Aventures Parisiens (and anywhere else we end up)

Liberation

2006-06-24T03:33:00.000-07:00

Mesdames and messieurs, we are getting close, very close to being liberated. People are nervous and nearly delirious with the tension and excitement. The last major barriers to our libertation - the exams, they have been done and dusted and hopefully passed. The most common sentiment however is, do just enough to pass the exams and party!!!! So we are literally days and hours away from being freed and liberated, but we've started already....

Tomorrow night we are having our third fete, and we are weary if the flat will be able to cope with the masses again. Ah well it just will have to, but the no lights on the stairs could pose a bit of a problem. You see where we live is about to undergo €1 million refurbishment, and the second thing they've done is to start messing with the stair lights. So the concierge is going to have to brush up her electrical skills and repair it urgently

Wednesday night, was the Fete de la Musique. It's another one of these great french ideas, launced under the Mitterrand era in the 1980s (most of the good things in france date from mitterand's time - there again a load of the crap comes from the same time in French history). Nevertheless, away from french political history, the fete de la musique is held every 21st june to celebrate the summer solistice. Basically, there are hundreds of music concerts all over Paris, and then thousands more around France. Wednesday night was a Parisian drivers even worse nightmare, (their normal nightmare is just the thought of having to drive at all in Paris) as the police closed off certain roads, forget about others, so some drivers had to contend with hundreds of people blocking their path on what normally is one of the busiest boulevards in Paris (Boulevard St Germain). It was a really good night, just a pity that it was raining. The rain which decided to fall only on wednesday night, had disrupted our picnic on the pont des arts, and we had to come back to the appartment to watch the netherlands v. argentina match.

Rest of the week, just been exploring and trying to avoid thinking about doing sensible things such as cancelling bank accounts, thinking how i'm going to get all my stuff home, and also the sun burn has finally gone now, after a week. Let this be a lesson to everyone Irish - always, always, always suncream your knees, legs and ankles with a high factor suncream. If you forget, make sure your visit the chemist before it gets bad, and not two days later when you have to hobble to the chemist, and have shocked faces of chemists, who run to get the special bad sun burn cream (the way the chemist ran downstairs i thought i was about to have my feet amputated)

Only 4 sciences-po days left and only 3 weeks left in Paris. Where has Erasmus year gone folks?

My fellow guinness drinker in paris

2006-06-18T05:24:00.000-07:00

Well after supplying Beto with enough Guinness which should have lasted until....the last mexico game, here's the picture which i was made to promise to put on the blog so here we go (i'm getting not so bad at this technological malarky). Don't worry Beto, we've still got faith in Mexico going through to the next round!

Exam distractions

2006-06-18T04:57:00.000-07:00

The exams have crept up on us - literally two days to go, i know nothing and there's still 5hours of classes tomorrow, where i expect panicking teachers will quickly go over things that "might or might not" be on the exams. If you know anything about Franco-German relations or globalization this would be a good time to get in contact with me. On the plus side after 12 paris time on wednesday i'm free, and to borrow Sinéad's quotes i will have "veni, vidi, vici" Sciences-Po. There's only a few days left at the place (5 school days) and only a few more days left in Paris. Everyone is kinda leaving as soon as they can, thanks to the late finish, so it's all going to come to a sudden and abrupt end i fear.

So instead of studying / working we have adopted a policy of enjoying every last minute. So friday night, we squeezed past half of the Netherlands to get into a dutch bar to watch the Netherlands/ Cote d'Ivoire match with Auke, and a few other friends (mainly german) and then went back home exhausted, our energies sapped by earlier in the week events

As you all know i'm devoted to my studies. In fact i'm so devoted to my studies that i went with the rest of the german-irish-canadian-others gang to Fontainebleau. It was beautiful, and the picnic was quite nice too. Yesterday was another one of those nightmare days being irish. Our skin does not know what to do in sunlight, so whilst others were putting on factor 12 suncream, out came the factors 30 and 40 with us Anyway, i did a good job with the suncreaming, except i forget my knees, feet and ankles, and so since last night have taken on the painful lobster colour sun burn. Next time i venture outside i will bathe in suncream before leaving the appartment

One of the mysterious effects that the sunlight is having on the Irish (and other) erasmus students at Sciences-Po. Whenever the sun comes out, there comes this compulsion to jump into the nearest source of water whether it's a pool, puddle, duck pond, water fountain, or in this case Napoleon's water feature. We like to call it using our iniative. I'm sure Napoleon would call it something else....

