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!