I love autumn!

Here we go!

This is the moonrise:

This is the sunset:

This is the moon and a big fountain I found near me:
Duck!
A beautiful sunrise which cast pink light everywhere when I got up!

Alas my camera failed to capture how truly green this grass was! (It had rained in the morning!)



I loved the colours and the shapes here:

I loved these colours too:
And this chimney!

Shapes!


Snails...

Crazy critter!

Snail fail!

Last Friday we were in the office on our own, with nothing to do and in grave danger of becoming more than a little bored and so I challenged my colleague Chris to a game of great skill: throwing screwed up bits of paper into a bin across the room. I’d forgotten quite how terrible I am at throwing (there have been a few near misses when he asks to borrow some lip balm and I chuck the tin at him – note: at him, rather than to him) – Mike even took me down Worthing beach once and we spent an ENTIRE afternoon trying to stop me throwing like such a girl but to no avail… Anyway, it was pretty even (1-0 to Chris is as even as it's ever going to be!) until I got a phone call and had to stop and then he scored about a million and was dancing about in my face whilst I was trying to speak with this guy in India! After that the game got ridiculous, I think we ended it when I finally scored two and Chris had lost count…

And then I had the most spectacular walk home passing beautiful Parisian buildings and monuments bathed in the setting sunlight with golden haze on the street corners and I strolled along the Seine with the leaves all changing colour to find the boat we’ll be staying in for my birthday. There down by the water’s edge I watched the sunset and the moon rise up out of the dusk and just as I turned to face the Eiffel Tower, it lit up before my eyes! Altogether it had to be the most beautiful evening I’ve had so far here!

Saturday I went with Gaby (a lovely German girl from the foyer) and her boyfriend to a science/natural history museum that had opened up all the buildings usually closed off to the public! I saw the most spectacular butterfly collection and sat in on a lecture about the amphibian populations in France and studied bacteria and other tiny things through a microscope. I did bring my camera only to find that it had no battery left!

As I came home I got caught in a positively tropical thunderstorm, which proceeded to get worse and worse until I had to duck into a little café, where I ate duck (complete with impression from the waiter!) and the most beautiful light fried potato discs!

Sunday I went to a fantastic exhibition at the Petit Palais with Gaby, Reporters sans frontiers, which was a collection of photos taken by a father, and daughter who were French photojournalists. The sunshine came out just as we went in and so we decided to make the most of it and go for a little stroll. We found leaves and stuck them into the trunk of a tree, even trying to get conkers to stay in there too and called it the most beautiful art ever made and then left it there for the rest of the world to enjoy. I’ll post the pictures when I get them!

Then that night we went to this INCREDIBLE crêperie (Laura – think Belinda’s tea rooms but pancakes!) again, I got pics on Gaby’s camera…

Last week, having had some problems with the emailing systems (run by a programme called Neolane) I asked our publisher what was going on and her just replied that he didn’t know but that:

“Parfois Neolane eats a big red candle!”

And then this week I got an email asking for instructions with a pretty picture at the bottom – you know what it was!

This weekend I went and sat in the Jardins du Luxembourg and enjoyed the autumn. I’d forgotten autumn had a smell! There were the most beautiful colours and I took a seat on a quiet path next to a big tree and read my book (Dexter!) looking up every time the sun came out. It did my soul good! That night I went out with Amel and then today (after my second choir session!) Anne-Laure took me out to dinner!

I ate snails.

I’m pretty sure I’ve had them before in garlic and thought them to be alright and I was so determined to like them and the first mouthful was ok, I noted a distinct earthy undertone which only became stronger the more I ate until halfway through I truly felt I was eating compost and had to stop! I also had a salad with eggs, cheese, ham and special fried potatoes which was delicious but I couldn’t finish. Afterwards, we wandered round Montparnasse cemetery and admired the autumn some more.

I’ll stick all the pictures in another post!

Grown-ups: I checked and I DEFINITELY don't like apple pie

Hmmm... I can't really remember what I did this week.

