Thursday, September 30, 2010

From my wee house in the '5eme'

Bonjour! Ca va? Ca va tres bien merci!

So I'm in Paris! Strangely easy to forget when I'm in my little studio, because even though it is typical Parisian cute, old beams in the spiral staircase, it has all my stuff in it, and I can still sit with a cup of tea and some After Eights and spend hours on facebook, twitter, bbc news, re-watching Mad Men...
Then I go outside and oh yes, I'm in the heart of the Quartier Latin, down there's Notre Dame, turn left and there's the Sorbonne, walk past Musee de Cluny (some pretty famous tapestries in there I hear) to get to the metro... walking around smiling like a crazy!

Up 'til today I've spent all my time either by myself or with 'the family', 2 boys aged 3 and 5, ridiculously intelligent and bilingual and lovely parents in their 30s- it's been nice and they've been so welcoming, but really needed some chat from some people like me!
So, headed off to the International Au Pair Cafe, a fabulous drop-in cafe/meeting-place in a church hall and met a crowd of other foreign girls, all chatting about Paris, the kids*, sharing plans for the weekend and tips for places to go. Including Guerrisol- a Montmartre second-hand shop where you really have to rummage but everything's basically 3 or 5 euro! Bought a dress for 5 euro, floor length but will make a nice short one with leggings :)
Also went to Galeries Lafayette, brought back lectures from the art school about Haussman and his boulevards, voyeurs, shoppers... So stylish in there! The central dome is beautiful.
Also stopped at the most snazzy Starbucks I've seen in my life! I thought Madrid's were good, Paris is another step up.

So, tackled the metro for the first time solo, got a bit touristy with my map out but made it home.
And after posting on a good few 'au pair in Paris' websites I now have plans for tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday :)

Hopefully I'll work out how to use links and photos and make these posts less rambly and more informative. On the other hand, it's my equivalent of writing a million letters, so maybe not.

Un beso
from a Scot who keeps talking to French people in Spanish
x

*au pair-ing does make you a bit parent-ish, ie. you talk about the kids waaaayyy too much, hence needing friends who also work with (for?) children