a genuine french experience while I was here and despite that fact that I was told the company had a very "international" amosphere, I am the only person who is not french, so it is very french. And although I feel a bit uncomfortable everyone has been very nice to me, either repeating instructions or explaining them in english when it is clear I have no idea what is going on.

Two other people started the same time as me so we are doing the training together. The documentation is all in english but the training sessions have been mostly in french. I am actually surprised how much I do understand and my boss is very nice (and very funny) and has gotten to know that blank look on my face when I am not following and tries to explain in english or in easier french (he has a tendancy to use alot of slang).

So far I quite like the french attitude to work. It seems it is not necessary to get to work until 9.30-10.00am and, in true french style, lunch involves going to one of the nearby restaurants for 1.5 hours for a two course meal followed by coffee (and accompanied by several cigarettes). Everyone tends to go to lunch in groups, which is nice, and everyone has tried to include me in the conversation, although so far the main topics of conversation have been the relative advantages and draw backs of C++ over Java, and under what circumstances it is or is not morally appropriate to have a strike as opposed to a demonstration, both of which were a little heavy going for my limited vocab.

But despite all this we still do have to do our 40 hours a week, which means that everyone stays in office quite late. Which isn't too bad as everything here is shifted an hour or more later anyway, everyone eats dinner late and stays out late, shops are open until 8pm, and, at the moment at least, it is light until 10pm. Also to compensate for the arduous task of working a forty hour week we get 2 days off per month (on top of our 25 days annual leave). I think I am going to like this system.

Working Girl

2006-08-01T14:03:00.000+02:00

I have a programming job! I am going to be working for a telecommunications company here doing similar sort of work to the stuff I was doing in sydney before I left. I start tomorrow! It all happened very quickly. I had an interview on friday and another yesterday and they offered me the job. So I spent yesterday and this morning running around getting all the paper work sorted out. This time I managed to get my working papers sorted out without any dramas and I am all ready to start tomorrow.

I am excited but I am a bit nervous. Especially about working in french. My interview was in french and I was pretty impressed with myself that I managed to get through the whole thing only resorting to english on one occasion. Pretty much everyone speaks some english so if I get stuck I can speak in english but I will be using french most of the time i think. Which is great, but I think it will be very exhausting at first and I am a bit nervous about not understanding instructions properly and doing something completely wrong. I am also a little worried about the differences in office culture and how I should behave and just basically not really understanding the system at all. But everyone seems very nice and not too formal (I get to wear casual clothes to work!) so I am sure it will be fine, it is just first day nerves mangnified a bit by the whole language/culture thing.

The other exciting news is that if everything goes well they said they will sponsor me, which means I will probably be here for 2 years at least. I have been thinking lately that one year wasn't enough. I have been here 3 months already which is 1/4 of my time here and I don't feel like I have done 1/4 of the things I want to. So I had been hopeing to find a job who would sponsor me. But now that I have agreed to it I am feeling a little homesick and missing you all and thinking how long it will be until I am back there. But I know it is only because everything is happening so fast.

Busy, busy, busy (finally)

2006-07-27T12:56:00.000+02:00

I know I promised some more news a few days ago but I have been very busy. I have had heaps of job interviews lately. Yesterday I had one way out of Paris, which was an adventure, taking the train (ie not the metro or the RER which service paris) in the 36 degree heat (no air conditioning) wearing business clothes! It took me 2 hours to get out there, partly because I didnt really know what I was doing (I had never taken the suburban train network before), and partly because it was so far away. But at least I got to see a bit more of the surrounding areas of Paris and luckily the job is not actually out there. I have another interview today and one tomorrow. So hopefully something will come out of all this, although I have been through all this many times just to be told at the end that want an EU citizen. Anyway at the moment I am doing a bit of contracting work for my old company in Sydney so at least that should cover the rent for a bit longer and is keeping me busy. I have to admit I was getting a little sick of not working and just kind of hanging out around Paris. Most people I know here work during the day and there are only so many museums, galleries and sights you can see.

I have also had a very busy social life lately. When I first arrived I started going to "Language meetups" where french poeple come to speak english and foreigners go to speak french. We try to speak half the time in english and half in french and help each other and correct mistakes. We usually meet in a bar or have a picnic and it is more of a social event than a learning one, and I have met lots of cool people through the group. So last thursday I went to the language meet up and had fun speaking french and drinking (too much) wine. The meetings are only once a month but I often meet up with people I met there. Last night I had a drink with a friend I met through the group and on friday night I am going to a dinner party with a couple of people I met there. That is also how I met the group of people I watched the world cup matches with and the tour de france.

