Mask Play

With the exchange rate becoming ever more dreaded, it seems lots of people are saving money by avoiding drinking and eating out as much as possible. What's been nice has been going to dinner parties, and having friends for supper here. That has included having a French conversation evening of chili con carne with students from the Langue Onze, eating a lovely chicken pie at the home of a New Zealand Gaulier student, which inspired a vegetable pie from me for our visiting friends on Friday, and a delicious hamburger and poker night at Alex and Lily's, during which Richard solved our financial problems by winning the pot of 6 Euros (which made me secretly jealous as I'd gone out first...)

There is a brilliant bicycle rental system here. Every two blocks or so, really very frequently spaced, are racks of smart bikes bearing the logo "Velib". There is a central machine in each rack where you swipe your card and then a bike unlocks and off you go. The first half hour is free, so the practice here is to cycle your bike for about 25 minutes, find the next cycle stand, and swap. We had our first try on Saturday, rolling along one of the many cycle routes along the Seine. For a while all was well and we felt we'd found the best thing ever. But on getting near Chatelet and into the busy Marais with our time running out, we began looking for two spaces for our bikes only to find every rack totally full. The streets around the Marais were absolutely swarming with shoppers walking in the road (I noticed how quickly I went from being all about pedestrian rights to fanatical champion of those on wheels) and although ringing my bike bell almost non-stop was enjoyable, by the time we'd found two free racks and deposited our bikes (36 minutes of cycling) we'd slightly gone off the whole concept. But we tried again yesterday and had a jolly ride through Paris at night! Hurrah!

This term at Gaulier the course is 'Mask Play'. Richard needed to make a mask to take in today, so yesterday, in the very country where it was conceived (probably), we did some papier mache. Richard lay on the floor and we put cling film on the top half of his face, and layered up a mask. He painted it this morning, et voila! Look at the lovely lashes!