All posts tagged: Gap year

A Merry Christmas from Disneyland Paris

A Merry Christmas from Disneyland Paris

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Last weekend I had the pleasure of venturing out to one of the most magical places on earth – Disneyland. Despite not going to a Disneyland park since my last visit in 1999 to the California resort when I six, I was still incredibly excited and giddy – yes, giddy. Recently the weather in Paris has sucked. It’s currently cold, raining and miserable. Much like England I guess! So, sadly for us when we went last Saturday we were welcomed by drizzle and grey skies. Despite this, we didn’t let it dampen our day, pardon the pun; as we attempted to make the most of what we could. The very first ride that we waited for was Space Mountain Mission 2. Unfortunately we ended up waiting for at least an hour and a half, because there seemed to be issues with the ride – not great when you’re just about go on it (!). Anyway, eventually our time came around, and it was amazing! Even though I was pretty terrified during the whole 3 minutes …

Christmas at Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris

Christmas at Notre-Dame Cathedral

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With just a week to go till Christmas Eve and the big day itself, I thought it was about time that I uploaded some of the recent photographs that I took one night of Notre-Dame Cathedral being all festive. The Christmas Tree that adorns the square infant of the Cathedral was actually donated by Russia. Due to the struggle of the Cathedral to raise the money to purchase a tree, it appealed to foreign embassies in Paris for aid. According to Russia’s ambassador to France, the “Tree is a message of peace”, as I am sure that we are all aware of the current political occurrences regarding Russia. Although I’m actually not that impressed by the tree – I’m more of a gold and red Christmas decoration kinda’ girl – it is still lovely to see and photograph the beautiful Notre-Dame Cathedral during this merry time of year. What are your thoughts on the Tree?

L’Arc de Triomphe and the Jardin des Tuileries

L’Arc de Triomphe and the Jardin des Tuileries

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This Sunday we were blessed with beautiful clear blue skies in Paris, and to make the most of this perfect weather, myself and two friends headed up the never-ending 284 steps to reach the top of L’Arc de Triomphe. It was both a triumph for us climbing all those steps, and a triumph to the city of Paris – Paris, you are breathtaking. From the top you can see the stunning views of France’s capital from 360 degrees. This is a definite must to anyone visiting Paris, and better yet, it’s free for those under 25! I will be coming back up the Arc de Triomphe, that is for sure. Next time I would love to the city when the sun begins to set. To finish off this magical day, we then strolled around the Jardin des Tuileries and watched the sun setting with sublime views of the Eiffel Tower in the distance. Some more photos from the day can be found on my flickr account: https://www.flickr.com/photos/roisingrace/sets/72157647121463674/   

This week on Instagram

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Watching the Christmas Tree go up in front of Notre Dame Cathedral; A visit to the see the upside down Christmas Tree at Galeries Lafayette; Sublime views of Paris from the top of the Arc de Triomphe. Pretending to be children again by visiting one Paris’ Aquariums, we made a new friend in a clown fish; Taking in the breathtaking views at the top of the Arc de Triomphe; The Opera National de Paris during the verge of twilight with a massive crowd listening to local musicians. Watching the sunset whilst exploring the Jardin des Tuileries with some lovely friends; Just one of the many amazing views of the River Seine that I see on my walks to school when on the Pont au Double; I enjoyed a lovely visit to the used book Cafe, Merci. Merci offers not only wonderful drinks, but the chance to pursue the various books adorning the shelves.

Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris

Bonjour Paris!

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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 …

Récemment

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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 …