Last Weekend.

I have been remiss with updates and I am sorry and shall try to do

better. I have decided I should at least blog what happens on my

weekends as that is when most of my adventures seem to happen.

So, I shall rewind a week and take you back to last Friday. B came

home early so after I picked the children up from school and

dropped them at home I left early for Paris where I was going

to stay with I for the weekend. However, I was two or three

hours earlier than I had planned to be so noone was home

after wandering for awhile I decided to sit in a brasserie and

have some dinner whilst looking out on the street of paris in

front of me. I then went to I's and she was going to the beach

in Belgium the next day. So we arose at six the next morning

and I prepared some food to take and then S arrived to drive

us to Belgium. After a bumpy beginning with the car not

starting for awhile we were soon on the way and me having no

idea of travel times and distances assumed we would eb there

in an hour or two. 3 1/2 hours later found us arriving in Le

Panne Belgium. It is a little beach town that is very charming

and we sat at a cafe over looking the beach and had a drink in

the sunshine enjoying the delightful beach air and beautiful weather.

Afterwards I and S did some shopping and then we went to Dunkerque for some more shopping and dinner on the beach. I know you might find this hard to believe but I didn't buy a thing all day except food and drink, perhaps I'm learning afterall.
After this we went near Calais to a friend of I's house before heading home to Paris. The next day on the Sunday I met L,G,K and M for a nice girly lunch at a beautiful restaurant in the fourteenth then we headed back to L's place for tea before I headed home to Chantilly weary but happy from a surprising weekend.


ps: I didn't mean to hyperlink the beginning text and now can not get rid of it so please forgive the weirdness.

A Visit to Paris.

Last night I went to Paris to see L, I went to her apartment on the edge of the 14th/15th and we sat chatting for ages, it was good to see the apartment furnished as I had only seen it as a blank canvas before. We had dinner and some wine from Bordeaux before heading out to M's farewell drinks. We got to the bar called "Le Pin Up" around the 4th arrondisement after a short trip on the stinking hot metro (yes now I remember). T was DJing at the bar and I caught up with someother people from before when I was in Paris. Around 2 o'clock L and I took ourselves home to bed. After a late awakening and a couple of calls to Australia, we decided to go to a nearby cafe. The coffee was great and the Planche I ordered the biggest I have ever seen I love here how charcuterie is served on a wooden board it is soo rustic and French. The weather since I have arrived has been lovely and sunny though perhaps a bit warm for the kind of clothes I packed, yes thats right I packed mostly winter clothes. After lunch L went back to her house to catch up on some work and I, went for a wander down Rue des Rennes past all the closed shops and whats that an open shop having a sale, it couldn't hurt to just have a look could it? I came out awhile later with two bags, well I did need some dresses because I didn't have any clothes for the hot weather and as for the bag, well mine is broken and shedding pieces of leather wherever I go! I then continued on down towards the Seine.As I was nearing L'Eglise St Germain the sounds of a band of musician came wafting on the wind and continued to follow me as I wended my way down to the river, where I wandered along beside the booksellers and everyone else enjoying the sunshine along the Seine. I wandered as far as St Michel, said hello to Notre Dame, then took a metro back to L's to pick up my stuff before heading to Gare du Nord and then Chantilly/Gouvieux arriving there I realised it was an hour something to the next bus so walked back to the house in the middle of town exhausted but happy. Now I am writing this and thinking it will not be long before my head will hit the pillow and all the lights will go out.
Dormez Bien à Tous

A Return to France.

A year ago give or take a day I returned to Australia from Paris, trying to convince myself that my French adventure was at an end and I would be making my life in Australia. Who would have thought then that within a year I would be once again winging my way back to France ready for my next big French adventure? Certainly not me, even if the only person I was fooling was myself the self deception ran deep enough for 11 months to believe that my days of living in France were at an end. However, five weeks ago I finally understood that what I really wanted was to return to France so I made a plan a plan that would see me back in Paris is about two years time. I was to learn my French better and to take a tesol course so i could get a job teaching english. As with the best laid plans it all went out the window when two weeks later my mother called and read an ad out to me for an english speaking Au Pair in a town called Chantilly about 25km from Paris, was I interested? She wanted to know. Was I interested mais bien sur, and the rest as they say is history so now I sit here typing away to the melodic sounds of a bouncing ball and un, deux, trois..... sept, huit. So begins my new French adventure as a Nou Nou to two delightful tri-lingual children whom I can only hope to speak as fluently as one day. It is so easy at that language to bounce from French to English to Ukranian and back to English. I shall try my best to keep this blog more updated than I did last time. Now I bid you a Bon Journee for the rest of the day.