Parisian summer melt

2006-06-15T13:46:00.000-07:00

Another week has passed before our eyes in Paris. And it was an extremely warm one. Never has so much deodorant and sun cream been used in such a short time. Been a fun time though, whenever we were not at Sciences-Po or doing sciences-po related activities. Saturday was really cool as we went to see the tennis at the French Open at Roland Garros, and we bravely sat through the heat to see John McEnroe (thank god he was in the final, we didn't recognise anyone else) and then saw the ladie's final on the big screen, in the huge court next door
Obviously, we were only too happy to let someone else play in the heat of last saturday where it reached 32c at one point (for all non-Irish readers this is extremely hot and never never is seen in Ireland)

Sunday, I was meant to be doing work for an exposé but in the good auld fashionned irish student way of sciences-po i looked for every way possible of avoiding doing the aforementioned exposé on the world's most boring subject (it went very badly, with the teacher informing me today i can barely speak french and can't work computers). Anyway, Beto invited us to the Mexico game in the Irish bar (where else). It was a very good evening, and brilliant way of avoidng work. The rest of the week has been spent doing work, worrying about exams and being annoyed with teachers in sciences-po. The good news is that the weather has cooled down, sciences-po is nearly finished, the workmen outside are nearly finished after 3 months and it's nearly the weekend.

End of Winter/Spring (finally)

2006-06-08T01:58:00.000-07:00

Finally, the summer has arrived in Paris. The clouds have all been banished somewhere else (according to the weatherman russia!). The only downside to all this sunny weather and warmth is that we are not able to enjoy it properly yet. Yes the vast majority of the students at Sciences-Po are still chained to their desks for at least another week (well fortnight if you are a dedicated fsoul and want to do really well in the exams) . Caoimhe is all happy - she was freed last night from her desk, and was then seen skipping along the footwalk, and singing in the shower. The builders outside our window are continuing to dig up the courtyard, at the current rate they should be in Dublin to link up with the port tunnel by Christmas! Our neighbours have come out of their winter hibernation and are now beginning to speak to us. In fact we are discovering more people live in 71 Rue des Saints-Peres than originally thought. The neighbour from upstairs chatted to me for a while yesterday so things are looking up (well she had been quite nice since she moved in at Christmas - apart from the odd 5 hours of bongo drumming on a saturday morning). Another thing about the sunny weather - everyone's going shopping too, so the queues are enormous, and not being helped by the waves of tourists now descending on the place. Ah well the summer's here folks..... (and hopefully it'll stay until at least we've finished sciences-po)

Bank Holiday 4 - the sequel

2006-06-05T03:19:00.000-07:00

Today we are enjoying the fourth bank holiday we have had since may 1st. I've gotta say i could get used to this french way of having a bank holiday every other week! Except today is a bit crazy. Last year the government said that pentecost monday was not going to be a bank holiday any longer. As you would expect the french loved the government for this, and have blatantly ignored that order, even the public services are treating today as a bank holiday (including sciences-po :-) ) Unfortunately, the builders are one of the few people to have followed the government's pleas and so they were busy this morning drilling, using a mini JCB moving muck and things at 7h45!

Weekend has been pretty cool - well we didn't do anything really except trying to avoid to do the work we were meant to do. Friday night, we spent on the Pont des Arts, and yesterday i spent trying to skate along the seine (put it this way, i would have given Inspecteur Closeau a run for his money, in the clumsyness stakes!)

Saturday night we spent trying to eat and drink. Our friend Norah had told us about this amazing vietnaminese restaurant near Place de la Bastille. So me, Caoimhe, and Megan went to the Opera house and were amazed by the fact we were early and the first to be there! Anyway, eventually others turned up and we went to find the restaurant. When we arrived we saw a group of people outside the door. Turns out that the 10/12 people were waiting patiently to get into the restaurant...and there were 10 of us. Believing that at that rate, we would finally get in the restaurant for sunday breakfast, we headed across the street to the Indian, served by the multilingual waiters, and had a very good curry.