On friday I meet up with Vanessa (sue's friend) for dinner and drinks and had a great night catching up and drinking a bit too much wine (that seems to happen alot here). And on tuesday night I went out with her again for dinner with some of her friends. It was a fun night and the food was great but I hardly understood a word anyone said because they were speaking french (of course) and it was really noisy, as it was a bar/restaurant place. But everyone was nice and stopped every now and then to explain stuff to me when it was obvious I had no idea what they were talking about. And Vanessa told me that used to happen to her all the time in pubs when she first moved to England. So I didn't feel TOO bad about it, although I really wish I could speak french better. It can be very frustrating sometimes.

Saturday night I went to a jazz club in the marais (a trendy part of Paris) and had a fabulous meal with Alison (my Irish friend). It actually had heaps of vege food which is quite rare in Paris! I had gnocci in cheese sauce with ginger jam. It sounds like a weird combination but it was really good. We didn't even end up seeing the jazz band in the end as it was expensive and in a different part of the venue to the restaurant and we didn't finish eating till late. But it was a great night. Afterwards we went to another bar for a digestif, which is very european but really does make you feel better when you have eaten too much! We need to start this trend in Sydney. It is great.

So that is about it. Between doing the contracting work, job interviews and going out I haven't had much spare time at all. What free time I do have I usually spend trying to improve my french by watching french films with french subtitles (they speak so fast) but watching with the french subtitles really helps, and reading french books. At the moment I am reading l'etranger (the outsider) by Albert Camus. I read it years ago in english and it is one of my favorite books so it is great to be able to read it in the original.

Tour de France

2006-07-24T20:18:00.000+02:00

Yesterday was the final stage of the Tour de France. I am not really that into it but is pretty big deal over here, so I decided to go and watch the finish of the final stage with a group of friends. We decided to get there early, at 9am to get a good spot and we did get a very good spot, right on the corner coming into place de concord. It didn't have a view of the finish line but those spots are VERY hard to get as most of that area is made up of grandstands, but they had big screens around so we could see the finish. It was a long day in the sun, but we brought umbrellas, folding chairs and lots of food and there was about 15 of us so we had a chance to go away and sit in a near by cafe to have a break every now and then while others manned the spot.

The riders make 9 laps before finishing so we got to see them go past each time. We met an Australian girl there who lives in London and comes every year to watch the final and knows everything about it, so she told us all about who had the yellow jersey (the best time so far), the green jersey (the most points) and all the rest of the jersey's and the rules and pointed out the Australians as they went by. The finish was quite exciting with an aussie out in front until the last second. In the end an Australian came second and third for the stage, and an Australian won the green jersey for the whole tour so we did pretty well really.

Now I am tired from my busy weekend, so I am going to bed but I will post the rest of my (not particularly exciting) news tomorrow.

General Update

2006-07-11T14:11:00.000+02:00

Well I guess by now you have all heard about the devastating defeat in the World cup. It really was a shame. We went to parc des princes, a huge stadium just outside of Paris, to watch the game. We couldn't actually get into the main stadium as it was packed so went to a smaller next to it. It was a fun afternoon, we got there early and brought a picnic, and the atmosphere was great until the end.

Apart the world cup, I have been visited quite a few galleries lately. I went to the museum of modern art, which is my favorite gallery in Paris so far. It has a section for contemporary art as well as heaps of really amazing modern art works from artists like Picasso, Matisse, Gris, Braques, Klien, and tons of others. I really loved it. I spent hours there and didn't finish it. I have also been to the Palais de tokyo which is a contempory art space which was OK but I wasnt that into the current exhibition, and also the Rodin Museum which was great. It has a huge park with lots of his statues spread through out the gardens and a gallery for the rest of his work.

On saturday I meet up with May-Lin, an half aussie, half french girl I met here and we had afternoon tea at Laduree, which is a famous Salon de Thé. It is famous for it's macaroons so we ordered a plate with several different flavours like dark chocolate, raspberry, lime and ginger, rose, licorice etc. They really were amazingly good. And they also have fabulous hot chocolate made from melted chocolate and cream! We stayed for a couple of hours chatting and eating. It is a great way to spend an afternoon.

