The Start of Summer

Lets skip ahead a few weeks and its Summer holidays wooo!

It felt so strange when the kids were finishing school for the school year and it was only June, they were bringing home pieces of art, books and work from throughout the year and talking about helping the teacher cleaning up the classroom as well as having holidays for two months, all I could think of was times like this at home around Christmas time.



Some of the 'backyard'



So the day they finished school we packed our bags and headed off to the country house. In the family van, a Peugeot something… people mover none the less. Instinctively I went to hop into the car from the front left door and giggled to myself when I opened the door and saw a steering wheel, I quickly then ran round to the other side and hopped in the passenger seat. It was a three hour drive and quite a lovely one at that, as we passed many sunflower fields and saw a beautiful sunset. Sybile’s driving was something else for me to watch specially as she told me about halfway into the drive that she hadn’t driven a car in nearly TWO YEARS… and it was a bit evident as we were constantly swerving into other lanes and she wasn’t realising changes in the traffic until the last minute, but nonetheless we made it safely.

This house is HUGE! It was midnight when we arrived so I only got to see the very large kitchen and a couple of the bedrooms. When I woke in the morning I couldn’t believe what I was seeing this place is pretty much a mansion even a little bigger. But to them “just the country house”. I found 7 bedrooms all with basins/ mini ensuits in them 2 kitchens 2 dinning rooms spreads over 3 levels. Then in the backyard there is a swimming pool big enough to swim laps in and a trampoline then a space big enough to be a paddock with a sandpit, playground and cubby house. WOAH!

Anyone hungry?

We spent a couple of days there just relaxing enjoying the start of summer and holidays by the pool. We also visited a local market and saw some interesting 'food' being sold, there were cow udders, intestines, tripe sausages, baby cow heads and tongues... Just to name a few.

On Sunday the grandparents arrived and I met BonPapa (Grand Dad) for the first time, where I also found out that he was the Mayor of the town! It made me sit up a bit when I realised that I was looking after the Mayors Grandchildren! So we all had lunch together and in the garden and it was a nice typical French lunch with a bottle of red, baguette, cheese included in the four courses. After a little nap to digest all the food the Mayor took Victoria (the eldest child) and I to Futuroscope, which is a neighbouring theme park. The main attractions are big cinemas with 4D movies. The park was quite empty so we got to see most of the things – the stuff that Victoria wanted to see anyway. It was quite a good afternoon but I had a headache afterwards from all the moving movies.

The following Tuesday morning I headed back to Paris on the train and the children headed down south with their Grandparents. I then spent two days in Paris where I said the last goodbyes to my friends. On the Wednesday night we had a Picnic in the very pretty Jardin du Luxembourg, with a couple of bottles of wine, cheese, bread, chocolate and strange chips that were cheeseburger flavour and tasted like a mc Donald’s cheese burger! But at 9pm the Gendarmerie came around and told us it was closing time so we packed up our stuff and headed off to the champ de mars we were sat with everyone else finishing our picnic and watching the sunset and Eiffel tower. Not a bad night… except for the goodbye’s part!

I left Paris again the next day and headed to Corsica… to do some work.

Form a couple of months ago

Whoops it's been a while between posts - sorry. I've been away doing various things, which I will tell you about in coming blogs. But here is one that I wrote sometime ago, towards the end of June.

I've done a few things since the last time (obviously) I'll give it my best shot at remembering it all.

I have finished school, I had to do two exams one written and the other oral, and typically I ran out of time to complete the written exam properly but managed to mumble my way through the oral exam. My written result wasn't high enough to pass for the Diploma however I received a good enough oral mark which pulled my written exam up and I ended up receiving the diploma - only just though. The mark on my diploma says "Passable" which is funny but a pass is a pass and I was very happy and showed my diploma to everyone!



