Christmas Eve in Paris.

I received an early christmas present today in the form of my sister on the aeroplane a little early for my liking but we were both running on little to no sleep. Had to finish up the last minute christmas food shopping, including a traditional french christmas cake a "buche de Noel." One of these yummy looking things.

lots of buche de Noel's in the shop window

Then Sian and I went to the christmas markets at Saint Sulpice, wandered down to the seine and Notre Dame followed by some browsing of the windows of Gallery Lafayette.

Christmas markets St Sulpice

Christmas markets St Sulpice

Country village scene in a shop window

Notre Dame

Gallery Lafayette window

Gallery Lafayette window

Following our window browsing we made our way to the Champs Elysee and the christmas markets, where we browsed at the stalls and walked up to the Arc the Triomphe. We then made our way down the Champs Elysee again, where it was time for some vin chaud before heading home to make a christmas eve dinner then curl up snuggly in bed.

Arc de Triomphe

Champs Elysee and the Arc

Champs Elysee and the Ferris Wheel

Ferris wheel at night

Paris at night

Christmas at Notre Dame

The other night after class three of us went out to dinner. On the way to the restaurant we passed Notre Dame and the big christmas tree they have up, here are some photos I took.

"oh christmas tree, oh christmas tree!"

Ok so here are the long promised photos of my christmas tree.

Parisian Party!

Today I had my first Parisian dinner party. Ok so it was a luncheon and there was only one French person but you know what I mean. I have been taking French lessons at Alliance and on our breaks and things four of us usually get coffee together. One of the girls is leaving tomorrow so one of the others invited us to lunch at her house. So we had a luncheon with her and her husband us girls and two Belgian guys who were friends of theirs. In true French style we had lots of yummy wine and a lot of courses. Prawns for starters, then pork with apricot and figs and salad then cheeses then pineapple with cointreau on top all very yummy.

It’s coming on Christmas they’re cutting down trees

Ok, so I know that I haven’t blogged for awhile and lots of people are waiting for the next entry but it’s been cold, grey and rainy and my mood has been reflecting the weather. In short I just haven’t felt like blogging. It’s almost Christmas and it is a sad time to be away from home especially as it is the first Christmas away so my usual unfailing Christmas joy has been hard to find this year. It has always been my favourite time of year putting up the tree, decorating making presents or decorations or cards, listening to cheesy Christmas songs, I love it all. Today I got a Christmas miracle to re find my Christmas spirit. I had decided today that I was going to finally get a Christmas tree I’ve been looking at them for a couple of weeks now but they never seemed to have prices on them and my French is still pretty basic, so I hadn’t conquered the buying of the “Sapin Noel” yet. I nearly didn’t today either as it was raining and miserable again. However, eventually I decided to brave the weather and head out to Monoprix, about a fifteen minute walk away, to buy a tree. I went into buy some decorations and was going to then come back and buy the tree because they sell them outside the store. By the time I had bought my decorations and come outside to buy my tree the rain had turned to snow, albeit wet non landing snow but still snow nonetheless thus, restoring my Christmas spirit. Although carting home a big tree in the snow is in reality less enchanting than it sounds with the needles poking you getting caught in my jumper and the snow making everything wet, still nothing could destroy my new found Christmas spirit. Now as I write this I am listening to Christmas songs Joni Mitchell’s “River” for one, hence the blogtitle. Also am starting to decorate the tree. Pictures to come.

Nicky's Parisian Palace!

Finally the moment you have all been waiting for pictures of the new place. My Parisian Palace all 25m2 of it which, by Paris standards is indeed a palace. It is so good to finally have a place to call my own after a month of homelessness. Without further ado here are the pics of my new place and neighbouring shops.

My building from the outside

The hallway,Kitchen, Dinning room and bathroom

Shower

Main room

Lounge

My Closet

Stairs to my bed

My Bed


Les Artistes Brasserie down the road where they have art exhibitions once a month


My favourite boulanger on the corner

Maybe I will get my White christmas after all today when I went outside to take some photos it was snowing that annoying sleety snow and it was too wet too land but it was anowing nonetheless. In my misguided optimism and need to paint I decided to venture out to the art shop hoping against hope that it would be open despite being a sunday. Needless to say indeed it was not open, however I did find a cute little art market in the middle of the street where art store shops are. So I walked along in the snow with my broken umbrella looking at some mediocre art and some amazing art as well I love it when you come across the little markets such as this one, they are dotted all around Paris and can be in the most unlikely areas.

