Vive la France

Paris is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, beautiful. No other city I've been to has as many amazing buildings clustered together. My planned site seeing degenerated almost immediately to randomly wandering the streets just admiring the architecture. If you manage to find something to climb* the scenery becomes even better.

One of the gargoyles on top of Notre Dame looking over the city.

I was also treated to some very mild days and two cracking sunsets. In addition to Notre Dame I also manage to see the the outside of the Lurve (I didn't even attempt to go in as I'd need to set aside a weekend just for that by all reports), Jardin des Tuileries, Ile de la Cite, Tour Eiffel, the Champs Elysees and finally the Arc de Triomphe. As mentioned the casual beauty of the place is remarkable. Even the Parisians have a bad wrap and will generally try to help even if they don't speak English.

The Sainte-Chapelle

On top of this I also had a very gracious host in Luke who put me up for the weekend and took me out 'on the piss' (as it was Australia day after all) with some of his mates. We went out both Friday and Saturday nights with a great little group and had lots of drunken fun both nights. It was perhaps not the traditional Paris weekend with several hours spent at Cafe Oz and several more sleeping off hangovers but all in all a most enjoyable weekend indeed.

Next destination; Tignes Les Brev where I'll be both carving up, and falling down, the slopes (I predict I'll being doing far more of one than the other).

* This isn't a problem as almost all buildings in central France are 4-5 stories tall. All that "French woman don't get fat because...." is just woffle. The real reason is everyone is climbing stairs to get to and from the shops full of pastry goodness.**

** Mmmmm, pastry goodness.

France trip: Hurray!

I've been called over to do some consulting in Paris this Thursday and Friday and have decided to spend the weekend looking around. I've not been before so find this all a very exciting prospect indeed. I do have a sneaking suspicion though that my experience with the French language will leave me somewhere at this level:

Ho Ho Ho. You heard me.

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes! Very appreciated indeed.

That out of the way, it gives the opportunity for a quick festive season activity roundup: Christmas eve was uneventfully spent at home with a bottle of red and a box of tissues*. Christmas day I rode over to Brixton where Chia and Serena had thoughtfully invited me over for the day. There was much cooking, drinking, eating, eating and eating. And more drinking. Then sleeping. Christmas well spent in my book.

My birthday was again fairly dull as my attempt at belatedly organising drinks where to no avail as pretty much everyone I knew was out of London on holiday or otherwise engaged. Anyway, I ended up having to work and as it was raining I canceled plans with the loyal few who had said they would come. I did however end up going out to see a small circus troupe perform which was entertaining.

A rather entertaining weekend later and I was off to Brussels on the Eurostar for my first train journey into Europe. After disembarking we had a casual stroll through downtownish Brussels en route to a delightful meal. It was then off to a karaoke bar before finally ending up a dodgey bar filled with people of debatable sexuality to see out 2007. Generally an action packed 2007 it has to be said with big geographical moves and meeting more new people than at any other point in my life previously. Thanks to everyone back home for your support over the year and everyone in Blighty who make it so easy to stay.

A picture of a Church in Brussels.

In other non-festive related news our hot water service, which also provides our heating, has shat itself. In fact it shat itself some time ago and we've been doing without running hot water for several weeks. However the onset of Winter proper has motivated us to try and motivate the plumbers to shift their cracks our way.

Anyway, here are some other unrelated photos I finally got around to downloading.

The London Eye. Der.

My walk to the station on a chilly morning.

* I had a cold. Sickos.