Quelle est la date de ton anniversaire?

Did anyone else have to sing a song in which that line was sung, repeatedly, to quite an annoying tune, when they were learning French in school?

I mention only because this weekend I turned 21! That's right, the last big birthday anyone experiences before you hit the big 3-0, and it all goes downhill from there ;)

As I think I mentioned in my last post, I went out - not last weekend just gone but the weekend before that - to celebrate my birthday in Paris with the 3 other girls from QM and a few others, when we had a meal in the very gorgeous looking seafood restaurant, La Bar A Huitres in Montparnasse (although there are a few more elsewhere in Paris, I think)  

The outside fish bar at La Bar a Huitres looks so tempting... *drool*

We had a lovely meal. At €44 for three courses, I didn't think it was too badly priced actually, although (somewhat sinfully given we're living in France) we passed on the wine which almost certainly would have considerably pushed up the bill.

I had a risotto for starter, with mussels and octopus, and it was absolutely to die for. Really, I probably could have eaten another one, it was cooked beautifully and very moreish! 

Me with my Risotto :)  -  Pic taken by Rachel

For main, I had Moules Marinière which was also very verrry nice, and they weren't skimpy on the portions either, hooray!

These. were. delicious.

And for pud, I had (my first ever) créme brûlée which was set slight at our table and was also very nice (if a little alcoholy still, even after the flames had stopped).

The others tried a range of things as well... Fish Soup, Giant Shrimps, Cod, Monkfish and lots of other gorgeous looking meals were delivered to our table.

In which Paris lives up to its name in terms of excellent Cuisine. Pics all taken by Rachel

They also serve up some amazing (if pricey) seafood platters which were were all eyeing up a bit enviously, and generally there's just so much more on the menu (given to you on iPads!) that I want to try, so I'm planning to go back in February when my best friend comes out to visit :)

After the meal, we headed over towards Bastille for drinks and then our newly-enlarged group headed over to a club called Wanderlust.

It was actually a pretty cool club, but not having entirely thought through my choice of footwear for the evening, my heels had basically crippled me by this point and most of my energy was going into staying standing!

That's not to say that I didn't have a good time at the club, I did. A large part of it is outside, right on the banks of the Seine, and the music was really good.

Anyway, to cut what could be a very long story short, I had a wicked good night.

Then, this weekend just gone, I made my firs trip home since I left on August 31st for my actual birthday! I flew back to Southampton from Orly (which, I'm sorry, is a humungous pain to to get to. The Orlyval is so expensive. I may have to try the OrlyBus next time instead).

Travel Essentials. Who needs a toothbrush?

Anyway, at home I had an absolutely brilliant birthday. I completely spoiled by my family, and I was surprised three times on the day itself when my Grandma, Aunt and then later my two absolute best friends (who I wasn't expecting to see until Christmas and February respectively) all turned up to surprise me at one point or another.

I am a very very  lucky girl!

It was such a brilliant weekend that it made it really hard to head back to Southampton airport and fly back to Paris yesterday afternoon, probably harder than it was to leave for Paris in the first place!

Still, I'll be home again (by Eurostar,5£&/ time) at Christmas which in all honesty, isn't that far away - we'll be in November come Friday, which I cannot believe. And when I'm here I do have a good time and I've got lots of fun things still to look forward to.

So, that was my birthday, done both Paris style and UK style. Hope everyone else had as good a weekend as I did, and I'm sure I will post again soon!

Vicky xx

PS. On a side note, the Bar Society president from my first year at Queen Mary has been missing since Friday. Posting it here on the off chance someone reading this knows something that could help - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-24733082 

Le stress et le feu d'artifice

I knew it was coming, it's taken a while, but it has finally happened. My first year abroad "why am I doing this I must be crazy oh my god" meltdown has occurred.

Yesterday, I had my first travaux dirigé, in Droit des Obligations. Two hours before said tutorial, I was alternating between staring at a blank word document and a question sheet which I did not - do not - understand. 

