La Londonienne

A Tale of Two Cities: Paris vs Barcelona.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 19 Sep 2014 12:29:00 +0000

So as you all know after twelve months living and working in Paris I decided to spend my Summer working in Barcelona and by the time you're reading this I'll be back home in the UK. As beautiful and vibrant Barcelona is, I still have moments where I would give anything to be back in Paris, which is why I've decided to make this final post written here in Continental Europe comparing the two cities.

Working.

Whilst I admit this is my personal experience, I did find the Barcelona attitude towards work a lot more relaxed than in Paris. Although I was working in an office environment again, it was only for 6 hours a day and we really were allowed to start and finish whenever we wanted. In my first week I was given a day and a half off because my boss had heard that my family were visiting. However, as fun as it was working in an international, young office here in Barcelona I absolutely loved working in Paris, even though I was getting paid the same I am here for a full-time working week. I worked with an amazing group of people in Paris who were really keen to help me settle into living in Paris and truly experience French culture. One thing, however, that was exactly the same in Barcelona was the presence of a really rude receptionist at the front desk. Whilst some of the things that our receptionist in Paris said would be too rude to put up here, on my first day in working in Barca I obviously didn’t have an ID card for the building, but not only did the receptionist refuse to let me through, she also refused to call up to my new company to check if I really did work there. Cue me sat waiting out in the morning heat until my new boss arrived!

Torre Agbar on Diagonal -- next to my work

Health and Fitness.

If there’s one thing I noticed that both Parisians and Barcelonés have an obsession over is health. I got asked a lot in Paris why I never got ill and I genuinely think it’s because in the UK when we’re ill we just tend to sit it out because we’d really rather not go to the doctor and therefore have fab immune systems (top Sophie medical observations right there?!) I’ve noticed here and in Paris as soon as someone gets the slightest cough they head straight to their local doctors, or in the case of my colleagues in Barcelona, run straight to the bathroom where they actually had an entire cabinet of communal painkillers.

In terms of fitness, Barcelona has really been too hot to do any type of strenuous exercise, but I have noticed yoga is a real big thing here, and do not even get me started on the number of skateboarders there are flying around! On the other hand, I’ve written about Parisian gyms before, but there it always felt like the women in the gyms were so slim already they just did a light jog on the treadmill for 10 minutes, had a quick chat with a beautiful mec in the weights section and then skipped their way over to the changing rooms.

This is an ice cream

Things to do.

With Paris being one of the most visited destinations in the whole world, I was never short of things to do and always felt like I had to make the most of every minute that I wasn’t working. Paris has so many museums and galleries as well as little streets you could lose yourself in on a Sunday afternoon with a takeaway coffee. One of the best things about Paris was being a European citizen under the age of 26 as it meant you could get into a lot of museums for free, one of the main reasons why I’ve probably seen the Mona Lisa up close and personal about 435 times. Unfortunately, I haven’t been to as many cultural centres or museums here in Barcelona as they can be quite costly and don’t seem to have free entry (apart from on the third Sunday of the month between 14:01 and 14:59 or something like that).

Parc Guell -- Where Gaudi used to live

One thing that both Paris and Barca have in common though is the beautiful architecture. Gaudí really did make his mark on Barcelona as you’ll be walking down a street and see one of his buildings like the one in the photo below. Whilst Gaudí’s architecture surely is different and original (have you SEEN the Sagrada Familia?!) I really do love the architecture of Haussmann's Paris with the beautiful ornate buildings with iron railing balconies.

Casa Batlló on the Passeig de Gràcia

My Road

Parisian Streets

One of my favourite buildings in Paris on Rue Montorgueil

Transport.

First things first, Barcelona’s metro wins hands down. It has air conditioning, it doesn’t take a million hours to get anywhere like it does in Paris and it’s a lot cheaper. It also lacks the shady individuals that would frequent the Parisian metro at 9pm with that “Hi I’m a serial killer” glint in their eyes. The night buses feel a lot safer, if anything, Barcelona gets even livelier in the night time, whereas Paris would often turn a little sinister once it was dark. The metro tickets are bigger as well, anyone who has ever been on a short trip to Paris will know what I mean when I say the tickets there are so small you’ve lost half of your pack of 10 before you’ve even started your return journey.

Nightlife.

If there is one thing that I will remember for the rest of my life, it’s the amazing feeling of sitting on a beach after a night out in Barcelona and watching the sunrise. Over the past 15 months I’ve had some of the best nights out of my life, whether it be name-dropping to get into stupidly exclusive clubs in Paris to walking along the beach front in Barcelona collecting as many free-entry stamps to the (actually really nice) clubs here. Whilst a double vodka Red Bull in Paris usually cost around 18€ and we would get excited about finding a Mojito for under 7€, Barcelona is a LOT cheaper. You can buy bottles of spirits for insanely cheap prices, but I would always recommend going for known brands and avoiding corner shops as I’ve heard some pretty grim horror stories.

One thing I’m kind of looking forward to is getting back into chart music again, as awful as that sounds and I apologise in advance to all my super cool friends I’ve made this year, but I’m so out of touch considering both Paris and Barcelona are all about the electronic music, which can be fun but it is nice to listen to music with words once in a while.

Kong Paris

Everyday Sexism.

As much as I try to keep things light-hearted on my blog, one of the real problems I’ve had both in Paris and Barcelona is the issue of Everyday Sexism. I’m not going to go too much into it here, but do read up on it if you’re interested. I’m not going to lie, London has its fair share of white van men drivers that will sound their horn as they drive past you, but here, especially in Barcelona it is something on another level. Leaving for work at 8am in the morning(!) meant taking a slight diversion everyday as I knew if I didn’t the man who delivers Estrella beer to the bars and restaurants on my road would shout at me until he got bored, asking where I was going, why didn’t I want him, why was I dressed like that etc etc. Other men aren’t so eloquent with their wording and would instead just shout “eh eh guapa” and make a clicking sound as if they were talking to a dog. Some of the things that have been said to me here are so unbelievably vulgar it makes me feel sick and in a country where over 700 women have been killed in the past ten years as a result of domestic violence, I think the attitude towards women is appalling here.

Paris is slightly better in this respect, but I have been followed home in Paris and some of my friends have even been flashed at whilst on their way home. I have a video on my phone of a man on the Parisian metro who made obscene gestures at a young woman sat opposite me until he realised she wasn’t giving him any attention and decided to creep on someone else. I remember being sat in an information session once before I went to Paris being told that we would all have to give up our body-con dresses for our nights out, and whilst I accept that’s partly due to the fact things are a little bit more classy en France, it’s also because if you even so much as flash your ankle whilst on a metro in Paris you can pretty much be sure that you’ll soon be surrounded by a group of guys who will start talking to you and pester you to give them your number and go out with them.

Language&Culture.
Obviously this is where the two cities differ, as their official languages are completely different. However, especially over the summer, Barcelona is literally filled with French people, so I've actually managed to keep on top of my French which I'm really pleased about!

One thing that has been drilled into me though, is that Catalonia (or Catalunya) is NOT Spain. Basically, Catalonia really wants independence and again whilst I try to keep things neutral on my blog, going along to their protests on Catolonia Day (11th September) was a really strange experience. Catalonian independence isn't something I can honestly say I've looked into, but when I've asked the locals why they want it, they usually respond that they want to keep their money in the region, but to me I think it's only right that larger cities such as Barcelona and Madrid do their best to help out less-prosperous cities in Spain that don't perhaps benefit so much from tourism etc. On the other hand, going along to the protests was really exciting in that so many people, families, teenagers, babies were dressed head-to-toe in the Catalonian colours and really had this pride in their flag and where they come from, which I don't feel we have so much in the UK.

I've been lucky in that Barcelona is very cosmopolitan and therefore everybody speaks Spanish, however when I went to visit Meg in Girona I couldn't get over how much her friends struggled to keep a conversation in Spanish.

In terms of French language, I really did struggle with it in the beginning and I felt like no one could understand me. I would be asking for things in shops and be met with such a puzzled look I wanted to crawl away, but I would keep persisting until eventually the sales assistant would repeat back the same word I'd just said 87 times and have a light bulb moment and realise what I was saying. Again, this is just my opinion, but I feel in London we have so many people from all over the world speaking our language, that when someone speaks it in an accent we're so used to it we usually understand immediately, but I don't think this is really the case in Paris.

I guess I can't really give a balanced view on Paris vs Barcelona, as spending a year in Paris meant I fell truly, madly, deeply in love with the city, yet I love the laid-back atmosphere you get with a beach city such as Barcelona. All I know is, I'm counting down the days until I can see them both next.

Until my next adventure,

Sophie

Barcelona.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 21:24:00 +0000

So after a year in Paris I decided to spend my summer in Barcelona! I got here two weeks ago and have fortunately managed to find myself here a job here already, which I start next week. In the meantime, I've been living the the life as an unemployed student in one of the liveliest and friendliest cities I've ever been to.

Sagrada Familia - Not quite the Eiffel Tower but still beaut in its own way

Flying past Southampton and the Isle of Wight on my way here...

I arrived in Barcelona, moved into my beautiful apartment (3x the size and half the price of my Parisian one) in the Raval district...

MACBA - round the corner from mine

Sunday mornings look like this

Just want everyone to know I built this myself and it still hasn't fallen down

...and quickly got into a routine of doing, well, nothing...

Interview Preparation.

Still ELLE obsessed, sorrrrry

Some photos from Parc de la Ciutadella

El Monumento a Cristóbal Colón -- Monument for Christopher Columbus. We worked out he's pointing to Latin America. Clever.

Yeah so I paid nearly 8€ for a pot of Frozen Yoghurt on La Rambla. Pass me the socks and sandals, I've turned into a bloody tourist.

I've also been introduced to Piknic Electronik, a weekly festival (?) kind of thing that takes place every Sunday up on one of the mountains that overlooks the city. It's great fun but it's so disorientating getting home at half 10 after you feel like you've been out all night.

The long pointy building in the distance is next to where I'll be working woo

My little brother is currently here, and with the weird thunderstorms Barca has been experiencing lately we decided to go full on tourist and head to the aquarium. Bloody pricey but we had a great time and there's nothing more surreal than having a real life shark just swim casually over your head.