Apart from that I have mostly been hanging out with my Irish friend, Alison, who is not working either. We have mostly been having coffee, going to bars and just hanging out. On friday night we drank a bottle of wine on Pont des Arts, a bridge overlooking ile de la cite, and pont neuf. I really love sitting there looking down the Seine, it is really gorgeous.

I am still not working. I have found a job in a shop but unfortunately due to problems with my visa I have been unable to start. Apparently the type of contract I have is not allowed with my kind of visa, and I have been going back and forth between my boss, who has now left for summer holidays, and the department of employment, trying to sort it all. It has been very frustrating but I am hoping that it will be resolved soon

Allez Les Bleus

2006-07-07T11:39:00.000+02:00

I have caught world cup fever! It is hard not over here at the moment. I have been going out with a bunch of friends (half French, half Australians) to watch all the french matches (and originally the australian ones too). We went to a large Irish bar to watch the last match. The pub (along with every other pub in France I suspect) was packed to capacity. After the match everyone went completely crazy. It was insane, all the streets were completely blocked with people cheering, singing, lighting fireworks, letting of flares, blowing horns etc. Any cars that did try to drive down any main street ended up stopped in the crowd and often ended up with several french football fans standing on the roof, jumping. One of the favorite football chants here is "Qui ne saute pas n'est pas Français" which means, "he who doesn't jump isn't French". And of course whenever anyone starts this chant it is obligatory for everyone to start jumping around like crazy. This continued on the metro, which meant at every single metro stop everyone had to start jumping, causing the entire train to shake.

We finally battled the crowds and made it the Champs Elysees to join the party. The entire street, from the Arc de Triomphe all the way to Concord, was packed with people singing, dancing, shouting, blowing horns, playing music, letting off flares and fireworks and basically going nuts.

We decided to leave in time for the last metro and I had a bit of a walk home as my line was already closed. For the entire walk home all I could hear was the chanting of "Allez les bleus" and car horns and parties everywhere. Every square was filled with chanting fans for most of the night.

So now I am eagery awaiting the final on sunday. We haven't decided on a venue yet, possibly one of the many outdoor big screens.

Allez les bleus!

Les Banlieues

2006-07-03T16:14:00.000+02:00

I made my first trip out of Paris and into the banlieues on saturday. For those of you who don't know, Paris is actually quite a small area which is made up of 20 arrondissements and is surrounded by a ring road. The other side of this ring road is no longer Paris but is made up of many banlieues which are essentially suburbs of Paris but are not considered to be Paris.

I actually made 2 trips outside the ring road on saturday. The first was to Bois de Vincennes, which is a large park with a nice lake, not far from where I live. It is similar to centenial Park in sydney but, in true european style, is packed with people sunbaking.

It is really amazing how different it is on the other side of the road. Almost all the way up to the ring road everything looks like the Paris from the movies. Tree lined streets with cute old appartment buildings with the dercorative grills filled with potted flowers, patisseries, cafes and little shops. But as soon as you cross the road everything changes, suddenly there is modern achitecture, space between buildings and wide roads. The area right around the ring road is not particularly nice. Most of the architecture is post war, high rise housing, and I believe quite a few of the banlieues are like this. But there are also alot of very nice affluent banlieues as well. And that is where I went on saturday night.

As well as being my frist trip to a real banlieue it was also my first french soirée. It was just a small dinner party at a friend's house but it was lots of fun. The banlieue she lives in is very nice, it is a little like a suburb in Sydney, in that there a bunch of shops and cafes along the main street near the train station and then streets and streets of housing with no shops or anything. The housing is still mostly appartments but the buildings are quite small and very nice and new.

Anyway we ate heaps of amazing food, drank wine and watched the football, in which France made a surprise victory over Brazil, and then had some champagne to celebrate the victory of course! Afterwards us Parisiennes caught the RER back to Paris where everyone was going completely crazy over the game. I am looking forward to the semi final on wednesday night!

Aussie Visitor #2

2006-06-27T12:55:00.000+02:00

As I mentioned in my last post, Tim came to visit me here in Paris last weekend. He had already been to Paris before so we didnt need to do all the touristy things but had lots of fun hanging out around Paris.

We also had a picnic by the Seine with lots of cheese and wine. This is becomming one of my favorite ways to spend a summer evening in Paris. We also went to Musée D'Orsay which neither of us had been to before, which was really interesting. It has art from 1848-1914. It is amazing to see how quickly the style changed between the 1860s and 1870 once impressionism hit. Suddenly gone are all the dark colours and religious symbolism (thankfully) and suddenly there are all these gorgeous landscapes.

