I’ve done a couple of little trips at the weekends, I went to Bois de Boulogne last weekend and hired a bike for a couple of hours and just rode around in the park, it was very pretty and relaxing – even if I didn’t have a map and went past the same point 3 times, and I had lunch by the lake :-)
The park has a bit of a reputation at night for prostitutes, and I did have a bit of a ‘culture shock’ to see my first prostitute, not sure whether it was male or female, but if you thought dance competitions required a lot of make-up and false eyelashes, this was a whole new level!
Yesterday I had a really busy day (I try to keep Saturdays busy so that I don’t get too bored or homesick). I went to Fontainebleau, slightly unplanned. Unplanned to the point that on the train going to Gare de Lyon I wasn’t sure whether I was heading to Fontainebleau or Val d’Europe (BIG shopping centre), but the angel in me won and I went to do something slightly more cultural and probably cheaper. The train ticket only cost €7 – special young people’s weekend ticket and you can travel as much as you want for a day across all the zones and it includes using the bus and trams – bargain! It took about 40 minutes to get to Fontainebleau and then another 20 mins or so to get to the chateau.
The castle isn’t as well known as Versailles but it was worth the visit and it’s free for under 26 year olds from the EU (got to love France for that), so I paid just €1 for the audio guide (in French of course) and wandered round the bedrooms, bathrooms, throne rooms, chapel... After that I had a wander around the grounds which were well kept and there were loads of couples wandering around hand in hand (hmmm).
After that I came back to Paris and was on the way home when I decided I’d stop at Chatelet for a bit of shopping after all. It was with the intention of finding Nick a birthday present, but it turned into clothes shopping for myself... I don’t know who said that the French have good fashion, they lied. French shops are terrible, and I never thought I’d have to resort to New Look in France! So mum will have/has a list of things to go and get and bring out to me next weekend :-D and so far Nick has no present...
So that means that today I’m being lazy and watching TV. It started very educational, a programme about a plane, called the Comet that crashed in 1954 with 35 people on board, but now it’s deteriorated to one of those films you get on ‘True Movies’ or something like that, called ‘Le Lit du Diable’ (the Devil’s bed) whilst I’m having a bit of a clean.
This weekend has a bank holiday stuck on it, so no idea at the moment what I’ll do tomorrow, everything will probably be shut knowing France! My internet hasn’t been working, so if it decides to work I can hopefully find out what is and isn’t open and go and do something, if not, I’ll sit and read in the park and get a crepe or something.
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