Next, we meet up with our friend Eoin and his french date for the evening (and she had brought her group of 4 friends with her on the date) and went for a drink. The place we found after much searching, was served by one of the meanest and most bad tempered waitresses in the whole of Paris, who shouted at us, gave us evil looks when we tried to order the cheap options, and at one point even managed to drop a chair on someone's foot (the group of 10 were not amused). In the customary Parisian style, the place started to empty at 12h30 - the last metro. A time when you saw parisians of all ages running to the nearest metro station, to try and catch the last metros (we are getting it down to a fine art - you have to be in chatelet at 12.55 or else you're walking). Just as we were leaving the fine drinking establishment, Norah who had decided to stay and wait for the brilliant vietnaminese food, came in. She had waited 3hrs to get into the restuarant, and was on the point of gnawing her arm off in hunger when they finally managed to get in at 11.30.

Monoprix

2006-05-31T06:48:00.000-07:00

Yes folks, after 7 months here Monoprix finally get it's own entry, because Monoprix has today reached new depths. For all of those you out there that are lucky enough not to have been acquainted with Monoprix St Germain-des-Pres, Monoprix is our supermarket, where you can expect a traditional parisian welcome followed by half an hours queue for one of the tills (they have 12 check-outs, but only open 4 at a time)

Today, things did not go well. Firstly, there were deranged children running around the place with their cute but lethal small trolleys. Then, the frozen food stuff was half de-frosted by the time we got to check-out. This is where the real fun began. There were 4 people in front of us, and the woman two places ahead just had a box of cornflakes and a bottle of milk. We thought great, we'll be no time. Except, this woman was going to pay for cornflakes and milk at a total of €2.50 with a €500 note. The cashiers at Monoprix, like at most parisian shops, go mad if you don't pay the exact change. So when the cashier saw the €500 note, she was not in the best of moods. Anyway, eventually one of the managers came and checked the said bill/note, found it to be authentic, and the queue eventually moved up. (The tail backs were now reaching into the women's underwear and bra department, and some mothers were not keen on their children being in this jungle) Next, came the lady with American Express - an easy, everyday card to pay for things....how wrong she was. Today Monoprix's tills are refusing all American Express cards, so there was another delay again, with the Cashier not believing her luck, and mentally cursing every god know in the universe. (meanwhile, we were being entertained at the adjoining check-out by a parisian losing his patience (and probably his mind) in the next queue, sympthasing with the cashier whilst shouting why where there not more check outs open. Returning to our check out, eventually the cashier started to process our things, but before she started, she sighed, then smiled and went "you don't have AmEx or €500 notes do you?". I loved her - she thought me and Caoimhe were rich enough to have American Express or €500 notes to do our shopping. I think it's time we all re-entered the real non-Monoprix world.

Only 17 days left in Sciences-Po - thank god ! (minus weekends, unknown holidays, and yet more jour feries / bank holidays - j'adore la france)

Only 35 days left in Paris - boo - that's not good!

Tour de Monet

2006-05-28T05:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was meant to be the best day of the week (according to the weather service). All week long they had promised that Saturday there would not be a cloud in the sky (though it turns out the BBC in London is better at predicting the weather for Paris than Météo France). So Laura, our German friend was kind enough to plan a trip to Giverny, where Monet lived and where his beautiful gardens are.

Our train was meant to leave at 12h04, and in true style we arrived at 11h56 at Gare St Lazare (Laura was smiling away - she must have been there far earlier, but she has learnt that the Irish at Sciences-Po are not the best in the world for time keeping) . Anyway, Caoimhe, Podge, Marie, Evan, Laura, Nina, Javier and myself duly got on the train, which was packed. We thought nothing of this thinking that there are big towns on this line and its saturday. When 45 minutes later we arrived at the small town, we thought we would be the only ones to get off the train. How wrong we were - the masses got off the train, and headed for the buses, taxis, bicycles and anything they could find to Giverny. We found ourselves some bikes, had a mini tour de France, pick nicked, queued 45mins to get into the house and gardens, but it was all well worth it. I've never been anywhere so tranquil. Even the hyper children seemed to be calmed by all the flowers and waters. We think Evan and Marie have finally unmasked the reason for all those long brush strokes in Monet's paintings- he would fall asleep in his lovely garden with his paint brush in hand, and hence the long downward brush strokes.

