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