Well the croissant stint of my year is over

Well the croissant stint of my year is over and I have begun the camel portion. Quite fittingly I saw a caravan on the way from the airport to my new home.

The packing process and everything was incredibly stressful and the last minute paying for my accommodation was just the cherry on the cake. However, getting to the airport really early and having an incredibly bad headache for the majority of the flight has not dampened my spirits.

The family who I am living with is made up of Mama Zein (ماما زين) and her son Elias (الياس) who works at the Serveton Hotel. I am glad that I had the airport pick up; it made the whole thing less stressful at this end. The family are Christian and very kind and welcoming. I was told several times by Elias that this is my house too and that they are my family. He just kept saying welcome home like I was some long lost brother. So I feel really comfortable here.

Elias has told me all about his past lodgers, a pair of Americans who sound great fun! He showed me pictures of all the parties they had in the house, where they played ring of fire and got horrendously drunk ending in Elias having his tenth car accident, nothing serious I may add.

After dinner we went cruising around Amman in Elias’ pimped out car. When I say pimped out I mean that it has a massive amp in the boot of the car from which he blares out tunes as we drove around Amman. This city is none like any I have seen. It is buzzing with energy and people, but also seems incredibly residential and almost half built. After all it is a very new city.

We drove past the enormous hotels looming over the eight circles (دوار) which are used to navigate the city. We drove past the lines and lines of parked, pimped up cars that wait for the streets to be empty to drag race up and down the main road. When I say pimped up, I mean pimped up. The engines of average cars are exchanged for massive ones, new hubcaps and spoilers are added and all the drivers are sitting at the side of the roads smoking shisha.

We stopped off at a famous coffee place which was just a van in a car park. Finally we went to Rainbow Street were we had a couple of beers.

I thought the night was drawing to close as we got back in the car, but no. We then went to Elias' aunt's house where I met more of the family who were preparing for a birthday tomorrow so were making some puddings. I tried some Arabic sweets and I was corrected on my accent.

My knowledge of Arabic is slowly returning, but I can feel that I am going to learn so much so quickly by being immersed like this and I can’t wait to go to school on Monday.

Giverny

My last weekend in Paris I decided to get out of Paris and go to the country. So I took the 45 minute journey to the house and gardens of Claude Monet in Giverny.

Giverny is a beautiful little village. All of the house and gardens there are spectacular. The weather on the day I chose was in fact the worst weather I think I had during the whole two months of being there, but it did not ruin the experience at all. Monet's house itself is gorgeous. It's not oversized, although his studio was quite something. The walls throughout the house are adorned with his paintings as well as Japanese art, which he was particularly fond of and his contemporary Impressionists. The kitchen was covered with blue and white Dutch tiling and the brass pots hung along the wall in size order. It was just perfect and you could imagine how Monet created his masterpieces there.

However, the main spectacle was the famous gardens that we all know from the infamous paintings that Monet completed over his long life. The gardens directly behind the house are excellently kept and the lavish plumes of colourful flowers lined the narrow pathways. As you followed the unfortunately crowded pathways you find the passageway that leads to the momentous water lily pond that inspired Les Nympheas. even in the rain this pond is glorious with amazing reflections of the trees and the clouds that Monet captures in his paintings. The Japanese style bridges that imitates the bridges he saw and fell in love with on his travels.

I think it is safe to stay that I thoroughly enjoyed my visit although I did not stay long, I would recommend it although perhaps not in peek season as the several tour groups made it somewhat hard to move at times.

The Lock Out

I'm sure many of you have heard by now the troubles I had in my last week of living in Paris. Having managed to last seven weeks without a single hiccough in my trip I found it hard to breath after this tremendous one. It was Tuesday night and I decided that I wanted to go out thanks to the Cheesy Tuesday weekly withdrawal symptoms I suffer from. (For those of you who don't know Cheesy Tuesdays is a club night in Exeter where they play cheesy music and it is my favourite night out in Essex, so much so that I didn't miss a single cheesies the whole of second term.)

On leaving the flat I realised I no longer had my keys. For the next I don't know how long I tried to contact the landlord who I assumed would have a spare key. I knocked on so many doors including his for an extended of period of time before giving up and calling a locksmith. This was probably the biggest mistake I've ever made. Certainly the most expensive.

The locksmith arrived and he said without a second glance that he had to break the lock to get in. I being tired and foolish and never having heard of a locksmith before that night agreed without thinking. To cut a long story short, because I have dwelled upon that night non-stop for the last week and I really don't want to dwell on it for much longer. I paid 303€ for the forced entry and 1100€ for a new lock. I know it's ridiculous, but I assure you that the lock was a very expensive lock. I looked it up online to check that I wasn't being completely screwed over.

I am liaising with the insurance company currently to see if I can get some of my money back, because as it stands I have managed to spend the entirety of my loan for this term leaving me with ziltch especially as I haven't been paid by PNB Paribas yet for working with them over the summer thanks to the misspelling of my name on the cheques!