We also had an amazing french meal at a cute ivy covered restaurant in Montmartre which was recommended to me as it actually has vege food. The food and service were great and afterwards we sat on the steps of Sacré Coeur over looking Paris.

Unfortunatley Sunday was rainy but we still managed to fill the day eating a tonne of pastries for breakfast at home and then drinking coffee in a little bar at one of my favorite little squares in Paris. Luckily the weather cleared up a bit later and so we walked over to the Arc De Triumph.

After Tim left on sunday night I actually felt really home sick for the first time since I have been here, but I was feeling better again by the next day and although I do miss you all, I am still very happy to be here in Paris.

Aussie Visitor #1

2006-06-20T17:18:00.000+02:00

Last weekend I had my first Australian visitor, Marty. The first of many I hope. It was great to have someone to show around Paris and it made me realise all over again how amazing Paris really is. We spent most of the time enjoying the amazing food and wandering the streets of Paris, stopping every five minutes to admire another amazing building or gorgeous street. We had a picnic by the Seine over looking Notre Dame and ate heaps of different kinds of cheese, delicious bread and plenty of french red wine! We also went to a few restaurants and several bars and had a fun day on sunday watching the football in an aussie bar (even though we did lose) and then watching the french game in another bar.

Tim (another friend from sydney) is coming to visit me this weekend so I guess I will be doing it all over again. I am not too disappointed about that!

Apart from that everything here is going well. I am getting a lot of calls about jobs but so far no luck. So far the main problem is my visa, as most IT jobs want people to stay for more than a year, and also my french is a bit of problem for some jobs, but I expected that. I have an interview on thursday and a few other things I am waiting to hear back from, so hopefully something will come along soon.

My french is improving slowly and I am getting over my fear of talking on the phone. I managed to discuss jobs with two different people today completely in french without any major problems, so I am feeling a little better about that now, although I am still pretty bad and I still get totally stuck every now and then. I have finished my french course which was really good and helped alot. I would like to continue but it is quite expensive and I really need to focus on finding a job now. But I think I will start another one once I get a job.

Real Life

2006-06-06T17:14:00.000+02:00

I finally moved into my appartment on the weekend. It is great and I feel really at home there. The place is quite big and really nice and my flatmate seems really friendly. The first morning she bought croissants, fruit, yohgurt and bread for breakfast for both of us and her boyfriend who had stayed the night. They are both really nice and speak english well. They have gone away together for a holiday for about a week but I think they will be both be around alot once they get back, which is great, and we are going to try speak in french most of the time. So hopefully that will help my french improve alot.

I have also started an intensive french course at Alliance Francais. I started today and it was really good. The teacher is really nice and so is everyone in the class and we are only allowed to speak french, which is great.

I also openned a bank account today, which i feared might have been hard, but was actually easy, although I did have to make an appointment in advance and have a meeting with the branch manager. But it all went well and I managed to do the whole thing in french, including making the appointment over the phone, which I usually find very difficult.

So I feel now like I have started my 'real life' in Paris and so far it is going really well. I feel quite at home here now, I pretty much know my way around the city now and have the metro completely sorted, and basically I have the hang of how most things work now.

Tomorrow is my birthday and I am going out to a restaurant for a real french meal. I hope there will be some vege stuff there! I think there will only be about five of us as I dont really know alot of people here yet, but i think that I am doing OK after only a few weeks.

Chez Moi

2006-05-26T14:06:00.000+02:00

I found a flat today!!!!

It is a really nice place, the best one I have seen so far. It is HUGE! It is fully furnished, it is bright and clean and has everything I need. And it is in a pretty nice area. It is not exactly a trendy area but it is nice and close to everything. It is in the 12th arrondissement near Daumesnil. I will be sharing with a french girl, but she probably wont be home much, which is a bit of a shame as I wanted to have someone to practice my French with. But I am really relieved!

The last week has been really exhausting. Looking for a flat has been hard work! My french is not as good as I had hoped. Everyone uses so much slang and run words together as well as using words and expressions that I just don't know, so I dont understand much of what is going on. It is even harder to understand on the phone, and trying to organise visits to flats in a totally unfamiliar city, in french, on the phone, has been very difficult and VERY tiring. I have seen so many tiny, dark little flats! And all the nice places have been given to other people - I guess most french people would prefer to live with someone who can actually speak french properly.