The most striking thing of the day was the friendliness of the people. This town is only 45mins outside Paris, but the people were friendly and polite, and it restored our faith in french people, but not necessarily parisians. A great day, and it was easy to keep track of each other last night - all the non-Irish people were tired, but that was all. The Irish contignent were tired as well, except we had saumon coloured pink necks, arms and faces from sun burns (and weren't we proud of it!). Especially me - well my skin doesn't see the sun that often!!

End of term madness

2006-05-19T17:31:00.000-07:00

As great as the title sounds, this week (there are still 4/5 weeks left, depending on who you ask) is the beginning of the mad level of work that has crept upon us. Everyone is spending most of their mornings, afternoons and evenings inside, stuck to their desks when the sun is out (well i lie - it's actually been quite cloudy here this week). But it's Paris, life is too short, and so the work can wait...well that's what i was saying for the last eight weeks so maybe i'd better do something this weekend.

So it's the Cannes festival, and the french news likes to highlight french culture (especially at the weekend when there's no news to report), so this has been a packed week of cultural news. This week's highlight is the Da Vinci Code, for those of you who missed "20 heures" with Patrick or David this week. There is also the new Almodovar film. Last night on the TF1 news, the newsreader was about to ask Penólope Cruz about the new film. Now this man (Patrick) is highly respected and is meant to be one of the modern masters of the french language. So Penólope pops up the screen says bonsoir, and he goes back Bonsoir "penlop cruiez". She starts smiling and thinks there is a mix-up and that he's actually wanting to interview someone called Penlop. Then the translator gets in the act and translates for her bonsoir, penólope cruz and bascially the whole interview falls apart live on national tv. I love this country!! especially their language now that i've finally got to grasps with it!

By the way for all of you watching the rugby tomorrow- Munster rules!!!

2006-05-10T03:26:00.001-07:00

Finally got the photos developped here in Paris. The weather has taken a nose dive and Paris has re-entered the month of november, with everyone running to the presses to dig out the coats and umbrellas we thought we had seen the back off.

Caoimhe and Fiona on one of the main streets in Moscow towards the Kremlin. Everyone told us the name of this street many times. Did Caoimhe and Neil remember the name...?

The blog reporters in front of St Basil's, in Red Square

Caoimhe and Anna get a fright when we bump into some Americans in a Dacha

Caoimhe looks for her socialist inspiration and tries to find Lenin's tomb.

Hold on lads, who is taking the picture?

Moscow and Parisian manners

2006-05-07T11:52:00.000-07:00

Moscow has to be one of the coolest cities in the world. I love the place. The six days there have to have been the six quickest days ever. We crammed in Red Square, St Basil's, the Puskin museum, nearly getting caoimhe married in the tourist market, spending an evening with US Marine Corps, and meeting the greatest taxi drivers in the world - anyone who wants a taxi in Moscow needs to get Fiodyr. I'll put the photos up on tuesday. Why tuesday? Because tomorrow is victory day 1945, France is having the second of it's four bank holidays in the next month. I love French bank holidays! Also my faith in parisians has been restored. Tonight we decided to have a picnic in the park, and several parisians stopped by us and wished us Bon Appetit. So there at least a few people in this city with some manners. Unfortunately teachers in our college are not included. They made us sit a four hour mock exam yesterday afternoon. Even though it was the saturday afternoon of a bank holiday weekend. To make things even worse they have also messed up the exam timetable, and moved the exams to the week, everyone thought we had off and had holidays booked for. C'est la France!

P.s. Thanks a million to Fi, Anna, Lui, Catherine, Olya (for the use of her room), Josh and everyone in Moscow, who made it such a great trip. I certainly won't forget it!

