Chilling out in Paris
Victor Hugo wrote…
“To err is human. To loaf is Parisian”
I heard this quote a long time ago back in school when we spoke about France. As a matter of course I forgot about it until I came to Paris and spent my first weekend in the famous city and suddenly realized how accurate this quote is. There are so many places you can enjoy by just loafing along or you choose sitting down in a nice little café and savour watching the other people loafing around.
I spent 2 weeks in December in Paris and the Christmas lightning was unforgettable, especially on the Champs-Élysées! The strollers on the 1970m long Avenue are separated from the traffic by golden shining trees. And after a long walk along all the fancy stores like Luis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel, Hermes, et al. you get rewarded with an incredible view on the wonderful lighted ‘Arc de Triomphe’.
‘Don’t cross the road unless you have life insurance’ – that was my sister’s piece of advice before I went to Cairo, and I soon realised that she wasn’t kidding!
If you choose to attend a course in Annecy, be sure take a good camera as this is a particularly photogenic town!
I think it is about time that I tell you my genteel readers and loyal audience (yes I am talking to those two people actually reading this 🙂 ) about my living arrangements here in Barcelona. I, like many others here, am sharing a flat. We are four of us at the moment with two Spanish girls who work, a French girl who is currently learning Spanish and wants to soon start a semester at a university in Barcelona and myself.
My short visit to Munich is rapidly coming to an end and so I reflect on my fortnights experiences in this big yet small city. I did not have many expectations before I came… well except that I would probably eat sausages and drink beer!
As a single woman traveling alone, I can honestly tell you that it is normally quite difficult to go to restaurants and sit alone, walk along the beach without having men come up to you thinking you are available, and have to endure the endless questions like “Where is your partner?” and so on…
Antibes is a charming town on the French Riviera. There is everything we need to enjoy a nice life. For instance the little café where we can drink an espresso, talking, while our face is warmed by the sunbeams. My god, everything is perfect!
As I mentioned before, I was expecting to get many visitors here during my ‘exile’ in Spain. And indeed they came, or at least some of them. My mother visited me some weeks ago. Although I had to work most of the time when she was here we tried to get the most out of our time together. I am not really into the touristy things but for my mum’s sake I tagged along and now feel as if I have fulfilled my quota of cultural activities for this year.
Like the rest of France, our dear Stephane is shouting out the phrase: ”Beaujolais Nouveau has finally arrived!” Every year on the third Thursday in November the new wine is published, and not a minute before. In France this is an old and strong tradition, and it is also famous in the rest of the world. The ritual is the same if you are in Lyon, Paris, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, London or Oslo, and also in
This place was always on my list of “must dos in life” as I had heard and read so much about this place, such as “it’s one of the most naturally beautiful places on Earth”, “the Amalfi Coast is one of the most spectacular coastlines that exist” etc. but I was determined to see it and judge it for myself despite what Byron, Caruso, Goethe, Wagner and many other famous visitors had written!



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