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

musée de l'orangerie

a surprise day off had my au pair boys staying at their grandparent's place & me wandering around paris with meg & hat. we metro'd to the 1st arrondissement of paris, to the jardin des tuileries. at the entrance  (just next to place de la concorde), there are two seemingly identical buildings. one is jeu de paume, a photography gallery/museum. the other is the musée de l'orangerie. as its name suggests, it has a history with oranges - the building was built as a greenhouse to protect the orange trees of the tuileries gardens from the harsh winter frosts & snow, in the mid-19th century.

now the building is home to claude monet's famous waterlillies. there are eight of them that form his collection "les nymphéas"... and they're huge - 2m high and about 100m total length if you were to join them all up. waaaah, they were very impressive when viewed both up close & from a distance. as well as the waterlillies, there's also a big collection of impressionist and post-impressionist pieces by renoir, matisse, cézanne & picasso.

afterwards we walked through place de la concorde, stopping to sit at the twin fountains. these have become (more) famous since they featured in the film "the devil wears prada"...you may recall the scene when andy throws her phone into a fountain, when in paris? ta da, it was this one.

we walked back through the jardin des tuileries, right through to the musée du louvre. relaxed in the sunshine - sitting by the pyramid, reflected in the still water of the fountains. i'd always just accepted that with the louvre came the pyramid - but of course, this wasn't always the case. the louvre used to be a magnificent palace, home to many french royals until louis XIV moved to versailles. 

now, it should be known that each french president undertakes a "grand projet" (big project) where they can add or create something in paris. for example - georges pompidou decided to create a modern art museum, namely the centre pompidou. in the 80s, francois mitterrand (then president) decided to put a glass pyramid in cour napoléon (napolean's courtyard). the public originally weren't fond of the idea (the french aren't open to new ideas; they hated the eiffel tower & the pompidou centre...), saying that it would ruin the classical architecture of the louvre...but i think it's quite adored these days...

post-louvre, we strolled along the banks of the seine, crossed over pont des arts - the "love lock" bridge - then over to notre dame. lit candles, admired the architecture, marvelled at the stained-glass windows & eavesdropped on the mass taking place. love this place, it never gets old (excuse the pun).

moved on over to île saint-louis, picking up a crêpe on the way. sat eating, chatting, laughing & watching the sun set across the water. on our way back we crossed paths with a jazz busking group, where we couldn't resist a little dance by the river...

met up with frida at the eiffel tower for a midnight picnic. shared stories & watched the sparkling tower, accompanied with baguettes, cider & a warm summer night.

à la prochaine,

S.

beautiful

sacre coeur

have a print of this painting in my bathroom back home. have now seen the original!

found the artwork that was on my entry ticket

place de la concorde

make a wish

meg throwing her phone into the fountain

le louvre

paris, je t'aime

pont neuf

5kg of nutella. heaven

notre dame

notre dame

listening to hymns

île saint louis

busking fun

mmm baguettes

reflections

arc de triomphe