The flat was welcoming and cosy to come back to. There have been quite a few people from Richard's course in Paris over the last week. On New Year's Eve a girl from the second year hosted a party in her big flat near Belleville, a trendy part of town. I think everyone from Gaulier who was in Paris came along, plus about 20 Brazilian friends of another girl's. We'd thought that the Metro stayed open and free all night, but it turned out to be only four lines. After we'd gone back and forth subterranean style for a while, we emerged at the Bastille to walk. It's not hideously far from us, but I was wearing my flashy new not-too-comfy zebra print shoes (accessorized with leopard pattern shirt - doing my bit for animal print in 2009), so it was lucky we happened upon an abandoned shopping trolley. Less comfortable than the Metro, and more likely to leave waffle prints on your person, but a real relief to my poor feet.
On Saturday we went skating at the rink outside the Hotel de Ville, the city's town hall. It was fairly chaotic and scary at moments out there - anarchic skating. There were plenty of guards about but they just chatted with each other and did nothing about all the maniacs on the ice, one of whom was a terrifying teenager-man who cut everyone up and shouted at everyone and sucked the whole time on a plastic dummy. So mid-90s. Gloves were compulsory wear and I have none, but luckily we had been forewarned and I wore my thickest socks, which did the job well enough and psychologically made my fingers feels safer from the speed skates. We stayed about two hours and improved quite a bit.
Yesterday we had some classmates of Richard's from the Langue Onze round for a good ole English Tea. We served homemade scones, cucumber sandwiches and Cadbury's fingers. YUM! Our guests brought a 'Gateau Roi', a large round pastry, many examples of which we had seen crouching in all the patisserie windows that morning, all adorned with gold paper crowns. They seemed to be on offer with cider, so we'd bought a bottle and so the present of the gateau was most fortuitous! There is a Gateau Roi ceremony: you hold a tea towel over it while you cut it (coy cake) and then serve it. One slice is meant to contain a prize, and the prizewinner gets to wear the crown. Our guests told us that they'd bought 4 so far and none had contained prizes, so we were very excited when one of them got the prize - a teeny plastic dummy. It has been a weird dummy weekend! The Gateau Roi was fun, but also a cunning French way of selling us more pastries. Wonder what pastry holiday will come next?
We were told we could recycle our Sapin Noel at many of the local parks, so we ventured forth last night after our guests had gone. The first and nearest park was shut - piles of trees lay tantalizing near us behind the big spiked fence. We stood eyeing it all for a while, but there was a policeman menacing us with a huge gun, I think longing for us to drop our tree on the pavement so he could shoot us. We denied him satisfaction, and trudged off to another park, also shut; Richard manfully scaled the fence and we are Christmas tree free again! Now our telly has replaced it and hooked up to our landlady's DVD player - on with The Wire tonight!
On Saturday we went skating at the rink outside the Hotel de Ville, the city's town hall. It was fairly chaotic and scary at moments out there - anarchic skating. There were plenty of guards about but they just chatted with each other and did nothing about all the maniacs on the ice, one of whom was a terrifying teenager-man who cut everyone up and shouted at everyone and sucked the whole time on a plastic dummy. So mid-90s. Gloves were compulsory wear and I have none, but luckily we had been forewarned and I wore my thickest socks, which did the job well enough and psychologically made my fingers feels safer from the speed skates. We stayed about two hours and improved quite a bit.
Yesterday we had some classmates of Richard's from the Langue Onze round for a good ole English Tea. We served homemade scones, cucumber sandwiches and Cadbury's fingers. YUM! Our guests brought a 'Gateau Roi', a large round pastry, many examples of which we had seen crouching in all the patisserie windows that morning, all adorned with gold paper crowns. They seemed to be on offer with cider, so we'd bought a bottle and so the present of the gateau was most fortuitous! There is a Gateau Roi ceremony: you hold a tea towel over it while you cut it (coy cake) and then serve it. One slice is meant to contain a prize, and the prizewinner gets to wear the crown. Our guests told us that they'd bought 4 so far and none had contained prizes, so we were very excited when one of them got the prize - a teeny plastic dummy. It has been a weird dummy weekend! The Gateau Roi was fun, but also a cunning French way of selling us more pastries. Wonder what pastry holiday will come next?
We were told we could recycle our Sapin Noel at many of the local parks, so we ventured forth last night after our guests had gone. The first and nearest park was shut - piles of trees lay tantalizing near us behind the big spiked fence. We stood eyeing it all for a while, but there was a policeman menacing us with a huge gun, I think longing for us to drop our tree on the pavement so he could shoot us. We denied him satisfaction, and trudged off to another park, also shut; Richard manfully scaled the fence and we are Christmas tree free again! Now our telly has replaced it and hooked up to our landlady's DVD player - on with The Wire tonight!
2 comments:
You and Richard are throwing some pretty good shapes on the ice I may say! I'm glad you escaped with your fingers intact thanks to your thick socks - a most Tor-some solution! I am very impressed with your table spread as well -wish I could have sampled some of the delights! Missing you lots! Love to you both! xxx Ella xxx
This was such a good New Year blog, sorry I haven't commented before. The pictures of you and Richard skating were hilarious but I notice they don't have a rail round the outside to hang on to - no wonder it felt dangerous. I hope that after all your swanking about your skating prowess (?) Richard was still impressed! And the tea looks wonderful, as does your flat - a bit more minimalist than London, although I notice the zebra shoes have crept into the dining room! Thank you for a super, funny and interesting blog! Mum
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