Oh, well on Monday the scary tattooed chef man was serving up the dinner I wanted and so in order to make friends with him and discover that when you get to know him he is in fact lovely, I attempted to strike up a conversation with him and asked him how his weekend went. He said it was good and so I said "What did you do?" And I kid you not he looked me right in the eyes and with a scary laugh said "You don't want to know" and handed me my dinner!

(Lancaster girls: I'm guessing he raped someone and threw them in a ditch but for REAL.)

I am no closer to being any less terrified of him.

Apart from that... work was alright - more to do towards the end of the week. Ooh, there were strikes all week and so I got a bit of a lie-in as my usual train from St Lazare had been cancelled and the first available one was just before ten!

I'm struggling more and more with sharing a room and lack of personal space - and would DEFINITELY appreciate prayers for it. I also feel homesick but have a friend from uni passing through Paris next weekend so that should be nice!

Friday I forgot to attach a file to an email and the OTHER non-english-speaking person at the publishers pointed it out to me, saying "You ate a big red candle, don't ya?"!!!

I ate the most delicious bread and fresh bread so far last night and enjoyed every last mouthful! It was accompanied by boursin (original), compté cheese, lettuce, saucisson and the last little bit was smothered in redcurrant jelly! Oh and I also was at the boulangerie in the morning and must have mispronounced "croissant" as the man looked at me and indicating a different pastry replied "BlahBLAHblah?"

Seeing this as an excellent occasion to try something new I nodded vigorously and said "OUI! Oui!"

It turned out to be apple pie.

I still don't like apple pie.

In my defense, I ate about half of it and all the pastry round the edge but the appley mush inside proved sadly to be a little much.

Thursday I had a lovely evening chatting to Laura and Jess and then Mum and Dad. During this time I was playing with a tealight I'd lit. First I was melting old candle wax into it and when I'd finished doing that I was playing with a match (I kept snuffing the candle out from laughing so kept needing to relight it) this led to several minor burns but then I had to stop because I'd dropped the match in it and couldn't get it out. Half an hour later the candle flame starts getting a little bigger so whilst Mum was talking I tried to blow it out. It got bigger. So I tried to blow it out again. Again, this only fuelled the flame. So I tried with a REALLY big breath. The flame got REALLY big. The thought then occurred to me that this candle was perhaps a little out of control and that it was probably time to put it out. So I nipped into the bathroom and turned the tap on it to extinguish the flame. As I did this, I was vaguely aware of a small voice at the back of my head saying - this isn't a good idea, don't you remember the uni safety demonstrations, doesn't water make it worse?

It turned out that this voice turned out to be right. There was a huge noise and a VERY LARGE amount of big fire (I think I almost wet myself!) and then the flame went out, but the water and molten wax were boiling furiously making quite a noise.

It turns out that Mathilde had heard the death noises emanating from the bathroom and looking up from her laptop said "What was that?" - I replied that I was just putting a candle out and that it was ok, and then turned to reassure my parents (who had also heard the death noises) that all was well and that the candle was now out (which it was!)

Also, last night I was so absorbed in the delicious bread that I crossed the road on a red light but it's confusing here because the red light at the top was a pedestrian one and the green light at the bottom is for cars and so my head just hadn't fully registered and I was in the middle of the road with a car right by my legs with the middle-aged couple inside looking at me confused and I thought "why are they so impatient to go?" so I turned and took a long hard look at the lights and it genuinely was a two-second time delay for me to process that it was me who was in the wrong! I very quickly apologised wide-eyed and beat a hasty retreat to the other side!

And then today I went to a swisher launderette with Mathilde and wandered round a beautiful Saturday market whilst we waited for our laundry to do and then spent the afternoon in the Centre Pompidou, fretting about my coursework...

...I think I'm going to go and find the Houseboat we're staying in for my birthday!

Pretty lights, sunshine and sorbet!

So, last week I went to La Belle Ronde and ate a Bistrot:

Hot goat's cheese, lardons, salad and tomato with a yummy dressing!! Perfect winter warmer!

I went to see Trop Loin Pour Toi (I think in English it's called "Going the Distance") with Marion (the girl I met at the Palais Royal) on Saturday night and we then met up with her friend Valerie (who also studied languages and worked in England and Madrid!) and went to go to Nuit Blanche.

