I have lived in
Paris for almost seven weeks and until this weekend I still felt like a
bumbling English tourist. Every chance I got, I tried to be more “French” or do
something you need to do when you’re here, which became tiring and
ultimately counterproductive. This week, I relaxed and things improved
drastically.
To start with me
and Clémence had the best five days together since I started looking after her:
we made biscuits, she sat on my shoulders, we watched The Swan Princess over
three days and I even straightened her hair! Instead of dreading the amount of
tantrums I’m going to have to deal with, I now look forward to my two and a
half hours with her and planning what we’re going to do.
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| The Low Bats |
Friday was a day
of two halves as I spent the morning moping around doing nothing. But at 3pm I
gathered the motivation to go to the launderette; something I’m still trying to
get used to doing in France. This time everything went a lot better and my clothes were washed and dried without any of my previous problems (like forgetting to put in a washing tablet...) After picking Clémence up we got the bus for the
first time, which is something I do all the time in England but was a daunting
prospect in Paris. We did it and Clémence even impressed our fellow passengers with her English vocab! Straight from work I went out to a bar near
Oberkampf with Anna and it was such a good night!
 |
| We saw the Low Bats and Selenian |
The bar is
called Pop In and it is comprised of four very small rooms over two levels. It was
quirky with live music and hipster people. It was free to get in and Happy Hour
was about to finish when we arrived at 8:45pm so we quickly grabbed a pint each
for 3 euros. Three glasses of wine later we were both a bit tipsy. We got
talking to three guys and had a great time with them, or at least I think we did - I was quite drunk. It’s surprising how
fluent in French I am once I’ve consumed several glasses of alcohol! The music
was very ‘cool’, Anna described it as psychedelic and lasted a couple of hours.
We got the last metro home and woke up Saturday with one of the worst hangovers
ever!
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| Best brunch ever!!! |
Being hungover
didn’t stop me getting up at 9am Saturday morning as I was going to meet Hannah
and her Dad in Montmartre for a proper French brunch! It was such a lovely day
and the brunch was delicious. For 17 euros you get a hot drink, a fresh glass
of orange juice, a fruit salad, a yoghurt, a boiled egg with soldiers, a
massive bowl of fried potatoes, salmon on toasted bread and a little cake
called a madeleine. I was so stuffed when I finished that I barely ate the rest
of the day. We spent the rest of the day wandering round the little streets of
Montmartre, climbing and descending hundreds of steps while we were at it, all
the time avoiding the creepy street vendors who don’t take no for an answer. It
was a little sad to say goodbye to Hannah at the end of the day but we’re
seeing each other in 7 short weeks for New Year celebrations so I think I’ll
just about manage.
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| Laura and Charis! |
So that sums up my weekend. It was the
first time I felt completely settled and confident for days at a time and I
think it’s because I stopped trying all the time. I did things I do in my day to day life back home without worrying and in French; it's a great feeling. You can’t experience
everything a place has to offer if you’re constantly trying too hard or in
other words being a tourist. I’ve come to realise this weekend that to really
feel settled, part of a city and on your way to being Parisian you just have to
embrace the culture and relax. I can’t wait to feel like that every day.
Bisous à tous xxx
Sunday morning,
Charis and I went for a swim which was super fun. We swam lengths for about
half an hour and then explored the smaller, more fun pools including one
outside with a lazy river. I never thought I’d start a November morning on a
lazy river in Paris but now I can say I have! Yesterday afternoon Laura, Charis
and I went to the Palais de Tokyo for an art/photography exhibition. We paid 8
euros to get in and then got given a top of the range camera to take photos of
the exhibit. It was such a nice change using a camera that works instead of the
silly htc camera on my phone. As well as simply taking pictures of the exhibition,
there was an interactive section where we could have our photos taken
in various cool ways. We had a kind of time lapse taken of us in a kaleidoscope
and another photo using torches. Keep an eye out on my facebook page for them
cus they’re pretty interesting. The day ended with a quick drink in the museum café
which was on a terrace facing the Eiffel Tower – it couldn’t have been more
idyllic. 
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