Joyeux Anniversaire, Parisa!

Salut, tout le monde.

I had a galop on Saturday, which [bleurgh] is better left undiscussed, and I have another one on Friday evening, but the time in between has been broken up rather nicely in my opinion, because today is my flatmate Parisa's 21st Birthday, and that obviously means celebration times [yay!]

Last night we went out to celebrate in a 'tribute-to-London' night out - basically, all the things Parisa misses about London. We were going to start out at the Sunken Chip on the Rue des Vinaigriers - because, obviously, Fish and Chips rule. But it's closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, boo! :( So that's somewhere I've added onto my 'to do' list.

Instead, we went to a restaurant near our apartment for a curry, which as everyone knows, might as well be Britain's national dish these days (behind, perhaps, fish and chips and a Sunday Roast).

It's called the Restaurant Buddha on the Rue St Hippolyte, and we got a lovely meal and really good service for a very reasonable price considering there was seven of us, so I actually really recommend that if anyone is on Paris and wants a curry!

After that we headed over to Le Tiki Lounge on Rue de la Fontaine au Roi, which was in tribute to Parisa's favourite London club, Mahiki.

The bar itself was a little hard to find - there's almost no evidence to tell what it is from the outside, and if you happen to he on the other side of the road, it's easy to miss (we did!)

Still, the Cocktails were pretty good, and not overly expensive either which was a bonus!

I'm a massive cocktail person myself - my own 21st birthday present from my parents was a set of beautiful cocktail glasses and a mixer set. So any night out involving cocktails of any kind is almost sure to be a hit with me!

We did the obligatory countdown to midnight and sang Happy Birthday to ring in Parisa's 21st properly :) and, despite being a touch hungover, I got up bright and early this morning to make a birthday cake. Anyway - Joyeux Anniversaire, Parisa!

Now, I just have to get my Obligations Galop out of the way on Friday evening, and then on Saturday I'm going home for Easter, which I'm seriously excited about seeing as I have not seen any of my family since January which is a touch too long for my liking! 

Just a few days to go now :)

Vicky xx

Décisions spontanées :)

When I posted last weekend, I had basically braced myself for another couple of boring weeks - exams will do that to you.

Still, in my experience, spontaneous decisions tend to be [touchwood] the best ones - I remember in my first year, my best friend and I went out for the night, and woke up the next morning to realise that we had bought tickets to see the Royal Ballet perform the Nutcracker, and that turned out to be a brilliant decision :)

Anyway, on Thursday afternoon I spotted an advert on Facebook that led to this decision...

Best thing about the @thirdyearabroad ? Spontaneous decisions. Harlequins v Stade Francais in Paris tomorrow night, just cos I can. :)
— Victoria Goodsell (@9victoriag) April 3, 2014

So on Friday evening after I'd finished classes for the day, me and a few others tootled over to the Stade Jean Bouin in the west of Paris for an evening of rugby.

I was umming and arring for a while about whether I was going to support the Quins or Stade Francais, seeing as my brother is a London Irish fan [which according to him, makes me one too by default], and Paris is, after all, my adopted home city. I ended up going with Quins, though, partly because they have a few England players on their team, including the Captain, Chris Robshaw, and partly because I thought they were more likely to win! Shameless, I know, but I was right - Harlequins won. The final score was 6-29.

Granted, it was not the best game of Rugby that I have ever seen - there were a few exciting moments of course - Harlequins got two tries, one of them by Mike Brown who was brilliant during the Six Nations. And also, there was one guy on the french team who kept dropping the ball, which actually ended up being quite entertaining because it happened at a few crucial moments. But really, it was quite a stop-and-start kind of match, which was a shame.

My flatmate Parisa emerged from the stadium declaring it to be 80 minutes of her life she'd never get back [although in all fairness, she's not really a rugby person in the first place, and I think it was all she could do not to wince every time one player tackled another!] Still, I am a Rugby person, and exciting game or no, I enjoyed it. And, as my brother says, the games that are the hardest to win are always the least interesting to watch.

Either way - in my opinion, a night spent out of my books and doing something other than revision, and in good company too, is nothing to whinge about.

À bientôt,

Vicky xx

C'est la saison de travail...

Argh! So despite my best intentions, March has been probably the most boring month of all boring months. Uni has taken over; I've got two galop's and an interrogation to revise for before the Easter Holidays, and all of my time has been spent in books. Hence the silence of my blog.

As of tomorrow, I will have been living in Paris for 7 months and I have just under 3 months left to go, however, and with plenty still to accomplish on my things to do list, life isn't going to stay boring!

This weekend, my flatmate Parisa had a houseguest, so I did shove the books aside for long enough to go out on Saturday night, where we spent the night having pre-drinks at a friends' flat in Le Marais and then went out in Bastille.