At the restaurant

One day last week, or maybe it was the week before that? Anyways we had plans to go to a French fondue restaurant for lunch however when we got there it was closed. Not sure if it was closed because they don't do lunch or because it was a public holiday so instead we went to another restaurant along the same street. It was a very cute street - sort of like an alley way lined with restaurants and it didn't even seem that touristy! I had beef bourgonyon for main and chocolate mousse for dessert, it was DELICIOUS!! Would love to go back there soon especially as it wasn’t even that expensive. Afterward we had a wander around the neighbouring streets which led us to the pantheon so we decided to get our tourist on and have a look inside. It's a pretty big thing and I want to go back there soon and take one of the tours up to the top of the building to see yet another panoramic view of Paris. Afterwards we walked through the lovely Jardine du Luxembourg to head home and on our way home we found 5 Euros that someone had dropped so we picked that up and treated ourselves to an ice cream. And bought the found euro collection to 20 Euros.

Just having some fun

Then a couple of weekends ago a quite night in turned out to quite a large night out, accidentally. A few glasses of wine led to some beer then shots then a possible trip to the hospital. However I wasn’t charged a fee for being in the hospital so it was more or less just a place for people to sober up inside a hospital. The rest of that weekend was quite quiet as I nursed a bit of a hangover and a couple of bumps on my head. I learnt a bit of a lesson that weekend! And am totally fine now.

Then two days later was excellent chance to have a great night out however I still felt a bit queasy at the thought of alcohol so I decided to have a sober one unfortunately. It was the fete de la musique, the summer solstice which marked the start of summer and at the same time celebrated music. The streets of Paris were filled with musicians of all types and people out and about enjoying all the free live music and the fact that summer was here. I’d never seen anything like it people of all generations were out and having a good time, this is something that Melbourne defiantly needs. I stayed out until about 12:30 probably would’ve stayed longer if I was drinking and if the next day wasn’t a Wednesday – 12hour day with the children.

Oscar Wilde

I’ve also visited a little bit of the Pere Lachaise cemetery. The only really famous tomb that I saw was the one of Oscar Wilde, which was covered in kisses and love notes. The cemetery was huge and again I will defiantly go back there when I have some time!

The advantage of being in Paris for a year is that I have the time to come back and look at stuff again. I just have to hurry up and start doing it!



What a week

What a week indeed! As I mentioned in my previous blog I was children and work free as of about 5:30pm last Tuesday, so I had nearly a whole week to myself and I made the most of it!

I visited the Pompidou museum on Wednesday and to my surprise I actually didn't enjoy it that much, I found it was almost a little too modern for me and struggled to see how a whole lot of chairs piled on each other or even just one chair sitting on its own could be called art, especially because we were unable to sit on it! But maybe I just wasn’t looking at it right - if there is a correct way to look at art. I did enjoy ridding the escalators that are on the outside of the building as you got some pretty cool views of Paris as you went up and down.

Hall of Mirrors and a couple of tourists

Thursday I was off to Versailles with three other Au Paris, we were told to get there before 10am otherwise there was no point in going especially because Thursday was a public holiday, so we were there before 10 and we still had to queue up to get inside the palace for the best part of 45 minutes! Again because we are students and living in the EU we got in for free so it kind of made the wait worth while. The palace is huge and all I wanted to do while inside was play a big game of hide and seek but the amount of Asian tour groups shuffling along behind each other taking photos of EVERYTHING made it nearly impossible to simply walk through the palace let alone play games. I didn't end up taking in much of the inside of the palace as I was too focused on pushing through all the other tourists so I’m thinking of returning some time in winter when no one is there. The advantages of going in summer however is that you get to see the magnificently manicured pretty gardens, in full bloom. Due to the public holiday and the fact that it was a Thursday we had to pay 6 Euros to see them, as on Thursdays they turn on the fountains three times a day and play music. After a while the music became quite annoying as it was a constant repeat of I think four songs but it also made me feel like I was back in the 17th century with Louis and Marie; so it wasn’t too bad. We wandered down to the bottom of the garden to see the extra lodge that Louis built for Marie which they also used as their summer house, not quite sure why she/they needed another place as the one they already had was quite large but hey why not?

