Foggy Bottom... erm Top

It was so foggy this morning, I almost thought the clouds had descended the earth and were blanketing Cergy Le Haut. Cool. Or should I say, cold! Was shivering as I walked to the train station, and had to be extra careful, as I could only see a few metres directly ahead of me. All else was lost in a filmy white haze. Could almost imagine myself transported to some land far away from civilisation if not for other commuters also making their way to the train station. Wanted to rush back to my room to grab my camera and snap a few pictures, but was already running late.

Pretty eerie, though. You could hear footsteps, especially the tapping of ladies' high heels, but not see anyone unless they were almost within touching distance. Sadly, the fog dissipated later in the day. By mid-afternoon, the fog had thinned to a mist... *Sigh*

One of my classmates said the weather forecasters had predicted snow today, but saw nary a flurry. Maybe, if this cold spell continues, we'll actually have a white winter this year!

Train quirks

The trains here are pretty funny. Despite the vaunted efficiency of the metro in most tour guides, they're actually late half the time. Well, I figure that's kind of a given, considering we're dealing with the infamous concept of "French Time" every day. I can live with that, I guess, and late trains are not a French phenomena anyway.

A true French quirk, though, would be the audio systems in the train. We KNOW they're working, but most of the time, there's not a squeak out of them. Then, when you're used to silent trains that don't announce their arrivals at train stations, an announcement would blare out, startling you out of a half-doze.

The worst thing of all, though, is the train that skips stations! I'm not joking. 'Express' trains occur during the peak hours, bringing commuters to Paris quickly, but if you happen to want to get off at some of the less frequented stations, bon chance.

I experienced it first-hand when going for my medical appointment last week. Needed to get my X-ray at Val D'Argentuil, and had to change trains to get there. No problem. I looked up the trains required, and noted the stations accordingly.

Went there with a few classmates, so we had some company while waiting for the train. We met incredibly early at 7.30 am *yawn*, and the first leg of the journey went off perfectly. We had to wait half an hour for the next train, though (despite what the signboard claimed) - and worse, it roared past our train station! Good thing it stopped at the next one, so we went to the bus terminus to hop onto a bus to take us to the medical centre. That entailed an additional half-hour's weight, together with an hour-long journey.

Which meant, of course, that we were late by an hour by the time we finally arrived at 10 am. The upside, though, was that the waiting time was considerably shortened. We anticipated a long wait, since there were "10-20 people ahead of us in the queue", according to the lady who took our letters of appointment - but surprise surprise. We managed to get our X-rays done within a surprisingly short time, and we were done in slightly under an hour! Wow.

There was another long wait when we got to the train station, but this time, we got to base camp without a hitch. Thank goodness.

Chinoiserie in Paris

Finally made my way to Chinatown. Yea, I know it tops the list of many Chinese in France, but hey, this isn't exactly a pilgrimage to my ancestral roots. Hehe. Not that they'd be on this side of the ocean anyway.

Have to say, though, that I really miss all the familiar food. Could kill for a plate of fatty, oily char kway teow or or luat right now, even though I wasn't such a big fan of it back in SG. Guess maybe the grass is always greener on the other side. When the food was readily available, it didn't seem like such a big deal, but once you can't have it, you start craving it.

Had some sweet and sour chicken, Thai basil prawns, mixed veggies and rice for dinner. I really have to brush up my incredibly bad French. Ordering was OK, until it came to my order for rice... apparently, my pronunciation was so bad, it sounded like sauce to the cashier, who finally gave up and asked me what I wanted in Mandarin. O boy. But hey, at least I got what I wanted, right?

Near the end of our meal, we were accosted by a guy who entered the restaurant and made begging gestures. Thought he was asking for money, so I said no. He left, and loitered outside. Strangely, I didn't see him accost anyone else, and when he lit up a cigarette, I felt kind of justified in rejecting him. But felt really bad when he took our leftovers when we were clearing our plates. *Sigh*

On the more positive side, found lots of interesting ingredients to cook with, stuff which aren't readily available even in the Asian supermarket in Cergy Le Haut. Har kow, siew mai, and even instant char mee. And of course, mangoes. Yum. Thai ivory mangoes cost much more than exotic mangoes from Spain, but I guess we've got to pay their plane ticket to Paris.