Strike Report

2006-04-05T12:00:00.000-07:00

Will the crise de CPE ever be resolved? That is what most foreign students are asking themselves in Paris this week, because to be quite honest, i doubt it ever will. Jacques made a good speech last friday - after we stopped laughing at him in his glasses and the marsellaise playing over him. Basically the government caved in and gave the protestors about 90% of their demands - employers will have to give a reason why you were sacked, and also the trial period has been cut from 2 years to a year. Caoimhe and me thought that was great and the union leaders would agree as they would in any country anywhere. Except France is not like any other country and the union leaders were furious calling it unacceptable and completely incomprehensible (a bit like our reaction of them). Anyway there was the second national strike yesterday, but it was not as big as last weeks, but it still manages to cause some chaos. Plus there was some rioting in the Place d'Italie where a man was kicked in the head

So to kick our heals, (and to avoid doing any work), we've being going out a bit to explore the real (le vrai) paris. Last friday we took a trip to the Marais area, which was very good. Except to go through the Marias, we went down the Rue St Denis, where we meet Paris' 50 year old prostitutes...then we ended up in a gay bar, where a few of the customers made a few suggestions which we'll discuss another time. Other parisian news - our friend Givi is heading for Erin's green shores this weekend - well he's going to Dublin so if anyone has any ideas on what we can suggest he does, speak now.

La Fheile Padraig i bParis

2006-03-24T08:44:00.000-08:00

So it's your country's national day, it's Caoimhe and my 21st week, Marie's birthday is the same week - so obviously it was going to be party time. I didn't think it was humanely possible to fit 35 people into our flat, but i'm glad to say i was proved wrong. Indeed we had enough room to have a ceili and have germans and dutch doing reels and jigs at 4am in the morning. Obviously our neighbours were delighted by the celebration! - but seriously they were very nice considering the amount of noise - U2 playing at full volume in the middle of the night is not a regular occurrence in these parts!

Anyway here's some photos
(p.s. on strike news, news is officially we are on strike. there was a meeting last monday to decide if we are to blockade the campus - we're still waiting to hear what the outcome was!)

Caoimhe being very patriotic and a very good host again

This poor stranger from a place called Grenoble came up - we took pity on her!! Thanks for coming up Aisling. I'll get down to Grenoble soon!

Caoimhe's friends Sinéad and Maria with yours truly - we had a difficult day trying to track down a birthday cake - let's just say parisians haven't grasped the word birthday cake yet!

Marie with our friend Givi from Georgia - at times we thought we were in a mini-meeting of the UN. At the last count we had people from Australia, Germany, France, England, US, Canada, Italy, Sweden, Netherlands, Georgia, Switzerland. Got to say the English were very good sports - wearing tricolours and shamrock, and my supply of guinness made it's way around various people. All this week, we had people saying how they want to visit Ireland, so Bord Fáilte should be paying us commission.

The famous 4am ceili with Caoimhe and Marie your leaders for the night - unfortunately the DJ from Donegal failed to have ceili music on his laptop, so all this dancing was done to Lord of the Dance and Riverdance on a loop for about 40 minutes :-) The lads began to leave then - i think it was the first time some had seen 5am for a while, and then there were those who stayed in the night Chez Caoimhe et Neil, because they lived in the suburbs, were using the flat as a waiting room for the first metro, or because they couldn't go nowhere else!

When did the word greve changed its meaning from strike

2006-03-20T15:55:00.000-08:00

Hey so we both woke up this morning, full of hope and confidence that our prayers had been answered and the Sciences-Po had gone on strike and been blockaded. Last friday, there had been a huge meeting and they had decided to decided today monday, whether to blockade the campus or not. This morning, we woke up and found out that we were on strike :-)

Except this is Sciences-Po Paris, and when we strike here, we still go to classes and give in homework, and basically do everything we normally do except we are on "strike". They were voting again today to decided whether or not to blockade the campus. As of yet, we still have no result, even though the vote began 10 hours ago!

Apart from that, it was raining today in Paris so to brighten up the post, and in honour of the fact i've finally worked out how to post photos here's a picture of the city hall in Manchester last week

(Paddy's day pictures are being developed and we'll put them up soon - hopefully :-) )

Can you spot where we were on friday?

