The Louvre

So… still on Christmas Eve (I told you we did a lot that day – we walked 12 miles!), Kimberly and I took a trip to the Louvre. I thought I’d been very clever by ordering tickets in advance…

Until we discovered that we had to collect said tickets from a place 20 minutes walk away! UGH! You try walking past a million of these bakeries and tell me how you enjoy that.

It was no good, we had to stop off for crepes.

And hot chocolate.

Om nom nom.

When we finally made it back… we did actually miss the enormous queue to be fair… but my feet were unhappy.

We finally got in.

And then I was a really shameful art tourist.

And only went to see…

The famous pieces of art…

Really though I was setting myself up for disappointment, the anti climax of seeing the Mona Lisa…

Or the Venus De Milo…

Behind vast swathes of tourists of which I am one. But it wasn’t all bad.

I saw some pretty weird stuff there too.

Notre Dame

Check out these lovely Christmas cakes every bakery in Paris had in their windows.

So good, anyways in my last post I was talking about what we did in Paris on Christmas Eve, we ALSO went to Notre Dame (we did so much that day).

It was really nice, I like how it looks different to other cathedrals.

And they had a nice statue of Joan of Arc, they had another in Versailles too actually come to think of it.

And the glass was absolutely stunning, I adore stained glass. In one of my family’s old houses there were two matching stain glass windows of sail boats I used to like until my step-mother covered them up with matching bookcases. Ho hum.

And this is the back of Notre Dame.

Notre Dame is very close to where people leave padlocks with lovers names on, we saw at least two bridges and lots of fences with padlocks on but the government has started to take some of the panels of the bridges down because the locks could be dangerous to the structure of the bridges because of the added weight. So we left our padlock here off a stone wall just in case so it wasn’t removed.

Arc De Triomphe, Christmas Market & Nutcracker

This is a long post because we packed in loads this day. Kim and I started off at the Arc De Triomphe but we decided not to go up because… you know… stairs.

I had read that every year from the Arc De Triomphe down the Champs Elysees they ran a Christmas Market so we headed off past all the shops towards it which was such a nice walk.

And then we got to the market itself, there were all sorts of hand crafted things there and different gifts and souvenirs to buy.

It was cold and busy but nice to browse.

My favourite part was all the different food stalls though, they sold all sorts.

I bought this delicious hot dog that had cheese already inside it – best ever!

And we got some mulled wine (vin chaud).

And then we continued onwards! It was a long old walk, and it was cold and a little bit rainy.

At the end of the market was this big ferris wheel, which we would have gone on except a certain friend of mine (who shall remain nameless – you know who you are!) told me that in a romantic trip to Paris she had… uhh… “pleasured” her beloved on said ferris wheel. So thanks for that nameless friend, ruined that one didn’t you? I can’t look at that wheel without envisioning it… oh yuck.

Anyways, then we turned around and started to walk up the other side of the market, we stopped on the way to get hot spiced apple juice.

Then we took a short ride on the metro to see the Moulin Rouge, but only from the outside. The tickets were like £100 each and I don’t care that much about seeing naked ladies dancing (also I thought the film was just dreadful).

After that we took another short Metro ride to the Bastille where the fortress used to be (the Metro really is very good in Paris).

And we had some pizza at a restaurant with the slowest service ever.

And then we went to the L’Opera Bastille.

And settled down to watch the nutcracker ballet for Christmas Eve, and it was very good. When we finally got home I looked on my iPhone and it said we had walked 12 miles that day… no wonder my feet were sore!

Catacombes De Paris

By the time we finally got to our apartment in Paris and unpacked it was getting a bit late but we thought we’d try and fit in the Catacombs. The queue was massive because you couldn’t buy tickets in advance, you just had to try your luck.

The queue was about an hour and a half so we split up and I left Kim to go and get rations. Embarrassingly our first meal in Paris was at McDonalds but we needed something to eat on the go!

Did you know the McDonalds in Paris have a separate bakery counter where they sell macaroons and stuff?

We got in just before the last admission and paid our 10 euros, which I didn’t think was that expensive.

The catacombs are basically old abandoned mine shafts that run for miles underneath the city, one day the graveyards got too full and Paris had no where to put their dead. Look how many bloody steps I had to climb up and down.

So we trekked down some carved out tunnels and decorative bits and bobs.

And then to the bodies… artfully arranged.

They went on forever, the sheer volume of femurs and skulls.

Oddly enough I didn’t spot a rib cage or pelvis the entire stretch though, no hands, feet… what did they do with them all?

