Marche aux Puces

This post is dedicated to the "Marche aux Puces" at Porte Clignancourt. The flea market is located in the 18th arrondissement on the outskirts of Paris and can be reached by the end stop of metro line 4. The area is notorious for its "working class" vibe (whatever that means, I have never been one to define people and therefore places by class), but it is true that one ought not to go wandering around there at night.

During the day it was pleasant enough, although you still have to wade through the endless array of faux Louis Vuitton sellers and teenagers trying to sell you dodgy metro tickets. I avoided these for the most part with a firm shake of the head and a no-nonsense kind of walk, but I must warn you that there is a bridge beneath which you must pass to get to the market, and it is host to numerous dodgy characters. Keep firm hold of your bag. But being practically a native Parisian nowadays (or so I tell myself) this is nothing new. In fact it's a day to day fact of living in any large city.



The market is huge, and begins with the more tacky kinds of clothes, cheap jewellery and knock-off designer labels. You have to wade through this (although no doubt you could find a nice thing or two here, and prices were very cheap) to get to the better Marche Vernaison, which is home to la brocante (antiques). The variety of things to buy here was astonishing, and the vibe was more relaxed which may have been due to the larger spaces and nonchalant attitude of the antique sellers. To give you some idea of the place, I will tell you that you can find anything from: vintage clothing and vintage copies of Marie Claire and Elle, 19th century original book editions, genuine silvery, expensive crockery, hand-me-down furniture, exquisite paintings, many a birdcage and golden harps (yes, GOLDEN HARPS). Some parts were very serious and I got the impression that only experienced bidders would stand a chance haggling; other stalls were more of a mish mash of various goods, some of it plain awful. I have to apologise for the quality of the photos but most sellers weren't too keen on my taking any and I got told off a few times. I was tempted to buy a gorgeous leather bag but talked myself out of it, the same can be said for little oh so French knick knacks such as vintage sweet tins.

One day I would like to return to one of these Parisian flea markets and find things for my house - I could build up a beautiful collection of useless but terribly chic objects. There are some things there however that I would hesitate to buy even if I could afford it due to their lavish price tag (some things literally cost thousands of euros, and I blanched when I saw a price tag of 400 euros for an old suitcase).

I wouldn't have thought that a flea market would have been a huge attraction for tourists, but plenty of tourists there were and for good reason. If you do go, be sure to get to the good bits and not just the knock off outskirts of the real market.

A bientot xxx

La Fete de la Musique

Bonsoir,

La Fete de La Musique, an annual event during which free live music is played from various Parisian venues, took place last Tuesday 21st June. The genre of music ranges from classical to electro pop to rock, hip hop, R&B and jazz. Somewhat spoilt for choice (initially we planned to head to Pigalle to see a band intriguingly called "Sexy Cat's Fuckers") we decided to meet at Chatelet and walk to the Marais. On the way we stopped off at Hotel de Ville and got drinks from Anglified yet hip bar The Lizard Lounge (see photo).

As most of the music took place outside (to celebrate the official commencement of summer) we hunted down the Monoprix near Notre Dame in order to save on some money and get cheap drinks. Walking past Notre Dame in a jampacked but jubilant crowd with live music blasting in the background was fun aplenty. The events by the St Michel fountain also proved entertaining, particularly later on in the night when a group of guys (no doubt non-Frenchies) executed the brilliant plan of stripping and jumping in the fountain itself. Due to various reasons we actually only spent a limited amount of time in the Marais which is a shame but it was still fun to spend some time in the crowded streets of Paris at night time. I've never seen so many people out at the same time enoying themselves. Apart from keeping an eye out for a pickpocket (or two) there was no danger or malicious feeling. I may have said it before, but I'll say it again: Paris is an amazing city. I'm totally and irrevocably in love with her.

