Nuit Blanche!

Ta dah!!!!!

Another blog entry for you all, sorry it’s been so long in the coming, I’ve just been sooo busy entertaining Australian visitors and starting my language course. Tonight I am meeting up with Lauren Southern in Paris for dinner and am sooo excited! It will be great to see her here, I wanted to go visit her in London when she lived there, but it didn’t happen, so it's lovely to have her come here!

About 2 weeks ago I saw Natalie again, we went up to Montmartre again, Kelli joined us later for Nutella crepes! I must say I was a little bit disappointed with mine, the man had folded up my crepe and just slopped Nutella on top! Not rolled in it...totes stingy!! So that’s a bit of advice...get your Nutella crepe take away as they have to fold the Nutella into the crepe! AKA ask the black guy in the little window to do it, his are ze best!

I have been to church here a couple of times, they are soo friendly there, and it's nice too because it feels a bit like home, I guess it’s just being surrounded by people that feel the same as me and worshipping altogether singing about God, I'm looking forwards to this coming wknd too as I'll be going again! It's cute, they have a luncheon each Sabbath, and everyone brings what they can-typical sevvy food! Poor people though as there is only 2 little microwaves to warm everything up. It's incredible though because although it doesn’t look like there is lots of food, it goes a long way! You just have to beware of this one older Madagascar guy!!! He always comes over to talk to Kelli and I, and I mean SPIT more like it, you have to hold your plate far far away from him or else you end up with his food on your plate, very gross!! Don't get me wrong he is very nice, but he doesn’t know when to leave you alone and to have conversations with other people!

Last week when we were at church there was also another Australian family visiting from Cannes, they sounded oh so Australian! I think it's more so where they were from, different lingo!

Speaking about Australians, I met up with my friend Emily from Perth and her boyfriend Reece last week at Galleries Lafayette for a spot of shopping, it's huge there and very expensive. If you want to buy Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci, this is the place for you! Unfortunately it doesn’t seem the place for me, unless I get a rich boyfriend that wants to take me shopping! hehe

Last week I started my French course at La Clef, it's such a great place to do classes as all of the girls in my class are soo nice, especially 4 in particular, on the first day we formed our friendship! And since then we have been hanging out heaps. Classes are going well, it was quite tricky at the beginning as the teacher only speaks in French, I was thinking to myself 'How on earth am I meant to learn the language when she doesn’t even explain what she is saying!!!' It seems to me that it's just how it goes! She's great as she does actions to help get the point a bit. Yesterday we had to take in a sort of show and tell for the class then they would ask us questions in French about it and we had to respond in French! I took in a finger puppet of a Koala and Kangaroo that I had given my kids here and talked about them! My friend Sarah made a robot out of biscuit boxes and coke cans! Hilarious!

Saturday just gone I thought it best to sleep in as long as possible as I knew I had a big night ahead of me! Me and the girls from class caught the very last 12.20 am train into Paris to go to Nuit Blanche, it's an event that happens once a year, it means white knight, meaning night with no sleep! There are certain places around Paris that have light, video or art exhibitions, so our aim was to see as many as we could. A very fun night although we barely saw any Nuit Blanche! We saw about 2 exhibits in total! We started the night at the Arc de Triomph and walked all the way down to the Eiffel Tower to be greeted by one big giant dark tower!!! So disappointing as I have stated a couple of times on facebook and pictures! lol It turns out that the tower lights get turned off at 1 am, too bad if you’re a tourist one night and just miss out, lucky I can go back, but I was really looking forwards to it as it was my first time at the tower!

