Tuesday, 23 May 2006

!Vodka Party!


It was the greatest house party I’ve been to in years and definitely the most fun I’ve had since arriving in Paris. It was crazy we were up all night and all caught the metro home at 6am. I don’t know how but we ran out of vodka, but luckily I was prepared and had hidden some beers amongst the fruit and vegetables in the fridge (like the wine hidden behind the coffee machine at EY Gen). Everyone was in fine form, especially Petra (the genius who came up with the Vodka theme, Lek I can’t believe we never thought of that). People were still arriving at 3am, and it didn’t even seem odd. Anyway, all in all it was just a fantastic party, though thinking back I can’t pin point exactly what made it so great. I think part of it was that it was the first time where I felt like I was equal with the other trainees, like I’m not the newbie anymore.
A couple photos from the party:


From left to right: Marina, Aafke, Petra, me, and Juliet (Dan's cousin).



Not a drop left!?!

posted by Gigi @ 7:25 pm 0 comments

On the board...

tally update: I

I'll send an email with more details.

posted by Gigi @ 7:23 pm 1 comments

Thursday, 18 May 2006

Normandie


I went to Normandy a couple weekends ago. I saw three towns, Etretat, Honfleur and Deauville, on the north west coast of France. I think the absolute highlight of the trip was where we stayed on the second night. It was a bit like a Bed & Breakfast but not really, it's called a Chambre d'hôtes in french but now we just call them grandma houses. Basically you stay in someone's house. The one we stayed at was run by an old French couple that rent out the top level of their house, they said (from what I could gather with my terrible terrible French) that they decided to do it after their children grew up. Anyway they were the cutest couple ever and the best part was for breakfast we had fresh, still hot from the oven, homemade brioche! Best brioche I've ever had, ever!!! Of course, we insisted on having a photo with them.

posted by Gigi @ 11:20 pm 0 comments

Deauville



I don't really have that much to say about Deauville other than it had the ugliest beach I have ever seen. The sand was kind of grey coloured and went forever and the sea was flat and uninviting. Though I think Deauville is a town where really really rich people have their weekend houses because the streets there were filled with really really expensive cars and all the shop windows were filled with really really expensive brands.

posted by Gigi @ 11:12 pm 0 comments

Honfleur


Honfleur was my favourite of the towns we saw. It was just so cute and gorgeous. It didn't have a beach but it had a harbour in the middle of town and all these little old winding streets leading away from it. The buildings were all beautiful and old and were generally either cute little stores selling conserves or little art galleries. I couldn't afford any art so I settled for some homemade apple and kiwi jam and some chutney. I decided that if I was a wealthy Parisian I would have my weekend house in Honfleur.

posted by Gigi @ 11:01 pm 0 comments

Etretat



Etretat has these huge cliffs and rock formations on the coast. It kind of reminded me of the Gap in Sydney but greener, colder, without fishermen on the rocks and not sandstone. It was stunning though, especially when we walked up to the point and could look down of the beach. Apparently on a clear day it's possible to see England, though I can hardly imagine that, it was so foggy when we were there.


The beach was one of those European pebble beaches. Harder to walk on than sand but if was nice that you didn't get sand all in your shoes. Also it sounds so different from a beach back home; the crashing noise that the waves made so completely different and you could hear the water draining through the pebbles every time the waves went out too. I was so excited to see the ocean and really wanted to touch it but the beach was quite steep and it's hard to run on pebbles so I accidentally soaked my entire right foot, shoe and everything. (Pictured: clockwise it's me, Liv, Marina and Christian. They are all trainees in Paris too)

posted by Gigi @ 10:21 pm 0 comments

Tuesday, 16 May 2006

Mes Compagnons de Bureau


These are my office buddies! From left to right it's Petra and Stefanie (both from Austria), Romain (our token Frenchy), yours truly, Marius (from Estonia) and Abhishek (from India).

posted by Gigi @ 12:26 am 0 comments

Mon bureau


This is me "working hard" at the office. I've actually moved desks now so I get to sit next to the window which is really nice, especially on sunny days.

posted by Gigi @ 12:13 am 0 comments

Wednesday, 10 May 2006

J'ai un appartement

I moved in last weekend. My french family helped me find it. It was just good timing really, my second cousin's boyfriend just moved in with her so I moved into his place. It is not 100% above board because subletting isn't really allowed in Paris, but I have an affordable furnished apartment in Paris so who cares? At first I was a little disappointed because it isn't in one of those beautiful old Parisian buildings but now that I've finally been able to start packing I don't really care anymore, plus I get to look at pretty Parisian buildings all day.
I live in the 19th arrondissement, which is north-east Paris. I live about 100 metres from the Metro station Riquet and about a 5 minute walk to the supermarket (though if I was feeling really lazy I could take the metro one stop). I haven't really had much time to explore the area but I already have a local boulanger (baker) of course.
I was going to post my address here but it seems much more sensible not to, so if you'd like it just email me and I'll let you know.

posted by Gigi @ 7:27 pm 0 comments

Tuesday, 2 May 2006

Ma Famille Française





This Sunday I went to a family lunch with some of my 'long lost' french relatives. I met my mother's aunt and uncle, their children and their children. It was really lovely. I'd never met any of them before but I was welcomed with open arms. And between their english, my french and a bit of wine the conversation managed to keep flowing. I haven't really met that much of Mum's side of the family before, in fact I generally tend to forget that she has such a large extended family. It was so strange to meet relatives from Mum's side - you could definitely see the family resemblance. We had all the same features; eye, hair and skin colour. I've never really had that with anyone other than George and Mum before.

Most of them aren't from Paris and were just visiting for the weekend. But they all invited me back to their home towns for a weekend if I get the chance. Also my second cousin is helping me get an apartment, hopefully I'll be moving into her boyfriend's place when he moves out this week. (fingers crossed).

The whole day was pretty exhausting though. I'd completely forgotten how tiring trying to understand and speak french all day is. But it was one of those days where I could feel my french improving which was great. Everyone speaks english in my office and unfortunately it is proving very easy to not speak any french here so I'm trying to make a really effort to speak french when I can.

posted by Gigi @ 8:01 pm 2 comments