Hanging with my mates

Yeah well... look who I got to hang within Paris?

I wish....

Because it had really gotten are to bitterly cold we went to the wax museum. Though not Maddam Taussades, thier works were lifelike enought to be very creepy.  I went straight to the bar where most of the famous writers ung out.. (hmmm)  None of them looked particuarly happy to be disturbed.. but I guess thats pretty lifelike..

Orson Wells was quietly observing a new character,  Ernest Hemingway was studing his drink ( and proabbly thinking abut the rain.. and dying in the rain.. alone) while Jean-Paul Satre seemed a little astounded by the activity around him..

The beginners guide to fitting into Paris

So, on my observations over the last few days, here is a guide on how to fit into Paris and look like a local.

get a black leather jacket and wear it all of the time

get a funny hat ditto - it doesn't matter if its a knitted teacosy or half a sheep.The key is not to look like you even know its  funny hat - ignore all stares.

get a small misbehaved dog on a very long leash.  Allow it to sniff everyone and feed it biscuits at every corner.

sit in a cafe and drink copious expressos. Watch everyone going past with distain.

smoke three packs of cigerettes a day. Smoke everwhere and anywhere you like. drop the butts as soon as you finish.

smile and help those tourists who attempt to murder your native tongue. Be kind and speak perfect English to them.

Ignore loud tourists who can't even say hello in French 

Ride everywhere on  bicycle.

Failing that, get a moped - brightly coloured if possible - and ride it like there is no tomorrow.

never actually eat anything.. bakeries and pastissaries are things of beauty - full of glossy pasteries, mouthwatering cakes, buttery biscutes - all of these things are for the fat tourists to indulge on.  The French don't every really eat anything - how else do they all stay so slim and beautiful?

I have worked out another reason French Women are so slim. There are no lifts or escalators in public transport places - lots of stairs.  There are similarly no lifts in apartment blocks... just lots of windy stairs.

First day in Paris

Oh Paris.. you didn't do much for me when we first arived... butam  warming up to being here real quick!

So French... we arrived from the Eurostar - hundreds of us - many wanting to get on the metro and go off into Paris... so there was one person on ticket sales. Lots of self serivce machines - which I tried first - which ONLY take coins (what??? every other country with these takes notes as well) and def do not like any foreign credit cards.... so .. hundreds of us lined up to get a ticket from the loe seller.. it took mean hour to get a freaking ticket... sigh

by that time, my apartment host had given up on me - so when we arrived at the street - we had no idea where to go to or where we were staying. oh - and there were NO public phones..urggh...

just as well for the kindness of strangers - and that I could speak a tiny bit of French... to get a phone call done and all was then well in the world.  here is a piccie of Lily waiting outside the appartment - nd then our reward to ourselves for naviaging to the Eiffel Tower (  very short walk from our appartement)