Blitzen, Boating and Balkan Beats

I have returned from a really great long-weekend in Berlin. It was so lovely to see family and to discover a little more of a really fabulous city. The weather swung wildly between hot stillness and violent storms, but it was perfect really. When it was hot we swam in the lovely rainwater lake amongst the lush green forest.

When it was stormy...
It all began when we sat down for dinner on the terrace on Friday night. We had seen the black clouds gathering, and now, as we loaded our plates the sky grew very dark and the thunder began to rumble. A brisk rustling of leaves was the only warning we had before the storm was upon us. Those of us sitting with our backs to the elements leaped up as the rain began, and seconds later the wall of wind sent everything flying. We were almost all inside when an almighty crack sent half a tree crashing onto the terrace, right were we had been sitting. It was one of the most impressive displays of weather I've ever seen. The poor neighbourhood took a bit of a beating, and it was definitely the end of our meal.

The sun was out again the next day and we hopped on a sightseeing boat down the Spree. I'll let the photos do the talking.


So much cool architecture, I think it is a city which does a marvelous job of both preserving it's past and looking to the future. And how about those people on bikes, Germany certainly is leagues ahead of France when it comes to respecting our planet!
Speed polka anyone?
Yes I must just mention the amazing Russian Disco that we went to on Saturday evening. It was in a dim bar with a kind of shabby retro decor (anyone seen Goodbye Lenin? If you're a geek like me you might remember pre 'fall-of-the-wall' wallpapers and upholstery, it was the same kind of thing) and music to make you move. Sweaty and packed but so much fun! Look out for one opening in Lyttleton sometime in the future, (S & J - a little advanced publicity for you guys.)
It wasn't long enough and the pouring rain in Paris didn't make coming home much fun, but I know I'll be back and in the meantime I'll try to learn a little German...ya das ist wahr.

what i is be doing this weekend.

Warning, I'm slowly losing my grip on the English language. French is creeping into the cracks and crevices of my brain and there are now several words which have completely made the switch. For example when I'm craving some cheese (so often) je me dis (oops there I go), I say to myself, gosh some fromage de chevre would really hit the spot. The word 'cheese' would never even enter my head, it's all fromage from here on in. Speaking of which, tonight I tried double cream brie, which was so amazing. Practically dripping in the centre and sooooo smooth and delicious.
Where was I going with this post? Oh yeah, so just to prevenir you all that I'm off to Berlin tomorrow! Woohoo! I really like Berlin a lot, and I love the fact that I get to see my family! It's my cousin's 21st on Friday, and my dad's parents are over from NZ to join the celebrations so it will be a very international family reunion. I'm only staying 3 nights, but I'm sure I'll fit lots in and no doubt have some photos and stories after the weekend.
So until next week,
Amusez-vous bien!

Yeah it's not bad Paris.

Saturday evening was the national Nuit des Musées, during which museums and galleries all around France were free to the public. It was a lovely mild evening and I queued 20min with my friend Jenny to visit Musée de l'Orangerie. For any art fans out there, this is the gallery which houses Monet's Waterlillies in two specially designed oval rooms.


They are magnificent, and the natural lighting from the skylights was just perfect.
The gallery had a host of other gorgeous paintings too, some old favourites...
...and some new discoveries...
And the mirrored frame on this Marie Lescaurin is so pretty.

There was also some lovely reproductions of Paul Guillaume's Parisian apartment. Monsieur Guillaume 'discovered' many of the big name painters and exhibited them in his galleries (saving some of the finest pieces for his own walls as you can see.)
can you spot me?
bisous xox And have a good week one and all!

resume

Can I just start this post by saying that I am a little bit scared right now...I have just heard a grumpy string of profanities outside my door and am hoping I'm not the one to have caused the outburst. Do I have my music up too loud? Has a speck of my clothing fibre been found in the entranceway? Did I leave the toilet door SLIGHTLY ajar...?
My apartment shares a front door, foyer and toilet with two other apartments. One of these is inhabited by the lovely Leo and the other by an obsessive compulsive madame (let's call her OC for short). OC is vacuuming her place, I can hear her. She did it yesterday too. And the day before.
When Leo and I leave our front doors open so that we can visit, OC comes storming out to see what's going on. Sometimes she's in a good mood and just wants to gently berrate us for out clothing choice, preferred brand of coffee, belief systems - basically anything goes so long as she gets to do all the talking. Other times she has some serious issues to discuss: Was someone cooking fish last night? Because she could smell it and it made her nauseous. Do we clean the soles of our shoes every night? Because it's just not good enough if we don't. When did we last change our sheets? Twice a week would be preferable.
Sigh. Enough of that, suffice to say I feel a little like I'm walking on eggshells when she's home.
Onto more interesting things...
Thursday was the start of my 4 day weekend, I lunched with a gaggle of aupairs (thankyou facebook) and we had a great time and finished up with a spot of op-shopping.
Friday I went out for a little walk and saw this:
Now what we have here is the ladder/lift thingy that people use when moving into - and out of - upper storey apartment buildings. This particular ladder is in use on some swanky apartment on Quai St Michel. I don't know who was moving in, but there were police vans all along the street, so I like to imagine it was someone famous.
It was a lovely day and Paris was bustling and springlike.

