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Last weekend off in Paris
Well, I have just spent my last two days in Paris when I don't have work doing what I do best, running around visiting sights and ppl and taking tonnes of photos!
Wednesday and Thursday were my two days off for the week, and they were one after the other, just like a real weekend! So very exciting for anyone working at the hostel!
As i'm off about exploring from the end of next week this past week has really been my last week to go about paris and do those last few things that I still hadn't gotten around too. Going to Versaille is one of those things.
Wednesday started early for me, I finished my tuesday night shift by 2:30 and was in bed by 3am waiting for my alarm to go off at 7:45 so that I could go for a quick run before my day to Versaille.
So the run was done and me and james had a 9:30 rendez-vous at Gare de l'Est line 4 stop. The day was off to a running start with us navigating our way through the metro system to Saint-Michael
and then onwards to the RER so we could get out to Versaille. The train trip was actually alot quicker than both of us though, enabling us to pick up a coffee once we'd arrived to sip on during our walk to the chateau.
We managed to pass two and abit hours wandering through the castel/palace itself listening to our audio guides and taking fun photos. The history within the walls and the ridiculously over the top ornamentation that made up the interior of the building was mind blowing with barely any room not being covered in gold leaf and nearly all the ceilings being covered in paintings.
However my favourite part of the day was walking through the gardens with james, we followed the main fountain and garden path and came to this huge lake which was featured in the movie Marie Antoinette. This part of our day involved alot of lounging around and soaking up some much needed sun.. until! we discovered that you could hire/commandear rowing boats for this lake!!!
James refused initally as he said he couldnt row, so me being all gallant and gung-ho was like, no worries, i've rowed before! Quiet
forgetting that when I used to row it was with one ore, not two. The next hour and abit was spent floating around on the lake, with me working out how to master the boat and having a right ole merry time. See photos for proof!
Once we'd done that we made our way home, and popped into one of my favourite cocktail bars for a mojito before making it home. Definatley a delightful and productive way to spend a day I reckon.
Thursday was a big day for me and Helene as every since we've been here i've talked about my ratatouille and how it amazing and great and how we both hate not being able to cook as the hostel has no cooking facilities. Helene, the lucky girl, has just moved into an AMAZING apartment in Montemarte adn as she's going back home to visit her family this week and wouldn't be here for my farewell party we decided that our last night in Paris would go down nicely with a home cooked meal cooked par moi!
The menu du jour was: Nibbles and wine for apero, followed by ratatouille, steak and pollenta and then
finished off with sorbet and irish coffees!
What better way to prepair for all of this we thought than by spending the afternoon walking the streets in montemarte in search of cheese shops (blue cheese on the steak) green grocers and butchers. Helene brought with her the stereotypical shopping trolley/bag which came with her aprt. and we gradually bought all the ingrediants and wine which were necessary to have a successful night!
Helene and Shane left me to it in the kitchen to chop and marinate and prepare everything for the night and then once the ratatouille was on its way and eveyrhting else prepaired we wandered down the street to a bar and had a happy hour cocktail to soak in the late light and absorb the montemarte feel. This made both me and Shane highly jealous as now Helene has all this at her doorstep, literally! One cocktail down and then back to the house as I didnt think i'd cope very well cooking tipsy. We then stuggled to make all the hotplates cooked and i gave shane and helene the polenta cooking responsibility, shane was hilarious as he'd never had polenta before and couldnt quiet
work out what it was, or what it was ment to do, this throughly amused me and helly :D
Helene had set the table and we had a nice candle lit meal. Albet a very quiet meal, which as helene told me afterwards is always a good sign its good if everyone eats and doesnt have time to talk!! I was so nervous that my ratatouille wouldn't live up to her standards though as we'd been talking about it for so long that helene told me I had a reputation to uphold. Fortuantely she said it was def worth it and I hadnt let her down.
Enough about that though, check out the photos and you'll see what i've been doing.
Me and Rosa are having a joint farewell party on the 13th and then Mum flies into Paris sat the 14th.
Then my whirlwind travelling will really comence with a week in italy with mum. A stop over back in paris to say au revoir to maman and then im off to barcelona to meet dad for a week. Dad leaves sat the 28th and josh arrives sun 29th in barcelona, we are there till the
4th july when we then go to paris, leaving on the 9th for a road trip down to portugal to see a music festival called optimus alive. then flying to paris and training it to amsterdam on the 14th of july. staying in amast for abit then going down to arnhem to visit esther and staying with her for a couple of days before flying to london on the 21st of july. Me and josh are then spending acouple of days up there before going to visit my grandparents and then bouncing onto another music festival called global gathering. Then back briefly to visit the grandparents before flying out on the 29th and arriving home in AUSTRALIA the morning of the 31st.
Phew. So if im not knackered when I get back ill be very impressed with my stamina!
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