That's basically all I have to report, though :( sad times. Although Parisa and I have managed to get tickets to the French Open, which I am really excited about :D

I love being on my @thirdyearabroad casually just bought tickets for the French Open :) #rolandgarros #excited
— Victoria Goodsell (@9victoriag) March 13, 2014

OH and seeing as today is the 30th I want to say a big HAPPY MOTHER's DAY to my lovely Mum who I miss very much and can't wait to see when I go home in two weeks (woo!)

That's about it - TTFN, Tatah for now.

Vicky xx

Une vie tranquille...

My blog has been more silent than I'd like it to be of late, and the absence of much to post can well and truly be blamed on the fact that my classes are well and truly underway and I'm pretty sure I already have more on my plate than I did at this point last semester - November wasn't the most exciting of blog months, either.

That being said, I think I have finally reached a turning point because despite the increased workload, I'm feeling remarkably positive and calm(ish) about everything. At the very least, as I said to my friend the other day, I now feel like I'm treading water rather than drowning in it. So that's definitely a positive!

It's also getting to the point in the year now - I've been in Paris for 6 and a half months, which quite frankly I find unbelievable - where I am starting to look ahead to my return to London and the final year (finally) of my degree, thinking about what modules to take, where I'll be living and so on. It's quite exciting actually :) 

Life's not been all work and no play though and the reason for that can be summed up like this:

The weather has been beautiful! Which makes for a very happy Victoria. Everything seems better when the sun is out - cliche but true. Just walking to and from Uni is a pleasurable part of my day. Paris is a beautiful place at the best of times, but never more so that when the weather is good. 

We took advantage of that last weekend and had a 'barbecue' of sorts - my flatmate Parisa got up really early and went trekking halfway across Paris looking for an actual barbecue but there was none to be found [which is really bizarre to a Brit like me who not only completely agrees with the below statement but is also perfectly willing to have a barbecue whether the weather is sunny or not]:

Buying 10 cases of Pimm's the second the temperature nudges 12°C
— VeryBritishProblems (@SoVeryBritish) March 8, 2014

So we just trashed our kitchen cooking everything instead and then ate out on the balcony. (and when I say trashed, I mean it. Took ages to clean up!)

So I spent the day sunbathing, stuffing my face, and watching England beat Wales in the Rugby [hooray!!]

That's all for now but tonight I'm going to the cinema with Parisa to see The Monuments Men, and I mean to use the next week or so to get on top of my workload so that I can start taking advantage of the beautiful weather and so a little more exploring!

Til then - 

Vicky xx

Une recette...

So there's not much going on at the moment, and I don't like to leave many-month-long gaps between blog posts (which drives me barmy). So as a little filler, I thought I'd share an easy recipe which has become extremely popular in the Goodsell-Fard residence as of late, since I got it into my head that living in Paris, I needed to try my hand at some French Cuisine. I've tried out Coq au Vin, and this little gem - 

Baked Camembert - very yummy, very French :)

And it's so, so easy! Literally, all you need to do is buy a Camembert - take the lid off and unwrap the cheese and then put it back in its little wooden box.

Use a knife to pierce a few holes on the top of the cheese and then stuff a few garlic cloves in. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle over a few herbs (I use Bouquet Garni or Herbes de Provence) and then shove it in the oven at 200 degrees (Celsius) for ten minutes until the cheese is all molten and runny inside.

Take it out the oven, and enjoy :) we dip warm baguette into it and it's delish. It's also pretty much the only way I'll eat Camembert - most French cheeses aren't to my taste, so it's also the cheat's way out haha. 

As I said - not much of a post today but I'll be back up and running again soon I'm sure!

Vicky xx

Une visite: ma meilleure amie est ici!

The weekend just gone was one of the loveliest weekends of the year so far, because my best friend from Uni back in London, Akeelah, came out to spend the weekend with me. It was so good to see her - for the first time since she turned up at my house to surprise me for my 21st birthday back in October, and although we FaceTime quite a lot, there's nothing that can quite match the pleasure of catching up with your bestie over a cup of tea and a biscuit. 

She managed to catch a really early train on Friday morning, so we were able to spend most of Friday, all of Saturday, and most of Sunday together. Friday was a repeat of your average tourist activities, really. We headed to a Cafe near the Pantheon for a crepe, before doing the Jardin du Luxembourg, the Louvre, and the Champs-Elysees.

Then we spent the evening back at my apartment, literally just catching up, eating baguettes and Coq au Vin, which is a meal I've made twice now and I think it's going to become my french specialty - because really, I feel like I should be able to cook something native to my temporarily adopted home country.

Saturday, for me, was exciting because we headed to a part of Paris that I've not actually done yet, which is the Canal Saint Martin in North-eastern Paris, and which anybody who's seen the film Amélie really ought to recognise.