2006-03-20T15:49:00.000-08:00

St Patrick's Day

2006-03-19T13:59:00.000-08:00

17th March 2006 - one of the best days ever! Paris was recovering from a nasty hangover from the rioting at the Sorbonne and the chaos, and us from a feast until 4am. But we spent the day celebrating Caoimhe's birthday and getting ready for the St Patrick's Day / Birthday party! (Also squeezed in a trip to the Louvre with Caoimhe's very nice friends) Anyway, the party was a great success. We had english people wearing tricolours, germans doing reels at 4am and dutch people baking us cakes.

Coming soon to a town near you - a government minister looking for a holiday

2006-03-15T12:55:00.000-08:00

So it was the birthday weekend, and so i went to england, because that was as far as my family would travel - well my dad refuses to travel any further than England. So i was in Manchester for the 21st weekend. So we went to mass on sunday in the Irish centre, because it's an aifreann as gaelige time. So everything went grand, until the Minister of Tourism himself, John O'Donoghue turned up and bored everyone half to death with a speech on the rising...in front of the mayor of Manchester. But during one moment i was awake, he said that ministers are going all over the world to promote ireland, get a cheap holiday and bore foreign audiences half to death. So moscow enjoy the attorney general, and spain has someone, germany will have someone.

so all of the french universities have gone on strike....except sciences-po. we're the only college in france still open, but the authorities are worried that the campus will be stormed by other students so we have to show our student cards to get in the place, and they've only one door open at the moment. all the buses around us have been diverted because the strikers are blocking the routes at the sorbonne, so basically we are not gaining a lot from the strikes.

April showers and cartoon obsessions

2006-03-09T10:27:00.000-08:00

I know we moaned when it was a wee bit cold, but i take it all back. It seems like it has done nothing but rain for most of this week - it feels like being home with all the dampness, radiators on to dry things...

Sorry not posted in a while, but with a week holidays after the exams, things were a bit quiet - mostly because we weren't . Started the new term (boo), and i think i could be in some trouble. You see, i thought i would be brave and daring, and try to do a history course in spanish on the spanish civil war. This is despite the fact that i have not done any spanish in at least eight months. So i arrived at class today, and i am surrounded by native speakers speaking at native speed in paris with the other language being french... so i'm going to have fun!!

So whats new in France...err there are big protests at universities around France because of a new law which is meant to solve youth unemployment from the age of 15 called the CPE. But this being la France there is a catch - you can be fired at any time and for no reason. So there was a million people protesting in Place de la Republique including Caoimhe (don't worry she hasn't be turned into a communist by France - but she did get soaked (by the rain) and thought there had been an explosion when she came out from the metro when she saw all the smoke from the flares and people running, their scarfs around their mouths (they turned out to be anarchists).

we also meeting the friendly parisians (and most of the obnxious ones especially in the supermarkets) Take today for example, caoimhe saw a man with a handlebar moustache, an libanian who promised to teach her how to belly dance, a woman who insisted on making her own queue in the supermarket! I met 200 screaming and medical students away from the riot police and banging all the windows of the bus (the man on the bus just shrugged and smirked - les étudiants) , a shop assistant who really didn't want to serve anyone, and a man who insisted that he had been in the queue, when he really had been in the corner reading comics and his wife had just called him home for dinner (comic books her are for both men and women of all ages - they are obsessed with japanese cartoons!)

Exams

2006-02-21T13:00:00.000-08:00

Well we're nearly half way through exams week, and so far I think i've survived. Had sustainable development exam, which went ok (never thought i would be so grateful for nuclear power but i am, especially since i had to do my exposé on it). Only slight problem is i've forgotten to do the whole sciences-po sub partie nonsense, so i may have failed. The three of us are all looking forward to thursday with the french political life under the fifth republic exam - so many things he can ask - de gaulle, mitterrand, chirac. However, me and caoimhe are especially looking forward to thurday, as we're finished, and after probably painting the town red, we're going home for 10 days!! For those interested in the weather, Paris has definitely taken on an irish feel - grey, cloudy, cold, drizzle - a bit of snow or sun wouldn't go amiss!

