Paris and the last four weeks, I am so sorry

Wow well I guess it's been about 4 and a bit weeks since I've last done this. I apologise profusely for how slack I've been. A lot has happened in the past 4 weeks so this is going to be a long one, I'll run through the weeks in order.


The first week was actually fairly uneventful, nothing much happened, it was the last week at school and probably like most schools in the world, the kids are just thinking about the holidays and can't be bothered working and the teachers are the same. Finally Friday came, everybody said they're good byes and we all jetted off to our various destinations, some off to Italy, some to Belgium, Switzerland, England, Germany and still no one went further than Melbourne to Brisbane. For me it was off to Poitiers and then onto to Paris :)





After 8 hours in the car we got to Poitiers, famous for two things Futurscope; an amusement park which is supposed to be all about the future (hence the name) and second, the fact that the Tour de France prologue was held there a few years back. Our reason for going there was to see Marie's older brother; Hugo, who studies at the university there ESCEM which is the 39th best business school in Europe. We spent a nice time there wandering around Saturday arvo, Marie hit the shops with Michelle while the boys went for a walk, saw the local church and had a drink. Its probably about the same size as Bendigo. very cute little town with lots of old buildings and winding streets which suddenly open into massive squares. That night Hugo, Remi and I went to a local pub to watch the soccer match Marseille vs Paris, for the french this is like Essendon vs Collingwood. We were supporting Marseille, however unfortunately they lost, it was a good game and a nice night. The next day was spent at Futurscope. It's an interesting, somethings are a little lame but they had some great movies, a lot of them where u sit in a simulator and it threw you aroudn according to what the actor was doing. As I said a little earlier it was interesting and I'm glad I went but it doesn't measure up to our parks on the gold coast. That night we dined out at an American restaurant, basically it was just fat and oil but it tasted good. Matters were made worse by the fact that the next we were back in the car and therefore had no opportunity to work the junk out of our system however my mood quickly changed when we arrived in Paris.

we arrived in Paris and I was immdediately hit by how big it was just by how far out the outer-suburbs stretch. we joined the throbbing line of cars trying to get in. we knew exactly where we were trying to get to however the number of one way streets prevetned us from doing so for at least an hour with much frustration and tooted horns. At last we got to our hotel (Hapimag) and made it up to our room.

Now because I did so much at Paris I can't remember which days i did everything on (however I will never forget what I did) So i'm just going to lay it all out.our hotel was near Notre Dame, it was on the left bank bank so we had a pretty classy quartier with lots of shops. I think it was the first night we were there that we went for a walk to Notre Dame, when we got there it started absolutely bucketing down so we took shelter inside. It's a pretty big place. I can't really describe it but it had paintings on the roof and massive alcoves on each side with gold everywhere, it was very spectacular. After that we gave up waiting and just decided to sprint home. We also visted Sacre Coeur and Montmarte, Sacre Coeur was even more impressive, i think mainly because it was situated on the top of a hill and you could see all of Paris. inside was greatm made even better by the fact that they had their own crazy guy. There were signs out the front asking people to take off their hats and not to take photos. Anyway as soon as someone with a hat walked in he'd be right by their side asking them to take their hat off in about 6 different languages. However the funniest thing was when someone would walk in with a camera around their neck; this guy would watch them like a hawk. Then as soon as they took a photo he would sprint over to them, grab them by the arm and manhandle them out of the church, Remi, Hugo, Michelle and I sat there waiting for about 30mins giggling everytime a flash would go off.

We also saw the other main attraction such as Tou Eiffel, Arc de triumpg, Champs Elysees, Mini and Grande Palais, the obelisk and the Lourve (Outside). All of thses were amazing and fenerally so much bigger than I'd ever imagined them, you hurt your neck just looking up at Tour Eiffel. Champs Elysees is like a massive freeway but with some of the world's biggest brands lining the sides, Arc de Triumph is massive and so many cars cars just drive round and round it looking at it. The artwork on it is amazingly delicate and theres so much of it. The Mini and Grande Palais live up to their names of palais, I'm pretty sure any Monarchy would be happy to live in there. The Mini palais I believed is wrongly named, may be a better name would be "slightly less Grande Palais". The Obelisk is well, an Obelisk. It's very tall, stunningly beautiful yet very otu of place in paris. And the outside of the Louvre is like all the pictures and films. It has three glass pyramids, one of them quite big, and fountains all around, in the middle of this massive courtyard. The Pyramids and fountains looked very out of place in Paris also, amazingly stunning but just so weird, so modern in the middle of such an old building. The other main attraction we saw was Versaille.

if this place sold off it's gold we would be able to fix all of the world's poverty problems. it is amazing, everything is gilted with gold. The front fence is fold and so is every doorway, when I saw the fence I was kind of struck by the irony; fences are for keeping people out, so they can't steal anything, yeh? People don't need to go past the gate to get something worthwhile, they can just steal the gate. Apparently during the revolution the place was torn to shreds however over the years various associations and the French government over the years have bought pieces back. One of the biggest donours was John Rockafeller, there is a plaque in the main hall saying thanks to him. It's a very overwhelming place, you just got to wonder how you could live in a palce like that, with so much gold, silver and marble, i'd feel so guilty. The gardens are also impressive, they seem to stretch on forever. I mean to maintain that place would take the army.