Potentially the ugliest fish I've ever seen in my life. This was its good angle.

When you think the scuba diver is waving at you. But he's just washing the windows. Lol.

Dancing Penguin

I'm really enjoying Barcelona, the city is so much calmer than Paris and the people much friendlier. I'm looking forward to starting my job next Monday as I need some routine, but in the meantime I'm having a great time living the lifestyle of waking up late, going to beach yoga and spending afternoons by the beach when I know everyone else is working.

Namaste!

PS I miss you, Paris.

La Fin.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 14:02:00 +0000

So as I'm writing this it's been just over a week since I got back from the best year of my life. I'm now sat back on my sofa in the UK after a full year living and working in the most beautiful city in the world. I had such an amazing time in Paris and had so many wonderful experiences.

Whilst living in Paris I spent the year working for one of the biggest media companies in the world, with quite frankly the best fashion magazine in existence ;) but as I boarded my Eurostar in June of 2013 I had no idea what would be in store for me, and soon moved into an apartment in south west Paris.

On my first evening I noticed there were a load of young people drinking wine in the courtyard, and after a little persuasion I decided I would join them for my first night out clubbing in Paris.


These gals and guys were the friendliest people I could have met and I really did have the best summer all because of them. The year followed the pattern of finding the cheapest wine Carrefour sold (1,44€ in case you're wondering), drinking it in the garden or in front of the Eiffel Tower, and hopping on the last metro to one of our favourite clubs.

Wanderlust.

One of a million Metro Selfies....

...and getting the whole carriage to join in too

Les Deux Sosos

Without turning into one big cliché, I really did "find myself" in Paris. I went from the girl who insisted on buying 13 metro tickets because she couldn't remember the number 10 (why?!) in Gare du Nord to the girl who on a depressing November morning found herself in the local police station making a statement after a burglary in her apartment. (Those who know me will also know I spent countless evenings in Parisian nightclubs using my newly confident French-speaking self chatting up the local hommes).

My fellow stagiaire and fave gal :)

I was petrified to start work, a full time job which wasn't at all like an English-style internship with coffee-making and photocopying but with actual Responsibilities. I had nothing to worry about though, working in France, with it's 2 hour lunch breaks and insane number of bank holidays a year really is good fun. I was lucky enough to work with a team of beautiful, intelligent and downright lovely ladies (and a couple of men) who kept me going through the year with their good humour and insights into all things French.













Wine on the Ile










Afterwork Drinks became a real thing










Talking of all things French, I have to say all the stereotypes are true. Everyone wears a beret, eats frogs legs and carries a baguette under their arm -- okay that's not actually true (apart from the whole baguette thing, I've seen them carrying up to 5 on the way home from work). Parisian women do dress in such a timeless way, they don't tend to follow fashion so much, as I would say the Parisian look wouldn't look out of place 50 years ago, but they always just look so effortlessly glamorous. Red lipstick isn't worn as much as I expected, but Parisian women barely wear any makeup, not even mascara, something I really think English women should embrace more.

 The less said about French men, the better (as you can read in this post here) but I have to say I learnt to detect non-Parisians and found that French people can be really lovely and friendly, especially if they're not from Paris and I'm planning to visit the south as soon as I can. 

In terms of French women being so slim, it's true. I think I can count on one hand the amount of people that could be counted as clinically obese that I saw on my year there. I think it's due to the fact that food really is appreciated, with long lunch breaks and lighter dinners, and no snacking in between being really common in France. Unfortunately I struggled with this and would get really hungry by dinner time and end up eating my weight in baguette and Camembert but oh well, on n'a qu'une vie !

L'Eclair de Genie. GO GO GO.

All this came to just over 3€. I LOVE FRANCE.

Twinkie's Breakfasts. Again, GO GO GO

My leaving party, complete with Percy Pigs, naturally.

Before I head on my next adventure, I just wanted to share with you some more of my favourite photos that I've taken on the most exciting, unbelievable and unforgettable year of my life.

Making friends with the Parisian bus drivers

Seeing London Grammar live at We Love Green Festival

Best views, but read my review here

Me and my boyfriend

Random building, but pretty, no?

Fete de la Musique -- a load of Frenchies in the street misbehaving with music in the background basically

My leaving present <3

Casual selfie with the whole dancefloor

A view from the meeting room on my last day

Chartiers -- again read my mini review here

My bedroom wall

Views over Paris from the Galleries Lafayette

A petit apero for the journey home

Saying goodbye to France from the ferry

My two fave things

Heading home (and not letting go of anything French)

Tour de France in London

A French Gendarme in London!!!!

 Hasta pronto ;)

 Sophie

Hitting The Shops.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 22 Jun 2014 09:31:00 +0000

I always find shopping in Paris is slighty different to back home...

The photo above is taken from the Beaugrenelle shopping centre about 5 minutes from the Eiffel Tower.

Beaugrenelle has to be my favourite shopping centre here in Paris, as it has a huge M&S in it and it is always really quiet. Only it's not open on Sundays. In fact, nearly all shops are closed on Sundays, apart from a few on the Champs Elysées. The only shopping mall you will find open is Les Quatre Temps in La Défense. Whilst I do appreciate that it means the shop assistants get a day off, it does frustrate me as I always seem to need to buy something on a Sunday!

In terms of supermarket shopping, this is a topic I could go on about for hours! On my list of things I miss most about home, Sainsbury's is top of the list. For a start, everyone in French supermarkets always has a basket, but they are literally NOWHERE to be found. I'm not sure if people pick them up in the car park or something, but I often find myself trying to carry a weeks worth of groceries around in my arms and dumping them at the till as quickly as possible. I also always feel that French supermarkets are so illogical. Ours back at home all seem to have the same layout, no matter which chain you shop at, with fruit and veg at the front and the bakery always at the back.

This is found in a small local Monoprix. An entire section for plain yoghurt.

No, not in France. In my local Auchan, which is apparently around 7000m2, so pretty huge, you'll find a small aisle at the front dedicated to yoghurt and cheese. I spent ages thinking how can this just be it?! But no, about 10 aisles along you'll find a good 6 aisles dedicated purely to yoghurt, with one entirely dedicated to every brand of plain yoghurt you could ever imagine. You'll also be able to buy a bag of about 60 onions, but if you want just one, sorry, no can do.

That's hopefully given you an idea as to how big this supermarket is. So this is why I was wondering why, in a supermarket so huge, that this is the only curry sauce you can buy. I'm not even kidding, there were rows and rows of tomato based pasta sauces, but when it comes to a quick curry, you'll have to put up with this heavily coconut based, tasteless, bland sauce.

Uncle Ben you should be ashamed.

I also find people's behaviour in supermarkets kind of strange. I don't know if this acceptable or not, but the other day this woman walked up to the Coke aisle, opened up a fridge multipack and just took one. I know they do this for water, fine, but for a product which specifically says on it "sold as part of a multipack"? As I watched her do it, she turned to me and did that typical Gallic shrug I've come to love/hate so much and walked away.

Another aisle I find funny is the Bio aisle. The French seem to have recently developed an obsession with all things organic, meaning the Bio aisle is just getting bigger and bigger. It's like having a mini supermarket just on one aisle, as you'll find tea bags hanging out next to apple sauce and Tofu just above bread.

Talking of putting things in weird places, it has always made me laugh that my local M&S here puts Baked Beans in the fridge. Hmm, no.

In terms of clothes shopping, Paris has the usual H&M and Zara, only I don't find the high street here as affordable.

The clothes rail above can be found in The Kilo Shop, which I find is a pretty cool idea, you fill a basket with clothes, they weigh it and you pay by the kilo. A lot of the clothes look and smell like someone died in them in the 80s, but I've been told you can pick up some really nice pieces if you delve deep enough.

To finish this post, I leave you with a photo of one of my favourite shops in Paris, the Galleries Lafayette. If there's one place you need to go in Paris, it's here, and it's conveniently on the same road as an H&M, a Zara and even a C&A if your budget doesn't quite stretch to a 7000€ bracelet made out of a bit of cord (no, seriously).

A la prochaine!

Sophie

Exploring.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 01 Jun 2014 07:00:00 +0000

As the evenings get longer, I've started to spend more time exploring the hidden corners of Paris.

Grand Mosquée de Paris

Coming to the end of my year abroad, I've found myself frantically checking off things I've yet to do. A couple of weeks ago I spent my last ever weekend in Champagne with Megan as she got ready to say goodbye to France.

The past few weekends have involved a lot of Champagne drinking, as we spent a whole day at Le Salon de La Revue du vin de France sampling beautiful champagnes (and the occasional glass of wine). Whilst Meg sat there happily sipping on €200 a bottle champagne and spitting it straight into the bin, I couldn't bring myself to do the same and ended up getting slightly tipsy.

The Bourse -- Paris

The French Open/Roland Garros is well under way and I was lucky enough to be invited to go and even managed to see a match on Court 1.

The weather has been awful lately, and in spite of the lack of strawberries and cream, I felt very much like I was back at Wimbledon.

Daniel Nestor - Serbian Canadian doubles tennis player who was once world number 1 in doubles.

The following day was a bank holiday in France so Lucy and I decided to do the Promenade Plantée, a rooftop walk through the west of Paris which was once a railway line. It is truly beautiful and I think it often gets overlooked and forgotten as it isn't in central Paris.

It is only a 5 minute walk from Bastille metro and takes you all the way to the Bois de Vincennes.

We then wandered over to the Pere Lachaise, the largest cemetery in the city, to cross one more thing off our Paris bucket list.

Whilst it might seem a little odd to spend an afternoon in a cemetery, it really is one of the most peaceful places in Paris and is the resting place of many notable people including political figures, authors, philosophers and singers.

We wandered around the corner to be greeted with a faint smell of mint...

and stumbled across Jim Morrison's grave.

This is one of the most popular gravestones, where we found one man singing one of The Doors' songs to himself...

Oscar Wilde's grave, which is no longer covered in lipstick kisses and is now surrounded by glass

Edith Piaf -- whose song La Vie en Rose is the soundtrack to my Parisian life ;)

We then wandered over to the Grande Mosquée de Paris, which is one of the most beautiful buildings I've been to. Whilst I've done religious buildings such as the Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur a million times, it was refreshing to do something different.

