A weekend in Paris

Last weekend Dad popped over the channel and I met him in Paris for the weekend. Paris was the same as ever, beautiful and freezing! The past 2 times I've been there have been in January and February, and it has always been so cold, this trip was no exception, although the cold was a bit more worthwhile this time, as we did get to enjoy snow on Sunday afternoon, yay!

I took a train after school on Friday (I still laugh whenever I say that phrase, I feel like I'm 12 again!!) and arrived in Paris that evening. I hopped on the metro and was serenaded by a tuneless busker, nice! When I arrived Dad and I headed straight out for something to eat, and ended up in a small restaurant down some side street. It turned out that we'd gate-crashed some poetry night, where a few locals gather together and recite their works! This was hilarious, for starters they were an odd bunch, a complete mixture of French characters (there were twiddly moustaches in abundance!) and secondly I'm pretty sure most what they'd written was a load of rubbish (here's where I find out I actually went to a private recital of a famous French poet!). But they took it very seriously and we were shushed many a time!

Talking of moustaches, on my way home I captured probably my best photo yet of a typical French moustache! I may post it on here at a later date!

On Saturday we left the hotel early and headed for what my guide book described as a flea market. The goods were more what I'd expect to find on the White Elephant stall at the village fete, but it was fun rooting through the junk and we stumbled on a few interesting old bits and pieces. Nothing worth paying the extortionate prices for though. We then headed straight to the centre of Paris and visited all the usual tourist hot spots: we climbed the Arc de Triomphe, from which the view was amazing and I enjoyed watching a car circulate round twice before the driver eventually pulled in and seemed to have given up hope of getting anywhere! We then walked down the Champs-Elysees to the Louvre. Then on from the Louvre we walked all the way across Paris to the Sacre Coeur and Montmartre. This was the early afternoon and, like La Roche, Paris was surprisingly empty, there really was practically no-one about in the back streets.

On arrival at Sacre Coeur, however, we were met by the crowds! It was a beautiful, clear day and everyone had come to take photos. We walked on beyond Montmartre, away from the masses, to what is claimed to be the world's largest flea market. We browsed through all the goods, lots of interesting and bizarre pieces, mainly very overpriced. I can well imagine lots of American tourists buying token French pieces, an ugly bit of furniture can look a lot better when accompanied by "I picked that piece up at a flea market in a quartier of Paris!" We rooted round boxes of all sorts of things, the funniest being a 2p piece that we found, they were trying to sell it for a few euros!!! Last thing I knew the exchange rate wasn't that high!

We then headed back and had supper in a restaurant called "The Frog and the British Library", great name! Although incidentally, during my time here I've come across many French people who don't know that our nickname for them is frogs. How many of us know we're called Rosbif, I wonder?! They played the France-Australia rugby game, so that was fun to watch surrounded by the French, all very angry with the result!

On Sunday morning we hired bicycles and cycled right along the length of the Seine, from the far east to the Eiffel Tower, taking photos of many sights, including Notre Dame etc en route. Many a beautiful view, although it was bitterly cold, the snow was coming! On arrival at the Eiffel Tower we stopped to take a photo and I was accosted by the Chinese for photos! I couldn't believe it, in China I could (sort of) understand their obsession, there were simply no Westerners in some areas. But in Paris?! We were surrounded by them, why on earth they pounced on me I don't know! I am officially declaring myself as a Chinese pin-up!

We then cycled extremely hazardously round the Arc de Triomphe, I was beeped at a few times, but we both made it off the roundabout scratch free! We then left our bikes at the top of the Champs-Elysees and walked down, until I remembered that I'd left my camera in the basket, yikes! So I absolutely sprinted all the way back up (it's actually up-hill, and I've just googled it, it's 2km in length!) and down the side street where we'd left them, and unbelievably it will still there. Thank goodness for quiet Parisian side streets. I may well moan about how quiet France is on a Sunday, but in this instance I was very thankful, it must have been there for about half an hour. Phew!

We then walked all the way back down the avenue and surprise surprise I bumped into a Hannah, one of my old netball friends from York, we couldn't believe it, what are the chances of that?! Such a small world! We then moved on to the Pompidou Centre, so that I could get a photo of supposedly the ugliest building in Paris, I didn't really think it was that bad, perhaps it was a bit modern for its time, but it doesn't look to out of place nowadays.

So that pretty much sums up my whistle stop trip to Paris, as I had to head back early so as to avoid the strike. Today there is a strike of TV reporters, so that means we've seen 3 strikes in the past week, not bad going! According to Cecile, French teachers are really the professionals when it comes to strikes, so I can hope for a few more this year!! Apparently a proposition has been made for all workers in France to go on strike in the new year, this just strikes me (ha what a pun!) as an opportunity for a public holiday, how can everyone strike at once?! We will see!