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

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