All of these things in Paris were amazing and blew my mind btu none more so than a small street that we walked up one afternoon. It started off as the seedy area of Paris with street games and prostitutes on every corner, a few sex shops and what not, then a little further up all the shops turned into tailor shops. Remi was tellign me that the day after any big brand comes out with a new line of clothes all these shops are closed and the day after that their shelves are stacked full of the famous brand's clothes. You could buy this stuff for a tenth of the price you can on Champs Elysees. That street then faded once again and was replaced by something that looked like it was out of Greece, then Turkey, India and then various African countries. It was amazing, I felt as though I'd just travelled the world in a couple hours worth of walking. Somewhere along the way Michelle and Marie got picked up off the street and taken down some back alley to get their nails done, there they spent 30-40mins while Remi and I went for a drink. It was great to see another side of Paris which showed me it wasn't all glitz and glam at Paris.

So many more things happened in Paris but I just dimply don't have the time to write about it all sorry, I could write all day but you have to experience for youself to truly understand it. If you have never been, pack your bags and go now, it will be something that you will never forget for the rest of your life.

When I got back I fell sick and had 3 days off school, it was nice to sleep, Paris had been tiring. Since then the weather has start to get really cold, two days ago it snowed in the morning and these past few mornign it's been -3 and -4 degrees when I headed out for school. I've been trying to ride as much as possible but it's getting harder and harder, my Basso needs excersise! I did one ride a little while ago however, where I rode up to the base of the Col du Galiber and they already had more snow there than Mt. Buller will ever get. I've had a couple of parties recently, including one at mine last week but tomorrow night (actually as I right this it has just become tonight) I have a very big one, so far 150 people have bought tickets, which is huge considering the town we're having it in would be lucky to have 150 people under the age of 20, it should be a lot of fun. the before party will be at mine because we're going to watch the Aussies vs France at Paris, that should be fun however if the Aussies lsoe it's going to be a very sad night. This morning I had to do a presentation on Australia, of course it went wrong right from the start; my powerpoint refused to load. in the end I just jumped on Google and puleld up pictures and spoke about them, wasn't the wya I wanted it to work out but I got my point accross and now every wants to come to Australia however I thouroughly freaked them out about the snakes and Crocodiles, I showed them a photo which i think will have them awake all night, if you google images "Snake pulling Cow out of water" you will see what I mean, it is quite a scary picture. The difference between Australian and French schooling was driven home to me when one of the slacker kids in the class asked in earnest if I wanted the class to take notes? I mean in Aus we would have been stoked to get an easy hour, not trying to make it harder than it needs to be. Anwayz I leave for Paris again on Sunday night with my class. 5 days in paris with mates should be an amazing experience. I've actually got a pretty packed weekend with a run, a ride and a gym session tomorrow, the game and then the party saturday night and then sudnay I guess will be spent packing and making sure I'm 100% ready to go that night.

Actually wait, wow I completely forgot to say something about Paris. I went to an Aussie bar! They were serving Toohey's new beer and watchign the AUS vs GBR Rugby league watch on the big screen. It was a great night, msot of the servers were Aussies and I walked up to the bar to order some drinks and I started talking to the barman in French, he gives me this very confused expressions and in very slow calm English goes "I am sorry but I do not speak French do you speak English?" I nearly burst out in laughter but also felt quite proud that he took me for a native speaker. I then asked him how long he'd been in Paris for and I'm pretty sure that gave him the shock of the night, to hear another Aussie accent. Turns out he was a Queenslander who's back packing around Europe and needs some money. The drinks were on the house. I also spoke with a Suede (I'm sorry but I've forgotten how to spell it in English only French, it's people who come from Sweden) who spoke with an Aussie accent. That was one of the best nights I had in Paris.

Anwayz I could go on gasbagging about Paris untill 5 in the morning but for now I need my sleep, I'm still considering sleeping outside but I'm not sure it'll snow tonight, it's 2 degrees at the moment and the winds blowing so strong I think if it snowed the snow would get blown straight past us. I will try and blog Sunday after the Party and before Paris but I will be busy that day so don't hold me to it. Good luck to Gracie and the rest of the girls contesting the womens omnium on Sunday, also for Metro and County riders contesting those events next week and get better soon Ol, hope you're alright, we all wana see you right for states.

Ciao
Cal