Van City revisited

My first flight back with Air Canada is to go to Vancouver with a 26 hr layover! Not a bad way to start work! Vancouver is always a good destination to fly to because I get to see Kat & Tang, if they don't already have plans! Monday night Kat had off, so we got togerher for a meal and drinks. It was good to see some friends.

After that, I flew to San Francisco and then Los Angeles. However, I only had a 15hr layover in each, so that means airport hotel. There really isn't too much near airport hotels, except other airport hotels, not even a convenience store! At least in San Fran the hotel was along the bay, so I took a nice walk in the morning, and in LA I caught the local bus and went to Target to do a little shopping!

It was the Riots, I had to leave

Thursday and Friday were pretty uneventful, apart from being my last two days in Paris. Yep. I decided to leave Paris, return to Toronto and work for Air Canada.

Thursday night, we went out with Joey and Nathan, met some crazy French gay guy named Pierre, who was actually married to a woman in NY- for greencard purposes, who had a boyfriend back at his place but cheated on him every chance he could get. Yeah, he seemed nice.

Friday I took my last walk around my cute little apartment in the Marais (Jess, the paparazzi were there that morning!) and walked over to Ile Saint-Louis, then to the Notre-Dame to see when the Crown of Thorns was to be out and where. I went back at 3pm to check it out. They have three religious relics that come out once a month, on the first Friday at 3pm: the Crown of Thorns, a nail from the cross and a piece of the actual cross. These are protected by two knights of Jerusalem (however, seriously? I could have taken them out). It was interesting to see, and be there for the ceremony and I tried as best I could to take a photo ('cause I'm obsessed with photo taking). Then I moved into the hotel that Joey and Nathan were staying in so that we could all leave early in the AM for the airport.

We went back to the Louvre, it was free on Friday night for 26 and under. FINALLY!!! Something free for me!!!! That was good because we didn't get to see everything when we went on Wednesday last.

On the flight, Nathan and I were lucky enough to get the three middle seats to ourselves and lots of wine to start off the flight! So, that's it folks, at least for Paris. I start work with Air Canada this Thursday, here's hoping for a Paris layover!! Just kidding....only a little. I'll be keeping the files up and running with all the exotic locales, Winnipeg, Calgary.....here's hoping for a few Asian flights and South American too! They have longer layovers, plus it's HOT!

The Tourist Day

Wednesday our plan was to hit the Louvre: A) it's open late (until 9:45pm) and B) we wanted as much time as we could get to spend walking around in the museum. Unbeknowst to us, they celebrate All Saints Day (Nov. 1st) but I checked online and there was nothing mentioned about an early closing, or being closed for that matter. When I awoke, it was a beautiful day, which has been a rareity lately, so I yelled down from my mezzanine bed to Jessica, and I said: Get up, guess what we're doing today? We're going to the top of the Eiffel tower!!! And that we did. However, we dressed for the weather we saw, not for the month that is and we were COLD!!! Thank God for the hot chocolate on the first floor of the tower, hockey arena hot chocolate, i love it!!! The view was spectacular, and after 4 hrs (waiting in line for tickets, waiting in line for the lift to the second level, waiting in line for the lift to the top level, waiting in line to go down, and finally walking down from the first level, oh and then there was an army barricade, and a loud blast and something blew up but no one would explain why the section of the road was blocked off so we had to go around to find a metro), after 4hrs we went to the Louvre. We were able to see most of it, and all the things we really wanted to see, the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, the Victory of Samothrace (my fav!), the mideviel Louvre, and were about to check out Napoleon's room when they kicked up out at 6pm....yep they closed early for the holiday. That's ok, we had some friends from Air Canada visiting, Nathan and Joey so we hung out with Nathan for a bit with plans to meet up the follwing day.

C'est l' Hallowe'en!!!!!

YAY!!!! Hallowe'en!!!!! We had some devilish fun.....WE WENT TO THE CATACOMBS ON HALLOWE'EN!!! Super erie, super COOL. For some reason I thought it would be a mass pile up of carnage; it is not. It makes it even creepier when ALL the bones and skull heads are neatly arranged in rows, and little designs. Someon actually took the time and effort to sort through all of these remains.


We're off to have some pumpkin soup!

HAPPY 25TH BIRTHDAY JAMES!!!!!!!!!

Welcome to the quarter century club Cuz!! I hope you have a great time celebrating your 25 years!