Wednesday was as always challenging (12 hours with children), even more so with a slightly sore head and minimal sleep but it wasn't too bad. As my French school has now finished - I achieved the grade I was hoping for and am inspired to continue advancing my French until I am completely fluent - I am free during the day. Today I made use of this by hanging out at a friend's in Les Sablons and then going for a swim at Neuilly sur Seine. It struck me as odd that wearing a swim cap is obligatory (as though they want to make you look silly, somehow) but the pool was much more serious than the ones I'm used to, although it's fair to say Warwick Campus is my most recent comparison. By serious I mean there were several lanes dedicated to serious swimming, not just the half a pool I'm used to. After half an hour of dedicated serious swimming, we relaxed in the sunshine in the outdoor pool and gossipped in the jacuzzi.

That's all for now. A bientot xxx

Oberkampf Barcrawl

There are certain things you just have to do before leaving Paris, and one of these is to embark on a barcrawl within the Oberkampf district. Rue Oberkampf (so named after the French-German industrialist) is situated in the 11th arrondissement. I adore this area of Paris, which is near Bastille and Place de la Republique. It is one of the most varied, inexpensive (as inexpensive as Paris gets in any case) and buzzing places in the city.

So for my friend's recent birthday, we decided to start off by Belleville and go for a cheap dinner at Vietnamese restaurant Dong Huong at 14, Rue Louis Bonnet. I recommend this place - the meal, a noodle soup complete with beansprouts and beef meatballs, was delicious and very filling and cost less than 8 euros. From here we walked to Rue Oberkampf and began the night's drinking. The great thing about this area is that there are rows and rows of bars on both sides of the street and you can take your pick of them. I don't remember the names of all the places we went to, but I do remember that the infamous Le Chat Noir bar and L'Orange Mecanique (translated as A Clockwork Orange, see photo) were particularly fun and welcoming. We made a lot of new friends and practised a decent amount of French.

Tonight is La Fete de La Musique during which music events (everything from classical to jazz and electronic pop) are held all over the city's 20 arrondissements. I will be checking it out and writing to you soon!

Bonne Journee xxx

Don't forget the Rhinoceros !

Ah Dali, a man of surrealism and genius. A man who has left behind him a vast collection of beauty and ugliness. Personally, I've always been a fan of Salvador Dali and it is artists like him who give Paris some of her artistic and bohemian fame of the 1920s. Although Spanish, Dali found a great inspiration in Paris and lived in Montmartre. It's therefore appropriate that a permanent Dali exhibition can be found in the Place du Tertre behind Sacre Coeur.

When most people think of Dali they think of melting clocks and rhinoceroses (how could you not?!) and although these were also present in this exhibition it was interesting to see many of his original hand sketches for story books he illustrated, which I was previously unaware of. He also had a great interest in literature - greek mythology, Shakespeare and medieval literature to name but a few. Amongst my favourites were his images inspired by Alice in Wonderland from 1969 - the tale of an unknown surrealist world discovered by the eyes of a child was understandably irresistable to his surrealist interests and he used it accordingly. In particular I liked the image of the rabbit hole and the tea party.

His imagery of Romeo and Juliet was also thought-provoking - so often in surrealist art and especially Dali, there are many ways of looking at an image and it is only after gazing at one for a minute or so that you begin to comprehend its many layers, which is how I found this one to be, which is a scene from Romeo and Juliet:
As well as the many sketches, the exhibition contains many of Dali's sculptures (the largest collection in France apparently)and some examples of his furniture designs including the infamous sofa in the shape of Mae West's lips. Mae West was a famous, voluptuous and sexually provocative 1920s actress and therefore naturally somewhat of an obsession of Dali's (always an admirer of the female form).

The actress Mae West

The "Mae West inspired" sofa

The exhibition was certainly worth going to, although it's never going to be free unless you're under 8 years old (it was 6 euros for us, being under 26), and the Montmartre surroundings are as ever pleasant, although not so much now that the Place du Tertre is constantly haunted by throngs of tourists but that seems to be the case all over Paris now that summer is here. We ended the day by proceeding down the steps towards Rue des Abesses and purchasing a baguette from Le Grenier a Pain - home to the best baguette of Paris prize from 2010 and where Sarkozy gets his own personal supply of bread. It was yummy but there are boulangeries in Le Vesinet which make fair rivals! I leave you with this picture, incorporating the image of Dali himself. A bientot xxx

Paris by Bike

Bonjour,

I'm currently still hiding from the light of day in my room, recovering from last night! Yesterday during the day a friend and I decided to brave the Parisian roads by hiring bikes and seeing the city from a different point of view. We used the Velib - Paris bike hire through which you are free to pick up and drop off your bike (picking up a different one if you choose, although the bikes are all the same and come with adjustable seats). The beauty of the Velib is that it costs one euro 70 for the day (or 19 euros for an annual subscription!) and that there's no hassle of carrying a bike on the train etc. You can pick up and leave your bike as you please.

