All posts filed under: Paris

Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris

Bonjour Paris!

Salut everyone! So sorry that it seems to have taken almost a decade for me to write a new blog post. As you can imagine, this week has been very busy meaning that my time has been limited. I am currently back in Paris, and have been home (where I call home now) for the last week. After New York, I headed down to London to attend a conference (which I am also in en train de writing – some present progessif for you) and arrived in Paris on Sunday. Unfortunately I had the train journey from hell from the Airport to the house, taking me nearly 3 hours to get home! Normally it only takes an hour, so you can probably understand my frustration. Basically, the trains decided that they would not continue to my stop, despite leaving me stranded at the station just before mine. And to make it worse, it was raining cats and dogs, so you can imagine that along with two heavy suitcases, the last thing I wanted to do was …

Sainte-Chapelle, Paris

Autumn? What Autumn? Summer time in Paris

The weather here in Paris has been insane recently. Whilst the beginning of last week was cold and wet (I wore my winter coat for the first time this year…), this weekend offered us sunny, beautiful summer weather. Obviously this meant that I had to try and make the most of this blissful heat wave, which took the form of a picnic by the Seine. A little cliché, I know, but when in Paris eh? Below are some pictures that I took during the day. We also thought that we might as well be touristy for the afternoon, so took a few photos during our wander around the city. See if you can guess some of Paris’ most famous sites that we visited.

Récemment

Before I begin writing to my hearts content about the recent happenings for me here in Paris, for those avid (or not so avid) readers who drop by every now and then onto my blog will have noticed that I have a new layout and design! This morning I spent a while amending and changing various CSS coding (which to most people is geeky computer talk). But I think that I have done a good job so far, as there is still bits here and there that I would like to change. Simple, yet elegant. So this last week and weekend has been very busy, not necessarily because I’ve been doing heaps of things, but I guess this is to be the Au Pair life. I don’t think I have mentioned it yet, but two weeks ago I started at my new language school which is right in the heart of Paris, a stone throw away from the beautiful Notre-Dame Cathedral. In fact, you can sometimes hear her beautiful bells ringing during the day (at least …

A guide for the weekend

To all, I am so sorry for the belatedness (is that such a word?) of this post. This week has been so busy. Now that I am properly in the whole ‘Au Pair schedule’ with the family and school, I’m finding it hard to find the time to just have a few minutes to sit and write to my heart’s content. Luckily, I have managed to snag a few minutes from the day to write this post. This weekend saw the visit of my boyfriend Malek to Paris! It was so nice to see him, as we’ve been apart for over a month now. For those who don’t know, Malek is also an au pair but in Madrid! – he copied me, I swear! Having arrived extremely late on the Friday night, the weekend began slowly, and after a breakfast/brunch on Saturday we headed to the Sainte-Chapelle. Yes, I know how much I go on about this chapel, but Malek’s never been there and he did take the time to read (definitely not forced at all…) …

‘How to become Parisian in one hour?’ – Olivier Giraud

Last night I had the pleasure of taking the two eldest children to see a theatre production in Paris. However, this was not just your average show. No. It was a one man comedy show, all about how to become Parisian. It was absolutely brilliant! Whilst the audience was relatively small, encompassing around 300 spectators, the comedian, Olivier Giraud, still managed to make the performance seem very intimate. The show revolved around certain differences in cultures between the Parisians and everyone else in the world. For example, Giraud spent time letting us know how to act Parisian when seeing the Eiffel Tower, or when attempting to get served in a restaurant. We also learned how to act on the metro, which I guess is quite similar to how Londoners are on the tube – look depressed, never give your seat to anyone (including old people and pregnant women, as Giraud said, it’s not your fault they’re pregnant!), and especially don’t talk or make eye contact with fellow passengers. Probably the most funny part for me personally …

Père Lachaise Cemetery

As part of my ‘do two different things’ this week, I ventured to Père Lachaise Cemetery to have a wander around. For those who have never heard of it, Père Lachaise Cemetery is the largest cemetery in Paris. However, it’s not only known for it’s vastness, but for the many burials it contains, especially of many famous people including writers, authors, composers, musicians and many more. Père Lachaise Cemetery is in the 20th arr, and there are two close metro stations near either end of the Cemetery. I decided to go here because this was something that my family and I did not have a chance to explore when we were here in Paris last year. I was not too sure what to expect. I definitely didn’t know that it was going to be as big as it was, so if you’re going to go there, make sure you wear comfortable shoes! I also did the grave mistake (pardon the pun) of going without a map. Many people believe a map in Père Lachaise Cemetery to be a …