Paris

Friday was officially my last day of ‘holiday’ from Philips. It was funny taking a day off 2 days before I finish for good (yes the day is almost here- Tuesday is my last day at Philips) however I wasn’t going to miss this opportunity (nor was I going to let a perfectly good day of holiday go to waste). So what was the opportunity I hear you cry… well my littlest brother was in Paris, in a musical. But more on that later.

So despite a slight miss calculation (or just an act of stupidity) meaning I got to the train station an hour and a half early rather than the planned half an hour, the journey was fine.
On getting to Paris equipped with only a metro map I set off to find some sights to see. So I stepped out in roughly the direction I thought the river should be in. I was a bit off, but not bad. Then I managed a rather impressive feet- I lost the Eiffel tower! I saw it above the roof tops, started towards it but then lost it and didn’t see it again for about 20 mins. I did see some pretty cows though.

And the invasion of King Kong

Eventually after about two hours of walking in the blistering hear I found the Eiffel tower- they had left in next to the river, pretty close to where it was the last time I saw it!!

Two hours walking was enough, so I hopped on the RER and went off to Notre Dame. The last time I was at Notre Dame the entire front was covered with scaffolding, so this time I got to admire the amazing carvings on the front.

I also had a nosy inside. Then I saw a blow up rugby pitch,

had a brief mosey in the shops and found a bus that would take me almost all the way to the hostel where I was staying (I was so chuffed with myself for finding a random bus that was even more perfect than the metro I was going to take). I found the hostel and ‘checked in’- ha ha makes it sound like a hotel, and found my room.

The room had three beds with my bed being the one on top. A single random wooden step was all I had to get up to my bed- and of course I was wearing a skirt!
Then it was time for a much needed shower. Now I didn’t have a towel (well you always miss out something while packing). So I used specially bought towel- kitchen towel that is!! It actually worked fantastically.
After my lovely refreshing shower I went to find the school. It took me about two minutes leaving me time to kill, so I nipped into a bar nearby and watched 20 mins or so of the Germany- Costa Rica game. At last it was time… to get my ticket for the show.
So the show. Every year for the last 10 years, St Andrew’s (my old high school) have done an exchange with a school in Paris. It’s music exchange- with the French students providing the acting and the English providing the music. This year they put on a musical called ‘Potion’. It’s a musical we first performed it 8 years ago when I was part of the exchange (and boy how old did that make me feel).
Having done the performance before though meant that I knew all the words so having arrived early to have a chat with my music teachers (or ex-music teachers) I plonked myself down in the front row and proceeded to be a living auto queue for the singers. I actually got thanked by a couple of them at the end because apparently there were times when they blanked on the words and my mouthing along (I resisted singing) managed to get them back on track!



The performance itself was really good. The French kids had very strong accents making some of it a bit tricky to understand but apart from one kid getting a fit of the giggles and one of the mics not working at the end, it all went swimmingly.

After the show I helped clear up- it made me feel useful, also having helped clear up after St Andrew’s performances for so many years it would have felt very strange not helping!
Finally I bid goodbye to David and my ex-teachers and wandered back to the Hostel for bed.

Saturday morning I was up nice and early. I hadn’t slept very well due to the rooms other occupants turning on lights, talking, leaving the window and curtains wide open and then getting up sillily early. But never mind it did mean that I got to beat the crowds to the Louve.

The louver is well worth a visit even if it is just to see the building itseld and not the art work inside. It is beautiful!!!
And inside we got to watch a whole number of ‘copy cat’ artists. I don’t say that in a mean way- they were fantastic, but these were artists producing copies of part or all of an existing painting.

Then I went to Sacre coeur

and since I was in Montmartre I thought I’d go and have a butchers at the Moulin rouge.

I have never seen a road with so many sex shops! It was extraordinary. I did begin to feel that it was not perhaps the best place for a young foreign girl to be wandering alone. But wander a little more I had to, because the most important moment of the day was fast approaching. Come quarter to three I finally found exactly what I was looking for. And English/irish pub flying the st Georges flag outside, with a large TV screen and a few English blokes inside. So I plonked myself down with my 3 euro 50 glass of lemonade (made it last the entire time I was there) and watched England v Paraguay.
Our win got me a few “Hello England- you won!!” kind of comments for the rest of the day (my t-shirt did have ‘ENGLAND’ written over the front).
Finally I was dead beat so I hopped on the metro back to St Lazare station and got my train back home.