Anyway I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in Paris and I can't wait to return to the City of Lights. The incident with the lock has taught me valuable vocabulary about locks and DIY in French and as my sister said; "it's about time something went wrong for him."

#Characterbuilding

La Paris gruyère

There are many nicknames for Paris ; La Ville-Lumière, The City of Love, Paname, but the one which I was most surprised about is La Paris Gruyère. Gruyère is a type of French cheese that has holes in it. Paris is named after this cheese because it too has holes throughout the city. The Métro, the sewers, the catacombs make up the tunnels that burrow all around the city.

Le Métro

Having lived in Paris for near to seven weeks now I have had many experiences on the metro to both male me love and hate it. It is in dispute as to whether the Paris Métro is better or worse than the London Underground, personally I think it is. The trains on the metro are squarer than those of their London relatives this means that I can stand up straight even when I am right next to the doors! I know isn’t life marvelous!

Depending on what line you are on the underground is air conditioned  is a God send on hot summer days! Also the seats are often wide enough to actual sit on without being on top of the person next to you.

On line 1, which is the line which goes parallel to the Champs D’Elysée from Saint Paul all the way to La Défense, there is no driver at the front which means you can see right out the front of the train like a roller coaster! I was sooo excited when I first saw this.

La Mairie de Paris auditions and allows only the best to play here. There is a fantastic String Ensemble who play at Chatêlet. There are also unofficial buskers who actually go on the metro who aren’t actually supposed to be there. However, I quite enjoy these and they often make a journey more enjoyable. There is this Michael Jackson impersonator who I have seen on the trains a few times. His dancing on a moving train is more than impressive. Unfortunately I never understand how these people make a living because I rarely see anyone give them any money.

On the otherhand, the older trains on the metro can be small with very uncomfortable seats and certainly no air conditioning. There are often very strange people on the Métro as we found out in April when we saw a man with a cat in a sock in his hood! Bizarre!

But all in all the metro is a very good service and I have barely had a probably with it since arriving.

Les Catacombes

This is the attraction I have queued for most out of everything since arriving in Paris. I went the day I dropped Dad of at the station and went directly there at about midday. Stupidly had forgotten any water or food and ended up queueing for a total of two hours, because there is a restriction on the number of people allowed down there at once. This is probably for the best, because some of the places I've visited have been so jam packed that you really can't enjoy them as much because you feel like your just being herded like cattle.

The catacombs are  2 km long and the temperature drops to 14C down there! Maybe it's because I had gone delirious from the lack of food and water, but I found it incredibly interesting. There was lots of information provided for you along the route about how the tunnels were first made for limestone quarrying when Paris was a lot smaller, then as Paris grew over the top of tunnels they were forgotten about until they started to collapse behind buildings. It was then that they blessed the tunnels and started moving the bones from the overcrowded cemeteries  of Paris down there making the largest underground ossuary in the world. The bone lined tunnels seem to go on for ages, so much that it almost didn't feel as if they were real. It is fantastically creepy and I felt like I was entering the Court of Miracles from Hunch Back of Notre Dame.

Les Egouts

So the last and final chapter of this holey post is les egouts, the sewers! Yeah it doesn't sound all that appealing, but I was thoroughly recommended it by my trustworthy former French Assistant, Pauline. So when my mother came to visit instead of going to Monet's house and gardens, which are a little way outside of Paris, we decided to go here instead. Now in my imagination I had conjured up this experience where we got to go down the sewers in a boat or something, but now it is quite a small exhibition with a lot of not very interesting information about how the sewers were developed to deal with the growing population of Paris. The most interesting thing was imagining Jean Valjean  dragging Marius through them. Apart from that it was just smell and damp and I don't really recommend it. I don't even have any pictures of it. Sorry Pauline!

That sums up why Paris is sometimes referred to as gruyère, because under the surface there are lots of holes.

Les marches aux puces

Just had to tell you about my day yesterday. I have had a very casual weekend not really doing much at all, but yesterday I thought I would check out the flea markets in the north of Paris, just the other side of the Peripherique. They are ginormous! Full to the brim with old bits and bobs from old photographs and coinage to full renaissance dining sets. Full of secrets and wonders you can spend hours searching through this labyrinth of hidden treasures, there is bound to be something for everyone. Unfortunately I did not take much money and I didn't take any pictures, but I am sure to return so will definitely take some next time!

I then went to Montmartre to find some food. I eventually chose a cafe after walking past a thousand (it's a terrible syndrome I have where I can't ever stop I just keep walking past cafes until I get so annoyed with myself that I actually have to stop.) Being entirely French now I ordered the tartare which is raw meat. Usually it is mixed with herbs and spices and is very refreshing on a hot summers day, but this was literally just a slab of raw meat. Which wasn't very pleasant and as always the waiter was extremely grumpy. So grumpy in fact that when I said thank you and goodbye he said nothing! Parisians!