After the tower with no lights, we walked to Notre Dame in St Michel, hoping to see some more exhibits as that’s a main area for attractions. It took us about 2 hours! That Seine is longer than it looks on the map! Yes we did walk quite slow and stop along the way, but I must say that the smell of urine along the way makes it easy to try walk faster! That's one of the bad things in Paris, they don't provide many public toilets, and if they do they are locked! So the street it is for a many! (not me)

 

Along the way we came across a cute red English scooter so thought it necessary to hop on and take photos! Then when we were at a gorgeous bridge this random Mexican guy came up, put down his money pot and put on his hat and started dancing and singing to all of us! Us being poor aupairs with no money told him we had no money, he just kept dancing so we walked off, not a very agreeable man as he kicked the plastic bottle at us!

Might I add that whilst I'm writing this I am eating my 2nd yogurt... I now love yogurt!!!

Back to the story!

After the dancing man we walked and walked and walked and walked!!! We did have all night so what was the rush? It's funny how many times I have been asked directions since I’ve been living here; do I look like a regular around these areas? I don’t know, but at the Louvre we got asked by some New Zealanders which way the Eiffel Tower was, then by some French guys! Lucky for them we knew! haha

Along the way to St Michel we went past the tunnel where Princess Di died, it was lovely reading all of the nice things people wrote about her on the marble wall. Gorgeous memorial they have designed.

Once in St Michel we saw Notre dame in all it's dark glory (like the Eiffel) with people dancing to bongos down on the banks of the Seine. Sadly we couldn't find many more exhibits so resolved ourselves to finding a cafe, it was only 4.30 am after all!!! But after a long search and not finding any cafes with coffee under 8 Euros we decided to just go into a cafe, find somewhere quite and doze!

Once nearly morning we went to pass another hour by in the metro station...waiting for Mc Donald’s to open for our breakfast of mini pancakes and strong coffee! Once breakfast had satisfied us, we needed to pass another 2 hours until the museums had opened, as it was the first Sunday of the month all the museums where free. I looked up opening hours of Notre Dame church on my phone and saw that a service was starting at 8.30, so it was off to mass we went! Quite amazing being in there, I couldn’t help thinking I was actually in Notre Dame! Some of the girls used this as another chance to doze! The sound was amazing with organs playing and the lady singing hymns,

 it was beautiful inside too.

It was then time to go to the Louvre and see special Mona Lisa!!! Can't believe I saw the Mona Lisa! I couldn’t stop thinking of the Mr. Bean movie where he takes the painting hostage! It's incredible how small the painting is compared to what I’d imagined. The castle is so gorgeous and huge, I sometimes wish I could have lived in that era and not just been a tourist. It's all so over the top ornate with great attention to detail, it's true they don't make buildings like they used to. I need to go back to the Louvre as I barely saw any of it, we did sneak in a nap on the garden lawns though! Was great not to get kicked off the grass this time!

In exactly 14 days I'm going to Spain to visit my friend Belen! It will be so nice to see her again and celebrate my 22nd birthday there! Let's see how they do it Spanish style!!!

Well I think I’ve written your eyes off for now, until next time!

xxx

Its been a while!

Wow I just realised that it's actually been a while since I last wrote on here, but you know, Ive been accumilating a lot more things to be able to write about!

So I finally met the children, although I feel like I have already written this all on here (maybe it didnt get posted) or maybe Ive told this a few times already plus written it in my diary! Again for fun :)

They are really cute when they are happy! But isnt that like all children, they have a bit of a canadian accent as their last aupair was from Canada and they learnt to speak english with her, I wonder if they will have little Australian accents when I'm finished here! That would be funny, maybe ill have a mini french twing to the sound of my english spoken words- you can all be the judge of that!

Back to the children...We are getting into a real routine and getting used to the daily activities of Morgane whether it be Pony Club or swimming or Jeudo for Lucas, they have a bigger social life than me at the moment haha Lucas gives the biggest hugs and kisses on the cheek and is obsessed with flowers! He is always picking them, even though he is onlly alowed to pick the weedy yellow ones! If he got to pick all the pretty ones there would be none left! I think he is going to be a real ladies man!

