Weeeell, it has been a while since I've updated this! And seeing as I have nothing to do (for reasons that will be explained!), I thought what better time than now to let you all know what I'm up to? Obviously it's been a couple of months, so I'll do a quick overview:
December:
Back in Brizzle for Christmas, reunions with Brizzle friends and family. Loved seeing everyone again, had missed you guys so much you don't understand! All the usual Christmas funtimes and traditions; perfect :)
January:
Went up to Preston to be reunited with my gorgeous Quinny :) had our own mini Christmas with present giving and whatnot :) then we moved his stuff back to Manchester and were reunited with the boys and all our mates. Had New Year's Eve there in one of our friend's flats; Ruth even came down from Preston while she was home from Sweden for a couple of weeks for it. Was so good to see everyone again! Was also there for Quinny's 22nd on the 8th, so made the most of my free time finding him presents and the like :) Spent most of the month reacquainting myself with French by the way of novels etc; Quinny had exams for the last 2 weeks of Jan so he was hard at work revising for that; I filled my time by meeting up with much-missed friends, catching up on good old English TV and basking in the glory of my favourite (and some new faves!) Manchester haunts. Absolute bliss :)
February:
Moved back to Brizzle where I had a whirlwind few days packing my stuff up ready for Paris; caught the Eurostar over here on the lunchtime of the 4th, arriving at Gare du Nord at about 8.10pm, met by the lovely Lucy :) who put me up in her room for a few nights while I searched for accommodation/acquainted myself with the area and uni etc. Then moved on to Alex's on the 9th, still in search of accommodation and getting desperate by this point; then very luckily for me an advert I'd put on a flatshare website got 2 phonecall replies that afternoon, suggesting I view them that evening! So we went around those, and so it was that I came across my gorgeous 2 floor apartment with 3 lovely French people; Assia, 30, who works in computer science, Neige, 27, who has just got a new job in marketing (I think), and Assia's younger sister Nadia, 28, who also has a job of some kind lol :s. They're so lovely, really nice and easy to get along with, and they often make me meals and things! It's a real kinda family atmosphere here, but with a real young fun vibe too. :)
I stayed at Alex's again that night, as the room wasn't ready for me to move into, then Assia told me the next day that their mother had sprung her surprise annual visit on them for that weekend (Valentine's)! So could I perhaps move in the week after? This was a bit unfortunate, as Alex was going back to Manchester the following Monday, and as I couldn't move in til Thursday I would be stuck with nowhere to go....so, remembering a whim I'd had of considering a spontaneous trip to see Quinny for Valentine's day, I decided to research the feasibility of said trip, and decided that there was no reason not to go :) So from the 13th to the 18th of Feb I was back in Manchester relaxing with my gorgeous boyfriend (I was not relishing the thought of being alone in Paris, renowned as the city of love, on Valentine's weekend in any case..! The amount of sickening pink and red paraphernalia adorning all the shop shelves was staggering..!) So that worked out really well :)
When I came back on the 18th I stayed at Lucy's place for the night, then left with her in the morning and went to find my uni buildings on another campus, in the vain hope that lectures would have started...The short of it is that the Paris university has been on strike since the beginning of this term, so I haven't had a single lecture yet..! I've managed to register as a student and get my student card (so I am officially a Paris student!), but no classes have been held; I think it's due to some lecturer-researcher statute which a lot of the lecturers disagreed with, so they're striking to demonstrate this. At least I found out where the buildings are, anyway..!
So I then moved into my new flat that lunchtime :) up until last Thursday I didn't have anywhere to put my clothes, but then Assia found a nice big chest of drawers that someone advertised online, and bought that for my room :) So it's much tidier now! My room here is about twice the size of my one in Barcelona, really light, and in a gorgeous apartment as I say. With fully working internet and everything!! As well as free landline calls to anywhere in Europe, which is fantastic! Must start making use of that one...
