hihihihihi
today was a massively LONGGGG day ... but of course my DEAREST sylvie accompagnied me the whole way haha ... sylvie is our french teacher/group leader and she has been leading us around paris all day ... today we did lots of things we went to the juewish quarter of paris .. went to a cool but sort of boring museum and explored lots of 19th century paintings and we went to the arc de triomphe (a big concrete arc at at top of the champs elysees - important street in paris) and also saw the outside of the louvre ... sylive made us walk all the way up the arc de triomphe and i almost died argh there are some pictures ... we captured most of the day in pictures so go have a look .. then me nic and amanda wandered around the champs elysees (it is the chapel street/burke street of melbourne) and went shopping in zara (my favourite store in the world :)) - it is like a cue/witchery/jigsaw .. but didn't buy just looked ... im not going to go through all the history etc of what we did today - nic will prob do in her blog if u want to read it buttt i have some perceptions to make about france (in a lovely dot point list haha) ..
1) paris is really realllly realllly really beautiful ... the architecture and the buildings are amazing but also would be very expensive and the beauty of paris and its buildings depends on the total abuse of the peasntry throughout the ages :( sad sad
2) french people dress really elegantly but simply; they don't wear lots of accessories but wear simple jumpers and pants and really awesome boots ... they don't wear lots of bright colours and not a lot of makeup ... no dyed hair (very diff from the tanned and blonde hair u get in aus) ... something very simple about what they wear; the women aren't very beautiful but are quite handsome ... my french teacher said that in italy its the opposite -lots of makeup and lots of dressy and flashy clothes and big sunglasses (btw i was wearing big sun glasses haha) she seemed a bit patronising about the way italian women dress ... mmm but i think the french dress TOO plain ... while elegant its just plain ..
3)french drivers are crazy ... france is made up of lots of huge boulverards and they allstem out from the centre of paris and meet at this big round about in the centre of paris (in the middle of this ronud about is the arc de triomphe) ... and this round about has NO LANE MARKINGS!!! really crazy ... and there is a 'traffic police - police de circulation' which watches the crazy drivers and gives people fines for being too crazy ... they just merge like crazy etc etc ... i think i will fit in very well driving here as im quite ambitious in my driving haha (dad its ambitious, NOT agreessive) ... so dad and mum, i think you are way too cautious and out of fashion and need to learn to drive like the french ...
--- the museum we went to was lovely but we had a guided tour which was a bit of a pain in the ass; i would have rather taken my time and watched everything .... sylvie took us around to the sites and gave us some random boring lectures --- i was more interested in watching the traffic and people and wat they were wearing ...
so far the trip is good ... its a nice navigation point for the rest of our trip; good history backbone ... my only complaint is that i wish we had more free time - at the moment our days are really jammed... more free time would be great because i want to experience the real paris -- the culture now , the people, the resutraunts cafes etcetc and sometimes i feel like sylvie is giving us lectures at landmarks without really living the culture .. but me n nic will do this in our week off ...
sylvie walks really fast in front of us - like a whole km haha and we also lose people at the back of the group ... i have been amusing myself by calling out vows of love to slyvie in french and laughing haha i learnt some from french music (sylvie mon amour - attendez-moi ... je te manque -- sylvie my love, dont rush wait for me - i love you) ... she doesnt hear me and its funny hahaha it spices up our day
anyway dinner time and im starving we walked all day
xxx