Frog dude fountain

We spent the rest of the afternoon just wandering around the gardens waiting for the fountains to be turned on, as we had to pay 6 Euros to see them we thought it would some sort of show with the fountains going at the same time as the music, but this wasn’t the case. Nonetheless the fountains were pretty cool by themselves with my favourite having half man half frog dudes in it. All in all Versailles is a pretty cool place to visit and worth the 6 Euros to see the gardens and fountains.



Friday was another touristy day for me as I decided to visit Claude Monet’s Garden, in Giverny. Giverny is bout 45minuets out of Paris by the SNCF the train takes you to the neighbouring town of Vernon then you can take a bus or its not far to walk or hire a bike if you wish. I decided to walk, it ended up being a 2 hour walk – there and back, which wasn’t too bad I suppose. I again had to wait in line for the best part of an hour but I would do it again in a heartbeat – so worth it! I also had to pay to get in but only 5 Euros. I think I was probably the only 18 year old girl who was there by choice, the majority of the crowd were middle aged and older so I felt a bit strange being there. I got to tour inside the house and walk round the beautiful gardens and of course go to ‘the lily pond lake’ and stand on a pretty famous bridge. Although there was a large crowd it was barley noticeable which gave me the chance to really take in the garden and enjoy it, it also made it very esay to see how Monet was inspired to do a little bit of painting – very relaxing!


On 'the bridge'



After the garden I had a quick poke around in Giverny but there wasn’t much to see as the town is pretty much one street. During my walk back to Vernon I got a little bit sunburnt on my shoulders which gave me something to laugh about afterwards and a short term souvenir. Although I was on my own it was lovely day and good to get out of Paris again.





Saturday night I had a couple of glasses ( I mean plastic cups) of wine sitting along the seine looking at the Notre dam and passing tour boats which was quite picturesque and before the storm came we moved on to a friends little gathering at her apartment. Her apartment also had acess to the rooftop of the building which we visited and it was pretty cool as we got to watch the storm come in over Paris including the lots of thunderbolts and lightening – until it became to frightening/began to rain – then we headed back inside. The party wasn’t too bad and gave me an opportunity to practise my French a little more. Afterwards we walked home in the rain to another friends little room, where we played a couple games of cards until we were too tired to think.

In the morning we went to church to see Bobbie sing in the choir, it was another beautiful old church, but the whole worship was in French of course and lots of singing and stuff that I didn’t quite understand, but it was still another cool experience. When that was finished we headed over to my families apartment where we cooked ourselves some brunch – French toast in France, could it get any cooler?

Later that afternoon the kids arrived back form their week away and I had to stay the night at their apartment as Sybile was still in India. This meant that I also had to take the kids to school in the morning which is another thing I hadn’t done before and might I add wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. However we made it there on time so all was good.

Then Tuesday was Rebecca’s birthday and I was happy to hear that my parcel arrived on Tuesday and also happy that she liked it, pretty sure she had a great day and I’m looking forward to being there for the next one, specially because it’s the big 18.

So that was a bus couple of days, I’m quite late in posting this blog as I was busy studying for my French Diploma exam – which I had the written part of yesterday morning and the oral is next Tuesday – not quite sure if all the study paid off but I’m just glad its over, when I finished last year I thought I was free from studying for a year, I guess I was wrong. I don’t really mind if I didn’t do too well on the exam it’ll just show me what I really need to work on over the next eight or so months.

Oh and last Friday night I also had a Skype with Lena and we’ve started to plan our summer holiday – Eastern Europe here we come! Can’t wait!

Bonne week-end!

Nothing Much

Bonjour,

Haven't got too much to say this time around. Last week was a pretty quiet one evolving many of the normal things such as school and work.

School is getting a bit harder these days with the big diploma exam on the 9th of June. I didn’t even know that there were exams or tests that came with doing this course I just thought it'd be an easy way to learn French. Now I’m freaking out a little because I haven’t even been in the class for 3 months and I’m expected to do a test that most the other people in the class have been studying for since September! So I’m attempting to do a bit of hardcore studying - but I always end up finding something better to do.



