If I were to credit one thing with making this trip to Paris a success, it would be those city bikes - Velib! I have ended up getting a day pass on three of my five full days here, on three of my five days I have taken advantage of being able to pick up and drop off bikes on a whim at any of the numerous docking stations throughout the city and been able to experience the freedom of no-strings bike use. Both yesterday and today there were times when I had a slump...

Saturday morning and as is my wont I was up bright and early (I was awake from 4am.. actually, this was not my wont at all but I made good use of that time drinking espressos and planning for my day) and out of the hostel by 8am. The breakfast lady HAD managed to have the coffee ready by the time I left so I did down a hasty additional cup but it was awful coffee so I wasn't sad to leave it.. AS I left the hostel the cold hit me, it was windy and grey and feckin...

So I discovered why people in Paris seem to walk around carrying baguettes all the time.. according to my guide book, 80 percent of Parisians eat bread with EVERY meal!! That's nuts, especially considering how slim they all are - I swear I have seen no more than a handful of overweight people since I've been here and nearly all of those were probably tourists. It's absolutely ok to walk along eating a baguette.. I have seen many people doing just this, walking wi...

I had slept awfully the first two nights due to my bedroom looking out over a busy ish intersection, in the area at the lower end of Canal St Martin, a very studenty area = lots of parties and drinking socialising and things. It's actually an awesome area to be in - very vibrant, but earplugs are a must and even with them in it's noisy, coupled with a fairly uncortable bed and it is not a recipe for a good nights zz! I can't complain though, in so many other ways...

I really don't have time to write much now (and what I am writing is taking ten times as long because half the letters on the keyboard are in the wrong place!!) but I am in Paris! I was really quite scared coming out here, it's over six months since I travelled last and over ten years since I last spoke french!! CDG airport was frickin terrifying, it is so so huge and complicated and I had to go on a TRAIN to get to baggage reclaim.. I nearly lost it a couple of...