Hi guys,
I'm well and I hope this finds you the same. Apologies for not writing sooner but I have been so busy roaming Paris. It is a wonderful city. Today I went back to one of my favourite spots in Paris a little bookshop caled "Shakespeare and Company". It is soooo lovely. It is a converted house so upstairs it has books over the bathroom sink and under benches. There are even beds still there so that you can sit and read. That's what I did this afternoon, I just sat there for a couple of hours and read an entire book. It was great. I then went to a park and sat by the Seine and just watched the world go by.
The weather is gorgeous - hot, sunny, lovely blue skies..... fantastic. Because I'm lazy I am going to put here a part of an email to a friend because I really don't want to write this all out again... so here is what I wrote after my first full day in Paris.
Saturday 12th July
I am loving Paris!! Its great. I just walked around the whole day (11 hours on my feet, they don't like me anymore). I went to the Louvre which is ok but not really my sort of art. A little too old. I really want to go the Impressionist's gallery!! A bit of Pisarro and Monet that will be great!!!! I only just got up (11:45 am) - we went out for dinner (sorry 'we' are the girls I'm staying with - distant family friends). They are all girls who are working in Paris after the end of ther Uni courses. They are sooo lovely . The house is crazy - six of us in a three bedroom house but it all works and it is great fun to hang out with some great girls. So we went out for dinner then went to the local square and because we live in the student quarter every one was outside drinking. It is so good, they have such a long twilight here in Europe during the Summer. It lasts until 11pm or so. So everyone is outside and the weather is nice. Lots and lots of fun. We then went to the Oz Bar (an "Australian" bar that really isn't Australian..... it just has Fosters, which is not a great beer, and digeridoos and Aussie flags around the place) but it was still really fun. I met lots of people (none of which were Australian!) so that was good fun. But the Parisian boys are quite sleazy. Ohh well. We got home around 5am and went straight to sleep. So that's my yesterday.
Paris is very beautiful when the sun comes out. You know those paintings with Roman palaces (pillars and such) that people like Leonardo and Botticelli (the Renaissance) painted that have amazing cream buildings with perfect looking clouds and big blue skies and you think that's inpossible?! Well that's what Paris looks like when the sun comes out. The buildings are soo lovely and the streets are soo wide and there are little boulevards down by the Seine..... it's all marvellous!
I also went to Notre Dame which has the most amazing carving on the front and gorgeous stained glass windows. I also went to the Opera House which inspired the book and play the "Phantom of the Opera". It is sooo grand! Red velvet everywhere! And down below is a room with mirrors on the roof and on the walls - it is really cool - so of course I had to spin around in the middle crazily!! He he. Ok I had better go and do some more exploring!
It is now Tuesday and I am still having a brilliant time.
Yesterday was Bastille Day so I went to see the military parade on the Champs Elysee. I couldn't see a lot of the marching from where I was but I had a grand view of the flyover by the great big planes in formation. It was great! And the tanks rolling down the Champs Elysee were really amazing. I then chilled for two hours just sitting on the grass waiting for the massive crowd to spread back out around the city. I then just wandered the city.
I sat on the banks of the Seine for a little while as I wrote in my journal. I had some French guy come up and we chatted away until he asked me to go to a club with him that night. I said no that I already had plans to meet Kasia (and I didn't want to go out with some stranger). In the afternoon I went to the 11th Quarter and listened to music while I waited to meet Kasia and her friend Ollie. The music was all jazzy and everyone was up dancing. "Everyone" being the locals - there weren't any tourists around except maybe me -but then I see myself as a "Traveller".... it's completely different :)
So Ollie, Kasia and I then wandered around the streets of Paris, bought some wine and headed towards the Eiffel Tower where the fireworks were. We found a good patch of dirt to claim and sat there talking until the fireworks.
THEY WERE BRILLIANT!!! So good and set to music and everything. So amazingly lovely, they really out did themselves this year. The tower itself is spectacular. I intend to go and climb it tomorrow and to marvel at its construction.
We then walked all the way back to the 7th Quarter and stayed up chatting at Ollie's girlfriend's apartment (sadly she was in Germany which was a shame that we couldn't meet her). We spent the night there. It was so much fun just talking and watching fireworks in Paris!!! YAY!!!!!!!
I also went to the Musee d'Orsay which has more modern art especially a lot of work by the Impressionists. So lovely.... in fact I loved it so much that I spent the whole afternoon there!!
I spent Sunday with Karsh. We went to Montmatre and visited the amazing cathedral Sacre Coeur.... it is so amazing! A mass was being celebrated at the time and the singing was lovely. We also wandered around the 6th and 5th Quarters going to the Jardin du Luxembourg, a lovely garden which used to be part of a stately home, and also having a look at the outside of the Pantheon.
I'm totally out of breath (so to speak) I hope you like the massive post.
All my love, Acushla.
PS: So to put it shortly - I'm having a brilliant time. Lots of love to all of you back home.
If you don't send me an email after that essay I don't know what I'll do :)
xoxoxoxoxox