With the sun shining we felt like we were a million miles away from Paris.

We went over to the café, which is one of the most stunning places I've ever been to and grabbed a mint tea.

We then walked around the corner to the Jardin des Plantes and bumped into Cat Deeley with her husband/boyfriend/silver fox.

The 1st June marks the start of my final month here in Paris which is unbelievable but I think I'm nearly ready for my next adventure....

A bientôt,

Sophie

Jim's Dinners.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 29 May 2014 18:21:00 +0000

Every Sunday evening, a man called Jim Hayne's invites up to 80 people to his home in Alésia, in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, around for dinner.

After an afternoon picnicing on the Buttes Chaumont, a beautiful hilltop park in the north of Paris with views onto the city (and rather cheap mojitos!) we headed onto Jim's.

A very French picnic

Following Jim's instructions to his atelier, we found ourselves in a beautiful garden deep in the southern arrondissements of Paris.

We didn't go with this guy, but he just so happened to be wandering up the path to Jim's at the same time as us.

We gave Jim our names and handed over our contribution for the evening. He suggests €30, but living the life of an intern meant we gave a little less...

We grabbed a drink, avoiding the grape juice as Lucy poured herself a glass only to find mould swimming around in it.

Every week, Jim invites a different chef to come and prepare a meal.

The food was surprisingly good for something that had been cooked for 70 or so people in his tiny atelier kitchen.

Whilst some sat inside and made new friends, we sat in the garden and chatted to a group of American girls.

Dessert was served (it tasted MUCH better than it looks!) and I had a little time to think about the evening.

Jim says on his website that "I make a point to remember everyone's name on the guest list and where they're from and what they do, so I can introduce them to each other, effortlessly. If I had my way, I would introduce everyone in the whole world to each other."

However, I personally felt that Jim spent the whole evening sat on his stool in the middle of the kitchen silently watching over everybody chatting.

Whilst I appreciated the fact that he takes a whole evening every week out of his time to have people around for dinner, it seemed that he had had just about enough and was simply sitting there and not making much effort with his guests.

To be honest, if you had a large number of people in your kitchen every week without fail for the past 30 years or so, I think you'd feel the same, but I was a bit disappointed considering how interesting he seems on his website.

I had a lovely evening though and left with a full tummy and new friends.

A la prochaine,

Sophie

Les Ponts de Mai

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 08 May 2014 08:32:00 +0000

France has this wonderful thing where if a bank holiday falls on a Thursday, you'll often get given the Friday off to make a "pont", or a bridge.

So I decided to jump on a plane away from the rain in Paris and head straight to Valencia, Spain to spend the long weekend with one of my best friends, Jade.

Beautiful Champs Elysées

Charles de Gaulle Terminal 2. In the rain.

I arrived in Valencia, jumped into a taxi straight to Jade's, and decided I'd practice my Spanish on the taxi driver. We had a great conversation in Spanish, well, I say Spanish, he spoke Spanish and I spoke some kind of new dialect of Spanish and French mixed together. I'd be sat there thinking yes, I can do this and all of a sudden he'd say something and I'd reply "oooh, d'accord."

The next day we headed to the beach, Playa Malvarrosa.

After a few bitter mojitos we packed up our bags and set off into Valencia city for some retail therapy. Valencia is truly beautiful, and I noticed a lot of buildings seemed to have been inspired by the ones here in Paris.

After stopping off at a cashpoint, with a built in webcam that really did excite me more than it should have, we picked up some cupcakes and headed home to relax a little before fiesta time.

Do I wish to know the balance of my account? That will be a no.

I really, really want one of these now.

A vending machine filled with pizzas, hotdogs and kebabs. Um, no.

A quick snapchat to all my friends, just to let them know it was fiesta time and me and my €4 bottle of Vodka were ready for a night out.

Only we weren't. Because in Spain, you don't leave until 1am. Whilst the past 10 months in Paris have shown me that Europeans like to do things a little later, there's still a part of me that seems to consider leaving for a club at 11pm super late and getting home at half 2 a wild night.

We jumped in a taxi to the club, which cost us only a couple of euros each (I don't think I'll ever get over how cheap taxis are in Spain) and headed for Deseo 54, Valencia's gay club.

The next day we headed to the beach again, and then wandered through the park to the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, a kind of cultural arts and sciences building. I'd forgotten all about the whole "Hola Guapa!" thing that Spanish men like to call out to you so much, so it probably wasn't the best idea wearing a summer dress through such a busy park.

We headed back home and got ready to go out for dinner. As we went to leave, Jade's door literally would not open. After lots of pulling and sticking forks through it, we admitted defeat and ended up calling the emergency services. Funnily enough, I've already had to call them here in Paris, after, um, the same thing happened to me.

About 15 minutes later some policemen came to rescue us, realised they couldn't, and called for the fire brigade, who we had originally asked for. The door swung open and a group of Spanish middle aged firemen and policemen just stood there, speechless, eyeing up us damsels in distress.

Bullring.

The Cathedral

Can't escape my beloved Paris.

The next day, after a lazy morning watching Made in Chelsea (some things never change) I jumped on a metro to the airport, where I sat next to two nuns, making a nice change from the usual smackheads I have to sit next to on line 9 here in Paris.

Getting the plane home went rather smoothly, apart from queuing up and almost boarding a plane home to Gatwick, I had just enough time to sit down, relax and take a pretentious airport Instagram, complete with a Starbucks coffee (under the name of Sofia, naturally).

In other news, the dissertation is complete and handed in, which can only mean one thing... HELLO SUMMER!

Hasta pronto,

Sophie

Temps Libre.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 18:22:00 +0000

When I first arrived in Paris, I was updating my blog weekly. Unfortunately, with my dissertation deadline looming, I've struggled to find the time to update my blog as much as I'd like to. Given that I haven't done a blogpost like this in a while, I thought I'd put one up about what I've been up to during my most hectic month yet.

With my birthday at the beginning of March, I had a month full of visits from some of my favourite people in the world and let's just say it was a month of partying, eating and drinking silly amounts of Champagne!

Upstairs in Kong, one of my favourite places in Paris, it's ridiculously expensive/exclusive/over the top but it was in the final episode of SATC, has views across the Seine, plays great music and I love it to pieces

The start of my month long of celebrations saw a visit from one of my best friends, Jade. She just so happened to time her visit with Paris Fashion Week, and being the glamorous impeccably dressed woman that she is, fitted in just perfectly.

What are we likeee

For my actual birthday, the office held a breakfast for me which was very cute, and afterwards Lucy took me for lunch at M&S. I have to say, there is something really bizarre about eating English food in France, but true to form our local M&S café was full of yummy mummies.

From that weekend onwards I had visits from my family, who joined me for my birthday weekend for even more champagne and food and brought over my present...

We have a bit of a family tradition (?) back home where we'll often pop out to the shops and go for a Costa afterwards, and being in Paris didn't stop us this time either!

We then wandered along to the National Archives, who have just opened up their gardens for the summer. I have to say, they're a lot more impressive than our ones in Kew, which I always thought looked like something out of a Bond film...

Following on from our walk through the Marais we headed for somewhere to eat, and where else to go than for a falafel. As per, L'As was crazily busy so we headed to one of the slightly less popular ones, where I headed to use the toilet and stumbled across this rather interesting work of art in the loos. (This photo is for you, Jennie!)

Then it was the turn of my uni girls to come and visit me in Paris! It was the first time we'd been together in about 10 months so it was so nice to see them all. We did all the sights, including La Chapelle, the Eiffel Tower (where Emma, the only non-Frenchie and the only one without a phone ended up getting left behind on the line 6 metro) and even put a lock on the Pont des Arts.

Then we headed off to Kong, driven by our chauffeur for the night who I slightly fell in love with, after having drunk four bottles of Champagne between us -- woops.

Makes a change from the usual walk to the clubs in Southampton?

The next day, nursing our hangovers we headed on up to Montmartre, where the girls went crazy in the Musée du Chocolat, whilst I restrained as I've given up chocolate for lent.

I've also seemed to develop a habit of spending my hungover Sundays with my iPod on, a Starbucks in hand (only because all the independents are closed!), my biggest sunglasses and my reddest lipstick walking around the streets of Paris.

#Diva

Apart from a night out for Matt's birthday, which started with a very English game of Ring of Fire, played with French cards (umm, since when has there been a 1 in a deck of cards??), my free time is unfortunately pretty much filled with CV and dissertation writing.

Before I go though, I'll leave you with a photo of a standard Tuesday morning commute through Paris. This crazy fou decided a packed Métro at 9am was the perfect place to bring two massive suitcases, pile them on top of each other and then start babbling on in a language that definitely was not French. All I do know, however, is that he was very passionate about whatever it was that was bothering him.

Just another day in the most wonderful city in the world.

A la prochaine !

Sophie

Rendez-Vous Chez Le Médecin

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 06 Apr 2014 15:03:00 +0000

If there's one thing that the French are completely and utterly obsessed with, it's their health. I can probably count on one hand how many people who could be considered obese I've seen since I first arrived here nearly 9 months ago.

I don't know how they do it, but French women are always in good shape. They enjoy food, they don't like it fast and their health is always a priority. However, I've noticed that as soon as they feel the slightest signs of an illness coming along, the French will practically run straight to the doctors.

My doctor's note. No idea what it says.

A couple of weeks ago I was feeling really out of sorts and decided to go against my British instincts of just getting on with things and take the French approach of going and seeing the doctor.

I called up my insurance and they sorted it all out for me and off I went the very same day to go and see my new doctor in the very north of Paris.

Now here they don't have obvious doctor's surgeries like we do, they're often based in apartment blocks so you have to look out for the gold plaques with your doctor's name on. I thought I had found mine, spent a good 5 minutes trying to get upstairs into the surgery until I finally got to the reception desk.

I approach the receptionist and ask for Dr. Breguet. The receptionist gives me a blank stare. I say it again, thinking she must have a problem with my accent. "Dr. Breguet... le dentiste?". Um no, not the dentist. After an incredibly long and awkward pause she tells me that I'm at 34B. I look down at my appointment card and realise I need to be at No. 34.

