Blogs from Paris, Île-de-France, France, Europe - page 335

Today is my last day in Paris and I will not miss Paris because I know I'll be back but I will miss my host family. They are such wonderful people. They talk about everything around their dinner table. Tonight their cousin came from Cannes and she's so sweet and young. Only 15/16 and she made me miss my sister. They spoke of racism and I said my piece and I found out later that the cousin said I was really nice. I'm glad I could make a difference. I'm also glad that I understood almost 80% of the dinner chat tonight. It's an improvement from the almost none from before. They're very interesting people. Anyway today I spent a silly amount of money on perfume. But this is no ordinary perfume. It was custom made ... read more

Day 5 - Paris is an expensive city to enjoy. We spent most of the day in the Louvre, still not enough time to do this museum justice. At least we did more than the 10 min tourist quickie of the Mona Lisa, Venus di Milo and the Winged Messanger. We spent some time in the scupture rooms, Napoleon's quarters and the upperfloor filled with paintings. I think I'm museumed out after this. We walked through the Luxembourg gardens where a man was performing on a grand piano in a little gazebo. Another set of beautiful gardens, here more shade could be found. We both like the idea of metal chairs being scattered about the grounds for anybody to take and sit on in the park. We also visited the Pantheon where Marie Curie and her ... read more

Just two more days and we'll be on our way home. I'm ready to see the US again. To have a Pepsi anytime I want one, to be able to go into a restaurant and not having to decipher the menu, to have a REAL breakfast with real bacon and sausages that I know what they'll taste like, and to drive myself where I want to go again; instead of lugging bags around a train station and wondering if I'm getting on the right train or not. We went to the Effiel tower yesterday and the line was so incredibly long that we gave up and went back to the hotel: Our hotel is right next to the Arc de TRiomphe, we only have to go around the corner to see it, so we're saving that ... read more

Yesterday was pretty uneventful during the day. But at night we went to the Champs-Elysées and walked around before dropping in on a friend of Garance's who was working. Then we had a drink in a café and some dessert. I forgot what it was called. But then the friend, Gaelle, dropped by and I spoke in French almost the whole time with her and Garance said later that I held my own pretty well so I was happy. For some reason my comprehension jumped yesterday...or maybe it was just that I noticed it was better. Who knows? Anyway, on the way home there were jerks throwing firecrackers onto the streets between people's legs and this guy behind us kept yelling 'attention!!' (watch out) because so many people almost stepped on them. I was ready to ... read more

Had a good sleep on my little mattress on the floor and got up to go for a run down to the Palace and National Gallerie on the Champs Elysees. On my return picked up some Peach Ice Tea which has become the cult drink of Europe, take my advice and get onto it! We went walking to teh Shakespeake Bookshop and then onto the glorious Luxembourg Gardens. I made a sandwhich out of some bread, tomato, tinned corn and tuna. Russel thought I was some weird kind of alien I think. It was better than my lunch of kidney beans, capsicum and hard boiled eggs yesterday! On my previous journey to the gardens I hadnt realised how big they were. Its a fantastic place to spend the day and especially good for kids. We found ... read more