Blogs from Île-de-France, France, Europe - page 465

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy. We're leaving soon to go back to Angers, the city in which I studied abroad in 2002. I can't wait!... read more

With the need to really just get out of London for a bit over the festive season, the decision was made to head through to Europe with the hope of the increased chance of seeing snow falling. Accompanying me was one of my house mates Kristy, a 20 year old Sydney-sider who arrived in London within a couple weeks of my arrival in mid September. The plan was to head to Paris for Christmas, through Germany and up to Copenhagen for New Years and a night in Amsterdam on the way back. I have previously visited Amsterdam and Paris and a couple cities in Germany on a Contiki tour in the (northern) Summer of 2004 so it was great to have the opportunity to see the places again and independantly. We landed in Paris early afternoon ... read more

Bonjour, ello, etc It's still Erin here... I'm sure Dan will be making a guest appearance sometime in the near future on his own blog. Paris was tres bien. However, we both thought not as good as you'd think it'd be, the way people keep banging on about it. On our first night (how tragic) we did our laundry. No, but really it was getting pretty bad. In Neustadt we said we'd do it in Berlin, in Berlin we said we'd do it in Koln... you get the idea. So, after we'd worked out the bizarre French laundromat system, and had satisfied ourselves that no Frenchies were going to pinch our soapy knickers, we decided to nick off to the pub for a pint or two. A few streets away we found a place that had ... read more

Including her adventures Watching Swan Lake at the Opera Climbing the Eiffel Tower Seeing the Mona Lisa Looking for the hunchback of Notre Dame Wandering the streets of Paris for hours & attending a wine and cheese party ... among others After my amazing day wandering through Montmartre, I jumped back on the Metro and headed to Bastille station to meet Armelle after work. I arrived a little early, so I wandered through the outdoor market that had been set up for Christmas, and watched some kids on the carnival rides. I bought a deliciously hot folded savoury pancake from a street vendor and ate it while walking. I also spent a while attempting to ask many people in French where I could find a public toilet. Apparently these don't exist in the area (either that ... read more

This morning, to my surprise, the front page of the International Herald Tribune contained a NY Times feature based in La Courneuve. This is the city in which I teach. So, if you desire a journalistically-written account of my last entry, here is the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/12/international/europe/12suburb.html Check out that picture of Sarkozy grafiti: there is nothing that the immigrant population likes to discuss more than their hatred of their interior minister. Anytime I want to get my students talking, I just start talking about him. They immediately just spill out into angry French shouting, and I try to get them to translate it. He's a detested figure in these areas. Tonight, on my tram ride back to the metro, a homeless man just started screaming, "Sarkozeeeeeeeeeee" out at everyone. If only I had my camera with ... read more