I think they do this in lots of major cities across Europe but for one night, places stay open all night and the city centre is turned into a massive exhibition with pieces of art put up all about. I think we failed quite spectacularly as we all neglected to look it up in detail and so didn't know what was where and just ended up wandering about but this was the town hall:

It said "love the differences" in lots of different languages!

And there was a ridiculously long queue to get into Notre Dame for what as far as I could make out was an organ concert - don't get me wrong, I was interested, just not two hour queue interested!

And Chris tells me he managed to find a car with a chandelier floating on a pond...

Everywhere was just packed out with people and they were all over the roads and everyone was moving quite slowly, there were lights and dancers and music and delicious smells and cars slowly trying to push through the crowds on the roads and as midnight approached we were tiredness began to set in and so we began to head back home.

The week at work was hard. It was dark and cold, people around me were having big arguments over ridiculously petty stuff and I felt decidedly homesick. However I went and saw Moi Moche et Mechant or "Despicable Me" with Mathilde on Wednesday for her birthday and laughed a lot and by Friday the sunshine and warmth had made a welcome reappearance and I had a spéciale:

This contained ham, emmental, onions, mushrooms, egg, salad and tomato. I ordered it with the full intention of ordering a sweet crêpe after but found that it was indeed enough!

Then Saturday I went to try and sort out a money transfer that appeared to not have worked the week before and as I stood in the queue to get to the very bored and irritated-looking clerk, Karine walked by full of sunshine and exclaimed "Sophie! Comment ça va?" greeting me warmly and leading me to her office saying she'd tried to get hold of me this week to help sort out the very thing I'd come for! She then proceeded to transfer the money in 5 seconds flat.

I love her.

Then I went to the park above the train station and sat and sunbathed and read more of my difficult book which I'm now finding easier and more interesting (nothing at all to do with the fact that a Sophie has just appeared in the story!) and then met Li and went to the art shop. (I promised I'd give her some art lessons as she never got to have any in China!) Armed with the basic tools we came out and walked past my favourite little ice-creamerie.

"Oooh! Amorino! - Is it good?" Li asked

haha... Is it good? She asked!

I let the ice cream do the talking.

I went for a small pot of cherry, mango and lemon sorbet:

(Actually I think I may have found myself there the weekend before having a pot of dark chocolate, pistachio ice creams and cherry sorbet! I DO love it there!)

Then we went back to the Atlantic gardens above the train station (not many people know about it and it's big and spacious but quieter than the other parks which are just PACKED!) There I attempted to explain how to sketch a tree, then realised I had really chosen something quite difficult so gave her my water bottle to draw, but that had loads of reflections and was also difficult so then I got my umbrella out. This was a good choice but I think she'd had enough by that point!

Anyway, the afternoon was lovely and we sat and chatted and drew and ate the best sandwiches in the world (fresh warm baguette with brique au lait cheese and saucisson and rocket!) which I'd had the foresight to make earlier! There were also these kids playing a hide and seek-type game next to us and kept trying to hide behind us - Li very obligingly moved herself and her bag better to conceal them and we were delighted when they won!

Saturday evening I went to a youth group at church that I'd been invited to, expecting teenagers but getting 20 somethings but the leaders were two hours late! We sat and chatted and sang and got to know one another (there were two girls from Mexico!!) and when Anne and Mathieu finally arrived they came with delicious lasagne and chocolate cake so I forgave them!

Then today, to make the most of the sunshine I went to Montmartre and sat on the hill in front of the Sacre Coeur writing letters all afternoon, basking in the heat and taking in the spectacular view (along with all the other tourists) and marvelling at the big blue sky (I miss big skies in this city!) and then a little mini-festival struck up with drummers and music and comedy and dancing - it was such a treat!

Psycho kids and late-night furniture!

So ages ago I'd merrily volunteered myself to help out with the kids at church and Kathryn had set me up to assist someone else at the next church meeting. That church meeting was last week. Having eaten well I was presented with five children who had also just eaten well and were literally bursting with energy running about shrieking and was then sent down into a small room below the church!