The week after that we had a week's holiday anyway; apparently it's the traditional time of year when the French go skiing for a week, so it's pretty much granted as a week off school and uni and some jobs (kinda like a half term I guess). Soooo for that week, safe in the knowledge I would indeed have no lectures regardless, I pretty much slept, bummed around and settled into my new surroundings. I met up with my coursemate Keyla one day, who's working as a teaching assistant in a village called Plaisir outside of Paris, and we wandered about seeing what we could find; we found a very ornate bridge, the Invalides hotel with the Army Museum and Napoleon's tomb inside it, then we wandered in the other direction and found the Grand Palais exhibition hall, then made our way through the Tuilerie gardens to the Louvre. We were aiming to find the Galeries LaFayette (massive shopping centre, like Selfridges or maybe posher..), which we eventually did, and indulged in some expensive cakes and drinks on the top floor with a (rather grey on that day) view of the Eiffel Tower :) the architecture in that shopping centre is gorgeous!! I took Quinny in there just to see it lol. We amused ourselves looking at the toys and French music tastes for a bit, and perused some expensive clothes, then decided H&M was more our price range, so toddled over to that, then followed that up with a gorgeous (and very reasonable!) dinner of steak and chips and peppercorn sauce at a nearby cafe. I was soo full, yet when I returned home Assia and Neige practically ordered me to eat with them (I had a small plate..!) and we then watched a (very sad!) Manga film with French subtitles (getting in some practice!) Twas an awesome day :)
For the rest of the week I amused myself by sleeping, making pancakes and watching films lol, and going to a British-style live Indie music night on the Wednesday with Zara and co. (which was cool, though €5 for half a pint of Stella is not ideal..! I reeeally miss English prices!) then Quinny arrived on Thursday :D! Began our sightseeing straight away with a trip to the Arc de Triomphe, visiting the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and going inside and up the Arc itself, for a (rather foggy again) view of central Paris; wincing at the kamikaze traffic on the Point d'Etoile...We then meandered in the direction of the senataph and the Tuilerie gardens again, where I picked up a Nutella crepe on the way (I'm price-comparing on this one at the moment; this was €3, which considering the touristy area I found it in, was not bad at all!) and Quinny had his quintessential holiday hot dog :D we wandered through the gardens, bemused by tourists and random sculptures alike, then arrived at the Louvre pyramid. The place is truly massive! We were originally planning to go either on Friday night between 6 and 10pm (when it's free in for under 25s!) or on Sunday the 1st (it's free for anyone on the first Sunday of the month!) when a random man walked past us with 2 tickets and just handed them to us saying, "Here, take them"..! We were quite unsure about this but thought it would be worth a try; they were worth €9, were full day tickets and didn't seem validated in any way; sure enough, we got in without a problem! The famous Quinny discount which I'm always talking about coming into play again...
We browsed the museum for a couple of hours, taking in the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, as well as various Egyptian artefacts and statues of Marcus Aurelius etc, then pottered off in search of the Parisian Hard Rock Café! (Yes, it has become tradition!) Found it and had a gorgeous Hard Rock burger, never disappoints! After a gorgeous and definitely filling meal we made our way back to my flat, where my flatmates and a group of their friends were sitting around with wine and chatting with music (as is the way in my flat - can you see why I love the atmosphere!) so we joined in for a bit of Anglo-French socialising :)
The next day we met up with Lucy for lunch, to chat about her final day of work in France and see her off before she moved back to the UK for a month this weekend before heading on to Buenos Aires..! Had a marvellously cheap panini (from a stall outside the steak cafe, incidentally! Clearly a gem of an area, that one!) and sat on the steps outside the Opera eating them and talking. Mmmm :) We then went to the Galleries LaFayette, to show Quinny the architecture, and the model planes in the toy section...hehe. Then we pottered along to Notre Dame, had the classic tourist photos outside it and had a look inside too, then explored the Latin Quarter and the Pompidou centre (though we didn't pay to go to the museum bit as were feeling the pinch a bit by this point!). We watched a legend of a man do a 'speed-painting' of Barack Obama on a spinning canvas outside the Pompidou centre in the space of under 5 minutes (it was amazing!) For tea we found a nice (and relatively inexpensive) restaurant near St Michel, where I