France is so cool...literally!!

France...that land of dreams. What little kid doesn't dream of falling in love in/with Paris? I know I did...so this trip north to see Aimee (an old school friend) was a little on the dreamy side of life. Yes, Paris is not perfect, but I haven't ever stayed there long enough to become disillusioned!! In other words I am still not sick of the pastries. I can honestly say that up to now, the best pastries I have ever tasted are in France. I even found a custard square!! I was very excited. They are non-existent in Spain.

So, it got off to a bad start to be honest. I had one of 'those days' where everything seems to go wrong just coz it can, and I missed my flight. It was completely my fault and my own stupid mistake, I fully acknowledge that, but it wasn't a good omen. However I think I used up all my bad luck that day as the rest of the trip was, relatively, flawless. So I finally landed at Charles de Gaulle at 11:40pm, and we got a cab to Montparnasse (a train station halfway across the city), and the taxi driver was incredible. We were cutting it very fine with timing and we made the last train with 30 seconds to spare after the cab driver gunned it across the city in the thunderstorm. It was GREAT!!!

Aimee is staying in the gounds of a Chateau that has been converted into a language school, which is where she works, teaching english. Some students there are international ones taking intensive french courses too. It was soo pretty, it was kinda like a school camp in some ways (especially the showers, haha) but it was nice to have some green around. France is greener than Spain. It also has sane temperatures, like 18-20 degrees C instead of the 30 that welcomed me back to Ciudad Real!

So Tuesday we had breakfast at a cafe (I had a REAL french croissant...mmmmmm....) and spent some time in Paris. We wanted to go to the catacombs but we got there at the last entrance and there was a line around the corner and halfway down the street, so we gave that up as a bad job and went to the shops. Yay! Aimee's boyfriend Gareth, from Ireland, met up with us later on, and we had hot chocolate at a gourmet icecream shop (Haagen-Dasz). I think Aimee and I bored him a bit with all the school talk but he was a sweet guy, he didn't seem to mind.

Wednesday we got up late, and went to...Versailles!! It was AMAZING. Probably the most touristy thing I did. It is 12 mins away from Aimee's village, and just incredible. The palace gardens are HUGE, and free to the public, so there were lots of people there jogging and stuff. And the palace was one of the most ornately decorated things ever. The outside is pretty cool (although they're renovating, and the gold leaf will look tacky till it fades a bit), and the inside is just covered in carving and..wow. I honestly cannot do it justice. You have to visit. The hall of mirrors was probably my favourite, it streches the length of the central part that overlooks the gardens, and was just full of light. They have free audioguides so I picked one up, which told me interesting things about the rooms and stuff. Apparently Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights were the equivalent of 'happy hour' when the courtiers could socialise. Something that did interest me though was that there were lots and lots of smaller rooms, and the bigger ones were a little less common. Although there were plenty of long corridors.

Thursday, Aimee and I travelled to Madrid, where we spent a night and a day looking round, because Aimee wanted to see it. However, we were on different flights (long story) so I had a bit more time to look around Paris in the morning while Aimee flew to Spain and had a couple of hours there before I arrived. So, I went to the catacombs! I was one of the first ones there and I got there about half an hour before they opened, so I wandered over the street to the bakery there (I thought it must be good as it had a long line of french people outside it) and had a Pecan and Cranberry Tart (at least, that's what I think it was) for breakfast. Just divine.

The catacombs were sooo cool. They weren't too cold, it was colder outside because of the wind to be honest. The start was a string of passages under the city, which included some sculptures of buildings in Menorca made by prisoners of war held underground in Paris sometime. They were pretty impressive actually. The entrance to where they put the bones was painted in black and white with an inscription warning against entering the empire of the dead. It was awesome! The bones were all stacked in alcoves, and most had a sign saying where they were from and when they were moved there. Like, "The Children's Hospital" or "Montparnasse Graveyard" then "moved here in 1834" or whatever. Imagine moving all the bones in a graveyard and stacking them underground. What a job. They were mostly from the 1800's but there were a few from the 1700's too, and they were noticeably lighter and more crumbly. Not that I touched them! They seemed to be only skulls and thigh bones, (never any ribcages or anything, I guess they're a bit more delicate) and they were stacked like Jenga towers with the skulls forming shapes on the front, perhaps a cross, or some arches. In some places you could see where a bone was missing, I guess they fell out, otherwise someone somewhere has a rather grisly souvenir! They checked our bags on the way out though. Like I'd want to take one!! But some people are strange like that...

And then it was time to go! I had a bit more free time once I found the bus station so I bought a sandwich on the Champs-Elysees for lunch, (and a custard square :P) and jumped on the bus for the hour ride to the airport. It kinda sucks that it's so far out but it was great to see some of the countryside, and the airport was small and the people there were lovely! Not the usual grumpy airport staff at all. I agreed to fill out a survey and told them to keep it up. Yay!

So se spent some time in Madrid. We went out for tapas and visited a flamenco bar, where the wine was expensive but there was no door charge to see the dancing, so it was worth it (and really awesome by the way!!). And Friday we went to the Real Madrid store and the Palacio Real Gardens, before having paella for lunch. Mmm...then Aimee had to get back to the airport.

It was an awesome week! Not many photos sorry but there are some of the catacombs here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=126160&id=585155585&l=aa478efb38

Byeeee!!