When I asked if there was anyone else, I was told no.

When I asked if there was anything I could do with them, I was told no.

My face must have given my horror away as the woman then pulled out a few sheets of paper and found me a box of pens/pencils/odd paintbrushes/biros/crayons... I did not expect this to last.

It was pretty difficult!

For a start my French wasn't good enough to be very clear with them and they'd talk to me and I wouldn't have a clue what they were saying!

One child seemed intent on destroying whatever the others were doing, climbing over the table, hitting the others, rifling through my bag, generally bullying and shouting and I'm pretty sure swearing but alas, my french does not extend to those words.

Then there was a bang and suddenly there were fragments of glass scattered about the floor at one end of the room, I asked them what had happened and no one would say but they all went over and started grabbing this broken glass! I tried to send them to the other side of the room to no avail and somehow managed to get most of the glass cleared away, still mystified as to what it had been.

Then, as some had made paper planes, we had a flying contest, to see whose could go the furthest, had the most beautiful flight etc. During this Anne-Laure came in with a sweep and started clearing up the rest of the glass saying it had been the glass light cover which had exploded and come in under the door (I'd looked at her desperately asking if they had nearly finished, if anyone was coming, and she shook her head and left!) And then, as they were climbing up the walls and given that the French CLEARLY had no concept of health and safety, I set up a mini assault course using the chairs and tables and having races and adapting it each time just about kept them focused and not fighting for the rest of the TWO HOURS I'd been left alone with them!

I came home to Mathilde to collapse on the bed but seeing the sunshine outside and given that I'd been locked up in a room underground, we went for a walk to the Luxembourg gardens and sat and soaked up the remaining sunlight.

On the way home we passed a man from Turkey sat in his shop and he was playing this guitarish thing and it was a song he'd written for his cousin, it was beautiful so we stayed a while to chat and listen to him play.

The week at work was uneventful, Bernard was absent a lot and I thought he'd said he was going to a conference Wednesday so when on Thursday afternoon he sent an email saying he couldn't legally drive until after 5pm we assumed it must've been one heck of a conference, but I later found out it had been an operation he'd had, not a conference (have no idea where that came from - I REALLY must be bad at French!) But the good news was that we FINALLY got the monthly newsletter published on the 24th (it should be published at the start of the month...) and now I've got October to set up!

Friday I went home with Li to help her out as she was furnishing her studio appartment. (She's been here a month sleeping in an airbed with a hole in, meaning she wakes up halfway through the night to find herself on the floor!) She'd hired a van and a driver, another chinese man she'd used before, but he didn't arrive until 7pm as there had been some serious traffic and when he DID turn up, well... the only reason I got in was because Li said she'd hired him before but it was a big white van, covered in graffitti with a VERY scary looking man inside (I later learned he was just annoyed at the traffic though) We made our way to IKEA and wandered round trying to find all the bits and bobs on Li's list and by nine we'd bought everything and I was dangerously STARVING so the driver got us a bit of food from the café. We arrived at Li's at half nine and I immediately set about putting a lamp together.

Until I found we needed a screwdriver.

Which Li didn't have.

So, I decided to go and meet the neighbours!

Armed with the word "tournevis", I set about knocking on all the doors. No one answered in any of the downstairs appartments so I moved up a floor and finally found a lovely french lady who offered me a selection of screwdrivers. I picked the cross shaped one which I thought looked right and thanking her profusely, returned to my lamp. Having shown it who was boss, (Sophie with a screwdriver) I performed a spectacular victory dance and moved onto a simple looking table.

Having struggled with the crazy double-ended screws, I quickly left this for Li and moved onto the chair.

Li then presented me with some fried broccoli, tomato, pepper, onion, garlic, egg, chinese-y tasting thing which was delicious along with some bread and goat's cheese. Spurred on, around 11pm we turned to face our final challenge, the double bed.