On top of all that the hostel that I was staying in was fully booked so I didn't have anywhere to stay. Every morning I had to pack my bags and leave them in lugguage storage and hope for a cancellation. The first few nights they did have cancellations but on wednesday night they didnt have a bed for me! I spent that night at Vanessa's house (who has been so good to me) and I have now found another hostel. It is in a nicer area and is much brighter and cheerier than the other one. And I am guarenteed a room!

So after a very tiring week I am feeling much happier now I have an appartment. I dont move in until next weekend but I am happy enough at this new hostel now.

So now I just have to find a job...

Ups and Downs

2006-05-22T12:28:00.000+02:00

Bonjour!

Well the last few days have had some ups and downs. On thursday night after spending the day in Champagne I went to the Eiffel Tour again with the Aussie guy and some others from the hostel. We decided to have a picnic in the park near the tower and took heaps of bread, cheese, wine etc and we were having a great time until my camera was stolen! The guy must be a professional because as soon as he came over to us we knew he was probably going to steal something so all 5 of us were watching him carefully and none of us saw him take it.

Friday night I went to the movies with Vanessa, my French friend. We were supposed to go out with a group of her friends but that was cancelled. But anyway it was a good night and it was nice to just do something kind of normal.

On saturday I had one of the best nights I have had so far in Paris. I went to a Renaissance Party at a club in Paris and the main DJ was Hernan Cattaneo who I really like - I have one of his CD which is awesome, and he was excellent live. One of the best DJ's I think I have ever seen and the club was really cool. I went with the same group from the hostel as on thursday night.

Apart from that really all I have been doing is looking for a flat and hanging out with people from the hostel. I have been to see quite a few and have a few more to go. So far none have been that great, although there was one which was OK but I haven't heard back from the girl yet. Hopefully something will come up soon.

Champagne and The City of Lights

2006-05-18T10:15:00.000+02:00

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!

Bonjour Paris

2006-05-13T17:10:00.000+02:00

I can't believe I am actually here in Paris. It is so so beautiful, everything is amazing. I just LOVE it.

I was a bit overwhelmed when I first arrived. Everyone was speaking french and I could hardly understand a word! I got a bit lost on the metro while trying to get to my hostel. The hostel is in a terrible area - it is very ugly, dirty and poor. It is on boulevarde de Chapell near Gard du Nord for those that know Paris. So I was a bit freaked out by it all and feeling a bit nervous about being here on my own. I spent the rest of that day walking around Montmartre (which is gorgeous - like all of Paris except where my hostel is) and by the afternoon I was feeling much better about everything.

Since then I have just been wandering the streets of Paris and checking the place out and now I absolutely love it! Everything is so beautiful. Everywhere you look is an amazing old building, a beautiful park, a lovely little tree lined street filled with cafés and shops. I have already done a little shopping (which is even better than I imagined) but I am trying to hold off on buying too much stuff until I get a job.

The food here is amazing. I haven't eaten in a proper restaurant yet but I have found a boulangerie near my hostel which has the best bread I have ever tasted and amazing almond croissants. The cheese is fabulous (of course) and I am on a mission to try every single type while I am here. The patisseries have the most delicious little cakes and pastries and things. The coffee is great and the wine is good and cheap. I found a beautiful little market this morning full of all kinds of fabulous looking stuff and I can't wait to try everything!

So far everyone has been extremely nice and helpful and I haven't come across any rude, arrogant, parisiens yet. Most people switch to english as soon as they hear my accent and those that don't have been quite patient and I have found I can actually make myself understood quite well and can understand OK when they speak slowly.

My first priority is to find a flat so I can get out of my hostel. The hostel is actually quite nice, and I have met heaps of cool people but I am not really in the mood for the whole backpacker thing. I just want to settle in and try to live like a local!

Well that is enough for now, although I could write a book about all the cool things I have seen and done already!

Goodbye Sydney

2006-05-08T03:56:00.000+02:00

Hi guys. I promised would set up a blog so you guys can stay up to date with what I am up to in Paris (or wherever I end up!) so here it is. I hope you will all post comments.

Well I am in Ulladulla now preparing to leave. I have packed up and moved out of my flat and said goodbye to everyone which was really sad - although I managed not to cry! So I guess I won't be back in Sydney again for a long while. It is all a bit strange. Driving down King Street last night was very strange thinking I won't be back there again for such along time! But I am really excited now! And nervous!

So goodbye everyone, have fun and styay in touch - I will post again once I get to Paris!