Attempting to have a row

 I worked quite late Friday and Saturday night so I didn't feel like going out at all so I had a bit of a weekend in hibernation, which is good for the bank account I suppose. On Sunday afternoon I met up with three other girls from school and we went to Bois de Boulogne which is a HUGE park on the edge of Paris. We hired a little row boat for an hour, which only cost 10 Euros by the way - quite cheap compared to everything else! We then took turns rowing around the lake, which made for a bit of laughter especially when it was my turn to row as I’m very dodgy at keeping the boat straight and away from trees; I also struggled to lift the oars up without splashing the person sitting behind me. But it was a lovely parisienne spring day so we didn’t mind getting a little wet. We then finished the afternoon off with an ice cream and a little bit of shopping down the Champ Elysees.

Yesterday (Tuesday) I picked the kids up form school then after getting lost and thinking we were on the wrong bus then getting off then on again we eventually made it to the their grandmothers place, where I handed them over until Sunday. They're all off to the country house, as tomorrow is public holiday and they have a curriculum day on Friday and Sybile has gone to India, to do something - not quite sure what. Which makes me free until Sunday night. Exciting times! I've got a few plans for the upcoming week, trying to see and do some things that I have not yet done here in Paris. So very much looking forward to that, also today is the first day of summer! Which is another good thing as everyone at home is in winter - ha ha.

Today the Pompidou museum is on the cards, and I need to do a little study for this exam so I better hop to it.

Au Revoir

Mont St Michel

Salut,

Last week was a busy one and I was glad when the weekend rolled around as I needed a break. My week consited of School, a French test and grumpy/tired children, which also made for a grumpy/tired Au Pair.
For the weekend I participated in an APITU weekend away for Au Paris around France. On Saturday afternoon I met about 15 other Au Pairs and from there we were split into groups and sent on a sort of treasure hunt around St Malo. St Malo is a very cute little walled city on the North East Coast of France. While we wandered around half heartedly trying to answer the questions we got to know each other, how many children and the ages of the children we all looked after as well as where bouts in France we were from and where in the world we had come from. I’m constantly amazed at how many nationalities there can be doing a job like this, there were girls from South America, South Africa and all parts of Europe and Australia. When our time for the treasure hunt was up we met up again and split into cars to go to Pontorson where our Auburge Jeunesse (youth hostel) was for the night. I sat in the front seat of the car which still made me cringe a little each time we went around a corner or through a round about as I continuously felt like I was on the wrong side of the road. After a few u turns and phone calls to see if we were going in the right direction we made it.

Too many people on the dance floor

It felt a bit like school camp as groups of 3 and 4 shared rooms. Pontorson seemed like a tiny town, but I suppose compared to Paris every town is small, it was strange that nothing was open and I couldn’t hear any sirens or see apartment buildings, but it was nice to be out of Paris and finally seeing some other part of France. For dinner that night we went to a local creperie which is the specialty of Normadie as well as Apple cider. After the lovely meal I managed to convince the majority of the tired Au Pairs that we should go to the local Discothèque. We decided to head back to the Auburge for a little siester before being picked up by the free shuttle service at 1am, that’s the thing here in France most night club don’t open until midnight and don’t usually get busy until 2am. So when you have a night out you really have a night out! This was one of the weirdest t experiences though. As we all squished into the dodgy old mini van we were taken to a club litterly in the middle of nowhere, it was about 10mins out of town in a paddock surrounded by cows! It was quite a nice club though and for 10 Euros we got entry and a free drink of our choice. When we got in, at 1:30, there was no one but a couple of middle aged women and men who had a bit too much to drink. It was so strange seeing just one person on the dance floor, and there wasn’t even many people at the bar –VERY DIFFERENT! We hung around for a couple of hours dancing to every second song that wasn't doof doof, then got the free shuttle back to the auburge.