I was really starting to believe I had a God-given talent for DIY; I quickly identified the right planks of wood, what way up they went, what went where and we were flying through until we came to these ridiculous metal cylinder supports which the screws allegedly fitted into. I won't bother trying to explain quite what it was but basically the screws would NOT go in where we wanted and there on the cold tiled-floor at midnight (as most of you know, I struggle with any time later than 10.30pm, let alone after a long week at work) the first feelings of despair began to set in. The instructions said we needed a flat headed screwdriver and I felt it was a little too late for the friendly frenchwoman and so we sat there hopelessly struggling and retrying until somehow, magically, we got one corner done and then with the knowledge that it COULD work, we then went on to get the other three done! With lots of muted excitement and dancing (didn't want to disturb the neighbours) we went on to almost finish, ending up I'm pretty sure screwing new holes into the wood with the screws as they wouldn't go straight, and we were almost there when I realised that in my haste we'd done a plank upside down and needed to do it the other way up! So we undid the last half hour's work, admiring our strength as we tried to undo the screws, and redid it the right way up. It was VERY late by the time we got the mattress on the bed, got ready for bed and asleep but BOY did I sleep well!

Then the next morning we got up (discovering Paris had suddenly realised it's autumn and therefore had become very cold!) and spent the day with Dino and his chinese flatmates, Fang Xin and Tom, who had both also worked at Alcatel. They were lovely and having made us a superb lunch we all went to the chinese consulate to play ping-pong. I LOVED the competitiveness of the others in the face of Dino's and my hopeless inability. I'd like to think we improved and that our win against Fang Xin and Tom was due to our superior skill and not their failed attempts at smashing the ball at us, but I think that's a little too hopeful!

Then we went on to wander along a culture fair by the Seine and I finally came home in the evening and thought I'd get my massive pile of laundry done. However, upon my return to the launderette I saw to my dismay that despite merrily gobbling up my money and making noises, my machine had not in fact done anything. SO I moved it all into the next one along and paid again and went off to the supermarket to see what I could get for dinner. Thinking about food when I'm tired and hungry is ALWAYS bad and I wandered up and down FAR too long trying to think but eventually came home and made a coconut-y chicken-y curry-like stew. This all took a ridiculous amount of time and by the time I eventually got into bed I fell DEEPLY asleep, waking up this morning feeling fabulous!

Then I remembered I'd told Anne-Laure I'd help her with Sunday school and felt somewhat less fabulous. But it passed relatively well... chaotic and loads more of them this time but they were all alive and breathing at the end and this time there'd been another person in the room who actually spoke French!

Then this afternoon I did a little bit of cleaning and cake-baking as someone at work had a birthday but neglected to tell us...

This week should be a little more relaxed though as Bernard's off for some R&R in the south of France! Lucky swine...

Journée du Patrimoine

SO: Every year France opens the doors of many of its closed state buildings to welcome in the public for one weekend only.

I first heard this from Diana at lunch this week and Chris and I would not believe her when she said that you could even go into Sarkozy's office - but you CAN! However, EVERYONE wants to go there and to get in you need to get there before 7am and given a horrific night's sleep Thursday, I most definitely wanted to faire la grasse matinée on Saturday! Besides which, I am not all that interested in politics but rather beautiful places. And what BEAUTIFUL places I found today!

I decided to go to the Palais Royal - built for Cardinal Richelieu in the 1600s, royals then lived there for a bit and now it's home to the Ministry of Culture, the Conseil d'Etat and the Constitutional Council.

The queue was long and so I got chatting to the girl behind me who turned out to also have studied modern languages, spent 6 months in Leeds, fell in love with York and worked in Madrid! She was carrying a rather flashy camera and had already visited the Ministry for Foreign Affairs that morning and advised me to go saying the queues were short and the building beautiful. Li, a kindred spirit from work then came and joined us (she lives just outside of Paris, so it had taken a while to get in) and once inside, Marion then became our own lovely personal guide and we spent a happy afternoon going round speaking franglais!

Once out, Li and I went and sat by a big fountain in the gardens outside the Louvre in the beautifully warm sunshine and chatted and ate belated lunch before making our way to the recommended Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

I took SO many photos, I apologise in advance - I SWEAR I've cut them down!

