Paris in winter

Sat 31 Jan 2009
Always hold allure for moi, is the country of France and its capital Paris. Having been a (bad) student of French in high school, I had traveled to France previously and made further efforts to learn their language… as I say to most, I am the best chance in French. Having hosted quite a few friends on my cat over the time had also assisted my learning. A couple of these were Zineb, a university student in Paris and Nico, teacher in Paris also.

Both of these guys welcomed me. Zineb had me at here place, a small 2 bedroom apartment in the North East of Paris. Getting about is always fast and easy in Paris on the Metro and I found her place with ease. She suggested that her English had become worse since returning from her year in Australia… The Brits would contend that she had not actually spoken English in Australia, but we know better. : )

I was immediately welcomed, the couchsurfing.com connections come to the fore. Also directly into action was Nico, who came across town to collect and then whisking me to various bars and music venues in Paris for my desired experience of Paris. Music and people.

Interestingly, it was at times difficult to get the most from Paris. An outing to intake a Picasso exhibition and the famous home of chill/lounge music the Buddha bar ended with a pretty poor result. At the exhibition out 9pm arrival found several hundred people standing in the near zero temperatures waiting to pay AU$30 to entrée, which crushed my will. The wander down to the Buddha Bar was met with a disinterested guy on the door, thumbing his mobile with only the slighted attention informing us that our attire was not suitable for their bar, that was otherwise near EMPTY.

Not to worry about such things, we nearby bar rewarded with the smoothest, creamiest hot chocolate that I have ever experienced. All I could ask was for an authentic experience of Paris… and this is exactly what I got. Next time I will ensure that I return with good clothes, lots of folding stuff and at a toastie time of year.

Next stop Gourge, in the middle of country where Aussie friends from way back had purchased a old pub to renovate.