"It's all about the bollocks, innit?"
So Laura and her friend came to stay this weekend, and I swear I have never had a better time over here, we had an incredible time. It had seemed somewhat unlikely at the beginning as we basically wanted to do the whole of Paris in three days, but we managed it alright!!They arrived on friday, making my decision to skip most of school that day easy. Met up with them in the afternoon, it pissed it down, a little bit frustrating at the time as it had been sunny up until then. Still, we went out in the eve, met Ed n Jules for a meal in St Michel (where else?) and then onto The Gentleman, a nice Irish/English themed pub that has happy hour between 2pm and 10pm. Awesome! Met a few of my other folks, James (mutton chops from now on), Emma and a couple of others I don't know so well. Had a nice night. Laura snogged a French bloke (I expected no less from her, lol) and we decided then that it was time to leave. Unfortunately we'd left it slightly too late. And when we arrived at St Michel metro station, I, in my semi-drunken state, didn't recognise it much and I have to admit, I took a wild guess at which train we should get. And when a double decker train turned up I still didnt think any different of it. It wasn't til we got on and these two blokes with a bottle of champagne started chatting us up that we realised we were very wrong with our choice. We ended up at Gare Austerlitz, and there were no trains back. However, we were still laughing, even when we raced out of the station to grab the nearest taxi. The taxi driver was rubbish, and unlike usual French drivers, decided to stop at every red light, and we eventually got to Chatelet at 1am, raced across the station, which is huge ("LEFT!" "RIGHT!") and had missed our train by 15mins.
"Bollocks."
Luckily there was still a train going in kind of the right direction, so we got that one as far as Nanterre, and when we left there we found another train to Rueil Malmaison (four or five stops from St Germain, my place) and we thought if it stops there, it must have to carry on afterwards to St Germain, the terminus. We realised we were wrong again when they kicked us out and pulled the shutters down. So there we were, nearly 2am now, stranded in Rueil Malmaison.
"Bugger."
After waiting about 45mins, we eventually got a taxi back to St Germain. And then had to walk home. I forgot to mention that when we were at Austerlitz, Claire decided she needed a wee, and still did by the time we were walking home. She pissed on Paris.
Next day we went shopping, I spent money (but I have made my summer, if we ever have one!!) and then it pissed it down again so we went to Notre Dame to shelter and take some photos and discuss religion and all that (why do they need such huge decorative churches if they're not supposed to worship false idols and material possessions eh???) And then we chciha'd and had a quite early night, because the next day we were doing a lot of stuff.
Yesterday we started at st Germain market, then went to Arc de Triomphe, where we stared at the naked statues and as always pondered the significance of them having small penises but huge testicles (hence the "It's all about the bollocks") Then we marched down the Champs Elysees, did Sephora and Disney shop, and then took to metro to Louvre, did some photos of the pyramids and all that and then went for a glorious walk in the Tuileries, because now it was gorgeouly sunny and warm (and typically we'd all got big coats, gloves, scarves, brollys...) We sat for a while by a nice fountain, and then decided to jump all over some of the various statues dotted around for photos.
Next up we crossed to river to Musee D'Orsay, more photos, and then walked towards Invalides and got on another metro. And on to the Eiffel Tower! We bought tickets to just walk up the whole way (after Laura's comment that "it's not as big as I thought it would be") We walked as far as the third floor and luckily they wouldnt let people walk any further and we had to get the lift. Shame! My legs are aching today though I tell thee. As ever, amazing view from up there, and it was nice too to be able to just name stuff as I see it rather than look at the toursity board things (after all, I am no tourist!) Couldn't see chez moi though, which was a pity.
We spent about four hours going up and down there, and then decided to jump back on the metro as Lolly and Claire wanted to see the Moulin Rouge. I warned them that, of course, it is in the middle of the red light district, so prepare to be shocked, so when we arrived at Pigalle I imagined they would be ok. Wrong! Got out of the station and it's like "SEX SEX SEX" everywhere you look. The subtelest shop I saw was called "Supermarche Erotique" which I thought was quite cool actually. But the other two actually looked petrified the whole time we were there. Found the Moulin Rouge, took a few photos (though they refused to do can-can like poses!) and then shiftied up the road, trying not to look at any shops, til we got to Montmartre and the Sacre Couer. By now the weather was lovely, if a little bit sticky, so we decided to chill out at the bottom of the hill. I had just finished warning Laura about the men there who offer to make you string bracelets and then charge you 15euros for them (no doubt some stupid american would pay that and so they think any stupid toursit will) when we sat on a bench, and a guy came and sat next to me, and was like "Where you from? Give me your hand, I make you bracelet..." He'd got no further than that when I jumped up.
"NO! NO! Definately NOT! FUCK OFF!!!"
(Alright! I over-reacted slightly!!)
I grabbed Laura's wrist and we just ran up the hill giggling like mad. Well, that's one way to get up the hill quickly! So we sat back down, feeling we were a safe distance from the bracelet guys, when we were chatted up again by two other guys. Uurggghhhhh!!! I actually got into an argument with one of them, which ended up with him shouting "Suck maaii deeeeeck" at me, and me asking if he actually even has one. The other guy just came and stood in front of us staring and saying hello every so often. So off we went again. Eventually we had a very nice time looking at the sacre couer and going round the artists square, and had the traditional crepe (and got chatted up by the seller, though he obv didnt think we were "beyuteeefool" enough to give us free crepes) And that was it! We'd actually done everything we wanted to do in Paris. It was great. An amazing weekend was had by all. And I've got it all to look forward to again next weekend when Dave and his mom come over.
Though obviously we'll give the red light district a miss this time! And I'll try not to argue with any French guys. And I'll try not to eat as many crepes. And I don't think we'll be going for a chicha....
posted by Kim @ 3/27/2006 02:23:00 pm
3 Comments:
haha, quality trip round paris... I like the "ohhh bugger" moments.
I've never pissed on paris myself, but I did piss on a cloud once in france...
oh yeah, and as for getting a pgce place... your experience will vary, but whatever you do, don't do a 6 line personal statement like I do, no matter how much you agree with me that personal statements are all lies and bullshit...
you'll be ok mate. but do you want to do teaching? I question that myself all the time...
Hey, tah for the comment, I've just tried to leave a comment on yours but it didn't show up for some reason....
Anywho, I think teaching is a good career for me, this year's been great over here. But it all seems like a lot of hassle for little gain. Also only 4 unis do the PGCE I want to do (social sciences) so I'm thinking I might need a backup plan just in case.
I remember my personal statement for UCAS. I went on for about a page about how great I am and gave every little detail of my life. It seemed to work.
Have you heard back from that interview yet? and have you got any others lined up?
And finally! How the hell did you manage to piss on a cloud??? lol
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