In the tutorial, my tutor seemed to speak really quietly and at about 500mph, all at the same time. I didn't understand a word, which really worries me because this year, for the first time since I left college, I have January exams to worry about and if things keep going at this pace, I'll be moving backwards, not forwards. And to top it off, there was a girl with the same name as me in the class, and everytime he said her/my name I was like, "please be talking to her, please don't talk to me". It's something I'm absolutely going to have to get over, and soon.

Anyway, the sum of it all was that I have never left a class quite so traumatised in my life. And that's not (much) of an exaggeration. 

Don't get me wrong. Three of my five subjects are going fine. I might not be completely understanding what I am being told, but I am understanding enough, and I'm getting better. Excellent.

Unfortunately, Obligations (and Droit des Affaires, in case you're wondering) do not fall in that category. Nuhuh, no siree. I understand *nothing*. 

Hence yesterday's little meltdown and all the self doubt it's dredged up. Still, I can't afford to wallow, that would be completely counter productive, so there's only one thing for it - I'm going to have to relisten to all the lectures again until I pick up what I've missed (thank goodness my parents had the wisdom to buy me a dictaphone last year)

It's disenheartening, but the year is still young and I never expected to waltz in here and understand everything.

On the plus side, my 21st birthday is in nine days time (I'm going home for it, woo!) and my mum gave me some money to spend on myself as an early birthday present, so to cheer myself up after yesterday's disaster, I popped over to the Champs-Élysées to buy myself a new dress to wear out for my birthday and to pick up some good ol' British comfort food in Marks and Spencer :)

Study problems aside, I have been making sure to go out and enjoy myself as well. Earlier this month, me and two other QM girls headed over towards the Louvre on Nuit Blanche to watch the fireworks put on by whoever it was to design the fireworks for the opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics, which was pretty cool to see. 

Paris at night is so pretty. We walked right down beside the river, which you can get so close to, not like the Thames in London, although that's probably because it's tidal, and the Seine is much much calmer than that. 

And it helped that half of Paris was also out for Nuit Blanche, so there was a buzzing atmosphere. I would have liked to have gone and seen some of the other all night stuff they had going on for it, but I'd managed to catch a horrendous cold and I felt pretty hideous, so I retreated for the safety of my bed!

This weekend, I'm going out to celebrate my 21st with a few people. We're going to eat first, at La Bar A Huitres, in Montparnasse (which looks absolutely wicked. They have a fish bar outside which makes me want to eat there every time I pass) and then we're going out, back to Bastille, where we were a few weeks ago, so that should be good :)

I'm still planning to go visit (amongst many other places) the Catacombs, but something has come up every time I've tried so far! Me and my flatmate are also planning a trip in December (I'm all for Strasbourg, but she votes Lille) to a Christmas market :) - if anyone knows anything about either of those places, please comment. I'd love to hear a few opinions!

On which note, I'll sign off. 'til next time -

Vicky xx

Ah, les anglais.

I've been reliably informed by my flatmate that I have picked up the (somewhat unfortunate) habit, when cooking, of adding '...of course, they're not as good as the ones we get at home' to the end of many a sentence - according to her, most recently I have complained about French Strawberries and French Stock Cubes...

Still, my strange complaints aside, this got me to thinking. There's a lot of stuff I will probably miss about France when I eventually return home,, and I might post about that at the time -  but today's post (slightly different from the usual agenda) is a list, in no particular order, of stuff that I miss about England...

1. CHEDDAR CHEESE - I'm sorry, but Cheese on toast is not cheese on toast without a good ol' bit of Cathedral City, and emmenthal just isn't the same. Not even close. 

2. I know that the French and the Belgians are well known for their chocolate, and when it comes down to dark chocolate, I agree. And I know that the Europeans are sceptical that what we Brits call chocolate is actually chocolate. But I don't care. When it comes down to milk chocolate, I'll choose a DAIRY MILK every time. I actually asked my mum to send some of it out to me, I'm not ashamed :) What I am ashamed of is the abysmally short time it lasted....

