Sorry it's taken me ages to get back on this thing, time has flown by in hindsight! Can't possibly remember everything there was to update you all on, sorry :s but will have a go at key things!
- Have recently discovered my faaaavourite parts of Paris, after much awesome exploring with Keyla, amongst others :) new favourite places are : the 4th arr. (the Marais) - vintage shops aplenty, gorgeous little winding backstreets which look beautiful in the summer shade, with Italian ice cream parlours and little bookshops galore - Place des Vosges is an amazing square to lounge in on a sunny afternoon - seems to be the place to hang out, the equivalent of College Green for the Bristolians among you!
The Bastille is also a fave :D, a wicked market on Saturdays with loooads of arty things to admire, and a lovely stall selling beautiful silk skirts (I got mine 'student price', I was assured!) run by a legend of a Frenchman, who tolerated my indecisiveness for most of an afternoon! Also provided with commentary on the stalls by a crazy man who wanders around wearing a pair of the market's more extrovert sunglasses. Hilarious! The Indiana café/bar/resto on the corner is a favourite - happy hour from 5 til 8pm and YUMMY Mexican food (my favourite!), with a lunch offer on Mon-Fri 12-5pm, a meal and a coffee for €11. Although, I have recently discovered after trying to buy in more fully to the Parisian lifestyle, that I am not a fan of espresso - although it does give me a fun buzz for an afternoon!
Parmentier is a favourite area too - Barbershop restaurant (soo cool, vintage and chilled and awesome!) recently provided me with an AMAZING swordfish (yes, I discovered a taste for it in Corfu last September, thanks to Quinny for that one!), seriously, one of the most BEAUTIFUL things I have eaten in a very long time! €15 and I would pay that any day for it!
Soooo, in summary, have been getting out and about a lot more since Easter; other coursemates have come out of the woodwork claiming they have nothing to do either, so I've managed to rope them into exploring the city with me! And oh it has paid off :) live music, wicked people and beautiful sights, and awesome food! (Yeah, we all know I'm a bit of a gourmande...)
Weather is pretty dull now actually :( has been since after Easter really..! Though it was warm enough yesterday that Tom, Lydia and I (my latest visitors :) ) had a nap on the grass at Trocadero under the Eiffel Tower...though we were awakened by spots of rain...humid but cloudy and threatening has been the order of the day of late. Hopefully that will perk up soon!
You may have gathered from this that there's been no progress with the strikes, aside from the fact that my coursemate emailed a group of us the other day saying she'd been emailed by a woman from Paris Uni saying they'd been putting up lecture notes online since the strikes started to tide us over, only someone had neglected to tell us this along the way..!! So I wasn't very impressed with that, as you can imagine...But oh well, that's happened now, and I have had a lot of time to myself to explore :) My friend notified Manchester Uni of this and their response was basically "Oh dear, that's a shame they didn't tell you that, but never mind, you weren't to know so it doesn't matter that you haven't done it", so at least we're off the hook for not having known.
I fly out to Nice on Thursday evening to visit Steph for a week! Can't wait - will be really nice to explore a part of France I've never been to before; to have a change of scenery, and also to have some time with Steph :) it's been weird not seeing her at all since Barcelona, aside from our quick catch up in Manchester a few weeks ago! So I hope the weather down there is nice; I had a peek at the forecast and seems similar to here, but they do seem subject to change lately, so fingers crossed!
Have booked my Eurostar trip back to the UK once and for all, on the 31st of May! Can't quite believe it's that close to being over, in hindsight...seems to have gone so fast when I look back! Naturally am quite disappointed about the whole debacle of the Sorbonne; would have loved to have studied here, but alas. Nevertheless, it has given me the time to frolic in a gorgeous city buzzing with culture, and discover some of its more hidden delights :) when the weather's nice, obviously! Though at least there are the museums and galleries for the rainy days :) not to mention the alarmingly cheap (for Paris - and the UK, come to that!) cinema down at Place d'Italie - I had heard it rumoured, but Keyla and I checked it out in the flesh last week, and lo and behold, something to the tune of €3,60 for a young person under 26!!! Bargainous!! So that may be on the cards for tomorrow...
What else to report..? Oh, flat situation is lovely, though there have been some changes....older sister Assia and boyfriend Nej had a bit of an argument over Easter, so he no longer lives here...which is a shame cause he was a legend, but it's quite nice having a girly flat too. They've managed to rent out the spare room to Celia, a dancer from Province who moved in last week, and is really lovely :) and now younger sister Nadia has found herself a studio, so moves out sometime this week, I think..! Which will be sad, as she's really nice, and I feel like I've got closer to her the past month or so. Assia is currently on holiday in Andalusia; she took a 10 day break because she was working loads before Easter and to clear her head about recent events etc., which I think was a really good thing. So hopefully she's off enjoying herself at the mo!
Have been looking round a lot of flats more inside Paris with Keyla recently; she wants to move closer in, as she's in a little town outside Paris called Plaisir at the mo, and has finished her job out there and apparently there was nothing else to do there lol, so she wants to be nearer the action! Is proving difficult though; it's sooo hard to find a decent place in Paris. There's always something not quite right, be it the housemate, the location, a lack of internet... I hope she manages to sort something out soon. We have said to her that Nadia's room will soon be free! She is considering it, but wants to be a bit closer in if possible, which is fair enough; I would love to be too, but it's so hard to find somewhere, especially if you don't want to pay an arm and a leg for it....
Anyways, will sign off for now; long update! Will try and be a bit more regular with posts; though as I say, going away on Thursday for a week and internet may be limited, knowing what Steph's old brick of a laptop is like :p! Then have Mum coming to stay when I get back for a long weekend, then will have just under a week to occupy myself before I come back to Blighty! Crazy how time is flying! (Though I have to admit, it was my plan to be proactive this month so I didn't get bored - it has certainly paid off!)
Love you all loads, see you soon!! Also need to update you soon on my summer plans - am hopping about the continent then too..! :p
Loads of love and hugs xxxxxxxxxxx
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