So off I go again next door and go through the very long process of getting into a random apartment block and try and make my way up to see my doctor. Getting there at 5:45, 15 minutes early, I sat down in the waiting room.

So far, so familiar...

At about 6.45, a couple walk into the room and ask when our appointments are for. Myself and the girl next to me both have an appointment at 6. The guy next to us has his at 6.45. Whilst I'm sat their fuming at having to wait for so long the rest of the room does that Gallic shrug I've grown to love. I'm finally seen at half 7. HALF 7. An hour and a half late.

The appointment goes something like this:

"Hi I'm not feeling too good etc etc"
"Let me take your blood pressure."
"Ok."
"You're fine. Let me listen to your breathing."
"Go ahead."
"You're fine."
"Riiiight, ok, well I'll just be going then."
"Maybe we'll do some tests. The lab will call you. Maybe take up swimming."

Thank god I had insurance, because this would have cost literally cost me around €60, given that he was a private doctor. If there's anything this experience has taught me, it's how great the NHS is.

Needless to say, the lab never called me back.

Sophie

The City of Love

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 20:51:00 +0000

Paris is a city for lovers. There's no two ways about it, it's officially the most romantic city. Ever. Stepping off the Eurostar 8 months ago young, free and single I made a silent promise to myself that I'd get myself a French boyfriend, improve my French and spend evenings wandering around Paris with my new beau. Well, it didn't exactly turn out like that, but I've had enough amorous encounters to realise that the men outre-manche are slightly different to our boys in Britain.

For a start, they're incredibly clingy. Giving someone your number in a club is practically like signing the marriage papers right there and then. They'll come up to you multiple times throughout the night to check that you've still got their number, maybe they should take yours as well and maybe they should drop call you just so we've both definitely got each others' numbers.

They'll then follow you around asking if you'd like to "try the French kiss" with a smug wink, to which you reply with an awkward "hahah I need to find my friends hahah bye!" and praise the heavens above that Apple included a block feature in iOS7.

To truly give you an idea, here are some of the best texts I've received over the past 8 months...

"maybe if I go through all the different ways of saying how are you she'll reply..?"

Appreciating the English translation here...

The one that was obsessed with the fact that it was shocking I drank Diet Coke... but also ate Nutella. Even though I hadn't brought up Diet Coke... or Nutella.

No words

No words #2

The one who thought he was some kind of message subscription service

One of my problems with French men, and to be honest it really is my fault for being nearly 5ft9, is that they're incredibly short. The day after one of my first nights out the backs of my legs really ached. After a few nights out I worked out that it was because I spent most of the night out in a kind of squat so that I wouldn't be walking around emasculating half the dancefloor. Fortunately I don't have the ache so much anymore, as I think my legs have got used to it!

Shout out to the Eiffel Tower keyring stealer for ruining my photo with his Lidl bag

Obviously I had to include a photo of my friend Eiffel, especially considering it was in front of it that I learnt how to say "it's not you, it's me" on a rainy Monday evening in November when my first French (kind of) boyfriend dumped me. He was a great laugh but unfortunately it just wasn't meant to be, but he definitely taught me a lot about French men.

I've had a great time going out on dates here in Paris, if only to practice my French for an hour or two over a glass of wine, but I have to say I think I prefer the simplicity of an English man.

Anyways, I best be off, because well... I'm going on a date!

Sophie

Going Underground

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 02 Feb 2014 08:00:00 +0000

On Friday night as I walked off my Eurostar train and onto the Northern Line at King's Cross, I realised just how different the Métro system is to our London Underground. For a start, I was quickly reminded that on the tube in London you're more likely to get someone kissing their teeth at you rather than blowing a kiss in your direction, as is the way of the hommes on the Parisian Métro.

Going underground in London, I like to think, is a fairly painless experience. If you know what line you're on and whether you're going northbound, southbound, east or west, you'll be alright, as there are signs everywhere. In Paris it's a different story, if you don't know your Porte de Clignancourt from your Montrouge, or your Pont de Sèvres from your Montreuil, you're gonna be pretty stuck.

Another difference is the smell. I'm fortunate enough in that most of my journey to work is on line 9, through the 16th Arrondissement, the most affluent, so my métro in the morning often smells of Chanel and Dior. The rest of the métro system reeks. It stinks to high heaven. République, the station in the photo above is one of the worst, but it has to be said Châtelet must be the foulest smelling station in the world. I've been told it's because of the smell of decaying bodies that were disturbed in the construction of the métro system. Lovely.

Not the prettiest trains.

Getting on the tube in London on Friday night smelt of good times and Marc Jacobs' Daisy. That kind of hot alcohol smell, not the smell of beer that you find lurking at the end of the platform at Trocadéro, but the smell of wine, of city workers coming home merry, getting a bit too comfortable lying on John from Accounts' shoulder and going back to their flat in Balham.

Taking the Métro at 11pm on a Friday night in Paris isn't the same at all, it usually consists of a couple eating each others' tongues whilst a man with bloodshot eyes sneers at you in the corner.

A view from Line 6

Another problem I have with the Métro is the staring. Sitting in my carriage in London on Friday night I'd look at someone, properly stare at them, only for them to look away as quickly as possible. I soon remembered staring is rude here in London, whereas the French have no problem with it whatsoever. I've started to perfect my "Qu'est-ce que tu regardes?" face (what are you looking at?) because there comes a point when the stranger you awkwardly made eye contact with halfway through Chapter 5 of your book is still staring when you've reached Chapter 9 that all you want to do is get up and move.

Love Métro names, this one always makes me laugh as my landlord's name is Ledru.

Another problem is that eating just is NOT done on the Parisian Métro. Pull out a breakfast bar even and everyone will turn and look at you like you've just pulled down your pants.

Talking of which, there are some scenes I have seen that I will never forget, one of which was when Emily from work and I were waiting for a Métro home, when a young man who looked like any other office worker came up to us asking for a toilet. Telling him we didn't know, he got on the train with us anyway. We hadn't even got to the next station when he called across to us, "excusez-moi madamoiselles, I've just gone pipi" and sure enough, his once white skinny jeans, along with the Métro seat, were covered in wee.

Métro etiquette is something I think I've got the hang of now. Those seats up there, they have a name for them in French, strapontins. Always the last seats to go, I soon found out why. You're often squeezed into them, as they're so tiny, and they're situated right next to the door so you always feel like you're just about to fall out onto the platform when the doors open. Not only that, but signs everywhere tell you that "En cas d'affluence, ne pas utiliser les strapontins", meaning that when it gets even the slightest bit busy, everyone standing will stare you down until you give up and stand with them.

If there's one thing I'll miss when I leave Paris, it'll be the Métro entertainment. Managing to be both incredibly irritating and quite amusing, I've seen puppet shows, recorder players and even budding acrobats. The image up there is taken from one of my many Métro videos, filmed on Line 8 at 9pm on a Friday night.

As creepy as the Métro can be, it's reasonably cheaper than the Tube, and is probably the quickest way to get around Paris. Being such a small city, sometimes it feels like there's only 30 seconds between each station, whilst the one stop from King's Cross to Angel on Friday night felt like it dragged on forever.

I think it has to be said that the Tube wins though, for all it's planned engineering works, at least the passengers understand the concept of personal space.

A la prochaine!

Sophie

Food en France

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 19:20:00 +0000

If there's one thing the French are known for, it's their love of food. You literally can't escape it, there are boulangeries and brasseries on every corner, and the streets of Paris are lined with farmers' markets every Thursday and Sunday. Food is something that is taken very seriously in France, a country which has an hour and a half lunch break as standard. As somebody who is a big fan of du pain, du vin et du boursin I've had a great time these past six months existing on pain au raisins and pommes frites.

To put it simply, food seems to make up a big part of la vie des français. Quite often at work someone will bring in a bag of mini viennoiseries fresh from the local bakery, just because "c'est vendredi!" (it's Friday) however I was not prepared for all the food of the festive season à Paris. Even now, nearly two weeks into the New Year, I'm still taking home boxes of chocolates and eating Galette des Rois.

So what exactly is the Galette des Rois? It is basically a puff pastry pie filled with Frangipane and the French are CRAZY for it. Parisians are not usually ones to form an orderly queue, yet somehow this (rather overpriced, yes, that one up there IS 24€) galette has something in it which renders the Parisian public helpless. It's supposed to be eaten on Epiphany, and the tradition goes that a little figurine, la fève, is hidden in the cake and the person who finds it in their slice has to wear a cardboard crown (and buy the next galette). I'm currently on my third of the week, and I've been told that you find yourself eating it at every dinner party in the month of January until you're sick of it and can't stand the sight of it (until next year that is).

Excuse the awful quality, but that's the figurine hidden in the cake

Casual cup of Cider and Galette at my desk on a Wednesday afternoon..!

Last night we were invited to a special soirée where there would be more cider, more galette, oh and security staff and firemen. Turns out the evening was to be a great opportunity for my fellow Frenchies to combine together two of the things they love the most, food and a good old protest.

Traditional Galette on the left, and a Southern France one on the right. I didn't try it as the green fruit that it was littered with looked, if I'm honest, a bit rank.

I don't like galette but I like the magazine press/my job

Fortunately the protest just turned out to be a few people deciding to put up their umbrellas the minute the CEO finished his inspirational festive speech, causing everyone to take one look at them, and then turn back to the galette and cider on offer (this time in not such an orderly queue, but I guess when it's free they don't care?)

In other French foodie news, it's official, the French are now fans of le hamburger. Admittedly, it's often still a very gallois affair, what with the burger usually being pink and the idea of a veggie burger being a bit of aubergine and a piece of goats cheese inside a burger bun, but it's become so popular that the French are now eating a whopping 14 (!) hamburgers a year and in the opening week of the new Burger King in St Lazare station the queues were round the block with security doing bag checks upon entry.

