Paris Take 2

Although I had already been to Paris on a romantic mini break this time last year with Bredoir, it did not preclude me from going on another just this past weekend. Can there be such a thing as ‘too many romantic mini-breaks to Paris ’?

This time, it was another bargainous trip, as it was all organised and paid for by the lovely Aidan as my birthday present. Potentially, the best birthday present ever (not future-inclusive, so as to preclude from the possibility of it all being ‘down hill from here’).

We set off early on Saturday morning down to Waterloo to get the Euro Star. The only morning in recent history where it wasn’t an effort to get out of bed! It was fantastic to be going somewhere foreign without going to the airport AND only carrying a handbag! (Aidan just had a day pack). The Eurostar is the best thing ever, and I suspect I shall have to use it much more in the future. You only need to be there 20 minutes before your train leaves, you don’t have to line for hours anywhere (all self check in), you get assigned seats (unlike stupid cheapo airlines over here who for some reason think it is prohibitively expensive to write 17C on your ticket), and the station isn’t out in the middle of whoop whoop like all airports (similarly for the station when you get to Paris). Really, Eurostar is the way of the future!

When we arrived, we went straight to a shopping area recommended by a girl from my work, and basically I bought the first pair of shoes I saw. They are the best shoes ever, and already I have had lots of compliments on them (solicited). I assumed that was the start of a mad shopping frenzy, however, I didn’t buy anything else the rest of the weekend.

Of course though there was lots of food buying, mostly patisserie goods. London , and England in general, severely lack good patisseries and bakeries. In fact, there aren’t even many bad bakeries, there are just not many bakeries at all. If anyone wants a business opportunity (Michels) I think there is a market. I mean, English people are junk food gobbling hogs just like the rest of the world, so I don’t know why they wouldn’t want more cake. And pies. They look like they would be good pie-eaters. However, you might need to deep-fry them first.

I also found a fantastic chocolate bar in Paris called ‘Ovamaltine’… like ‘saxamaphone’….it is a block of chocolate riddled with Ovaltine (you know, like Milo), and it is super reminiscent of the old Milo bars (which were, incidentally, far, far, far superior to current Milo bars). Unfortunately, Aidan shares my love of Milo-bar type goods, so the two family blocks of Ovamaltine we bought are nearly gone, and I don’t know how on earth I am going to get any more. He is lovely though, and lets me be greedy and doesn’t eat too much of it himself.

So on the Saturday it was just a lot of walking around in the Latin Quarter and Marais areas (including the Luxembourg Gardens which were beautiful), and then in the evening we went up to our hotel in Montmartre and wandered around there a lot, and had some tea. That area would be nice, and I know it is just all touristy, but I’m sorry, the proliferation of sex shops and sex shows disturbs me…or maybe that is because I am a sensitive little flower. I did get offered free entry to the sex show though! Didn’t go in…thought would ruin the idea of ‘romantic mini-break’…also don’t know what I would do in such a situation,…isn’t it a natural instinct to avert your eyes, but then will they be offended if you do that? And really, it would be a waste of money (if you were paying)…oh it was all too confusing. So instead, we walked up to the Sacre Couer, and sat on a wall and looked out over Paris with the big, white, Sacre Couer all lit up and beautiful. Think is my favourite part of Paris .

Then on the Sunday, all the shops are closed, (backwards! Backwards! Tasmania !), so we went and walked around the area near the Louvre, and then out to the Catacombs. The Catacombs are these excavated tunnels under the city where they have stored these zillions of peoples bones (because it was thought during the plague that they were making people sick, so they dug them up out of the cemetery and shoved them down these tunnels which were limestone quarries). But then, they didn’t just pile them up, they stored them in all these designs and stuff, and made kind of ‘art work’ out of them. I have never imagined that one cemetery could have had so many bones. (I tried to find on the internet how many bones, but couldn’t find a number, so I will put a conservative estimate in at a zillion. There are some cool pictures if you go to http://www.quovadimus.org/paris/cat/thumb.html so you can see what I am talking about… I don’t even know if that link will work on my blog).

So yeah, very very good weekend.

In other news, I have moved out of Bermondsey (close to city, expensive, full of derro’s) and moved in with Aidan in Golders Green (quieter, far less derros, much cheaper, but a bit farther out). We have not yet killed each other, and it is going really well so far. I am now living in a massive share house, true Aussie-in-London style….9 people! My last house was only 3 people. Luckily Aidan and I have a huge, quiet room, and our own bathroom. And if you couldn’t have guessed from the fact that I wanted to live there, it isn’t a party house. They are all really nice people actually (although most of them are Kiwi’s).