Now, I think I gave my guidebook/leaflet with Li, so I'll try to remember what everything was. This is the antechamber I think, everything was on the first floor and this is the first room you walk into:

The walls seemed to be made of felt almost, with this blue paint or ink. Really striking!

Then this was perhaps the office of the secretary to the Minister for Culture:

No computers out! ... but a printer. And a picture of Sarkozy!

Then this was the Minister's office:

quite modern-looking with its lilac walls and plastic chairs (from IKEA I assume)

It also pleased me to see that I use the very same pink stabilo highlighter as Monsieur Minister for Culture himself!

I also liked his carpet:

I liked the ceiling in this room of the Conseil d'Etat (and most other things about this room actually!):

This is the highest court room there is I think, where people contesting their constitutional rights(?) go:
This is the room where they pass laws:
It has paintings on every wall, by various different artists designed to represent all the different kinds of people of France:

This is a seat: Everyone gets their own seat with their name on and two buttons to yay or nay a law! Plus a microphone.

This little library reminded me of Beauty and the Beast!

There was a stack of shelves for each letter of the alphabet, this was I:
This is the art installation in the courtyard as you come in: (I didn't understand it - I need to look it up!)
I loved this: they have these huge french windows (obviously) which they can open up out onto the balcony and thus feel like they're working outside!

I loved this carpet:
This was an office for someone important:
I liked this sofa and table:
This was a tiny little cupboard where the royal princesses used to go and pray when they lived there! So weird to see it hidden in the middle of all these State offices of a self-declared secular country!
Literally enough room to kneel and that's it!

This is the dining room, there was a steward there inside (a cord prevented us from entering) and we got chatting and HE turned out to have been a languages student too! Amazing! He'd been an au-pair in Ireland and had worked in London too and we chatted there for ages and I asked what was behind the doors and he said "I'll show you" and disappeared off and came back with a painting of the room beyond that he'd taken off the wall! He also said that the staff (of whom there are about 50) get to eat in this dining room once a year!

I asked him what the large golden "N"s on the door handles were and he said they were left by Napoleon:
And he did the floor (Napoleon, not the steward):
And then when we'd finished chatting, he said, "would you like me to take some photos for you?" and took my camera and got these exclusive shots! Get in!

And he took one of us: Marion, Li and I!
These were some drummers outside the Assemblée Nationale, on the way to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
Here it is:
All the rooms of the first floor seemed very samey, but so deliciously ornate and golden and lit up by loads of lights and then each room had mirrors on opposing walls to create more room and light!
The ceilings were very high and very very beautiful:

I love lamp:
I love CHANDELIER:
I love stripey wallpaper:
I love this sofa:

I love ... chair:
This is the dining room and they still have breakfast here at least once a week, overlooking the Seine! This was laid out with everything for 12 people, 5 glasses each! Ridiculously over the top. I SO want to eat there!
The QUEEN'S BATHROOM!!!!
It is silver, with big mirrors, beautiful walls, glass swans, a silver mosaic bathtub, set into a beautiful mosaicked alcover, with views into the gardens and set behind these FABULOUS big drapes! I WANT a bath there.
Queen's bedroom (It was a british queen who was the last to sleep there in the 19somethings):

Queen's bed (a little small...):
King's bedroom (now an office with convenient bed! - might try introducing this concept at Alcatel: beds fit for Kings in the office!)
King's bed:
King's view:

King's BATHROOM:

It's GOLDEN!
I want a bath HERE:
Staircase and art:
big grand rooms:
I love... carpet:

Superfluous chandeliers:
Beautiful office, I assume belonging to the Minister for Foreign Affairs
Actual Peace treaty between France and Russia!
Then in the last room there were people showing their trades in restoration, this man did chairs:

This is another man making a chair-leg:
I want this one:
And this one:
This shows the five stages of making a frame:
This woman restores tapestries:

This was part of a document that was being restored:
I wanted to ask the lady how she did it but she was stood there for HOURS talking to someone else and Li was already gone so I left it...
Laura Harman, I saw these and thought of you!

It ended here in the gardens:

Greatest day - Mum, you would have loved it! I missed you!