Note the glass of Sancerre, we like to keep it classy over here in Paris

However, one thing I've taken for granted in my years of living in England is the abundance of Indian restaurants. Here in Paris there are Chinese, Vietnamese and Japanese restaurants everywhere you go, probably due to the whole French-Indochine colonial empire thing they had going on in South-East Asia towards the end of the 19th Century, but coming across a decent Indian is pretty difficile. A little while ago, in search of a vegetable korma and a peshwari naan, I stumbled across the Indian restaurant district around Gare du Nord, and was greeted with this:

Not that great.

And on that note, I leave you with one of my guiltiest pleasures, La Religieuse, a pastry which I'm religiously addicted to.

A la prochaine!

Sophie

Christmas in Paris

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 17:29:00 +0000

Although I'm actually sat on my sofa writing this back in the UK, I felt like I needed to put up a blog post about the run up to Christmas in Paris as it has been too long since I last wrote on here! Christmas Eve marks my 6 month anniversary of when I moved to Paris, so it only seems fitting to put up a Christmas related post.

Christmas lights by Franklin Roosevelt/Champs Elysées

I haven't actually been up to that much in the past few weeks, mainly walking through the streets of Paris checking out all the Christmas lights and going for drinks with all my pals who are leaving Paris and coming to an end of the first half of their year abroad.

One of those friends I've had to say goodbye to is Jennie, who was the best at getting me out the house after work, so a shout out for her to taking me to some of the most interesting bars that Paris has to offer. Here are a selection of some of the strangest toilets I've ended up seeing thanks to her.

Glazart - Parc de la Villette

Aux Folies - Belleville

Here are some photos I've taken in the weeks running up to Christmas in Paris...

Decorating the apartment

So much Paris in one photo, Eiffel Tower, The Seine, Pont de Alexandre III, Grand Palais, Luxor Obelisk, Champs Elysées, Arc du Triomphe, what a truc de dingue!

Tribute to Nelson Mandela

Galeries Lafayette

One of the many Parisian Christmas markets. Only I can't remember if this one is in Neuilly or Saint Germain des Prés. Woops.

The view from the incredibly swanky restaurant where we had our work Christmas meal

The nicest chocolates I've ever eaten - a present from work

Getting into the festive spirit at the local shopping centre

Having French names makes Starbucks a million times easier, forever grateful to the parents for calling me Sophie

Football skills in Montmartre

Traditional Belgian dance troupe (?) that we came across. They were randomly doing their little dance and handing out clementines in the streets of Marcel Sembat.

"Sophie, you know the name of this wine means Onion Peel in French?". Um, nope.

As beautiful as Paris is in the Winter, it is so nice to be home.

Until next year!

Sophie

Quelle Semaine!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 03 Nov 2013 14:19:00 +0000

I know I haven't posted in a while, but the past couple of weekends I've been back in the UK.

The past couple of weeks have been great and stressful all at the same time. After receiving a phone call from my neighbour on my way home from work on Tuesday evening a couple of weeks ago, I returned home to find that I had been broken into and that my apartment had been well and truly trashed. The thieves had helped themselves not only to my new laptop but also all my designer make up and a bottle of perfume. Fortunately I had insurance but it did mean I had to put my French to the test and go to my local police station to make a statement.

On the Wednesday evening, Dom from work and I joined Millie Mackintosh and Professor Green on a Eurostar home to London where my mum was waiting for me on the platform. It was so strange to be back in London and using an Oyster card and the tube. The tube feels so luxurious compared to the Métro, although the tube platforms felt tiny in comparison to the gigantic ones in Paris.

It was so nice to spend some quality time with the family and cats and walk around London like a tourist. Also, it's actually unbelievable how much cheaper coffee is over in England. In fact, everything is cheaper. I probably got more excited than I should have at the fact I could buy magazines IN A SUPERMARKET and also be able to buy salad dressing that wasn't vinegar based and didn't cost around €9 (yes, in Monoprix the mango salad dressing costs 9. whole. euros)

missed my cats so much!

cute lil cafe off Covent Garden

The day after I returned from London I was getting ready for work when I realised I had shut my bedroom door. This would have been fine, if it weren't for the fact that because of the aforementioned break in I don't actually have a door handle to open the door. After calling for my housemate, who spent a good five minutes running at my door in a bid to break it down, she went down to ask the maintenance guy to come and help me. He told her to call the landlord. Useful.

There was nothing else to do except to make my first ever emergency call in French. I actually called the fire service as I had no idea what to do and to cut a long story short he told me to ask my flatmate to put a spoon in the hole where the handle should have been. Needless to say, the door opened straight away. Oh la vie!

On Saturday morning I jumped on a metro (well two metros, two RER trains and an airport shuttle train) to Paris Orly to get the plane to Southampton to see all of my friends at uni. I had such a great time there but it was quite sad in a way to spend a weekend where I spent the past two years of my life, knowing that I won't be back there for a year.

Portswood, the place I called home for 12 months

We went to Sobar on Saturday night which was so strange considering I haven't been out in England since the end of May! It was weird seeing people wearing so little clothing, wearing fancy dress, seeing drunk people and having EVERYONE chat to me. In a Parisian nightclub nobody will ever start a conversation with you, whereas in Sobar literally anyone and everyone was coming up to me, in the toilet queues, asking me to hold their door while they had a wee, asking me for a hairbrush, telling me I was pretty (seriously!). It's a hard life, you know, having everyone wanting to talk to you.

#unayyyyy

Uni obviously knew I was coming, as Dan and I went for a coffee in the Bridge Bar before I got my plane home and they had a special French menu haha

I boarded my plane, and two hours later I was back in central Paris. Feeling a bit down at having to leave my friends and as I had to change at Trocadero anyways, I went up and sat and watched the Eiffel Tower sparkle for a bit, like a loser!

Now I'm just counting down the days until I can go home for Christmas...

A la prochaine!

Sophie

Wandering

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 20 Oct 2013 13:14:00 +0000

After a somewhat stressful week at work, I've had a weekend of doing pretty much nothing at all. Saturday morning was spent in the gym followed by a coffee with a French garçon, which was lovely but after he casually dropped into conversation that he's moving to Hong Kong for the foreseeable I think I'm going to let that one slide! Afterwards I decided to go on a wander around Paris alone, it was so nice not to have a plan and not really knowing where I was going I discovered a bustling area about 10 minutes away from the Eiffel Tower in the 7th full of cute little brasseries.

I jumped on a metro and headed towards the Marks & Spencer food shop on the Champs Elysées, as it's a colleagues birthday tomorrow and she loves all things "British". This did mean however I went a bit crazy and bought an insane amount of food, including iced mince pies. You heard it here first, these bad boys are divine!

Last weekend was slightly more interesting, in that Matt and I decided to do some more Paris exploring. We wanted go to the Grand Palais but the queue was just insanely long and didn't actually seem to be moving, there was this woman all on her own who kept trying to push in front of us which was so irritating, so we walked across the Seine to get a coffee at one of the little riverside cafés, which kind of remind me of the Southbank back at home.

A view inside the Grand Palais, this is where Chanel usually does all its extravagant catwalk shows

We then jumped on a metro to Montmartre, to go to the Fete des Vendages, which was essentially a farmers market held on the hill up to the Sacre Coeur. They had a really cute little parade of what I assume were the various food production associations around France, which was slightly strange but also quite fun.

I was DYING to try these, but genuinely could not justify dropping €7,50 on cheese and potatoes!

We popped into the Sacre Coeur just to have a moments peace from all the hustle and bustle outside. It was so strange how quiet it was inside, but it was nice to have some time to just sit and think, before heading back down to the bottom of the hill to watch the fireworks from above.

On the Sunday, walking to the Métro I discovered that mass rollerblading has now hit my area, it seems to be a BIG thing here in Paris to go rollerblading around the streets!

We decided to go to Paris Louxor, a beautiful cinema in the not so beautiful area of Barbès – Rochechouart, near the Gare du Nord, built in 1921 with Egyptian influences throughout. We went to see La Vie d'Adele, which I really enjoyed despite it being 2h59mins long... I managed to keep track of the story line and the French wasn't too complicated.

As exciting as my weekend was last week, today has been a day of admin and just attempting to bring some order back into my life!

A la prochaine!

Sophie

La Vie Française

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 18:07:00 +0000

For the first time in quite a while I'm having an evening where I'm genuinely doing absolutely nothing, so I've decided to write a post on the little things that I've noticed since I arrived here in June that make me laugh/make me want to jump on a Eurostar home/make me want to live here forever.

The Jardin des Tuileries

As I've been told many times whilst I've been here, Paris was not destroyed in WWII because it was simply too beautiful and it really is true, Paris is such a stunning city despite the fact that the metro smells to high heaven and the heartbreaking number of homeless and disabled people on the streets. One of my favourite things to do in Paris is just walk the streets or jump on a metro and head n'importe où.

This is exactly what we did on Saturday evening, we jumped on a metro after downing a few bottles of champagne (when in Paris...) to take part in the Nuit Blanche (literally translated as a white night, but it means an all-nighter) where we bumped into a London bus which made me miss home just a little bit!

The Nuit Blanche is one night a year where everything is supposed to be open, with museums opening longer and things going on throughout the streets of Paris. It actually turned out to be a bit of a let down as everything seemed to be closed by about 11pm. We did see some kind of lit up flower exhibition in the church in Le Marais, but that was about it. So we headed to Chatelet and um, picked up some fine cuisine.

Unfortunately in France everything seems to close early, banks close at lunch time and close again just before work finishes and just do not open at weekends. My local Carrefour makes a big deal about the fact that it opens late (until 10pm!!) and the fact that its open on a Sunday (for a whole four hours).

Yes, I did the unthinkable and ordered cheesey chips, in Paris. The look on the guy's face when I told him I wanted chips "avec fromage" and that the cheese actually had to be on top of the chips. He then tried to make it more "British" by adding curry sauce. LOL. Just in case you were wondering, they were awful as the French grated cheese of choice is not our beloved Cheddar, but the tasteless, rubbery delight that is Emmental. Non, merci.

On the subject of food, one thing I've had to get used to on the rare occasion I order meat is having to really stress how I would like it to actually be cooked. On Friday night I tried the delicacy that is Steak Tartare, a dish in France where the chef literally pops to the supermarket, opens up a packet of mince and slides in straight on to your plate. And then cracks a raw egg over the top for good measure. I'm not gonna lie to you guys, it wasn't as bad as I thought, but it was rank.