Mont St Michel

Sunday we headed off to Mont St Michel, basically a huge old church on an island. Again this was another old walled city which had plenty of tourist shops and lots of beautiful views of the countryside and the beach. We toured the church – for free because  we lived in France and are under the age of 26, I love this about France! We also walked up and down the many steps and hills of the island before feeling like we’d covered every inch of it after about 3 hours. After that I had some afternoon tea with two of the girls in what seemed like a nice little café/restaurant but you had to buy something to sit and eat on their chairs. As the other two had already bought something to eat from there I thought I would just buy a glass of orange juice so that I could sit with them, but this orange juice was 3 Euros – nearly $5AUD! Defiantly not going back to that café!

We then caught the bus back to Pontorson where we got our various trains to our various parts of France. I had to change train in a little town call Folligny which I thought wouldn't be too bad and I could get some dinner there, but when I got there I went outside the train station and didn’t see anything went back inside the station asked the long haired almost toothless man in the station box where the centre of the town was and he just laughed at me and said I was in it, so much for dinner!

I really enjoyed my weekend and would recommend visiting St Malo and Mont St Michel if you have time in the North East of France. St Michel is quite touristy but once you get over that you can enjoy the beautiful views of the north coast and countryside, and wonder howsomething so huge could have been built so long ago, even on a cloudy and windy day like it was for us. I made some good friends but unfortunately most of them will be heading back to their respective countries in about a month as a typical Au Pair year goes from September to July.

 This week has started off pretty well and last night I was taking the two eldest children to meet with their grandmother to see a theatre production when I was invited to see it with them. So I got to see Peter Pan by Irina Brook, my seat was separate from the others but probably the best in the house, 5 rows from the font in the dead middle! The show was all in French of course – except for the songs. I tried my best and felt like I understood most of it but I think I was just interpreting most of it like a ballet. It was still a brilliant show and would love to see more!

I usually dread Wednesdays but again the kids have gone with their grandmother for the majority of the day so I’m currently sitting in the beautiful Parisienne springtime sunshine in Parc Monceau feeling pretty damn lucky to be living the life I live! Might just have a snooze now to energise for when the little kiddies return.

A bientot!

Here goes!

OK so I’ve been in Paris for nearly 3 months now and am only just starting a blog which is pretty slack but I’m doing it now!

The last three months have been amazing, I’m lucky to be working for such a nice family and to just be living here in Paris. I've seen and done many fun and interesting things already but don’t really have the time to write about them all so instead I will just start with this weekend.

Unlike many other Au Pairs I have to work on Saturdays and so my weekend doesn’t usually being until Saturday evening. Yesterday for lunch however I had my first experience of a small French family lunch as one of the children’s god fathers came for lunch, which made the day a little more bearable. We had salad for entree followed by roast veal and gnocchi then cheeses and a very yummy strawberry tart as well as wine and a couple of baguettes. I didn’t quite understand why there was such little food for main as I was quite hungry afterward but then after the cheeses and tart and all the bread I was quite the opposite of hungry.


Before headding to the bar.
We also got a free drink if we made
an attempt to dress up to support a country
 - I decided to go for Sweden



Once work was over for the week I headed off to a friends petite studio for some drinks before heading to the WOS bar near Jardin Du Luxembourg for the Eurovision song contest! The bar was pretty cool with flags from almost every country pinned all over the place. The crowd was also pretty big with people from all over the world. I was there with an American, a German and a Hungarian – just to add to the international crowd. Some creeps from Azerbaijan tried to pick us up one by one but we each told them to bugger off - in many different languages and eventually they did. It was just unfortunate that their country ended up winning the competition. But overall a pretty good night.

Today I met up with a girl from Amsterdam and we climbed to the top of the Arc de Triomphe where we had another magnificent view of the beautiful city. We then walked down the Champs Elysees before stopping at Angelina’s on Rue de Rivioli for a hot chocolate, defiantly the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had! Which almost made it worth the 7 Euros. I just wish I had more money to enjoy a few of the delicious looking deserts.

On the whole it was a pretty good weekend. Haven’t got any plans in particular for the up coming week except for work and school. Then I’m off to Mont St Michele for the weekend with a group of Au Pairs from around France, which I'm quite excited about.
Until next time Bonne soiree : )