The weather has taken a turn for the worse here, it's been raining all weekend. Ce n'est pas bon. Luckily that hasn't stopped me and my fellow chums (cue famous five style voice)! Yesterday Anna and I went to Musée D'Orsay as she hasn't been before. I won't bore you with talking about it again, but my opinion remains the same, I love it. Afterwards all we wanted to do was snuggle up with a nice warming cup of tea (or bière pour Anna) so we went to to the Marais to check out some recommended cafes and bars. The first one Le Loir dans la Théière was super. It clearly has a good reputation as the queue to get in was going out of the door. We waited our turn and weren't disappointed. Inside it was decorated with lots of cool posters and some Alice in Wonderland style pictures. It was really cosy and had some of the most amazing cakes I've ever seen. Tea was un petit cher - €4.50 but that seems to be generally what you pay in Paris. Plus it was Lapsaang Souchang. I love Lapsaang Souchang tea. We did feel a little like we were being hurried though so we decided to move on to somewhere a little more chilled and found Cafe Martini a few streets away. Which equally had a really good vibe, it was more a bar than a cafe but was pretty cheap for Paris. A kir was €3.50 and a Double Martini was €4, which by the way, I never realised was so tasty! Then on our way home, we walked past another bar where a French jazz bar was playing. We couldn't resist and went in for another petit blanc and watched the music. It was amazing. They were incredibly talented musicians and the girl singer had a beautiful voice. You could tell they were all the best of friends which made it even better to watch. We stayed until the end of the set then went on our way home back through the cold and the rain.
Today I went with Vanja, a Swiss au pair who lives in my village, and Nathalie to Le Chateau a Versailles. Again another miserable day weather wise so the ideal day to go. If you're under 26 and an EU citizen you get in free to all the State-owned museums which luckily also included Versailles. It really is incredible, so so enormous and ornate. The basic ticket gets you into the State-appartments, so where the king and queen lived and the hall of mirrors where the Treaty of Versailles was signed after WW1. There was also an exhibition on by Takashi Murakami a Japanese artist, where his sculptures were placed around the chateau. It was really bizarre seeing them in that setting as they are a complete contrast to the sumptuous and traditional decor of the chateau. That was the point I know and in some cases it worked well but other times I just didn't like it, it's not really my time of art but I can appreciate the idea behind it. Seeing the chateau has now inspired to find a book on French history as there's so much interesting history here especially about their revolution. My knowledge about that so far is pretty limited to what I learnt from watching The Scarlet Pimpernell with Richard E. Grant. But that was a long time ago.
I also spend most of the day talking in French, as that's how Vanja an I communicate. I think it must be pretty funny to hear us talk because a lot of it is definitely not correct. But it is very good just to practise so at least I've got someone I can do that with. Til next time!
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