Vomalicious

Another thing that annoys me slightly about living in the capital city is the cost of everything. The picture below literally sums up the cost of living here...

Breaks my heart.

To combat the effects of all this fine wining and dining, on Monday evening I committed to dropping an obscene amount of money a month to join the gym. I've been twice now and I can honestly say all it has in common with my gym in Southampton is the fact that it has exactly the same equipment, which is pretty handy considering it is all in French.

I've also noticed that the gym in France is full of beautiful, thin people that just don't sweat and will actually stop what they're doing to go and faire la bise (double kiss) if they spot a friend. Whilst I have 20 branches at my disposal, I've discovered the one that I've been going to this week has lots of little corners where I can hide and just be the sweaty English gal.

To Matt's amusement, however, I have seem to have lost all my ability to do any sort of ab work, which is slightly awkward/hilarious when I spend a good 5 minutes suspended upside-down on a decline bench because I genuinely cannot get back up! Fortunately the gym has hundreds of classes so hopefully I will get my pre cheese & wine body back soon...

#pasdexcuse

To finish off this post, here are a few things I am REALLY missing out here:

My family/cats/friends/my hairdresser/Sainsbury's/TFL journey planner/the London accent/cheap mcdo/cars that don't go through red lights/real milk/people that don't stare on the underground/not getting leered at in the street/having a real post box/lie ins/pound coins/English magazines/Mum's cooking/peace and quiet/the UK Top 40/Southampton/the uni gym/the Oyster card/cups of tea/baked beans/the high street/English opening hours/Northern England/shopping centres/Boots&Superdrug/having a nap at 4pm just cos I can/sofas/Indian food

Bonne soirée tout le monde!

Sophie

Vivre Libre ou Mourir

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 20:26:00 +0000

As I come to the end of my fourteenth week in Paris, I've come to the conclusion that I am still crazily in love with the city despite its faults. As more people are starting their year abroad in Paris I've found myself getting back into doing more and more things in my free time and I am so glad I came here for my year abroad as there is always something to do.

Last weekend Matt and I decided to go crazy and do just about every tourist attraction going, starting with La Sainte Chapelle on the Île de la Cité, which has free entry for European citizens 18-26.

It really is such a beautiful little chapel, with stunning stained glass windows. Unfortunately it is under renovation but I really enjoyed it.

We then ambled along to the Pantheon, which is a mausoleum containing the remains of distinguished French citizens. After noticing they've got a few empty spaces in the crypt and a severe lack of women there (there are only two, in comparison to the 72 men) I've decided to do something really noteworthy in France so that one day they'll put me in there.

A few empty ones, complete with a window its nicer than some of the apartments I've seen in Paris.

"Vivre Libre ou Mourir" - French for Go Hard or Go Home

After getting soaked on the way home we woke up on Sunday ready for a day of yet more touristy things. I baked some Pain aux Raisins (okay, defrosted them, but it made the flat smell amazing) and headed out, onto the main road by my house to be greeted with a main road completely packed with empty cars. Not just any cars, but matte black Porsches and Mercedes', with chauffeurs standing around waiting. As I turned the corner, yes ladies and gentlemen, Paris Fashion Week had arrived. At the bottom of my road. Beyond surreal.

After fighting my way through hoards of photographers and women with clipboards I jumped on the metro ready to climb the Arc du Triomphe.

I'm preparing you now for the next photo, as this is the face I see if I start eating a Kinder Bueno on the metro or maybe if I pronounce the word "queue" wrong (sometimes I pronounce it so wrong, it sounds like I've just said wow that's a massive bum as the word for bum in french is "cul". Don't ask.) Basically, mesdames and messieurs, this photo sums up the Parisien look.

I've had a pretty calm week this week, and I can't believe it's nearly the weekend already. Coming back from work yesterday with the news that Benfica were staying in the hotel next to work was exciting, especially when PSG won 3-0. As I live about 5 minutes from the stadium, the main roads near mine were packed again, which I personally find hilarious. Only in France would they use the entrance to one of the busiest motorways in Europe as a car park.

Bonne soirée!

Sophie

The First Quarter

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 19:11:00 +0000

As of yesterday, I have now been living in Paris for three whole months, which is just crazy, especially because of the fact that I started university exactly two years ago today. It's insane how fast time goes!

A view out of the Musée d'Orsay

Pont Alexandre III - The evening we ended up on a Victoria's Secret videoshoot

I've had another good week here in Paris, work has been slightly stressful in that summer is now over so people are gradually getting back into the swing of things. I had a coffee with my boss on Friday morning which was fab and made me feel a lot better about work in general. As much as I love my job, as the work flows in it is starting to feel more and more like A Real Job and considering the fact I've been a student forever it is a big change.

The weekend started with a night out in Chatelet, and true to form, it was awful and amazing at the same time. Chatelet is an area in the 1st which comes alive at night time, full of bars and clubs and the kind of music I crave, but with a clientele I'd rather avoid. After jumping on the Noctilien night bus we headed home ready for a weekend of culture.

Jacob from uni was over and being his typical deep and meaningful English student self he dragged me to the Pompidou Centre on Saturday afternoon. I'm gonna stick my hands up here and just put it out there that I did not enjoy the Pompidou Centre. I'm partial to a bit of modern art once in a while (anyone remember those slides in the Tate Modern circa 2006?) but this place is ridiculous. Unfortunately the earlier artwork floor was closed and whilst I did appreciate some of the art we saw, I am just not about staring at a blank canvas trying to work out what it really means.

Deep. Real deep.

A selection of artwork deemed suitable for the blog. I tried, I really did.

Sunday we headed off to the Musée d'Orsay which was much more impressive. Turns out I do like art, it just has to be old and instantly recognisable and painted by Van Gogh/Monet/Degas etc. I did really enjoy the Musée d'Orsay, yet this is probably due to their collection on Impressionism, a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists (according to our good pal Wikipedia) and you know what I'm like with anything Paris related.

Unfortunately I couldn't take any photos but if you're unfamiliar with the works of Van Gogh and Monet etc then you were probably absent on the day in art class in primary school when everyone sat around painting fruit bowls and flower pots.

We then ambled along the Seine and on to Le Marais, to meet up with Matt, Lucy and Hellen, which is now one of my favourite spots in Paris, as unlike the rest of the city, life does go on despite it being a Sunday.

Old copies of ELLE France being sold on the Seine. Almost as many copies as I have under my bed.

After a falafel from L'As (don't go anywhere else, these are THE best ones in Le Marais and I've tried a few now) we stayed chatting in Place des Vosges, went for a verre de vin in one of the little cafes on the main street and then somehow found ourselves in the middle of mass in Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis on rue Saint-Antoine, where the priest did a shout out to "our foreign friends here tonight", represent.

So far this week has started well, I had a lovely stroll along the Seine on Monday evening and had Matt cook for me on Tuesday, now I'm just waiting for the weekend!

A la prochain!

Sophie

La Rentrée

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 15 Sep 2013 20:57:00 +0000

The beginning of September marks La Rentrée here in France, where everybody goes back to school and work and when the streets of Paris are once again filled with Parisians. To be honest, it does feel pretty weird getting on a metro and actually hearing French voices as opposed to American ones!

Unfortunately my laptop broke last week so I was unable to put a post up for ages, however my amazing parents came over this weekend and treated me to a new one, complete with an AZERTY keyboard. Although the AZERTY keyboard is absolutely ridiculous, I’ve been using one for over 2 months now at work and I’m just about getting used to it.

I’ve had a pretty packed start to my Rentrée, my main pal Ellie came to spend a few days with me last weekend, which was a great laugh and I’d like to think Ellie was super impressed at how cool I am now I am living la vie parisienne. On Thursday night, Lucy, Fayida and I popped up to Montmartre for some afterwork drinks which was great, Montmartre is one of my favourite places at night time.

Ellie came on the Friday and the weekend was spent at Wanderlust, Showcase and exploring the Marché aux Puces at Montreuil and Le Marais. Whilst Wanderlust and Showcase were a great laugh, unfortunately going to the Marché in Montreuil was awful, with creepy men everywhere we turned and a McDonalds that genuinely looked like a crack den. Getting on the metro to Le Marais was like going to a different planet, although I’ve been before we had a falafel, sat in Place des Vosges and wandered around the crazily cheap vintage shops.

Shout out to any La Haine fans

On the Monday, Ellie and I wandered around Opera until we found a cute little restaurant that was adequately organic/vegetarian/middle class/overpriced for Ellie's tastes. Whilst the principle was nice, you chose your little glass pot of food and then waited for it to be, ahem, microwaved, and it had great décor, was a lovely and cosy escape from the rain outside the food wasn't amazing.

I was then fortunate enough to be taken out for a drink to the restaurant which Angelina Jolie is in in the first scenes of The Tourist, when I realised where I was I may have got slightly excited about the fact that I was sat where Angelina had sat!

This weekend my parents came to stay which was soooo lovely, especially because my mum had essentially brought half of the M&S food hall with her along with loads of new clothes. We had a great time looking around the Jardin du Luxembourg and visiting the Senat, as this weekend was France's turn for the European open days, where they open the doors to buildings which are usually kept closed to the public.

I then showed my parents the amazing Chartiers, for the second time this weekend, as we spent Lucy and Fayida's birthday there the night before.

Today we took a trip to La Défense, after a rather nice breakfast at McDonalds, where my papa bought me this new laptop which I'm just about getting used to (but am very grateful for!).

pretty fancy photo taken by my dad of the Grande Arche de la Défense

Waving goodbye to my parents in their gooorgeous new car which was just made for la vie Parisienne!

I also realised today that as of tomorrow I will have been living in Paris for 13 weeks, which is just crazy! This is also the week that Fayida leaves Paris for Mexico, and I know I'm going to miss her greatly :( On a lighter note, I also found out that Tiffany's will be opening on the Champs Elysées, which is great news!

As this weekend comes to a close, with the dustbin men outside making a racket at half 11 at night (C'est la France!) it's bonne soirée from the most beautiful city in the world!

