How to get Something for Nothing

Welcome to what I can assume is my last post of the month! I technically only have one month left here, but will be staying a little longer as Paris has proven too seductive for me to leave her just yet.

Due to working a lot recently, I've been feeling tired, but the weekend I've just had has left a huge smile on my face. I'm very, very poor at the moment but the things we did hardly cost me anything (they would have been completely free were it not for the need of alcohol and food). We had a picnic (with wine and beer, bien sur) by St Martin's Canal yesterday and the weather was beautiful and the company was brilliant. We couldn't have asked for anything more. But more we did get: we walked from the canal in the 19th arrondissement (the canal is home to many bar boats and there are always many people and activities at this time of year) to the Parc de la Villette, to enjoy the free music there held as part of the "Villette Sonique", which lasts until the 1st June. Parc de la Villette is full of post-modernist architecture and is home to the Parisian iMax (seen as a big bubble in the photo below). It was designed and built in the 1980s as an open space to be used for art, exhibitions, music and other such engaging activities.

I'm not going to lie to you - the music was atrocious (it consisted of angry yelling and mismatched instrumentals, all deemed to convey some sort of message of what I can only assume was teenage angst, although the singer seemed to be in his 50s), but it was free, and the atmosphere was energetic, cheerful and 100% summer. Pure bliss. Drink prices also weren't too unreasonable, the usual 5 euros per pint (you think that's alot? For Paris it really is the norm, another reason I'm looking forward to being home).

Today after a shockingly difficult French lesson - my diploma exam is next week - I happily went along to a current exhibition at the Pompidou centre. The exhibition, entitled the "Inside Out" project, consists of a huge photo booth which after taking your picture spits it out from a great height in a terrifyingly large black and white image of yourself. Every pore becomes visible and as such open to criticism. The idea of the project is much less vain, and encourages you to take the poster and, having put it up in a place of importance/significance to you, to take a photo and send it to them so that they might construct a definition of identity. Or so I understood in any case. My picture is indeed terrifying and I will be doing nothing of the sort but it's a good souvenir and in theory the project could work. The entire project had an Indian theme (the image places a Bindi in the middle of your forehead), although it was not made clear why, and neither is it particularly obvious on the website. It didn't cost a penny, however.

That's it for now. Bonne Soiree xxx