The catch, and of course there is a catch, is that the first 30 minutes of you unlocking a bike are free, but thereafter it will cost you one euro per half an hour. So it becomes somewhat of a race against time to find the next Velib stand. Fortunately, these stands are frequent and multiple and can be found at all the big tourist spots if you make sure to look down little side streets. Then you lock your bike back in, re-enter your secret code and pick another one up for the next 30 minutes, and so on. Problems occur when bike stands are full and you have to find the nearest one, although paying the extra euro isn't a big deal but can be quite expensive if you lose track of time. Another thing we quickly realised is to check your bike thoroughly before you unlock it - for the most part the bikes were in impressively good condition but some stands (in particular by the Jardin des Plantes) were full of rubbish bikes. Lesson learnt!

Travelling on Paris' main roads was frightening but after a short time it was fun, and we even survived Rue de Rivoli at rush hour. The feeling of cycling along the Seine with the Eiffel Tower and Paris' beautiful bridges to our right, avoiding the crowded pavements and passing traffic jams was exhilirating and we couldn't help feeling oh so smug and city.

We made sure to plan a rough route of where we wanted to go beforehand, starting at Ecole Militaire and winding up at Chatelet. We passed and stopped off at the Les Invalides, Pont Alexandre III, the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Jardin des Plantes (on the way finding enchanting little markets we would normally miss by metro), the Mosquee de Paris and Hotel de Ville. Chatelet wasn't such a great place to bike ride in - my advice would be to stick to the South of the river.

After a long day, we proceeded to go back to my friend's place in Les Sablons and drink a lovely bottle of Muscat and have dinner, before heading back to the Marais to go for drinks in a bar called Stolly's. The bar was simple enough but the company was as always perfect and it was a fun night. I've come to realise that I really enjoy the night life of Parisian bars - they normally stay open to about 5am and the atmosphere is usually chatty, friendly and buzzing.

The Velib was a great experience and if you're visiting the city I insist you give it a go - anyone can buy the one day or seven day ticket at the many Velib stands you will easily find. It's so much more fun than the dirty, smelly, overcrowded metro during the summer!

A bientot xxx

Le Chateau de Versailles

Bonsoir a tous,

My French diploma exam is tomorrow, and so I really ought to be revising, but somehow I am as ever an expert at procrastination and will therefore write a little bit about my recent visit to Versailles.
Versailles is a town in the South West of Paris, a 45 minute train journey from Saint Lazare station. The train ride was free thanks to my navigo pass. Entrance to the castle was also free (to EU members under 26!) although the 6 euro entrance fee to the gardens was inevitable but completely worth it. Have you ever heard of Versailles? It's famous as one of French royalty's most exhibitionist indulgences in grandeur and luxury.

It is the castle that the much despised and notoriously greedy "sun-king" (so called for his love of all things shiny and bright, as well as his own love of the divine right of kings) Louis XIV had built. It is also the location of perhaps the most important event of the French revolution of the 18th century: it is where King Louis XVI and his wife Marie-Antoinette were hunted down by their own infuriated subjects. Always one for a love of all things history-related, this story fascinates me. And Marie-Antoinette is a main selling point of the castle - her image can be found more than any other in the caste's many gift shops.

The castle has been host to many French Kings and Queens and is as can be expected dripping in exquisite detail and gold furnishing (the man to the left is only one detail of a chimney decoration). The hall of mirrors is always fun to walk down, and the lavish displays of ceremony as well as rooms for play and luxury (mostly linked to Marie-Antoinette) are interesting to say the least. It is of course painfully ironic when compared to the famine and debt France was suffering from at the time. Marie-Antoinette (I know you're dying to hear about her, wasn't she fabulous, with her youth and her beauty and her fancy things?) left her mark on the place by establishing what is now known as her "domain" within the extremely large gardens.