P.s. the saga with the bank here continues. For those of you who don't know the horror story of french banking here we go.

Once upon a time, an irishman in paris decided to open a bank account. He went for this particular bank because being a former state bank he thought it would be a good service, and there always seemed to be people in there ( he later found out why). So in he went, filled his forms, went through the several air lock doors to deposit his money. He waited for a few days for his credit card and cheque book but they never arrived. He went back, found out that in france, you have to go to your bank to collect these things, and especially for him they had two cards and two cheque books. Unfortunately, the donegal man not being the multi-millionaire they hoped he was, the bank said they would destroy the surplus. In the new year, he got a present of a €40 charge for not having collected the surplus cheque book and card the bank had promised to destroy. Worse than that, the irishman in paris was a wee bit short after the christmas festivities, so when they deducted forty euro he was in the red, and they charged him for that too. (To be fair they did give me my money back, and said my french had improved. this was after i having to make an appointment to meet my bank advisor a week later. except today the post office sent me a letter asking when was i going to them to pick up the cheque book the credit lyonnais has sent me.......vive la france :-)

Munich

2006-02-08T03:47:00.000-08:00

So it's nearing the end of the semester and we're winding down, kicking our heels, so last night, me, caoimhe, marie (the third euro stud here in Paris) and our dutch friend auke decided to go to the cinema and watch Munich. We were kinda tired and worn out when we went and thought the film would be sad but redeeming and a wee bit relaxing. Three hours later, after enduring the violence and complete sense of there's no hope in the world, we headed to a bar to try and achieve some of that relaxation we thought the film would give us. I mean seeing a woman the same age as your granny giving someone orders to assasinate people, is not what you expect on a tuesday night!! (p.s. if anyone visits soon, and sees us checking the beds and phones don't worry - we're just slightly paranoid after the film!!!)

Ireland v. Italy

2006-02-04T08:56:00.000-08:00

well we're just back from the match with beto - we went to corcoran's - yes aisling has managed to open a pub in paris whilst studying in grenoble! so being an irish pub we expected to be surrounded by familar faces, or at least an irish crowd. how wrong we were - we were beside several french fans supporting italy, and then after we had won , the french left and nearly (and i mean millimetres here) from spilling a glass of red wine all over Caoimhe's pure white jeans. And then when we left, as the english/welsh match started, "shut the door, mate!" - what a great place to watch an english match - in an irish pub. Ah well that's Paris for ya!!

Freezing February

2006-02-03T10:58:00.000-08:00

hey, so we are not great with keeping up with the blog. Never mind none of this moaning about cold spanish cities, or lessons in petrozavodsk - you ought to be in the city of light, which is currently the city of freezing`siberian temperatures, (well when Beto says its cold then it's cold), and we have finally just finished a mountain of assignments - we are now world experts in the french constitutional council, nuclear power plants, chechyna and the extreme right, so if you ever want to know anything about these things...we'll give you the books.

No paris is grand - the parisians are being their usual cheerful and happy selves. Well they are less gloomy today, as the school holidays have started in paris, and all the parents in paris are taking their kids down Grenoble / Alps direction, and the sales are still on, with -50% (well the corner shops haven't decreased much - Prada and Yves St Laurent are still asking 100s for a scarf (what we would give for a centra or topshop right now!).

We've not done that much exploring since christmas (well i went to Cologne for the weekend) - but in fact the weekly trip to monoprix was close to being one week's big trip, but that period is long gone. We've a week's holiday, then exam week and then week off, and Ireland's playing France next saturday in Paris, so that will be good craic, if we finally decide which pub to go to!

New Year

2006-01-18T10:50:00.000-08:00

So everyone else was blogging, why not in Paris as well. For all of those you who were waiting on emails, i apologize. the last few weeks have been a bit busy especially since college started back the 2nd January (ahh!!). But we've been have some fun here, especially last weekend when Aisling, and Fiona were here (and Beto found the flat). Amazing how quickly the time is going. Tomorrow, we have to go to a two hour talk about the second semester options, and then choose next tuesday!!