Off To Paris

So Kim and I left Wiltshire, and set off to Paris, we got the tube to St Pancras.

And finding the Eurostar and getting through security etc was relatively painless.

Before we knew it we were there. I do wish they’d make the channel tunnel a bit more scenic though, they should make its replacement out of glass so everyone can see under the sea. In fact I’d even be happy if they just recreated this with tv screens. They need to look into that.

We got the Paris Metro to our apartment – the Metro is so good here, very fast and easy to navigate. This is our apartment –

The showers kind of hard to use without splashing the floor but never mind, it’s not my floor.

This is our courtyard, the apartment is one building back from the main street on the 3rd floor, and is typical of all the flats in this area. Heaving our cases up 3 flights of beautifully polished wooden stairs was not fun.

Our bedroom’s a pretty good size and also over looks the courtyard.

And the lounge is very comfy.

Although there’s a mystery switch on the wall and we can’t figure out what it does…

More later!

Stonehenge

Kim, my Mum, my Brother Charles and I took a trip on our second day to Stonehenge which is just a short way from where my family lives.

There’s a new visitor centre there and it has replica houses from the same kind of era that stone henge was made which you could go in which was nice.

And then you get ferried to the stones that are up the road. You used to be able to drive past them but they rerouted the road so that you have to pay to see them. It was the winter solstice the day before we went so there were still hippies and people wearing velvet capes about.

And then we got a little audio tour around the stones but you could get close up to them. It was pretty good but they are a ruin, the stones are kind of dirty and there’s not many left. Afterwards we got nice pasties back at the visitors centre and that was that until my mother got very emotional and had a little episode because I told her who won The Apprentice… yes actually. Sadly my family are pretty good at contingency plans in case of mental health escapades and my brother and sister rallied.

Which is how my sister, her boyfriend, Kim and I found ourself in Swindon having a nice buffet dinner at an all you can eat place.

And Kim and I stayed the night in Swindon away from my mother and her Apprentice woes. Oh well.

Visiting Bath

Kim’s down visiting and we took a trip to Bath with my Mum and Sister Bronte, we started out with a bus tour which was actually pretty good and I got student discount.

And we saw fudge getting made the old fashioned was which was interesting and it tasted absolutely amazing so we bought a slab for my Mum to say thanks for having us to stay because she loves fudge.

Then we had a little look around the old Roman Baths, the water smells so gross.

Then we went to the Thermae Bath Spa

I had to steal that photo because I obviously did not take my phone into the spa.. It was just like that only dark and blue lights in the water were on. It’s on different floors, the bottom floor has a big warm pool in it with floaty things in, there’s changing rooms and showers, a restaurant, 4 big steam rooms with scents in like lavender and then the roof top pool. You got given robes and slippers only once your robes were wet you kinda didn’t want to put them back on again… so we kept pinching other peoples – we were the worst guests there I’m sure.

Taking Barclay To The Cattery :(

I’m going away over Christmas and can’t take my beloved cat with me, which meant packing him up in the little cat carrier, which he was not amused with…

And taking him to the cat brig… aww poor little Barclay, but in fairness the cattery was absolutely lovely, ran by a really friendly family of animal lovers and in his little pen he has a litter tray, a little ladder leading up to a comfy sleeping box where I put his fleecey blanket he likes to sleep on and inside is a little heater that he’ll have on over night. When they’re cleaning it he can go in and outdoor pen to explore and they bought in all his favourite food brands and treats. So I know he’ll be well looked after.

But I do feel bad to be without him, poor old boy. The lovely Sarah (my friend from uni) dropped him off with me and after that we went to Blickling Hall which was near by where her sister got married (um, nice!!).

And we had a nice little coffee/cake combo.

And then we went on a muddy but pleasant walk/gossip where about 5 minutes after taking this photo I got electrocuted by the effing fence!! Not cool.

Not Fun

I’ve been at placement and working and writing my dissertation lately – it’s not been fun and I’m looking forward to some time off at Christmas. But I’m just past 9,000 words of my dissertation and it should be 10,000 long so that’s good news.

Barclay has been a loyal companion throughout. In other news our bathroom drain is a bit blocked, ‘slow drain’ I think it’s called. My housemate tried caustic soda to no avail. I tried a whole tube of veet because I suspect that with three long haired girls living in the house it might just be our hair!

But still no result, still have a slow drain. Oh well. I’m looking forward to being away over the Christmas holidays, we’re going to Paris. One week to go!