Leaving Paris

That's right. I'm sad to say it but this week we are packing up and leaving the City of Lights.
Our lease runs out on Friday and, not having heard back about the job that Stu has applied for in Toulouse, we have decided to head down south for a while.
We somehow managed to get first class TGV tickets to Lyon for cheaper than second class ones so we will at least be travelling in style.
We are going to spend a few days in Lyon, which, even more than Paris, is a foodie paradise. It seems to be a bit cheaper than Paris as well. We both love Lyon so it should be a fun few days.
After that, we are heading further south by 70km to Annonay, my AFS town. We'll be staying with friends there, which will be a great chance to practise our French. We'll also get to catch up with my host family and hopefully sample some of the delicacies from their bakery. Leaving Paris will have some advantages!
So now we have just over 3 days to tick off the remaining things on our Paris to-do list, and to reconcile ourselves to leaving this great city which has been our home for the last 3 months.

Allons enfants de la patrie...

We thought we'd start today's blog entry with the stirring first words from La Marseillaise to mark Bastille Day, which was yesterday. We have now experienced a proper French Bastille Day, and the best place to do that is definitely Paris.
The celebrations started on the night of the 13th, when the traditional 'firemen's dances' are held. In our quartier, a giant stage and big screen had been erected beside the Bastille monument, and the roundabout was closed to traffic so that people could dance or just watch the show. The musicians were pretty good, and although the music wasn't really to our taste, we stayed until midnight to enjoy the atmosphere. What better place to celebrate Bastille Day than the site of the Bastille?
The next morning we got up early to watch the military parade on the Champs Elysées. There were lots of people, so hard to see properly, but we did get a glimpse of monsieur le président, Jacques Chirac. The parade, designed to show off France's military prowess and capabilities, was very impressive. The best bits on the ground were the French Foreign Legion, the mountain rangers, who were wearing floppy white berets and carrying skis, around 20 tanks, and the Republican Guard on horseback. Up in the air, there was a tricolore flyover (three planes, trailing red, white and blue smoke), an electronic spy plane, and several other planes flying in formation. Then, to end the parade, around 30 helicopters flew overhead in formation.
The fun didn't end there, though. Bastille Day means fireworks, and Paris put on an amazing display yesterday night, at the Champ-de-Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower. The fireworks started at 10.30, when the sky was just starting to get dark. We got there too late to get the best view, but we still got a good show. The display lasted for 32 (!) minutes, and was accompanied by an orchestra playing Mozart songs, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of his birth. The display was perfectly choreographed to the music, with lots of different colours and shapes. The finale was jaw-droppingly good, and the whole sky seemed to be full of lights. There was probably as many fireworks in the last minute as there are in the whole of the Wellington one (I think Paris just may have a bigger budget). If this is the only Bastille Day we have in France, I think we spent it the right way!

Une nuit à Paris

There's officially a mini heatwave in Paris at the moment (hot weather becomes a heatwave when the temperature doesn't go below 20 degrees at night) and the advice is to stay indoors between 11am and 6pm and drink lots of water. So people tend to go out and do stuff in the evening, which is easy here because sunset is at 10.55pm. Last night we packed up a delicious picnic dinner (buffalo mozzarella, parma-style ham and fresh fig salad) and a bottle of rosé and headed down to the banks of the Seine next to Pont Sully. This spot is practically tourist free, as the popular tourist picnic spot is further down next to Notre Dame, so we were surrounded by French families and groups of friends doing exactly the same as us. Our dinner time has been getting later and later so it seemed completely normal to be eating a picnic dinner at 9.30 at night watching the sun set.
On certain nights they have dancing by the Seine, with sound systems playing salsa, rock and roll, and tango at different spots, so after dinner we stopped and watched the couples dancing tango. It's a wonderful concept - couples of all ages and dancing abilities can dance there - and it made us want to learn tango so we could join in!



Because the heat makes it almost impossible to go for walks during the day we made the most of the relative cool (around 22 degrees!) and walked along the Seine to Pont Neuf, which, despite the name ("New Bridge"), is the oldest bridge in Paris. The Tour Eiffel was covered in sparkling lights, the street lights were reflecting in the river, and the bridge was full of canoodling couples.



Yes it's clichéd and touristy but it is hard to resist the charms of Paris at night. It's still hard to believe that this is our home at the moment, yet at the same time it feels so normal to be here.
In other news, we were a bit premature in saying that the football celebration at the Bastille last week would probably be the last. France had the best comeback in the world cup by eliminating the favourites Brazil in the quarter final on Saturday night. What a match! The partying at the Bastille was even crazier this time, and there is now an optimism that France could actually win the world cup. The weirdest part of the celebration was when a van drove past with a guy sitting on the roof waving a leg of ham. Not sure what all that was about. If France do manage to win the cup it will be amazing to be here during the celebrations that will ensue. Watch this space!