Gluttony and a Linguistic Pilgrammage

So it's been about a decade since my last update, and at first it was because nothing of any interest whatsoever happened, but then things began to pick up again.

Paris fashion week came and went, bringing with it a noticeably large number of additional limos, models and paps. One afternoon I was going about my daily business, buying some stationery for work from the Virgin Megastores on the Champs Elysées (where all my entertaining anectdotes seem to start!) Perfectly satisfied with my modest daily accomplishment I was walking home when I stumbled directly into the path of about 200 paparazzi! Lots of incomprehensible yelling ensued which I could only take to mean "Get out of the bloody way woman" as I turned around to see a scantily clad, stilettoed personality climbing out of a blacked-out car. Apparently I had sidled into the arrival area for the biggest fashion week show and I was completely obstructing the view of this French actress' big entrance. (Note to self: Must start dressing up for future trips to Virgin Megastore in case of celebrity based situations). OK so I didn't recognise any of the 'celebrities' turning up in ever more perculiar outfits, including a man dressed entirely in newspaper, but I didn't want to lose my last scraps of self respect by admitting this and asking the vast numbers of international press who anyone was. So I just smiled knowingly and took in the atmosphere, after all things like this never happen in Cirencester!

Embracing the ever-so slightly sterotypical French culture I went along to a friend's flat for a Wine and Cheese soirée. This event was actually the catalyst for my discovery of my local area, as I had been instructed to bring along 'un bon fromage'. Clearly the supermarket own brand brie would not suffice for such an occassion so instead I hit the streets of the premier arrondissement to sniff out (quite literally) my local fromagerie. I found it only one street away from my flat and it was beautifully traditional and full of character. I bought some miniature 'chevres' coated in herbs and peppers and vowed to come back on a regular basis. However I then tripped up on my way out of the shop sending a bicycle that had been propped up against the door flying! I was really quite mortified and consequently I haven't felt the need for cheese since! On a more positive note, I found, on the same street, 2 lovely boulangeries/patisseries which doesn't bode well for my newfound vice - Strawberry millefeuilles. Ever the one for tradition and routine, I now live for my Saturday morning Strawberry Millefeuille extravaganza. I'm trying out different patisseries and find that millefueille is an excellent benchmark for assessing the general quality of each outlet! It has become the thing that gets me through work all week and this Saturday's SM had frozen strawberries in it, the disappointment of which has tarred my whole weekend!

The other new tradition in my Parisian life is 'Sunday Flunch Lunch'. (Flunch being a cheap restaurant chain where 5€ gets you meat of some sort with unlimited access to veg, pasta and chips!) This is excellent except for the fact that I've put on about 100kilos courtesy of Flunch since being here (nothing to do with the strawberry millefeuilles or almost daily pains au chocolat of course!) So every Sunday lunchtime I meet Helena there and we have a good old chin wag at the same time.

Last Saturday was the celebration of the Vendanges de Montmarte which is when the grapes are picked at the Montmartre vineyard. Any excuse for a knees up, this is turned into a massive celebration and manifestation of all things French. I met Henri and some of his french friends to witness a spectauclar, no expenses spared, firewors display complete with a Gainsbourg/Brel/Piaf soundtrack in front of the Sacré Couer and then spent the rest of the night with half the population of Paris weaving between the stalls representing every corner of France selling regional food and wine. It was, however, too overcrowded to make the most of it so I suggested to Helena the next day at Flunch that we return that afternoon. It was great to look around the stalls and there were lots of unconventional street performers keeping us entertained. We then indulged in a flute of champagne! Sitting on the steps outside Sacré Couer on a Sunday afternoon sipping champagne and watching the world go by from the best viewpoint over Paris made for a most satisfactory end of the week!

This week has been dominated by Matty's visit and my first trip out of Paris. After a very long day on Monday of work and then babysitting (which was a surreal experinece in itself, as the children and I watched their dad on live television as I sat in his living room!) I eventually got home really late knowing that I had to be up at the crack of way before dawn in order to catch my 06.57 train to Lille. This was no ordinary trip but instead a linguistic pilgrammage to 'Le Nord'. Meeting Matty off the bus from the airport we found our hostel and then had a couple of hours to kill in Lille city centre. Having left the Parisian metropolis for 24 hours I assumed to have a day void of any TV film crews, alas Matty and I innocently sauntered into the main square to be shouted at by a woman with a walkie-talkie - yes they were filming an upcoming film with actor Bernard Le Coq. So watch out for "Le cible dans le dos" in the future, who knows perhaps Matty and I will make a cameo appearance.
After being hassled somewhat randomly by some Dutch schoolgirls who insisted on doing a questionnaire on Matty ("My favourite country in the whole world is Scotland because I like haggis") we boarded the train for our highly anticipated trip to Bergues. This otherwise non-descript very northern town was the setting of the massively successful French film 'Bienvenue chez les chti's' last year and having spent the final semester of university studying the accent, the linguistic pull of Bergues was too strong to resist. I do not actually remember being in so much pain from laughing as I was that grey Tuesday afternoon, climbing Bergues belltower, watching the local youth playing a game of petanque and even eating a tarte aux pommes in the square (I panicked...!) Sprinting to get the train back to Lille, the seemingly lovely ticekt-inspector lady failed to tell us that we needed to change at Hazebrouck and we regrettably ended up in Lens! Perhaps it's not fair to judge a town on the surrounding area of the station but from what we saw it's the msot godforesaken town in history! Eventually back in Lille Matty and I hit the town and after a free bottle of wine, we tried out a local bar full of Lillois medical students on whom we tried out our best chti dialect with mixed reactions.

Back in Paris, I had to leave Matty to his own devices whilst I went to work but on Thursday evening a very international group of 8 of us went out to dinner at a nearby creperie. With Americans, French, Brits, a Portugese and a German it was like a UN meeting, only slightly less sophisticated but great fun nonetheless. We finished the night in a sangria bar and the retired home after a fairly tame evening. On Friday Matty and I took full advantage of the free entry to national tourist attractions and went to the Pompidou museum and climbed the Arc de Triomphe. I should have learned my lesson by now, but on the way home I thought it would be a good idea to pop into Virgin Megastores. In the main entrance of the shop was a pile of copies of 'Dracula the undead' the new sequel to the original Dracula. Glancing at the inside cover to read about it, a booming American voice cut through "Hello, please can we have a photo taken with you. We are the authors" to which a very bemused Matty and I obliged and turned to face a camera and videocamera and had several photos taken! It was another of those strange situations I all too often find myself in, as Mr Stoker (great-grand nephew of original Bram) went on to explain to me in great detail the process of writing up Bram's notes and about the screenplay that he was currently in talks to sell to Hollywood! What was particularly odd was that there was a growing queue of real fans lining up for the official signing he was doing afterwards and yet he chose to divulge all to us!

Only working part time means that I've had a lot of time to consider future possibilities and career options and the overwhelming urge in my barmy brain at the moment is to combine 2 of my passions - jornalism and pop music. So it's something I'm somewhat passively researching at the moment just because it's something that really interests me. It also means that I've spent a lot of time reading pop music related articles and was very sad to hear about Stephen Gately this week. Anyone that knows me well will know the role that boybands play in my life and so I even managed to do a lesson this week at university using an article about his untimely death!

This blog is going to turn into a tome of ridiculousness if I don't stop soon. So as autumn really takes it's grip on Paris, I can only look forward to a season of fun-filled antics and discovering the city as best I can.