3. ENGLISH TEA - you can buy this out here - I've got a box of Twinings - but... I don't know whether it's the water, or the milk, or what, but I just can't get it to taste the same as it does back home. 

4. Although the Carrefour near me does have that one lonely little shelf devoted to English products, MARMITE is inexplicably, not on it. Love it or hate it (and I love it), it's not really an English section if the marmite's not in it! Boo :( 

5. NETFLIX. Can't get it in France. Whyyyyyyyyy?!

6. EASY COMMUNICATION. Okay, so France isn't exactly third world is it - I've not been cut off from all forms of civilisation - but it would be nice to send a text without worrying about the phone bill, or to make a FaceTime call without getting frustrated because the wifi is cutting out and people are not hearing about a third of my sentences!

7. GOOD MUSIC. Apparently, there is some kind of law here that the radio stations play X% of French language music as opposed to English language stuff. And (this is purely my personal opinion) French music tends to leave much to be desired... (also, it has to be said - French adverts on youtube are waaaaaaaay more annoying than French ones!)

8. My MUM'S COOKING. Get me home and get me a roast - 'nuff said.

9. The PUB. Call me stereotypical English woman, but I like strolling down the pub for a drink. The French do things differently - what they have is great as well - but I still miss the pub.

10. I've technically borrowed this from someone else's blog, and I can't remember whose it was, but it totally stands even if it is a little bit (very) unclassy and should probably remain my dirty little secret for all eternity - whisper it now - screw top bottles of wine. They're just so convenient! 

Til next time - 

Vicky xx

Je suis une etudiante de Paris...

...and I have the student card to prove it. Last week, I had my semaine d'integration at Assas, which basically consisted of a 5 lectures on the history and basics of French Law, along with two afternoon sessions on the methodology of French law - basically, how to do the tutorial exercises.



It's only now that I'm actually realising how different education in France actually is. I remember thinking something similar a couple of years back when I went on an exchange and spent two weeks at a lycée - and the differences follow through into higher education. Even down to simple things, like lectures, it is clear that they're conducted differently to how they are at university back home - they're very formally structured, and asides from anything else, they're conducted on a much grander scale than I'm used to.

I started my electives this week-  I'm taking 5 per semester - and at a lecture I went to yesterday morning, I was really surprised to see the sheer number of people - and it wasn't even a compulsory subject! It makes UK law schools look like complete midgets in comparison. People had told me in advance to expect something like this - as I understand it, universities here aren't selective, so anyone can sign up, and each year just gets smaller as people either drop out or fail - but it still took me aback. There was easily 1500 people at that lecture, if not more, which is easily double my entire year group back in London.

The biggest problem I've had so far is taking notes. The lecturers, to my ears at least, seem to talk at about 100mph and whilst my French isn't bad - I wouldn't be here otherwise - when you only understand so many words in 10, that's not helpful. Still, it is only my first week and I think that with practice, I'll get the hang of it.

This week being the first week, it has obviously been lectures only, but the TD's - tutorials - start next week and I'm really interested to see how those differ as well. I've been told that size is, again, a large factor - my biggest tutor group back home probably had 15 people in it, tops, but apparently its more like 30 here. I guess I will just have to wait and see!

In other news, I have actually been doing fun stuff as well. Recently, a group of us went on our first proper night out in Paris - weird that it took us so long to get around to, but there we go - in the Bastille area, which was a really good night out, ending with a late night/early morning McDonalds.



Casually setting fire to the bar - as you do.

I've also been back to the Louvre, and we managed to see a little bit more this time - for instance, we actually managed to see the Mona Lisa. 

I'm not the best photographer - but...

If you've ever heard that this painting is a lot smaller than you expect, well, it's true. I think the fame surrounding this picture encourages people to expect a lot more than is actually there! Not to be a complete downer on Da Vinci's work, mind you - the lady with the mysterious smile is famous for a reason!

Vicky xx