J'explore!

So what have I been up to since my last post? We're completely settled into our flat, and we've managed to set up out bank account, etc. etc. so all of the practical stuff is pretty much done which makes my free time really my own!

With that free time, (so far!) me and my flatmate have managed to go out to dinner with two other girls from our home uni which was really lovely. Two of us tried the beef tartare, which to be honest, I'm really undecided about. I didn't dislike it but I wasn't exactly knocked over with enthusiasm for it. This is going to make me sound like such a food heathen, but texture wise, it was really like a... mushy, wet burger. And if I don't like something, it's almost always because of the texture rather than the test. So maybe I just need to try it again but somewhere else?

What else... On a random wander around  Paris, we stopped of in the Jardin du Luxembourg, which is really very pretty, with lots of landscaped gardens and places to relax in the sun. It was packed the day we stopped by, as the sun was absolutely blazing (hooray!) It's also home to the Palais du Luxembourg, which is where the French Senate sits. 

Walking further on, we came across a bridge called the Pont des Arts, which is covered in "love padlocks". It's not something I've ever seen before, but my flatmate tells me she's seen it in other European cities so I guess that's just me! Either way, I thought it looked pretty cool :)

On that same walk, we managed to go and see Notre Dame, which I've really wanted to go to for a while, only ever having been to Paris for one short day as part of a school trip before now. The stained glass windows are really spectacular (you can only really appreciate them from the inside, I think) and the gothic architecture isn't something I'm really familiar with. It's really worth going to see, I definitely recommend that!

On the way home, we stopped off at the Panthéon, which is the burial place of a lot of famous French people including Voltaire, Louis Braille, Victor Hugo and Pierre and Marie Curie. It's free to get in go for citizens of the EU if you are between 18 and 25 - as are a lot of places, including the Louvre - so if you're going to Paris soon, that is definitely something worth baring in mind!

Speaking of the Louvre, I have managed to visit, on what will inevitably be the first of many trips because the museum is absolutely vast! I mean - I knew it was big, but really, it's on a scale much, much, bigger than I had imagined, and I barely made a dent in all the stuff that you can go and see. I didn't even make it to the Mona Lisa yet, so I will have to go back and make a whole day of it I think, which I might dedicate a whole post to. We'll see!

Also, my flatmate dragged me to the department store Galleries Lafayette which I have to say, I really loved, just for the building. It's so pretty inside and the roof is really something. You can also go up the roof and outside, where there is a good view of Paris and the Eiffel Tower. I didn't get a proper chance to browse the store itself - my flatmate really wanted sushi! - but I am going to go back soon to look around properly.

And then tonight, my flatmate came home from her semaine d'integration at the Sorbonne where she is studying this year, and suggested we should go to Haagen-Dazs Champs Élysées, which turned out to be a brilliant idea as I had this gorgeous strawberries and cream ice cream dessert (yum). It was really good, if a little bit too sweet. The strawberries in the bowl were in a minty syrupy thing which was a bit odd, but it really worked. 

That's barely a selection of the stuff I've done so far, but this is a blog post, not a dissertation, so that will do for now. As for what's coming up, tomorrow we are going to Montparnasse, and this weekend we are planning to go and find the Catacombs. Also, as I've got all of next week to do some more exploring before I start at Assas the following week, I should have plenty more to blog about! So until then - 

Vicky xx