La touriste est retournée!

My blog has been sadly excitement free of late, what with one thing and another, but I woke up this morning, and it was a beautiful sunny day, and so I decided to go for a walk. I ended up going all over the place and having a really lovely Sunday afternoon.

My apartment is in a brilliant location in that we are exceptionally close to the Latin Quarter, and therefore close to pretty much everything. I don't start out with any particular destination in mind, I just meandered around for a bit appreciating how lovely Paris is in May.

Eventually I ended up on the banks of the Seine and literally right in front of a shop that I've been meaning to go to for ages.

Shakespeare & Co is an English language bookshop located at 37, Rue de la Bûcherie, and it's quite quirky.

The original Shakespeare and Company was founded in 1919 by Sylvia Beach and was basically the centre of English Language Literature in Paris. Writers such as Hemingway, F Scott Fitzgerald spent loads of time there, and James Joyce basically used it as his office (in fact, Sylvia Beach published Joyce's Ulysses, a plaque as to which I found on my way home this afternoon...)

The original Shakespeare and Company closed in 1940, supposedly because Ms Beach didn't want to sell a Nazi Officer the last copy of Joyce's Finnegans Wake. It never reopened, even though...

"...Hemingway, as a major in the US army... at the liberation of Paris in 1945 drove his tank straight to the shuttered Shakespeare and Company and personally liberated Sylvia Beach."

Which I think is just brilliant. 

(Quote taken from http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/mar/07/shakespeare-and-company-bookshop-paris)

The existing Shakespeare and Company was opened in 1951, but as Le Mistral. It was renamed Shakespeare and Company in 1964, and having spent a good while in there this afternoon, all I can say is that the atmosphere is brilliant and I could probably go back and read for hours if you'd let me. 

As it is, I spent much more money in there than I should have done, and although I know I shouldn't have done it, and although I know I should have been much more frugal, I can't bring myself to regret it. 

Sorry, not sorry. 

Anyway, after this, I headed over the Pont Saint-Michel to Île de la Cité to look for the plaque indicating Kilometre Zero, whose existence I only learnt of about a fortnight ago, and which I failed to find even after phoning my brother back in England and asking him to tell me where it is. #fail

Giving up on finding the plaque, I went to Sainte-Chapelle, built between 1242 and 1248 by Louis IX to house the relics of the Passion of Christ. It's all very interesting, but if you want to know more about that, I'll tell you to Google it, because right now what I'm interested in is the architecture and the building itself.

The visitors leaflet describes it as "A gem of High Gothic Architecture", which it is. The following three photos are of the Lower Chapel - and they're all very lovely. 

But calling Sainte-Chapelle a "gem of High Gothic architecture" is, quite frankly the most inane and rubbish description ever.

Why? Well, here's what I have to say on the matter.

I am a very lucky young woman, I know that. I've been to loads of places, very stunning places, and I've looked up at ornate ceilings, and to masterpieces of artwork and architecture, and down to mosaic flooring, and I've appreciated what I've seen and made the appropriate comments of, "Oh, isn't that beautiful."

But never, ever, before today have I been to a place that literally made me suck in a breath - an audible breath, no less - when I laid  my eyes on it.

La Haute Chapelle, or the Upper Chapel at Sainte-Chapelle did exactly that. 

I climbed up the narrow, winding stone staircase, I got to the top, I looked up, and my jaw dropped. I felt moved by its beauty. 

It is quite possibly the most beautiful and stunning man made thing I have ever seen, and quite possibly ever will see. 1113 scenes are depicted in 15 stained glass windows of the like I have never seen before, telling the story of mankind from Creation to the Resurrection of Christ. 

No words of mine will do it justice. No pictures of mine will do it justice - you'd need a much, much better camera than my puny iPhone and my pathetic efforts on instagram, and even then, I'm not sure you can truly appreciate how beautiful the upper chapel truly is unless you go to Paris yourself and look upon it with your own eyes. 

If you ever do go to Paris, and find yourself with a spare hour, I cannot recommend enough that you make the effort to go over to  Île de la Cité and go in to take a look for yourself - you absolutely will not regret it. 

That said, I will now let you take a look at what I'm talking about.

The photos speak for themselves, even with an iPhone camera. 

If you've even begun to see what I'm talking about, then I'm a happy woman, and you'll be adding it to your bucket lists as we speak. 

Just next door to Sainte-Chapelle is la Conciergerie - both buildings are part of the current Palais de Justice. The Conciergerie began life as a royal residence, later became the administrative centre, if you like, of the French Royal family, and finally ended up as a prison, most notably during the French Revolution. 

Between 1793 and 1794, thousands of people appeared before a tribunal at the Conciergerie charged with being an enemy of the Revolution, including Queen Marie-Antoinette, who was kept there up until the very morning of her death, when she was taken to Place de la Révolution, now Place de la Concorde, and, ironically, Robespierre, who had sent hundreds of people to be guillotined himself, during the Reign of Terror. 

Marie-Antoinette's Cell

La Cour des Femmes, or the Women's Courtyard.
Condemned prisoners would wait in groups of twelve in the 'Corner of Last Goodbyes'
for the cart that would take them away to be guillotined. 