Feelin' It

Jessica and I had a good Saturday night. The type you feel in the morning; Jess is still sleeping it off in my new apartment. I have fabulous little apt. in the Marais, a great little neighbourhood quite central and about a 15mins walk to the Louvre, straight down the street. I love this apt, if I could I would live here forever!! Since I now have my own place Jessica is able to crash at it; and therefore we went out last night for some good girly mischief; and mischief we had! However since my parents read this not too many details will be revealed, but photos will one day be put up. The one downside to my great lil' apt: no internet.

Let's see.....Friday I spent moving from the hotel to my new apt (literally around the corner) then getting the rest of my things from Shefali's place and catching a cab to the new place with all of my things.....I have too many things.

Saturday I went to Le Musée Marmottan Monet. Sorry no pics from here, they don't allow it and they were watching you in every room! This place was great. It not only stored many of Monet's works, but it also carried an extensive illuminated manuscript section as well as a large collection of Berthe Morrisot's works; the sole female painter to intergrate herself into the Rat Pack of impressionists back in the day (it helped that her sister was married to Manet).

After that, Jess and I went shopping and got ready for a night on the town. We got a little lost at one point; and stumbled upon a bar: The Great Canadian Pub....a sign? We had to...um, relieve ourselves, is that a lady like way to describe the situation? Plus we wanted a drink, so why not take a chance. Again, all the boys were surrounding Jessica, she had tons of friends that night; and lots of free alcamahol (which is always nice when you're low on cash). I had one guy all to myself, I didn't mind my odds. The only drawback.....THEY WERE ALL HOCKEY PLAYERS!!!! I thought I had left the hockey driven fanatic boys in Canada. It was fun regardless, and on top of it; the Leafs kicked Montréal's derrière!

Thursday Trivia

Guess if you can what I did with my Thursday in Paris. My photo will be my only hint. I'll write more tomorrow!

I went to GIVERNY. The country house Monet lived in, the town where the impressionists hung out in, and where everyone went to paint! It is a beautiful little town. Even though it is flooded with tourists, they really haven't done too much to up keep the town (Monet's house and water lily garden yes). Even taking the train, from St Lazare station in Paris, to Vernon: blink and you will miss the faded sign that points you to Giverny. You have to cross under the tracks, and through the station to either get to the bus (3 euros round trip, just keep your ticket) or taxis, or rent a bike, at the bar across the street (10-12 euros, depending on who you ask, and who you are....hahaha) I had wanted to rent the bicycle for the day, that would have been cool, but I was a little confused, I thought you take the train to Vernon, then the bus to Giverny then rent a bike to his house.....nope the bus takes you directly to the town and his house really isn't that far. Next time, I will go on a beautiful spring/summer morning, and have all day if not two to spend there. I went mid afternoon and had to be back for the evening to meet some friends, plus it's the end of October, and it wasn't that bright and sunny, but it was warm enough to walk around and wander.

The town is very rustic and very much still alive and thriving, there's an elementary school, and tons of little art galleries everywhere you turn. Plus there's also the American Impressionist museum (where they were nice enough to let me in at a student fee, plus give me the headphones so that I could listen to the commentary on some of the works!)

Giverny is beautiful. The garden, the water lily pond, the Japanese inspired bridges.....it's all amazing to walk around in. Everyone must go. The house too is pretty fantastic to walk through, and even though they said no photos, I couldn't help myself, especially when no one is around to say no! I encourage everyone to go to Giverny at least once in their lifetime!

The town has a lot to offer, however be careful, the prices in the cafes are steep, they know they have the tourists trapped there. I went to the old hotel, which has been converted into a restaurant. They had pumpkin soup for only 6 euros, so A) it was the cheapest place to eat in all of Giverny, and B) I love pumpkin soup here and wanted something to warm me up! If you eat at the restaurant they allow you to go in thye back and check out the gardens. I LOVE THIS GARDEN. It used to be the hot spot for the painters to hang out in back in the day; there once was a tennis court and little ateliers, now it's just this overrun raw jungle! In the summer, they have beautiful rose bushes, but in October, it was a maze of branches, weeds and cobblesontes. I just kept walking up the steps, that then lead me to a dirt path, over a fallen log, down a little rock mountain and back to some steps leading me to the garden once again. It's worth the price for lunch just to play around in their backyard!