un petit coin sympa

Last weekend I visited a lovely garden in the 16th Arrondissement. It is called l'Espace Albert Kahn, after the explorer -and gardener- who created it. It's an unexpectedly large patch of verdure which is divided up into 4 0r 5 themed gardens. The most beautiful of these is definitely the Japanese garden, complete with darling little bonsais and maples and ponds full of carp. It was lovely and uncrowded and the sun came out for us for at least half an hour. Honestly 2 weeks ago it was like summer here, and today I put my winter coat back on. Yucky.

Faire le Pont

Let's just leave the feet for a minute while I give you a little French lesson.
May in France is the month of public holidays, tomorrow is the third so far this month, and falls on a Thursday. In fact so far they have all fallen on a Tuesday or Thursday - and what is one to do with this mid-week break? You faire le pont and take off the Friday too, giving you a 4-day weekend. Faire le Pont literally means to 'make the bridge', so you're just bridging that pesky little day between you and the weekend by not going to work. Apparently May is a difficult month for businesses, and I can understand why. Long lesson short, this weekend je fait lepont. Not sure yet what I will do with all this time, but no doubt it will be good.
Back to those feet, we (Irish friend Caro and I) did a lot of Salsa dancing this weekend and I also learnt the Bachata, which sounds more fancy than it actually is. But the most beautiful songs seem to have the Bachata beat, so it's good to know.
In other weekend happenings I managed to catch the one afternoon of sun to go running along the Seine, and I was pleasantly surprise to see many fish, hopefully proving that it's not as polluted as I thought. I still wouldn't eat them though.
The weather really turned on Sunday, bringing level 3 storms (this is totally arbitrary as I have no idea what the other level represent, I just saw it on TV) to the region. On Sunday I left the house to trot the 500m or so to the Boulangerie. From what I could see the sky was blue, so a t-shirt was deemed acceptable. Seconds after leaving the shop, my fresh and unprotected baguette in hand, the skies opened and there was an incredible - almost horizontal -downpour. All around startled and soaking people were running for cover, branches were being ripped off trees and poor baguette was really soggy. Just looked at the time and realised I need to run to work asap! Another post soon.

Ah Kids.

I'm tired. I just added up how much time I have spent with children since Sunday evening - and it's about 43 hours. Until Wednesday we had two extra kids staying - brothers with impressive lung capacities - and Tuesday was a birthday party with 15 gamins! And I can tell you, trying to get 5 kids bathed and fed and into bed within 2 hours is like, um, searching for an analogy, um, walking up Baldwin street with a sack of piglets under each arm and one jumping on your head. Twice. And getting 15 kids to take their shoes off, wash their hands and please stop biting Clementine is, well, arghhh!
So yes, it has been fun and I am SO glad that it is Friday tomorrow. And although I'm moaning a bit now, the birthday party was really cool. A fairy themed fête for la petite, her twin brother will celebrate his next week - so I get to do the whole shebang over again!
Here are some pics of the wee treasures.
And that little girl in the top photo who is crying (in the red sack) cried every 15 minutes. In every photo that she appears in (and I took about 100) she is crying.

And the winner is...

Well, I don't know yet but the results of the presidential elections will be announced in a few short hours. Ségo or Sarky? Left of Right? Madame or Monsieur?
I've just been to a salsa class, - on a boat! - and driving around the Place de Concord and down the Champs Elysées we saw everyone getting ready for the big moment. There were police vans and cars everywhere, TV crews getting set up, lighting, satellite dishes, camermen, curious tourists. And of course the French flag is flying from every building, and hanging from every second tree down the Champs Elysées.

Bon, bah...

Um yeah, so I don't actually have anything to say, except that May is a good month to be French because we get a heap of public holidays.
And in other news, French class is as boring as ever - my tutor is obsessed with us having lengthy discussions about the elections, and frankly, we have exhausted the topic; I found an amazing op-shop today, thankfully I self-imposed a one item limit before entering, or I would now have a ridiculous number of floral dresses and 70s leather bags; the All Blacks new uniforms took up a two-page spread in one of the daily papers; I opened my mother's latest book today -and cried! Beautiful descriptions of the West Coast that took me straight back home to NZ.
And a random photo. Because a post without a photo is like sleep without dreams.

top of the Butte
Originally uploaded by nz fille.

Graffiti on the kiosk
Originally uploaded by nz fille.

Le Weekend

Buttes de Chaumont
Originally uploaded by nz fille.

I went to this really cool park called Buttes Chaumont. It's the biggest and hilliest and tree-iest that I've yet found in Paris central. It has a very realistic looking fake stream flowing through it, and equally realistic looking fake caves and waterfall. Right up at the highest point of the park is a little 'temple' - or kiosk as my friend called it - with awesome views over Paris. I'll post some photos of it too.