Alors, today is the 1st May.
I'm sorry, what?
You heard me. Today is the first of May, I have no idea how we are already into the fifth month of the year, and oh yeah, I'll be leaving Paris next month. The time has gone so very, scarily, horrifyingly quickly, it's easy to imagine that my last 8 weeks or so here is going to disappear on me before I can say the word 'Paris'.
Which is why this tweet struck a chord with me...
If your year abroad is disappearing in a flash, then QUICK! Write a #YAbucketlist before it's too late!
— ThirdYearAbroad.com (@thirdyearabroad) April 30, 2014
People who have been reading my blog will know that I don't actually need to do this, since I've been keeping a running bucket list of sorts going over the past few months. But in light of how fast my year abroad is disappearing on me, I decided to update my list once and for all. This is going to be the final version of my list in progress, although I'll post again once my year abroad is actually over (*sob*) so you can all see how far I've got with it.
Without further ado...
1. Visit the Versailles Palace - I'm saving this one for the very last weekend I will be here in Paris, which incidentally is the first weekend they start running the Fountains Light Show in the gardens. BONUS!
4. Indulge in la cuisine, including croissants, macaroons, snails, frogs legs, seafood, and everything else French and/or Parisian. (On the seafood side of things, La Bar a Huitres is the place that I went for my birthday, and it really was delicious. There's several of them in Paris - I went to the one in Montparnasse. They've got a menu that ranges from massive seafood platters costing a few hundreds of euros, to a nice fixed menu for 44 euros, which was much better for my poor student budget)
The next three I won't be able to actually do this year; the first and second because I'm going to be elsewhere at the time they happen; the third because I spent it at home. But I'm keeping them on my list because they're three things which really ought to be done in Paris, and though I won't be doing them this year, I'll be making sure to do them at some point!
7. View the Bastille Day Parade
8. Finale of the Tour de France
9. Spend NYE 2014 in Paris
10. Go to the Louvre and see the Mona Lisa! Whilst I have technically crossed this one off my list, I have since met up with my long-time family friend and one-time french tutor, Pascale, who told me about Napoleon's apartments which can actually be found in the Louvre. I'd never heard about this before, so I'm reopening this one for completion! :)
15. Go to the Palais Garnier, which looks spectacular!
16. Visit Monet's garden at Giverny - this is another one I'm saving for the spring/summer, as I'm told it's a nice place to hire a bike and go for a ride :)
17. Go to the top of the Eiffel Tower AND go see the Eiffel Tower at night
18. Visit at least 3 other European Countries. I did manage to visit Berlin in Germany, and I was intending to go to Brussels, but I just can't afford it, so sadly, I have now accepted that this simply isn't going to happen, because my budget just doesn't cover it :( sad times!
20. Spend the day at Parc Asterix :)
21. Go to Bercy Shopping Village - because, really, what's Paris without some retail therapy?
22. Les Invalides
24. Spend a few days on the South Coast and maybe in Monaco - this is another unrealistic one now. I just don't have time to do it. My flatmate and some friends is going to Cannes this month though, so I'll just have to make do with looking at their pictures!
25. La Marais and Place des Vosges
26. La Conciergerie
27. Visit St- Sulpice
29. Go the Musée de l'Orangerie
31. Visit some other French Towns. I've been to Strasbourg (see no. 19 on the list, but there's obviously more to France than just that!)
33. Bois du Boulogne
34. Go to Paris Jazz festival, or see some jazz of some kind while I'm here!
35. Visit Le Château de Fontainebleau
36. Go to Musee d'Orsay
37. See an exhibition at the Grand Palais - Parisa and I went to see the Cartier exhibition back in January.
38. Go to Musee Mamottan.
39. Go to the French Open
40. Take a photo of Kilometre Zero, which is right outside Notre Dame and which I somehow only learnt the existence of about a fortnight ago! (Km Zero is the point to which distances are measured to in Paris)
41. Find the most famous graves at Père Lachaise cemetery. (In case you're wondering, Edith Piaf and Oscar Wilde are just two of several famous names buried there)
42. Parc des Buttes Chaumont
35. Visit Le Château de Fontainebleau
36. Go to Musee d'Orsay
38. Go to Musee Mamottan.
39. Go to the French Open
40. Take a photo of Kilometre Zero, which is right outside Notre Dame and which I somehow only learnt the existence of about a fortnight ago! (Km Zero is the point to which distances are measured to in Paris)
41. Find the most famous graves at Père Lachaise cemetery. (In case you're wondering, Edith Piaf and Oscar Wilde are just two of several famous names buried there)
42. Parc des Buttes Chaumont
43. Visit La Sainte-Chapelle
44. Browse the shelves at the bookshop, Shakespeare and Co
This is a list which could probably grow an awful lot longer if I really sat down and racked my brains about it, but it's going to be hard enough to complete as it is, so I'll leave it at that.
Vicky
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