Sophie

How to Start a New Life in Paris

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 27 Aug 2013 16:00:00 +0000

A slightly different post this week, as I know a lot of people are starting their year abroad in the next few weeks and considering I started mine over two months ago now (how?!) I thought I'd share my words of wisdom.

A photo taken from when I once flew over Paris

Bank Accounts

First things first, this is France. Therefore this will never be easy. Be prepared to bring proof of absolutely everything. Before leaving for France I really would recommend photocopying your passport and driving licence about 100 times and bring bank statements, old P45s, anything from the HMRC... Basically, if it looks official and has your name and address on it, bring it.

I chose to bank with HSBC as I was already with them in the UK, and I haven't had any problems so far. I would recommend going into a larger branch and make an appointment to speak with their English-speaking assistant (if they have one), and don't feel disheartened if the whole process is done in English, as when it comes to banking, it's better to make sure that everything is done correctly as opposed to agreeing to something you really didn't want just because you didn't know the word for "overdraft" in French, for example (its découvert).

In terms of my student loan, whilst I haven't yet received it despite it being due nearly a week ago (this is Student Finance we're talking about), I've chosen to keep my UK bank account open and transfer larger sums of money over when I need it. This costs me about £4 a time if I do it through HSBC, but I've also discovered this amazing website called TransferWise, which is completely legit, is a lot quicker than a bank transfer and costs a whole lot less.

Accommodation

Living in one of the most beautiful cities in the world comes at a cost. I live in a lovely area, still in zone 1, but nearing the suburbs of Paris and for a 23m2 flat I pay €650 a month with all bills included. Unfortunately, landlords often ask for not only a deposit, but sometimes up to 2 months rent in advance, which can be pretty costly. Common sites used to find accommodation are pap.fr, parisattitude.com and seloger.com. ParisYearAbroad.com also has a good guide to finding an apartment. I found mine through a private company and I have a feeling they may be booked up for the year, but drop me an email if you'd like to know more.

Phone Contracts
Before coming out to France I was on Orange, however I temporarily suspended my contract and whilst I could only do it for 6 months it's still 6 months less that has to be paid for when I'm not actually using it.

I spent hours and hours researching phone contracts, as they're not as cheap over here. I eventually found a company that I have practically fallen in love with, as they're a little start up but use the same signal as SFR, so I've had no problems on that front. Contracts with Joe start from as little as €5 a month, they can be "switched off" at the click of your mouse so you don't have to worry about 12/24 month contracts.

You can even set up your first payment from your UK debit card (not many phone companies will do this) and change it as soon as you've got your French card. If you follow my link here you'll get a fiver put into your cagnotte that you can use to take off your bill or buy international minutes and get a free SIM. You can always log on to see what you've got remaining in your minutes/internet/international calls (if you've bought them) on your phone or on your computer.

Finding things to do

Whether you're in Paris or anywhere else in France, make sure you research where you want to spend your free time. Starting my year abroad whilst there were still people here from 2012/13 was great as I was able to get loads of ideas from them, but I'd recommend checking out the new Time Out Paris site. Asking your colleagues is a great way to bond over discovering new places and things to do. I'd also recommend just jumping on a metro, heading to a station like Place Monge or Parmentier, walking towards République, and just wander the streets, it literally feels like you've walked straight onto a film set!

Staying in touch

As scary as it is moving to a new place, keeping in contact with friends and family can be so easy. I've always been a big fan of Whatsapp, so that's been pretty good whilst I've been here. I've also purchased a subscription with Skype, I get 400 minutes of landline calls over WiFi for under €4 a month, which is fab for staying in touch avec les grand-parents!

Making friends

New country, new start, right? Make sure you talk to anyone and everyone (okay, maybe not everyone, particularly not the creepy creepers you find on the Metro), don't worry if you find yourself clinging onto every fellow English person you meet, it took me about 3 weeks or so before I felt comfortable in approaching Frenchies. Personally, I think it's essential that you profiter bien de the crazily low wine prices, grab yourself a glass before you head out of an evening and chat away to anyone who will listen.

Shopping

If there's one thing we do well in the UK, it's the high street, and whilst Europe doesn't seem to have the best range of shops there are some hidden gems. I am a huge fan of the Galleries Lafayette (especially the one on Boulevard Haussmann) and despite missing Boots and Superdrug like crazy I could spend hours in French pharmacies looking at all the skincare. If you are staying in Paris, it's worth your time checking out City Pharma (Metro station Mabillon) for really good deals on the big brands. I've managed to use Ebay, Amazon and ASOS with no problems over here, too.

Transport

I've talked about Parisian transport quite a bit on my blog already, so it might be worth looking under "transport" under Categories on my navigation bar if you'd like to know more. On the whole, French transport is pretty reliable and similar to back home. You can even buy a Young Persons Railcard if you're going to make the most of living in France to get reductions on train travel.

Sharing your year abroad

As you've probably noticed, I love to document my travels, hence the whole blog thing. I will take photos of absolutely anything and everything, and you should too! Along with the rest of the world, I am a huge fan of Twitter and Instagram and pretty much every photo on my blog I have taken with my iPhone. I use the app Camera + to make my pictures slightly more professional looking (however there is only so much you can do!) If you do decide to write a blog, let me know, I love reading them!

I think that's pretty much it for the time being, but if you do have any questions I'm always on my email or Twitter so just let me know!

A la prochain!

Sophie

A Weekend in Champagne

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 19:20:00 +0000

On Saturday morning I hopped on a train at Gare de Paris-Est headed towards Reims in the Champagne-Ardenne region, as one of my besties, Megan, has just moved over there to do a stage with the Champagne house Taittinger.

The Cathedral in Reims

Getting the train was such a pleasant experience, it only took 45 minutes on the way there. On the way back it took just over 2 hours as I didn't take the speedy train, but I had lots of magazines and my iPod so all was good there. My return journey consisted of two trains, both really nice, however the second one looked like it was straight out of Soviet Russia and was scarily busy. However, the guard saw me looking for a seat and ushered me straight into first class which was pretty swanky!

The journey to Reims did require a strong coffee, as I may or may not have pulled an all nighter just before, getting home at 7am only to leave my flat at just after half 9 in the morning...

Sunrise over the Seine

It was with good reason though as the night before we went to our favourite club, Wanderlust, where I managed to get us into the DJ tent which was pretty surreal and just as we were about to leave we found ourselves talking to the creative director of the nightclub.

Gare de Paris Est

I got into Reims at just after 11 o'clock on Saturday morning and it is STUNNING. I genuinely felt like I was on holiday, it was so picturesque. After lots of photo taking I wandered over to Taittinger to meet Meg. I had a slight panic as Apple Maps was telling me it would take 1 hour 43 minutes to walk there, so I quickly found some wifi to download Google Maps, only to find it was an 18 minute walk. Woops.

We spent last night at the cafe/bar in the photo above, which was really good fun. It was particularly hilarious when a 16 year old garçon, the cousin of a friend of a friend of Meg's (confusing, I know), who was completely trashed tried to speak English with us. He then got out his ID to prove how young he was, only for it to have a picture of him when he was about 5 years old on it so it genuinely could have been anyone's. It had us in stitches all the same, especially when we found out his family owns a prestigious champagne company over here, but then again everyone I met in Reims seemed to have some kind of connection with the champagne world.

The Cathedral's light show

Today I headed over to Taittinger with Meg's friend who was such a great guy (although I don't know how to spell his name, awkward!) and I got to have a free tour of the estate with a complimentary glass of Champagne which was pretty impressive

€8 million worth of Champagne

So proud of my pal!

Just before my train home Meg's friend took me to another Champagne house and treated me to a tasting session which was very kind of him, even if it did mean getting on my train a little bit tipsy. I've definitely found a new love for champagne and I will not be mixing it with orange juice ever again (sacrilege!)

The next few photos are of where Meg lives, which is the "servants quarters" of the house next door. It's such an amazing house, even if it did give me the creeps slightly at night time! I would however just like to point out all the empty bottles and boxes of Champagne in her kitchen, someone has clearly moved on from predrinking on the cheapest beer in Sainsbury's..?

The view from Meg's bedroom

I had such a great time on my mini break away from Paris, however I'd just like to put out a special mention to Harry (as I know he has been expecting one for a while now) who has been a great pal to me in my first few months here, but is now leaving to go and live the high life in Hong Kong and he will be very much missed! :(

Spending my last afternoon with Harry in the Jardins de Luxembourg in the 5th

A la prochain!

Sophie

Life Lately

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 21:46:00 +0000

Today is a bank holiday here in France so I've had a fairly decent lie in and after waiting hours for these pictures to upload I'm finally able to put up a post! This week has been another great one over here in L'Hexagone.

One of the windows in the Musée Quai Branly

Last week started with a trip to get some forms signed at my landlord's flat in the 1st right next to the Louvre for my CAF application (money from the French government to help with accomodation, more about this in another post coming up!). My pal Charlie and I took this as an opportunity to explore the Jardin des Tuileries and the Louvre at night time as there is a funfair at the moment over there. Whilst we didn't go on any of the rides it had such a great atmosphere which led to us having one of our many "what is my life right now" moments!

Some night time photos from the end of the Champs Elysées and Concorde metro station

After a night out at Wanderlust on the Friday night, which is potentially my favourite club in the whole world, Fayida and I spent the day with her friend Steve. We visited a beautiful place called Saint Germain-en-Laye about 20km outside of Paris, where there is a chateau , a vineyard and a great view out on to La Défense (the business district in France)

We then went bowling and headed into Bastille for a €5 cocktail at one of our favourite bars on Rue de Lappe, which is a great street for Latin American bars and clubs with a really fun atmosphere. I can never remember what is called, but it is directly opposite La Havanita, which also has good cocktails (and a particularly clingy waiter).

Afterwards we headed to a club called Social Club off the Grands Boulevards, which was pretty cool, potentially too cool for a closet Oceana fan like me but I had a good night. However, despite the fact that I don't smoke, I often like going to smoking areas in nightclubs just to get some fresh air, or to have a conversation without the music in the background. Yeaaaah, no. This club had something called a fumoir, which is essentially a smoking area, indoors. The air was thick, foggy and smelt awful. Lucy stayed over at mine that night and with a couple of other girls from my building we got a taxi home, which came to just over €5 each, which I don't think is too bad for a capital city, but then again Paris is a lot smaller than London.