Italy

Hi all long time no post, but internet access is very hard when travelling. Thanks to sammi for the amazing blog background she made for me using my Paris photos. It looks much better than my plain one. So Italy, what can I say yum, pasta, pizza, coffee and red wine who could ask for anything more. I am in Florence for my last night and have been here for three days tommorrow I go to Rome for four nights and will then be making my way back to paris and my new appartment.

An apartment finally and a trip to Italy.

Yay I finally have an apartment thanks to mum for finding it on the Net. I saw it today and by Paris standards it is amazing. Ok so there is no washing machine, dryer, bathtub, oven or much cupboard space but as I said by Paris standards it is amazing. There is a huge couch and above the couch is a mezzanine sleeping level and it has a toilet and shower and little kitchen. It is on the ground floor so no climbing a million stairs with bags of shopping. So it is great but i can't move in until the 21st of november at the earliest. So I have two weeks to fill, what better way to fill a spare two weeks than a trip to Italy Land of great food and beautiful Art I leave in the morning and will keep you all posted.
Aurevoir A Bientot

Sunday and all is closed.

Before coming to Paris I had read that most things shut on Sunday, but I don't think I really comprehended the fact that yes everything is shut on Sunday in Paris. That is except for the odd boulangerie around the place and the fast food vans that cater for the tourist trades. So there isn't a lot to do unless you want to battle the crowds of other people who are lookign for something to do and go to an art museum. I decided I would wait for another day to do this and instead spent a leisurely few hours walking along the Seine and taking in the general beauty of strolling through Paris on a quiet Sunday.

Notre Dame!

Yesterday I went to look at another apartment in the area of Notre Dame and while I was in the area I decided to check out the inside of the cathedral. While I was there a Mass started and you couldn't go further than the church ground level. I was still able to take lots of Pictures though. Below is a small sample.

A Gate.

Stained glass window and patterned roof.

"Not another chandelier"

Stained glass window.

Pere Lachaise!

Ok I know this is going to sound a bit strange, but I have always loved cemeteries so when I was looking at an apartment near the famous Pere Lachaise i just had to go awandering, here are some photos I took. There is just something majestic and beautiful about the history of really old cemeteries that intrigues me and this is a particularly beautiful one.

House hunting and a day of being a tourist in Paris!

Bonjour, who would have thought that there was a place more difficult than Sydney to find a place to rent and that mostly it would all be three times as much. I have been having great fun over the last few days attempting to get an apartment dans Paris. It has to be a furnished place, because for unfurnished you have to sign a three year lease. Also, you have to provide all kinds of documentation and don't expect anyone to ever call you back, instead you have to ring about six times and even then are lucky to be talking to the right person. So enough of the rant, today i decided to take myself away from it all and go and be a tourist in Paris. I found myself at the arc de triomphe and for the first time since coming to Paris found myself surrounded by people speaking english. Which was actually quite a shock after five days hearing lilting french tones surrounding me, I was suddenly engulfed by louder tones of English and Americans. After looking around at the Arc and deciding not to go up inside I set out for the Tour Eiffel. This time I did decide to plunge on into the que for going up. I decided to go right to the top it was just a shame that today Paris was blanketed in a haze of smog but still It really was a fantastic view way up there in the sky. Also it gave me a different view of Paris from the beureacratic, frustrating side of apartment searching. After coming back from the Tour Eiffel I once again hopped on the net to search for apartments a search that is still ongoing.

Anyway I will leave you now with a couple of shots that I have taken around Paris.

This was the view from my hotel window

The Arc de Triumph

Merry go rounds Paris has many

This ones for Guy

And this one is for Hayley

Paris J'taime

It's official I'm in love with Paris. I have spent the last three days wandering aimlessly around Paris getting lost and just generally discovering the city sans guidebooks. The verdict, I'm in Love. Coming in from the airport on the bus my first impressions of Paris were pale creamy stone/brick buildings, terracotta tile roofs and black wrought iron. An impression that has only been strengthened from my wanderings of Paris. Now however, I have to knuckle down to work and find myself a place to live a task that is not going to be easy but hay I'm in Paris so who's complaining right. Well stay tuned because I hope to be posting some of my photos very soon. So Aurevoir and from Paris with love.......

The Paris Dream!

It has been my dream for a long time to live and paint in Paris for a year and and now the dream is becoming a reality. I have never never been to Paris but have built up crazily romantic images of the city based on artists and writers that lived there and painted and wrote in much detail of their life and times in Paris. Two days now till I fly out. I can't wait, off to start my next adventure. Next time I post I will be in Paris.