Today I walked to Bercy and discovered a lovely park which in my opinion is the best Park in Paris I've been to so far! It was great to see a more modern side of Paris. There was a skateboard park and everyone was having picnics and playing Frisbee and what not on the grass. I crossed the river to find the BnF (Biblioteque National de France) which was a very impressive, very modern building next to the Quay Bercy which is home to the well known Batofar bar as well as several others and looked like a trendy place to go out of an evening.

Wandering around I stumbled across what I had been looking for; A great woppy old building that looks as if it's about to crumble, but covered in fantastic street art. This is known as Les Frigos and it is the studies of young artists. It is open to the public, it wasn't today but I will return, and you can wonder in and talk tot he artists about their work and chat to randomers, which sounds perfect for helping my French. There was some people sitting outside and I really regret not going to talk to them, but I let my nerves get the better of me. I have decided that I need to stop being so afraid to talk to strangers so I'm going to ask someone a question tomorrow and start a conversation! Let's do this!

MAM and Rodin: A cultural evening

So I have become quite lax on updating this blog. Which is exactly what was not supposed to happen.

Paris is a creative city. Everywhere you look there are remnants of a long history of artists, writers, musicians, designers, architects. A trait that has been inherited by the Parisians of today. Every time I walk through the streets of Paris I feel inspired. My venture to the Musée d'Art Moderne (MAM) and the Musée Rodin left me very much in this state; itching for a pen, a pencil, a paintbrush or anything with which I could fashion a creation of my own.

MAM is an impressive building overlooking the Right Bank of the Seine. On a lovely summer evening the tables on the verandah are bustling with young artists and below them the steps are frequented by skateboarders who enjoy testing out their skills on the rails and ramps there.

This summer at MAM there has been a fantastic exhibition of the lifetime works of Keith Haring. Advertisements for the exhibition has covered the boards in the métro since I arrived, tempting me to go and see what all the fuss about these stick figures was and what the artist had to offer. As it turns out, a lot!

Haring was a fascinating man who started his career in the Subway of New York. He believed that art should be available for everyone so he started to sketch in chalk on unused blackboards in the underground. This way thousands of people could see his work everyday. He later moved his street art to Paris and other cities around the world. If you have ever been to Paris you will know that Street art is massive here and it is partly due to this man who made it very popular.

His work is quite cartoonistic and I was unsure whether it was going to impress me at first, because I can be quite harsh in my criticism of art sometimes, but I was pleasantly surprised. The bright colours were immediately captivating and a welcome change from the worn colours of the portraits I had become accustomed to in the Louvre and Orsay. There was a lot of striking imagery, much of which was symbolic of politics and wider issues of consumerism and capitalist societies that is still current to us today.

I would thoroughly recommend the exhibition to anyone who has the opportunity to see it. It was enlightening and certainly showed a side of art that I certainly hadn't been exposed to before.

After MAM I took the metro the Left Bank to the gardens of the Musée Rodin which are open to the public until 23:00 on Wednesdays in the summer months. These famous statues by Rodin that are dotted around the gardens draw many aspiring artists who come to draw or photograph these monumental figures. I was recommended the gardens by an old friend of mine who is in fact Parisian and she was right to do so, because they are beautiful.

It was amongst the sculptures, the artists with the poised pencils and the beautiful pathways that I had that moment of inspiration. That bolt of lightening that strikes down everyone that has ever visited Paris. (If you have visited Paris and you don't know what I'm talking about you are soulless.) It happens to me daily, but on this occasion it was particularly strong. I pledged to myself in these gardens that I could never have a job that wasn't creative. I guess it was the spirit of Paris washing off on me. It has finally sunk in. This is why I am back to blogging, because what better creative outlet is there than the internet.

(I apologise that I was unable to take a still picture of Le Penseur (The Thinker) I assure you I took several to no success and this was the best of the bunch.)

La musique

So I have tried to immerse myself in as much French culture as I could this past month knowing that it is only going to get harder as August beckons, when the French flee from Paris as if it has been hit once more by the plague. However, for those who can't escape the city in the summer the Mairie de Paris gets a load of sand and dumps it by the Seine to make Paris Plages. It is here where I spend many a weekend pretending to be on an actual beach, but this is all besides the point because this post is suppose to be about music.

The Paris Plages opened with the Festival FnacLive. Four nights on a stage outside the Hotel de Ville (which has now been taken over by beach volleyball courts). It was here that I got some of my first taste of live French music.

Lisa Leblanc: you all know how much I love folk and country music, well this girl knows how to do that with a twist of Paolo Nutini and all in French! Cerveau Ramolli

Olivia Ruiz: A bit of a sensation in France at the moment, although I've heard it both ways. But I love marmite and here is my favourite song of hers. La Femme Chocolat (also it's about chocolate!)

In a completely different world of music my colleague at work has been introducing me to French rap. He gave me a long list of rappers to listen to and I have chosen my favourite for you.

Hayce Lemsi: I liked the refrain of this song and I have been practising at saying this line "Technique de typique petit loco mélomane éliminant malement les mégalomanes." (It's really hard!) Hola Hello

1995: This rap group took my fancy thanks to their funky backings this song is called La Source

So there you have it a touch of my attempt at becoming more French!