The ceiling of the bar in Rue de Lappe, Bastille

A night time tour of Paris courtesy of Steve!

Social Club

"Il fait toujours nuit sinon on n’aurait pas besoin de lumière"

"It's always night, or we wouldn't need light". Deep.

Sunday was a lot more peaceful, with a trip to the Musée Quai Branly right next to the Eiffel Tower with Hellen and Fayida followed by a picnic in our favourite place, the Champ de Mars. The Musée Quai Branly features indigenous art, cultures and civilizations from Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. I found it really interesting as it had some more modern work, I particularly enjoyed the Americas section.

Another great week in the most beautiful city in the world :)

A la prochain!

Sophie

Being Cultured

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 06 Aug 2013 06:15:00 +0000

Last week I decided I was going to start saying yes, making sure I did something every day. Paris, like any capital city, is full of culture and I decided that I needed to start getting out more and making the most of my evenings after work. This post isn't going to be toooo wordy, just lots and lots of pictures of my past week!

"Our ancestors weren't all Gallic"

On Wednesday night we headed down towards the 2nd, near the Louvre, for a burger at a place called Blend that Shyam had told us all about. Despite asking for mine to be "bien cuit", it still came out a bit pink. I'm really not sure about this whole eating your meat practically raw thing that the French love so much...

On Thursday, after stopping off to see the Paris Plage near Chatelet (which is beyond cute, I don't know why the locals moan about it so much?) we went to the Sacre Coeur to see Midnight in Paris for free at one of the Clair de Lune open air cinemas. This actually made me (and Michael!) feel a bit emotional, seeing this beautiful city on a screen in front of us, only to turn around and realise that I actually live here.

Cinema screen in front of the Sacre Coeur, excuse the blurriness!

On Saturday we headed over to the Palais de la Porte Dorée, a beautiful museum with an Art Deco style interior, where they were showing an exhibition on immigration in France. This is such a controversial topic over here, but it's something that I am really interested in so I jumped at the chance to go.

In Paris, most museums are free for young people under 26.

This poster makes reference to the immigrant community doing the jobs to make Paris clean, that without them it would be a mess

Sunday evening, after spending a day venturing out of Paris and into the banlieues to find an Ikea (which was weirdly comforting, being somewhere SO familiar) with my lovely pal Hellen, we headed to Chartier in Grands Boulevards. The girls had been already before, but I was beyond impressed. It looks like a train station and straight out of a film set and is incredibly cheap, I'm talking 3 courses and 3 glasses of wine with change from €15. We walked straight in to our table for 6, but as we left the queue was going right down the road.

I've started this week as I mean to go on, yesterday after work Michael and I had a Marketing outing after work, where we went and sat in Belleville Park which Michael thought was amazing and the nicest park in Paris (he had clearly forgotten about Le Jardin du Luxembourg etc) while I just spent the whole time wondering what we were doing in some park in the ghetto that had been built in the late 80s and therefore wasn't pretty at all, just functional. To be fair it did get nicer towards the top, but I was much happier when we went to a café for a Chocolat Viennois complete with a flirty French waiter.

"One must be wary of words" - An art installation in this Quartier Bobo (hipster)

After work today we were going to carpe that diem and go up the Eiffel Tower, but the weather wasn't too great so decided to just be tourists instead and see a Parisian Statue of Liberty and that bridge from Inception (right by Bir Hakeim metro station in case you were wondering). I was going to walk home, considering I could essentially see the office buildings at the end of my road from the Eiffel Tower, but the estimated journey time on Google Maps told me it was a no.

Did not appreciate this chico walking into my photo, but turns out Michael isn't that great with this kind of thing so the other attempts weren't acceptable to put up haha

Seriously, congratulations if you made it to the end of this post!

A bientôt!

Sophie

Paris in the Rain

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 30 Jul 2013 20:47:00 +0000

There are genuinely no words to describe how great a time I am having here, and I am sure that I might be slightly annoying going on about how amazing Paris is all the time. It is because of this that I have decided to write this post, all about my worst day so far. I'm still going to put some irrelevant Paris photos in, just to distract from the doom and gloom of what will be this First World Problems post.

The ceiling in the Gallery Lafayette

When I say my worst day, I really mean my worst evening. I found out yesterday afternoon that I got paid from work and despite the temptation to head to the Galleries Lafayette and pick up a designer handbag, or head to Sephora to buy a lipbalm that costs €44 but is definitely worth it, (don't worry Mum -- I bought neither of these things!) I went to Lidl.

Yep, turns out living the life of a stagiaire in Paris isn't as glamorous as it sounds, whilst the standard wage for an intern is 30% of the minimum wage, I have been very lucky in that my employers pay me waaay over that! However, something inside of me told me to pass my local Carrefour and go to Lidl instead, I think it was the bright, modern shop front, or maybe even the Eiffel Tower painted on the wall inside (I definitely have a thing for the Eiffel Tower).

Big mistake. I have never seen a shop so busy and so crowded. I don't think I have ever said "pardon" or "excusez-moi" so much in my life, it was manic. The prices were pretty low, even if the packaging was frighteningly foreign I still managed to spend €18 on a pretty big basket full of food. I came out missing the one thing I went in for, which was milk, as the only "red top" milk that was available wasn't in the fridge and it had teddy bears and babies all over the packaging which was just too off putting.

When I finally managed to get into a queue, a lady decided she was going to start a conversation with me about how a priest had definitely joined our queue with more than 8kg of items in his trolley, and just because he was a priest it didn't mean he should get priorities. This was all happening at the same time as a little old lady was trying to push in front of me in the queue, only to give up and attempt to steal her bottle of fabric conditioner. She was swiftly spotted by the security guard but by this point I was so tempted to abandon my basket and leave. Honestly, if it wasn't so tragic I would have actually laughed out loud.

It was just as I was about to leave that it started raining heavily, with thunder and lightning. I don't know why everyone goes on about us Brits having weather issues when the French are OBSESSED. As soon as it gets hot everyone runs around screaming "CANICULE! CANICULE!", which means heatwave, and the slightest bit of rain leaves everyone hovering in shop doorways with frightened looks upon their faces.

So there I am, stood in the middle of potentially 50-60 shoppers with a Lidl shopping bag in one arm and a packet of 18 yoghurts under the other (keeping it classy), everyone is staring at me with bemused expressions wondering if I could really be that crazy to actually walk in the rain. And I am, because I am a Londoner at heart and a little bit of rain never harmed anybody. And it was absolutely fine, about 100 metres down the road it stopped raining and Paris returned to its normal self.

As much as I'd like this to be the end of my First World Problems post, I decided to put a wash on when I got home, and when I say put a wash on I mean all the underwear I own in France right now, only to be given electric shocks in my thumb, for the washing machine cylinder to spin round and lock itself shut and for my incredibly condescending flatmate to then spout off a load of xenophobic rubbish about English people. I called the plumber however he still hasn't turned up yet, so that will be great fun for him when he gets to break apart the washing machine and see all my dirty laundry!

The rest of the evening didn't go too great, considering I found some absolute bargains in the ASOS sale only to receive an email from them demanding the world (apparently in France you need ID and a photocopy of address to purchase a few €5 tops, oh my life). I also tried to renew my travelcard online, as in France you can only renew your travelcard around the 1st of the month, and apparently there are queues everywhere on the morning of the 1st. However, it turns out France haven't quite got the 21st century figured out yet, as if you want to top up your Navigo online you need to buy a €7 USB card reader from a metro station so you can then link your card to your computer and buy it through that.

Place de la République

Today proved much better though, as I took a trip to the shopping centre near where I work, saw a Marks and Spencers which even had an M&S Cafe and then met up with one of my best pals here, Fayida, who as always cheered me up in our favourite Indian with her Parisian life stories.

Nothing quite like a familiar face!

Oh well, c'est la vie!

Sophie

Weekends in Paris

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 19:06:00 +0000

Over the past few weeks at work I have come to understand what it means to be "living for the weekend". Working a full time job means there is little time to actually do things during the week, so I've been trying to do as much as is humanly possible with my weekends here in Paris.

This weekend started with a night out at Showcase, an amazing club which just so happens to be underneath my favourite bridge in Paris. A night out in Paris is not actually as expensive as I thought it would be, I don't know how I'll go back to student life in the UK after a year of starting the night predrinking under the Eiffel Tower with a bottle of €1,46 wine! I've found that most clubs here have free entry before midnight/1:30 if you sign up on their website, yet drinks can be expensive at around €10-€12 for a single. I actually enjoyed Showcase so much (even if the music was slightly strange) I went back again on Saturday night with another group of pals.

Waking up this morning with a hangover that was only to be expected from a bottle of wine that cost under €2, I met up with some of my best pals here in Paris and headed on up to the Marchés aux Puces (flea markets) in Porte du Clignancourt.

Something weirdly interesting about reading old post cards

The Marchés in Porte du Clignancourt are made up of 15 markets, and once you get past the usual stalls selling costume jewellery and pashminas, you'll find antique furniture, vintage clothes and my favourite, original Chanel 2.55s and Hermès Birkins (!!)

On the other side of the Boulevard Périphérique, getting into Banlieue territory!

Without wanting to get too political, there's something quite surreal about going from the glamour of the Champs Elysées and the Grands Magasins to an area in which street vendors are trying to make a living by selling knock-off handbags and phones. It was obviously a poorer neighbourhood and I suppose it's the same in any big city, but as you can see in the photo above, to have these housing estates with huge logos on top of them just feels a bit...weird.

Marché Jules Vallès, established in 1938, sells mainly books and paintings

Although I didn't actually buy anything, apart from a reasonably priced Coke Zero from a cute little street food stall, I really enjoyed looking through all the old magazines in the market (despite not finding a single ELLE!). They had copies of old fashion magazines dating from 1946 I think, and they were around €8, which I didn't think was too bad considering how well they had been kept.

The excitement of finding a "Bande Dessinée" about the 6 Adventures of Sophie!

I had a great weekend venturing out of my Parisian bubble, now I'm just planning what to do next weekend!

A la prochain,

Sophie