It's very scenic, and it just screams 'Classic Paris' with lots of pretty arched pedestrian footbridges, locks and cobbled walkways. Saturday was not exactly the sunniest of days - which was a shame, because we've had a lot of beautiful sunshine here lately - but I can just imagine that the Canal would be a brilliant place to go in the summer for pedestrians and roller skaters; tourists and Parisian's alike. I'll be making plans to go back there once Spring/Summer kicks in. 

After that, we headed to Galeries Lafayette, which I've now done numerous times, but which I particularly enjoyed this time because it had Akeelah's name written all over it, and as I predicted, she was enthusing that whole way around that 'this place sh*ts on Harrods'. 

And of course, we went up to the roof, which has resulted in yet another 'I'm-standing-on-the-roof-looking-at-a-view-of-Paris-but-this-time-it's-in-black-and-white' photo. 

Tadah. 

Sunday; we did Montmartre. I was only there a couple of weeks ago, with my Mum and brother, but this time we went in the daylight, and the sun had finally deigned to make an appearance, which really put a whole new spin on the place.

We took the obligatory photos of the view; had a proper walk around and look inside the Sacre-Coeur itself, and went behind to find the pretty cobbled streets full of Portrait-drawers and little shops crammed wall to wall with beautiful canvas paintings that I wish I could buy and take home with me

Then we went back to Au P'tit Grec [which I mentioned back in November as being a brilliant place for a gallette or, as I have since found out, crepes], and Akeelah headed back to London. Sad times! :(

I've not, in my earlier posts, made a secret of the fact that I prefer London to Paris as a city.

Spurred on, no doubt, by a touch of homesickness, the French Capital, probably rather unfairly, paled in comparison (in my eyes at least) to the city where I've spent my university life so far. 

Without a doubt, I still prefer London - there's just something about it that speaks to me. The reasons for that could probably make up a whole blog post on their own, so I won't go into them now. But this weekend, I really realised for the first time what a beautiful city I am lucky enough to be living in.

Why I'm realising this only now, I don't know. I've been living here for nearly six months now, and while I've always admired Paris - there's a reason it is one of the most visited cities in the world, after all - I think I've still been looking at it as if I were a tourist, going to sights because, well, that's what you do when you visit.

I'm going to put it down, I think, to a well phrased question from Akeelah, who asked me after a comment I made in passing, to describe the difference between living in London and living in Paris. Not the differences between the two cities, the differences between living in them. 

Forcing myself to become less detached and think more like a citizen, I tried to come up with a decent response to her question. After babbling for a few minutes and undeniably not making much sense, I finished, rather lamely, by saying 'it's difficult to explain unless you've lived it yourself'.

No, it's not the most eloquent of responses, but it's a true one - and one I would bring up in recommending a year abroad to anyone (which I absolutely do!) To understand the world around you; to experience the differences between regions; countries and continents, sometimes visiting isn't enough. 

Sometimes, you just have to live it.

And this weekend, looking out over Paris from the sun drenched hills of Montmartre; wandering the cobbled streets near the Sacre Coeur, and crossing the pretty iron bridges of Saint-Martin - taking in all those things with the mindset I have just attempted, rather poorly, to explain, as opposed to the attitude I've taken so far - Paris finally captured a little piece of my heart.

And with that little nugget of sentimentality, I'll sign off. Until next time...

Vicky xx

Cartier: Le Style et L'Histoire

So what's new?

This week my flatmate Parisa and I headed over to the Grand Palais, and after a nice chat in the queue with a travelling American, headed into this lovely building to meander around the Cartier Exhibition for a few hours. 

It's an exhibition which, fairly obviously, if you look at the picture above, told the story of the style and history of this great jewellery house, which was once described by King Edward VII as

"the jeweller of kings and the king of jewellers."

And you can see why.

Every exhibit was fascinating in it's own right, and even as you had to admire each item for the look and the workmanship, it was fascinating to learn a little bit more about the background behind each piece, which when put together, could almost tell the story of world history for more than one hundred years. As Maria Doulton put it, much better than I even could, in her review of the exhibition [see here]... 

"While clothes may decay and photographs fade, the bright colours and box-fresh excitement of jewels always best capture the zeitgeist and aspirations of an age."

So, for instance, the Amethyst and Turquoise necklace below belonged to the renowned Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor...

And then of course, there is the jewellery of the late, great, and stunningly beautiful Grace Kelly, Princess Grace of Monaco. 

Essentially, it was a really well put-together exhibition, which I really enjoyed looking around and which let me kill and afternoon doing something interesting and productive, rather than sitting around at home glued to my laptop. If you're in Paris, it's definitely worth going to see. It's not expensive, and it will be on until the 16th February.

Not the most eloquent of reviews, I grant you, but praise is praise. And as they say, a picture speaks 1000 words - I've got 5 of 'em in here. You can also check out my instagram - my username is the same as for my twitter account, the rather imaginative @9victoriag

Til next time - 

Vicky xx