au revoir paris

inevitably, the day finally rolled around - my last day of living in paris. what, already!? can't believe that these five months are about to come to an end. although, when looking back it's hard to believe how much i've managed to squeeze into this time. trips away to amsterdam, venice, deauville, ibiza, berlin... a brief stint of a french language course (after a month of this i chose sleep ins & extra euros in my wallet - over conditional tenses, past participles & indirect objects...) & five months of looking after two of paris' most gorgeous boys - noah & liam.

 

my last day saw meg and i wandering down to anvers metro stop. meg arrived back in paris a few days ago, and has come to spend some time in paris before we both head off travelling together.

we had planned to meet up with one of my primary school friends, angeline, but when our metro broke down somewhere near réaumur sébastopol - we then had to walk the remaining few blocks to the square in front of notre dame.

together with meg & angeline, i hiked up the 387-step spiral staircase to the top of notre dame's towers. the view out over paris was breathtaking, being able to see the eiffel tower in one direction, the montmartre hill in another (with the blindingly white sacre coeur perched on its top) & the seine - sparkling in the sunlight - snaking its way through the city. we were also able to get a close up view of notre dame's many gruesome & grizzly gargoyles, as well as the 3,000kg cloche d'emmanuel - sitting in the bell tower. sadly, no hunchbanks in sight...

given the weather was so nice, i decided to get all my incredible parisian friends together for a final picnic of wine, cheese, baguettes, pain au chocolat's, cider & cheap rosé. we sat in the parc de la villette, up in the 19th arrondissement, swapping stories from the past half-year & getting more than a little sunburnt in the afternoon sun...

meg & i headed back to my apartment to get a start on packing my bag. yes, i put it off until the last possible minute...what can i say, i didn't want to face the fact that i would be leaving paris. several hours later, i had a backpack with the zipper just managing to squeeze closed ...& another bag (roughly the same size), full of things that i would leave with frida in paris. typical. oh well, i'll face that problem when i'm back in paris in a few months...

after a million +1 hugs & bisous with liam & noah, my au pair boys (going to miss them both so much) & a very emotional goodbye with the au pair fam, we headed back out the door & down the hill. then it was onto the metro & up to hôtel de ville, where the nuit blanche celebrations were starting up.  

la nuit blanche ("white night" in english) is an annual event in paris - where museums, galleries & other public spaces stay open all night, with free exhibitions pouring out into paris' cobbled streets. we walked along to the centre pompidou (where music parades made their way loudly through the streets), then further up into le marais where we saw an incredible neon blue light installation. we ended up back up in montmartre around 1am, where contagious happy spirits were in the air - i couldn't think of a better way to say goodbye to paris. sadly though, meg & i had to take our leave at this point - our goal being to catch the last metro to the airport.

back at the apartment, we grabbed our heavy packs and (with some difficulty) waddled down to the metro. only to find we'd missed the last train. shit, how annoying. we managed to find our way to the bus stop, catch an hour-long bus to charles de gaulle airport & consequently arrive around 3am. then it was just a two hour wait until we were able to check-in, drop our bags and let our travel adventure really begin...


au revoir paris, you will be dearly missed!






S.

dawn over montmartre

noah and his "ga-gateau"

3,000kg bell, la cloche d'emmanuel

derniers jours

time keeps ticking on & i can now count my last days in paris on one hand. i never thought this time would come, ahh! despite still working this week i've been out & about whenever i'm free. paris seems to be loving me back at the moment, because it's been day after day of blue skies & sunshine - making it perfect for roaming the cobbled streets in pursuit of things i haven't seen yet (although there's not much, let me tell you...).

we began my last sunny sunday with a picnic on the riverbank of the seine, watching boats & birds drift past. next stop was berthillon's...without a doubt the most incredible place to land your hands on ice-cream/sorbet in paris. no seriously, this place is famous & always has a long cue of customers trailing out into the street. it's on île saint-louis, the smaller of paris' two islands and it boasts the most delicious flavours such as dark/white chocolate, grapefruit, cherry, peach...omnomnom!

we devoured our ice-creams on the steps leading down to the water, together with several handfuls of other people who had had the same idea. happy days! continued on through le marais, another one of my favourite quartiers of paris - one word: shoooopping! we made a pit-stop at a boulangerie to pick up a handful of pain au chocolat's (because we hadn't eaten enough yet...), before poking around in a tonne of second-hand/vintage boutiques that i haven't come across before. what i love most is that the pricing isn't ridiculously expensive...win win win. 

the downside: i've begun attempting to pack up all my things in paris (very, very sad process...) and as it stands i have about three backpacks worth of clothes, shoes (thirteen pairs..where did they all come from!?) and general stuff to fit inside one, single backpack. disaster waiting to happen, & one that doesn't need extra clothes added to the mix... 

from pont marie we watched the sun beginning to set over the city. this is definitely the best way to watch a parisian sunset, as you get the stunning reflections bouncing off the seine, as well as dramatic shadows cast by the riverside buildings... going to miss these very, very much.

we walked through rue du chat qui pêche (street of the fishing cat), paris' narrowest "street" - about the width of an arm span, before heading down the metro.

we made our way to saint-germain-des-près, the wealthy, bourgeois quarter in the 6th arondissement of paris. it used to be the philosphical & cultural epicentre of paris and was the fav chill space for existentialists simone de beauvoir and jean-paul sartre. both now have streets/squares named after them here in saint-germain-des-près. we wandered around for a bit, saw the church & some artists selling/exhibiting their paintings nearby - but once it became dark we decided to get comfy at one of the many hundreds of cafés in the area. a few beers, hot chocolates, wines & crêpes later we made our way back to the metro and over to la tour eiffel - to see it twinkle for the last time (for a few months, anyway...).

no matter how many times we've sat there and watched the tower come to life every hour, on the hour...we still 'ooh' & 'aah' when it happens... just one of those things.

a busy day doing nothing, yet looking back now & it feels like we did more than we realised. i'm glad we took advantage of the sunshine, because from here on out it's just going to get colder...and colder...and colder...

salut salut,

S.

hôtel de ville - "place du peuple" (place of the people)

quadrouple scoup? that's a bit keen

hmm, which flavours to take...

chillers by the seine

noo, it's almost finished!

pont marie

rue du chat qui pêche (street of the fishing cat)

"neither beggars, nor rulers"

metro excitement

middled-aged woman riding a scooter home from work

église saint-sulpice

cobblestones ♥ 

nicolas flamel street. best!

"life is worth nothing, but nothing beats life"

"the world is a poem"

les deux magots, one of paris' most famous cafés

♥

crêpe butterfly

café de flore, another of paris' famous cafés

la tour eiffel, la nuit