This domain is almost hidden away about a 20 minute walk away from the Grand Lake and is comprised of what is known as a Hamlet (smaller than a village, but only just). The King gave the building known as "Le Petit Trianon" to her as a gift. There's no doubt that Le Petit Trianon is a luxurious building, and it's said to be Marie's favourite place. The gardens around it are also pretty nifty (see photo) I also liked that Le Petit Trianon had simply furnished (albeit undoubtedly expensive) spare bedrooms and a billiard room.

Being not overly keen on gardens (they're alright I suppose, but you know, a garden is a garden) I wasn't expecting much from the Jardins de Versailles and was a bit annoyed at having to pay the 6 euros to get in. But they were exquisite, and it was a beautiful day (30 degrees celsius!) and it was easy to imagine the sorts of courting that would have gone on back in the day. It was all very Mark Darcy ish, if you know what I mean. Also, for the high season of summer only, the fountains of the jardin de versailles harmoniously play classical music, of the kind designed to encourage your gaiety and make you feel like you are a lady of the court partaking in her daily walk back in the 18th century, pondering what you will be wearing to the ball this evening. Maybe this is where the idea of Mark Darcy popped into my head. The photo doesn't do them any justice - there were grand gravel paths, meticulously arranged greenery, small and big lakes, fountains, mazes and the fabulously large Grand Lake where you could hire a rowing boat which I imagine to be ridiculously expensive but very idyllic. If you visit Versailles, taking a peek at the gardens is a must.

I have other things to tell you about things that I've done recently, but really have to go do some last minute revision now, donc je vous ecrirai bientot!

Bonne Nuit xx

Giverny

Ah, the joy of bank holidays! I know most of you in England would have enjoyed last Monday off, but thanks to the French system I have both yesterday and today off.

We made the most of yesterday's bank holiday by travelling to Giverny, the location of Claude Monet's house and famous water lily gardens. Giverny is a small town in the South-West of Paris, about an hour's train ride and 15 minute bus ride from Paris' Saint Lazare station. The train journey cost only 20 euros, and the entry to La Maison de Monet was 6 euros (student prices). Luckily, and somewhat bizarrely, temperatures here are already at an average of about 28 degrees celsius so it felt like high summer, and the picturesque gardens and village reminded me of Southern France.

The house itself was very idyllic - Monet lived there from 1883 to 1926, and as a man with an intense eye for detail and beauty, the gardens adjacent to the house are beautiful almost to a fault. The many rose bushes and array of flowers reminded me of Alice's adventures in the garden in Lewis Carroll's "Through the looking-glass". Pictures inside the house were forbidden, but the tour takes you (amongst other things) through Monet's collection of Japanese engravings, his bedrooms, the cheerfully yellow dining room, and his atelier of paintings which, although adding a funny smell to the room, were varied, often breathtaking and interestingly dynamic.

The ever so famous Japanese bridge can be found in the Water Lily Gardens, which are about a 5 minute walk away from the house. These gardens, even when hounded by multiple tourists, are peaceful and one feels far away from city life or troubles - it is easy to see how the place could have given Monet both the inspiration and space for contemplation he undoubtedly used for many of his paintings. The Japanese bridge, which the garden is so famous for, loses most of its magic by the sheer multitude of people that seem to be standing on it at all times posing for photos, but is nonetheless pleasing to the eye. After taking this tour of the house and gardens, we decided to explore the village of Giverny.

It was a very short exploration due to the miniscule size of the village's centre, which consisted of a narrow and long-winding road with small cafes and museums on either side. For such a small village in the countryside, it must be very odd to receive hundreds of visitors on a daily basis. Claude Monet's grave is located 10 minute's away from the house in the village's church graveyard.


The train ride back was admittedly tiring and weary - the train was crammed full and we were forced to stand for the duration of the journey. We dealt with this by giggling uncontrollably and annoying everyone around us (a very satisfying way of spending the time).

I'm off to enjoy the rest of my freedom until Monday, a bientot xxx