Mon anniversaire!

I was lucky and we only had 'class' in the morning and a field trip to Bercy in the afternoon. It is the site of the Bibliotheque Nationale (National Library)so wasn't incredibly exciting. The buildings were designed to look like open books and they hold 45km of shelves in total! We then went across the river to the Park Bercy which is where they used to grow grapes and a few of the old warehouse have been turned into little boutiques and cafes.

A floating swimming pool, in winter they close the glass roof.


As soon as the field trip finished, I was off to meet Cate & Chris for a picnic dinner near the Louvre.

We then went on a sunset cruise along the Seine which was very pretty.


Then we were bussed to the Moulin Rouge for the late show (11pm, only got out at about 1.15am!)The show was fantastic and well worth the expense I reckon. In addition to all the boobs and bums any guy could handle, the dancing is really good, the costumes are amazing and some of the other entertainment is really good. Juggler, acrobats, the ventriloquist was vey funny! We couldn't take photos inside, but have a look at the website.



As the metro has stopped for night by the time we finished, I snuck into Chris & Cate's hotel room and stayed with them the night (well the rest of it!). Thanks Chris for sleeping on the floor :)

Overall a thoroughly good birthday in Paris!

To the Louvre!

We had a class trip to the Louvre on Wednesday - our tour was all in French! I find it hard to pay attention to tour guides in english never mind in French! But the guide was really good and spoke slowly and I did actually pay attention and got some useful information out of it! We saw a tiny section of the Louvre - we were there for 2.5 hrs so you can imagine the size of it!


My Grand Debutant Class :)





Just as we were leaving, the sun was setting over La Defence and the Arc de Triumphe, wish I had a better camera it was goreous!

Guess what I found on our way home... definately will have to go back! My venue for Australia Day!

Snails etc.

Well I did it, I ate snails for the first time!

They weren't actually that bad, although they were drowned in butter & garlic so that is all I could taste. I followed it up with duck and creme caramel - how french of me! 3 course meal with Caraffe of Wine for 16Euro not bad I thought! We were out for dinner for Silvia's birthday, after dinner we caught up with the rest of our classmates and went in search of a cheap pub - which we found. 6 shots for 15Euro - quite a messy night considering it was a Monday!



We went to Montmatre last Sunday (I think!), it is beautiful there. My camera was flat so I'll try upload some more photos that everyone else took after it was dark.

EuroDisney!

So I was going to try go to Nice or Cannes last weekend but as I haven't organised a railpass or discount card it was going to cost me a fortune to get there so I had the perfect excuse to splurge and go to EuroDisney for the day! It was an early start to beat the queues to buy tickets and yet another queue to get in! The park opened its doors at 9.30am but the rides etc. only opened for minions like me at 10am! I went with Borja (a spanish guy) who I really struggle to understand in english or french! We decided since we would only be here once we should splurge and get tickets to the 2 parks (DisneyLand and Walt Disney Studios). I'm so glad we did, they were entirely different experiences. Disneyland is amazing, like stepping into a cartoon and the detail is absolutely amazing - I can't help think what a waste of money when there are starving children in the world! We went on most of the 'big people' rides in Disneyland, although we skipped a few which had queues over 30 mins (some were upt to 65min wait - crazy!). I loved 'It's a small world' with all the little dolls dressed up each country's traditional dress and landmarks around them - although there was NO Australia! Africa was well represented though! Still can't get the silly song out of my head and its been 4 days! Ofcourse we watched the parade with all the characters although we were knackered and didn't stay for the fireworks (after Bastille Day I'm pretty sure all fireworks will fail to impress me!). A few photos....










I apologise for the crappy photos but I forgot to charge my camera so only had my iPhone! I didn't have a very good day with being organised. To get to the other park, you needed to keep your tickt but somehow I lost mine! But I stil had the receipt and they said when I get to the gate just show them and they will sort it out, alas I got to the gate and had lost my receipt as well - silly Nikki! But I managed to use Borja's receipt and got a replacement ticket after signing a million forms!
Walt Disney Studios was entirely different to DisneyLand, more like movieworld. We watched a few 'features', a stunt car demonstration, animagique (a little theatre show with heaps of classic characters from Disney movies!) and cinemagique (a story using real people and screen work, really hard to explain but was brilliant!). We also went to see "Stitch Live" en Fracais to do our 'french' for the day. It was really good and funny and I could half understand admittedly it was aimed at kids! There were a few good rides and we went on a few of the roller coasters twice (the new ToyStory land wasn't open yet but it looked like fun!). There were a few pretty boring things but in general definately worth getting the 2 park pass. Here are some more photos...



I got home absolutely buggered but was a great day and reminded me so much of my childhood and how much Disney was a part of it (PeterPan, Dumbo, Aice in Wonderland, The Jungle Book, Lion King... so so many!).

Bastille Day

So the French have it right, the night before Bastille Day is the big party, and boy did we party! We went to the Bal des Pompiers de Port Royal. Fireman's ball! It was awesome, an old square had basically been turned into an open air dancefloor with a DJ, bar etc. We partied there till 4.30am! Was lots of fun! They had a few weird songs, one really funny almost 'folk dance' song at the end, will have to figure out what it is! Here are a few photos...




Needless to say we were buggered but we still managed to go and find a boulangerie where we could buy fresh croissants straight out of the oven... so much gluten but so good when you are hungover/still drunk! I cannot get over how good it was, so worth it! It was an incredible feeling, eating a croissant while watching the sunrise over Notre Dame...


Needless to say we didn't make the parade at 9am! OOooops! It bucketed down with rain though so kinda glad, I got see some of the aircraft, their flight path was pretty much over the campus so I could see them flying in formation. We did go into Paris later, to the Arc de Triumph and the Champs Elysees, where there was a little parade. The tomb of the unknown soldier is under the Arc de Triumphe, the small ceremony reminded me of Anzac Day with sentries on each corner of the tomb and the President (yes I saw Nicolas Sarkozy .. I think!) laying a wreath, with a lot of veterans around.
After the little ceremony, we went to Maccas! I know its terrible to go Maccas in Paris but when you're hungover nothing else will hit the spot! hehe! We did a bit of browsing along The Champs Elysees, I love the arcades there, they are full of quirky little shops - I must return!




After the parade, we met up with some students from my future college (EPF) to get a good position for the fireworks, we were on a bridge over the Seine with the Eiffel tower on our right and the fireworks going off at Tracadero on our left. They turned the lights of the Eiffel tower off during the show. The fireworks were amazing - a full half hour of them and so many and so beautiful! Was absolutely fantastic - my camera doesn't do fireworks well...


But yes, another late night only getting to bed at about 1.30am again! So tired....