Post of joy from Joy, a new roommate and the Musée D'Orsay!

Oooooh, so Friday I came home and raced to the post office because I had received a slip through saying there was a big letter for me and within I discovered THIS from my favourite cousin Joy:

I haven't shown it to Amel yet but I cannot wait to do so!

Anyway, I was SHATTERED Friday night and upon returning home I literally collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep for two hours. At 9 I woke up and went to my favourite crêperie, La Belle Ronde, and ate this Complète:

It was pretty good! Ham, eggs and emmental - the classic - and it worked well as a wake-up meal but I think that the Basquaise and Castanéda are yummier!

It was also not enough so I had a caramel crepe and it was just like that dulce de leche haagen dazs and really quite sickly sweet but very very good indeed:

Then I went to Montmartre for farewell drinks for three dutch people who had finished their time at Alcatel (where I had a glass of pschitt!). I came home late, fell straight asleep and woke up around 8.30 and rather than staying asleep (as I so BADLY wanted to) I had to get up and get to the launderette ahead of the crowds. When I came back I was hanging my washing up outside when Kathryn came past and said "Oh Sophie! Finally! Mathilde rang to say she's moving in today!'

Oh dear. I was so nervous and I still had to get washed and properly dressed, have breakfast, go to the bank, and tidy and clean my room, making space for my new roommate's things! I managed to get it all done though (and I got my chequebook and bank card - hurrah! - no more expensive withdrawals from my English account!) and I even cleaned the windows! (They looked like shed windows before - all dirty and probably not cleaned in at least two years but you can see through them now!) Mathilde arrived just as I finished cleaning the bathroom floor...

She is very lovely and when everything was brought upstairs and we'd been to Kathryn's to pay our rent (writing my first cheques in the process!) I took her round the corner to the Greek place for lunch. This turned into our main meal and here it is:

...a DELICIOUS moussaka!

It was mid-afternoon when we got back and Mathilde started to unpack and showed me all her paintings as she has just finished studying ART! (we've put some of them up on the wall) I was SO excited! She has brought all her things with her and says she is very willing to share them ... :)!

Mathilde then took me to see a book/craft shop in St Michel and I saw so many cheap notebooks and sketchbooks and I wanted to buy them all - but I DIDN'T. Then she showed me this second-hand bookshop/music store where they had books out front for 20 centimes! I bought one. It is called La Chance de L'Inspecteur Masson. I asked Mathilde to show me some French music and we found a compilation CD and one about Super-rabbit which I haven't listened to yet but look forward to!

I also saw THIS for one euro!

(I thought it'd be better left in the shop to bring more joy to other customers though)

Then we came home and grabbed a sandwich on the way - I thought I'd asked for a kebab-meaty one but it turned out to be tuna! I wasn't too disppointed.

Mathilde also writes stories and so last night as we (finally!) went to sleep, she very kindly recounted a simplified version of the first two chapters of her book, stopping every now and then to say "-do you understand what that is?" and then explaining it further - it was SO LOVELY!

We were a little late for church this morning but afterwards we went to see the Musée D'Orsay! You can't take photos there but I saw SO MANY things that I loved and I was very glad to see that there was no sign of the Krafaysis in Van Gogh's L'Église d'Auvers-sur-Oise, vue du Chevet - good old Doctor Who. I so love the impressionists, the first room I went into was filled with pieces by Degas, all in chalk pastels and they made me want to use pastels even though they are one my most despised media as I find them so difficult to use, but looking at these I felt I'd be able to! I saw Degas, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Gaugin - oh too many to mention but it was jam-packed - I want to go back with some chalk and oil pastels one day when it's quiet and sit and draw.

We came back absolutely shattered, having had a quick look around Les Halles to try and find some earphones for Mathilde only to find everywhere had closed, and ate and we're now sat listening to a Learn Italian CD! I am SO relieved that Mathilde is so nice, what an answer to prayer and more!