Morgane is great at drawing, crying and whining! :S It drives me crazy some days but just have to move on and threaten that there will be no cartoons that night if she keeps carrying on like that! lol Its  a great threat, it works a charm :) I bought over some cool activity cards that we make little arty things, she loves that and always keeps her busy.

Last week my friend Natalie was visiting from Perth! We had a great time and went to the Chanel store...gorgeous! Then headed to the nicest cafe I have ever eaten at, it was called Cafe Angelina, very posh! It cost like 30 euro for just 2 desserts and 2 drinks! But worth it as my dessert had gold on it!!!

Then we went up the Tour Montpernasse which had a 360° view of Paris and faces directly to the Eiffle Tower...unfortunatly I didnt have my good camera so my photos arent that great, ill have to go again I think! Which one of you would like to come?

Then that night on the way home we took the wrong train and had to wait something like 30 minutes to get back where we needed to be! The next day we went shopping in St Germaine En Laye and had yum crepes for lunch then headed to Paris for drinks with new friends we made from Travelex!

Since then the guy from Travelex got fired! And the other one Harold his friend asked me out! Dont worry, i'm still single!

Oh heres some shocking news that you will all think is typical of the French... On sunday I was having a lovely day to myself in St Germaine, I had walked around the shops which had closed (I didnt know they closed at 1 pm on Sundays) so then after quickly buying my new Le Coq Sportif shoes  I headed to the castle gardens to enjoy my Jodi Picoult novel, I found a lovely quite place under a tree that had spikes like Jesus crown of thorns and thought to myself that this would be my new place that I would come and relax in whenever I felt like beling along. 1.5 hours later I see a man all official walking towards me, and in french he starts blabbering something and pointing....so I quickly figure out that I am not alowed to be on the grass!!!!

He tells me I have to go sit on the park bench! Soooo not as relaxing, and seeing as I was a bit down in the first place this silly little thing just made me cry! I didnt understand because not far away there was lots of people laying on the grass! So the Jesus spikes tree was forbidden for me, and there went my relaxing place!
I thought 'This wouldnt happen in Australia!!!!!'

Often when I'm driving the car or on the train or walking through the shops I like to just watch people, you can spot the true Parisian by the clothes they wear and how they wear them, I am yet to see someone wearing a béret! Maybe when it hits winter, ill keep you posted on that point. There is one man in particular actually up in Montmartre that is a painter and wears white pants with paint splashes everywhere, an oversized 80's jacket with the sleeves pushed up and his shirt sleeves coming out...he is actually wearing a beret!!! haha 'me paint for you' is what he says everytime :)

It's true there are lots and lots of smokers! On Saturday I was at Le Grand Arch in La Defence and just on the 70 steps below there would have been hundreds of cigarette butts! It horrible, they cant seem to go without! The french people are actually very helpful, I usually ask them the question in french and they figure out from my accent and lack of depth in my question that I speak english, so they continue to help in english :)

I have been trying to learn some more french vocab this week as I sit my language course in 2 weeks to determine my level, I dont want to start at the bottom again so am trying to cram :)

Parlez vous a bientot <3

Catch Up

Today is a day to meet with Australians!

I am meeting Skip for coffee this afternoon as he flies in and flies out later in the afternoon; so that will be lovely to catch up. He will probably want to speak as much french as possible...too bad im very rusty!
Where Im meeting up with him is where the tallest building in France is- the Tour Monterpenasse! They think 53 stories is high! Gosh they need to take a look at the Eureka building!!! Ill go up the french tower when the weather is a bit better as the view is amazing, you can see the Eiffel tower directly and gardens below.

After meeting with Skip im meeting with my new friend Kelli for the afternoon and dinner at a vegetarian restaurant she knows. It's actually quite easy not eating meat here, easier than I expected! You just need to understand parts of the menu lol

Surprisingly I have been here over a week and still havnt met the little munchkins! They have been away with some family friends out in Normandy where the man theyre visiting is a photographer for the horse races and the kids love going with him. So we are going to pick them up tomorrow morning and stay in a nice B&B on Saturday night and eat at a traditional french restaurant for dinner...luckily my hosts can translate for me as also none of the people we are seeing speak a word of english!!!