Exterior of the Conciergerie

Emerging into the sunshine, I crossed the Pont au Change onto the la rive droite (Right Bank) and headed down Rue Rivoli, passing the Hôtel de Ville ('City Hall') on my way and dipping into Starbucks for a Mocha Frappe, which went down very nicely, in case you were wondering :)

Hotel de Ville

Le Marais is a district which spreads across the 3rd and 4th arrondissements of Paris, and it's one that I've not really explored very much, except (kind of) at night. It's home to one of Paris' main Jewish communities and lots of little art galleries and boutiques.

Anyway, that  was where I was headed, in particular, to Place des Vosges, which is, according to Wikipedia, the oldest planned square in the city. It's also very pretty, and at one time or another has been home to several famous français, including Cardinal Richelieu and Victor Hugo, author of Les Misérables and the Hunchback of Notre Dame. 

Being a Sunday, and being a lovely warm day, it was predictably full to the brim with Parisians and tourists out to enjoy the weather :)

Anyway, after spending a little while sat on the grass, lapping up the sunshine, finishing my frappe and starting one of my new books, I headed home, sat out on the balcony for a while, and then decided to blog about my day before I forgot it all.

Speak soon!

Vicky xx

Une liste: la troisieme partie!

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!
2. Go to Notre Dame Cathedral

3. Visit Les Catacombs

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)

5. Go to see the Pantheon

6. Spend time in La Jardin du Luxembourg

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! :) 

11. Go to Disneyland Paris. Disclaimer: I've actually been here before, so I count it as done. I wasn't going to include it on my list at all, but my "little" (he's 16) brother insisted that I include it, which was blatantly a not very subtle hint that I should take him.

12. Go to the Sacré Coeur.

13. Stroll down the Champs-Élysées, and end up in the Place de la Concord

14. Rue Mouffetard - home of my favourite place to get a crêpe, Au P'tit Grec. 

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!

19. Go to the Christmas Market in Strasbourg

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

23. Moulin Rouge - It costs a fortune to actually see a show, but I've seen the outside and that will do for now!

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

28. Go to the roof at Galleries Lafayette - incidentally, I really loved the interior of this store. It's gorgeous!

29. Go the Musée de l'Orangerie

30. Go over to the Arc de Triomphe

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!)

32. Go for a walk along the Canal St Martin

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

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

Pâques, coupes de cheveux et la famille...

This post is a little out of the norm - this is a year abroad blog, after all, and I'm not abroad right now - it was for that reason that I didn't bother to post when I was home for Christmas or anything like that. But I feel like sharing, so a post is going up anyway :)

For the first time in a little over three months, I'm home and back with my family, which is really just so very lovely, because in all honesty I was getting to the stage where I was about to tip into full mental breakdown if I didn't have a break of some description! And obviously, I missed them and my friends.

Next time I'm in the UK, my time in Paris will be over ...

I've already been here a week! I had an early morning flight out of Orly last Saturday morning, which was just perfect really because I was home and cup of tea in hand by 11am. Downside - I had an exam until 10pm the night before which did mean I was pretty tired, but luckily, getting to go home offset my rubbish sleep deprived mood haha. 

What have I been doing now I'm here? The biggest thing would have to be my haircut - a few weeks back, I decided to donate my hair to the Little Princess Trust - http://www.littleprincesses.org.uk/ - they're a charity who provide real hair wigs, free of charge, to children across the UK who have lost their hair as a result of chemotherapy. Anyone who watched Comic Relief last year might remember that Jessie J had her head shaved - she donated her hair to the same charity.

This was actually a pretty big deal for me, because as anyone who knows me could tell you, I'm pretty attached to my long hair, and whenever I go to the hairdresser, cutting my locks short simply wasn't an option.

Nu-uh, no way josé.

But then I saw a video on YouTube of someone else who had decided to do it, and I googled the charity...

Fact is, when I was seven, and even now for that matter, I know that if I were to lose my hair for whatever reason, I'd be utterly devastated. I thought about it - a lot. Long story short: as my hair is [was] very long, I had plenty of it to go around. My hair also grows faster than anybody's, so it's not even like my hair will be that short for long.

So - I talked myself into it and decided to share the hair love. I got the chop. Here's the before, during and after:

My hair has not been this short since I was about 3 years old - seriously - so it would have been pretty devastating if I hadn't liked it. Luckily, I actually don't mind my short new do, although I already know that I'm going to grow it long again. I prefer it that way, and there's a lot more you can do with long hair than short. I've also realised, since I washed it for the first time, that short hair actually takes work. I thought it would be more manageable now, but nope!  

Still, never mind - that's my good deed of the month taken care of and I'm feeling pretty good about it.

Easter Sunday is tomorrow [Happy Easter, if you celebrate it] and the rest of my time at home is going to be spent in the company of my textbooks [booooooooo] and my family - I've had a few lovely days out, at Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth, and elsewhere too.

Yesterday, of course, was Good Friday. We were planning to go and see my Nan and Grandad in Essex but then my Dad had to have an operation so that was off the cards. Me, the mother and brother went to see my other Grandma for the day instead, and we also went to see the new Muppet Movie :P

And being Good Friday, I've obviously been scoffing lots of Hot Cross Buns. One of the best parts about being home is the lovely large quantity of food that I've missed while in Paris - and I'll be stocking up before I head back to France next Sunday!

Vicky xx

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