Saturday, November 27, 2010

Charles the Gaul

Eiffel Tower and some mighty paving

Tonight is our last night in Paris and I'm celebrating by playing my "Ridiculous French" playlist (assorted songs which vary between sensible and very tenuous links to France) loudly on my laptop whilst Jenny tries to peacefully write in her journal. What a great roommate I am!

During my time in France I successfully managed to: buy things in shops, order in restaurants, give directions to strangers and navigate a particularly complicated job at the post office all in French, without being replied to in English (whether because I succeeded so well at French or because the people I were talking to just didn't want to speak English I will never know). Proud of myself! (particularly considering that upon arrival in France I felt like I'd forgotten everything I'd ever learnt)

I am also proud of myself because tonight I tried mussels for the first time, ordering them as my final meal in a French bar. They were curry mussels, they were very tasty and I ate them all up. Success!

My French success is in great juxtaposition with the most brilliant Paris scene that Jenny and I witnessed:
We were walking along and we saw a guy walk up to a policewoman and say to her, in a very strong southern USA accent "Eiffel Tower?"
Then, when she looked at him blankly, he said much louder, "EIFFEL TOWER?" whilst doing an "it's this tall" gesture with his hands.
The policewoman looked at him completely stoney-faced and said without cracking, "je ne comprends pas". She definitely must have known what he was saying. Greatest policewoman ever!

Our time in Paris has been pretty mega-busy! I bought a museum pass and we went to a lot of places, some which I'd been to before but all of which were grand to revisit.
It would take a long time to go through them all but here are some of my favourite things that have happened in Paris:

- we went to the catacombs, which are deep underground tunnels filled with the bones of many Parisians, all stacked in there after they decided to clear out the city's cemeteries for health reasons in the 18th century. They were the greatest!

Badge evidence

- we caught the first snow of the season (we think) whilst wandering around Père Lachaise cemetery! The first snow we got was quite confusing as it was semi-snow, semi-hail but today we got definite flakes. I was mega, mega excited. Jenny was cold!
I am much more of a cold weather fan than Jenny, who is not so much, as evidenced in a quote from today: "I think the cold is making my gums recede"

- tracking down Hotel Chevalier:

Hotel Chevalier!

- Jenny chasing pigeons in Montmartre:

A Pigeon Story: part 2A Pigeon Story: part 3

I have a ton of photos from this week which probably have a lot more detail about what I've been up to! Now all up: here
That link starts at the end of my Strasbourg photos, which I realise I didn't all make public when I thought I did. Woops! Now they're all up for real!

Last night we went to see Harry Potter - in English, but it still had subtitles in French. Turns out that in French "wand" is "baguette". The very serious scene where Voldemort was going on about how he needed another baguette and would anyone like to give him a baguette was the greatest thing I've seen in a long time!
(also, for some mysterious reason Snape is renamed "Rogue" in French. Sneaky old Severus Rogue!)

I have strong suspicions that my Italian talking watch may be aquiring an intelligence of its own. For two mornings in a row it's suddenly started spontaneously playing music when I'm trying to be quiet and not wake up the other people in my dorm. Is my watch attempting to sabotage, or brighten up, my mornings?

Tomorrow we're flying to Dublin, and I'll return to countries where I'll be able to read every sign, understand background conversations and understand everything on the menu. Woah! It's going to be a crazy change.
Goodbye Paris and mainland Europe! I've enjoyed being stuck behind your language barrier and having good times for the past 4 months.

3 comments:

  1. Excellent, the watch is working just as we planned.

    Good to see some snow in Dublin - looks slightly colder than when we were there.

    We're in Madrid for the next few days, then heading up north toward Paris gradually...

    say hi to Jenny, you kids keep having fun!

    Ben & Alicia

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  2. oh gosh, that story about the eiffel tower is hilarious! HILARIOUS!

    hotel chevalier!

    i still love you, severus rogue... perhaps even more than ever before

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  3. Ben and Alicia: I should have known you were behind the watch's sneaky twist! It's been like something out of a Goosebumps book, when the inanimate object slowly and creepily acquires its own evil personality....

    I hope things aren't too cold for you guys in Madrid. I hear that it's snowing over there too - this cold snap is crazy. Hope you don't have to face down too many icy roads either! I hear the cold is here to stay - good news for snow adventures though not so good for driving!

    When you guys get to Paris I wholeheartedly recommend the catacombs if you haven't already seen them. You have to pay to go in but it's definitely worth it, just like how I imagined the catacombs in Venice (thanks to Indy) but even cooler!

    Jenny says hi back! Good luck for your upcoming French leg of travels!


    Caro: It's probably criminal the number of times I listened to "Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?" and the "Oh, Champs-Élysées" song whilst in Paris. Hotel Chevalier!

    Severus Rogue just sounds exactly like you were in control of the French subtitles board and picked that as the ultimate 'Snape' translation.

    PS. Did you get my message about the RDJ road trip movie? How insane is it that they've literally made a movie of one of our most discussed conversation points, ie. what it would be like to road trip with RDJ! I keep seeing posters for it everywhere, I definitely want to see it and see if several hours in a car with RDJ is everything we always envisaged.

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