Yesterday on my bike ride I was so in awe, the houses around these suburbs are just so amazing, there are barely any words to describe them, some have 5 stories, castle like looking, mysterious etc Next time im there I will take pictures because theyre incredible! Nothing like them in Australia sorry!

Did I mention getting stuck in the metro station the other day!? Once I had reached Charles de Gaulle station on the train my ticket wouldnt work to get me through the next section and seeing as the information desk was through the gate, I was totally stuck! So I looked up my french handbook and tried scrambling a sentence together to speak to the man through the emergency help button! The problem is that because I told him in french my ticket wouldnt work, he responded in french what to do! So I just started hoping for the best and spoke english then...I think he just gave up on me because he just buzzed the gate open for me!

It will be great to finally start my french lessons end of September, then in instances like above I will be dandy! Just have to complete a test first to determine a level :s

Next time I write I can tell you about the children, they sound so cute! And apparently Morgane has drawn me lots of pictures already!

First experiences!

Bonjour!!!!
It is amazing here, just so beautiful, so surreal that i have finally made it here! The people have actually been very friendly, although I would find it a lot easier to be fluent in the language, as I have been lost already and stuck in the train station not knowing where to go! haha

The desserts are incredible! I love just looking at them, its hard to not buy them all! I had a really yummy baguette the other day that had mozarella, tomatos, lettuce and pesto in an olive baguette! Its great because theyre everywhere!!!

And i dont have to worry about getting fat from the baguetts and cheese because i pretty much walked from one side of paris to the other on Friday! My feet where paying for it, but totally worth it!

The Sacre Couer was really nice, and thankgoodness I wanted to go up to the top of the dome because there was a freaky middle aged french man being a bit friendly, luckily he didnt want to pay the 5 euro!!! Im sad to say I didnt get to eat a nutella crepe, but my handbag was worth the sacrifice.

Today I drove for the first time! I only clipped the curb once! Its quite tricky getting used to the other side of the car and road, but quite fun at the same time. Evelyne showed me where the children go to school- it is gorgeous! I also have to give my fingerprints so that I can pick the children up- only those with their prints registered can get through the gate! Privileged!

Thats all for now!

xoxo

Visa!

Yesterday I saw the postman arriving and thought maybe today is the day...so I ran down to meet him and he had a big envelope for me! It was my passport with my new Visa in it!!!!

I am so relaxed and happy now as every single little detail is complete! Now I just have to pack my suitcase and get on that plane :-) But not without having my goodbye party dinner in 2 weeks. It's going to be kind of sad but the beggining of a new adventure.

Only 3 weeks to go!!!!!

P.S Click on follow on the left to keep up to date with me

Finished & Finalised!!!!

Yesterday I flew to Sydney with my Dad and had my appointment with the French Embassy for my visa appointment, I was a bit nervous and couldnt really look forwards to my holiday in NSW until that appointment was over~!

I'm so happy to say that the French man was very nice to me and said I had everything perfect! So I shall be getting my visa sent in the post very very soon! Now all I have to do is wait for the 17th August to come around, and all my hard work has paid off :-)

Now I'm enjoying my last holiday in NSW with great friends and enjoying delicious food, especially my old thai restaurant I frequented nearly twice a week in 2008!!

The final countdown!!!!

I'm very proud to announce that I have finally completed all of my paperwork in order to get my visa! It was such a relief to have it all laid out on the dining table- makes your realise how much work really went into it!

On Thursday morning I'm flying to Sydney with Dad and have my appointment with the French Embassy...fingers and toes crossed that I have done everything to perfection!

Oh my goodness!!!! -> Just on about 5 and a half weeks to go!!!!!!!