Friday 7 September 2007

"Bonjour! Parlez vous Anglais?...No?.. Ohh... err... au revoir"

To counter my previously draining posts, I shall endeavor to keep this relatively brief and purely Paris-related.. So as indicated we"ve left the mother country with our first stop being the city of lurve. Having seen gay-Paris and all its attractions in a former life I had anticipated only a mild sense of enjoyment at revisiting the country"s capital. Still I do have to admit to becoming rather besotted with the people, various sites and of course; food & drink.
Re-doing Gustave"s old tower turned out to be just as enjoyable the second time round. The four us went back a couple of nights later to see the light display and, well, some say it"s a bit tack but I"m not too bothered. Think it looks bit of alright. Only downside really was as it hit 10.00pm with the massive structure doing its sparkly thing, a bottle of (typically cheap) wine present- it dawned on the four of us that maybe each others company didn"t quite agree with the mood of the evening. Still, in one of the most beautiful city"s in the world, one can"t tend to complain too much.
Other attractions worth mentioning were of course the Champs-Elysees and Arc de Triomphe, the somewhat haunting Catacombs, Notre Dame, Sacre-Couer (sp?), the Louvre and the palace of Versailles. A very decent (and complimentary) audio guide gave a little more light to the ridiculous pomp and opulence of the King"s old digs and, having studied a small amount of French history, proved particularly interesting.
Otherwise our days were generally spent in the most cliche of French ways. Crusty baguettes were the sole feature of almost all our meals and were accompanied by many many bottles of exceptionally cheap grappa whilst overlooking what in all honesty was a terrific view from our window. Overall we"ve been extremely lucky with accommodation and now there"s four of us*
we are able to get our own quad rooms for much less $$$$ . Oh and it seems some myths and stereotypes are truer than others. For instance, Crepes are indeed both readily available and delicious. The French are on the whole a warm, accommodating and helpful race of people (or so my experiences would suggest). So hmm I guess there"s something in that.





Fine Dining




A young chap looking delighted after releaving himself in the palace gardens of Versailles




Did almost run into some trouble on our second last night. A relatively quite night spent with one or two (or three or four) bottles of wine quickly escalated into a bit of a cross room party when I bumped into some Welsh blokes in the hall. These guys could certainly drink and forced a sculling contest upon me. I"m generally terrible at this sort of thing and was pretty soon left behind. Anyway apparently we must of been slightly rowdy because the reception bloke came up fuming and yelling French abuse at us indispersed with the words "Police" and "kicked out". Luckily he decided against either of those options but we did receive a rather severe (and probably deserved) dressing down in the morning. Good times nonetheless.
Hmm so we"re actually in Barcelona at the moment and having a fantabulous time. The story of our adventures here will, unfortunately, have to wait. I might however add that since we"ve been here I was actually able to convince a barkeep to show the Collingwood vs Sydney final the other day(/night for all you Melbourne folk). Even though the game was wholeheartedly lost on the other English blokes in the pub it was brilliant to see my beloved Pies looking so damn good. Anyway,shall go now but thanks again to everyone for their various emails. As much as on occasions there have been complaints by some that I nyself don"t keep them regularly updated, I will say that I love hearing all that"s going on back home (including the mundane) so please, don"t hold back.
Big Huggles and kisses,
J


Song I"m Listening To At The Moment: We All Know- Devendra Banhart


P.S. I will apologise for constantly using " instead of the singular version-thing but as unfortunately that"s just Spanish keyboards for you.



*(newest member to Team Travel (occasionally known as "A Tribe Called Travel") arrived two days before we left England. He is, for the most part, a decent human being)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bonjour le petit Jerome!

This is your sis here, and she's missing you like crazy! For example, who could I tell that would appreciate, that the other day I served the one-and-only-incredibly-sexy Daniel Giansiracusa at work!!!! Oh. My. God. He was so good looking I forgot how to open a can of tuna and had to delegate it to someone else. All while smiling profusely at him and being as 'helpful' as I could.

But I'm glad you're having a swell, gay old time. I just wish you could appear magically every week or so to bring some hilarity to my life, or put me down, or whatever. Do come home soon, ok?

Btw, I'll try and get that video of our place up on the net as soon as possible. (That is, get Daniel to do it...) Probably after I've emerged from the insanity that is essay writing. You wouldn't want to see me on camera in this state I promise you.

Love you lots and miss you (in case you can't tell),

Tash xxx

Pauk said...

Oh Jemeree, you brighten up my work day.

Fafu, le cologne bagette vegemite, kangaroo oui oui, monsieur.

Ahh... forget it.