had my first French onion soup (it was AMAZING! - with baguette and melted cheese in it - definitely a favourite!) and we both had boeuf bourgignon (we were on the look out for French food - also very good!) On the way home we decided to stop off at the Stade de France in the hope of finding some rugby tickets for the France v. Wales Six Nations match (the stade is the metro stop before mine, so about a 15 minute walk away!); we were so lucky to come across a poor old French man outside the stadium trying to sell on 3 tickets because his friends couldn't make it; worth €73 and in prime position in the lower stand, he was selling them on for €50, so thinking this was a chance we would clearly never see again, we jumped on board! Shame that Wales lost, but the match was brilliant and the atmosphere too! Am really getting into live sport this year :D
Saturday was a gooorgeous day, the best I've seen since I arrived, so we decided to take a trip to the Eiffel Tower, and at least see it in all its glory, if not go up it, which we did :) Around a 45 minute wait, which went surprisingly quickly, and a trip to the 2nd floor while we were waiting for the top floor to free up a bit - then some stunning views from the top, especially of the Seine bathed in sunshine. Beautiful :) we wandered around the area a bit, in search of food mostly, but to no avail; that area is soo expensive, for future reference! We eventually hopped back on the metro to my area, where we stocked up on wine and a few snacks for the night ahead - my flatmates had some friends visiting as well, so we'd decided to do a big dinner and invite people round, so Alex joined us later too :) Plenty of wine, good conversation and good food was had :) some people chose to go out later, though we decided against it as we were truly skint by this point..! A wicked night though :) Shortly after the turn of midnight, when everyone had left, Quinny surprised me with an anniversary present - some gorgeous white gold earrings - which I had completely not been expecting, especially as he usually can't bear to keep a secret, he just ends up telling me he's got me a surprise! It was so thoughtful and sweet :)
Yesterday was Quinny's and my year anniversary :) We took a trip to the Sacré Coeur :) I'd never been there before, and as of yesterday I would say it's probably my favourite place in Paris, in the style of Parc Guell in Barcelona - so calm, convivial and peaceful - there was a Spanish guitarist up there playing well known songs to a large group of people gathered on the steps who were joining in singing and clapping :) it was sooo cool. We stayed and listened and sang along for a while, before heading inside the cathedral. It was gorgeous, and there was a real serene, quite surreal feeling about it - Quinny remarked on it too. After that we ventured to the pretty seedy district of the Moulin Rouge for the all-important tourist photo, though didn't wander about there for too long as the area, as I say, isn't the most appealing...Eventually for tea we made our way to the good old steak cafe :D where I had my usual starter of tomato salad and main of steak, chips and peppercorn sauce :D definitely a fave, that one. We made a trip around the city, seeing the Arc de Triomphe all lit up after sundown, walked along the Seine at night, in the glow of all the lights, and even managed to catch the Eiffel Tower on the hour, when it's not only lit up in gold but also sparkles with another set of silver lights for 5 dazzling minutes. It was so special :) We shared a chocolate waffle (hehe yes, I ate like a princess this weekend!!) and went and ate it on the steps of the Trocadéro overlooking the Seine and the Tower. Such a special evening :)
I waved Quinny off this morning on his way back to Manchester to hit the books again; beginning to wonder when I'll do the same myself! There were some sort of classes scheduled to start this week, though I think I may go to the one on Thursday to fit in better with my timetable (though I still can't really tell if my timetable will end up like that, as I haven't been able to go to any of the classes to see if I like them..!). So today has been a day of sleep and recuperation from the very busy, very awesome weekend :) Lovely Assia and Nadia made me some lunch, which was really nice; was very grateful for being taken care of for a bit, if I'm honest. It's quite a confusing situation, being out here just sort of waiting for someone to tell you there are finally classes for you to go to; I'm starting to get used to this life of having my time to myself, yet I feel like I can't really settle into it or I'll find it hard to adapt when lectures do kick in! But for the time being, I'm in a lovely flat, with lovely people, and it's all very chilled and nice :) now all that remains is for you lot to come and visit me!
Keep me posted on what's going on in Blighty, as per always I miss it so!
Love you all oodles :) xxxxxxxx
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