BUT STILL NO ABALONE SAUCE. Do I possess the only two (now down to one and a quarter) bottles of abalone sauce in the whole of France? I simply can't believe this. We combed quite a few streets, supermarkets and grocery stores, but nary a bottle in sight. There was black pepper sauce, plum sauce, Peking duck sauce!!!, fish sauce, char siu sauce, curry sauce, achar!! But no abalone sauce. *Sigh* I can see myself rationing my abalone sauce when cooking, and packing bottles of it in my luggage in lieu of the clothes/books/necessities which others pack.

Still, managed to make one of Luq's favourite dishes. Mango prawns in abalone sauce wrapped in prata. Sinful, but yummy. Can't even recall the last time I had prata. But this is one dish you definitely can't take too much of. Can feel my cholesterol levels shooting up, and the fat cells in my body expanding by the millions. OK, I exaggerate, but surely I can exercise some artistic license in my own blog?

La Conciergerie

Visited La Conciergerie yesterday. This is actually an annexe to the Ministry of Justice, but it is of historical significance in its own right. Marie Antoinette was interred here for two months before her final appointment with Madame la Guillotine, as were countless other revolutionary victims. Ironically, Robespierre too, spent his final moments in this place.

The main salle de guards was very impressive and inspiring. Soaring pillars held up the scalloped ceilings, while lights blossoming strategically from the mid-point of each column created a beautiful, dramatic lumincence to the whole.

However, the rest of the place was pretty dreary and depressing, as can be expected from its status as a prison during the French Revolution. There were wax works of prisoners in their cells, as well as one of Marie Antoinette in her own cubicle - wax impression above (although the cell in which she was actually held no longer exists, having been partitioned in two after the revolution).

Really hard to believe that such a small place actually held over 2,000 people during the Revolution - they must have been interred only briefly before execution, or the conditions would have been extremely cramped and crowded.

It was a relief for me to leave La Conciergerie - I can't imagine how prisoners must have felt.

Help! The dark side beckons...

Bought the iPhone for Luq last Friday, but it's locked for six months, so I'm using it for the time being. Bad idea. I've been downloading all sorts of handy apps and ebooks to the iPhone, and it's now my trusty companion on those long bus and train rides - so much so that I'm actually considering getting one for myself.

It's relatively cheap getting it here (compared to Singapore and Hong Kong). Luq got his 16gb iPhone without a contract for 609 euro, but if I get it on a one-year plan, it's only 199 euro with a 45 euro monthly plan. It's 739 in all - which means that I'll essentially be paying 130 euro for one year of talk-time! Getting the same unlocked phone in Singapore was $2,000 (about 900 euro) last I checked in Sim Lim Square - so the phone plus one year's talk time would still cost less here than in Singapore. Wow.

But do I really need it? 45 euro a month for phone bills is more than 10% of my allowance... I can buy a whole booklet of tickets to Paris for that amount. It'll definitely put a little dent into my my budget, so I've got to consider this carefully. *sigh* So many wants vs so little cash.... I seriously need a job!

Heh. Luq says he misses my 'mean bitch editor' persona, but maybe he just misses me being able to buy my own stuff... I'm such a freeloader.

Blab blab blabbermouths

I like a lot of the French people, but one thing I really absolutely hate is the amount of blabbing that goes on in a classroom! I don't mean people who actively participate in class - nope, those I'm referring to are the bigmouthed ones who seem to have an incessant stream of chatter pouring out all through lessons!

Marketing was especially bad. Even though our lecturer asked the perpetrators to pipe down several times during the class, they just kept at it. On and on, until I had a headache just from the drone of perpetual murmuring. Don't they ever get tired? That was a bad three hours' worth of almost non-stop yammering!

I'm not a studious person, but seriously, if they'd rather talk and not use their ears, as they're supposed to during a lesson, they should simply skip the class and chat on their own time. Argh!

Hoofing it in the Latin Quarter

Spent the day in Paris. Extremely footsore, but quite happy. Luq and I must have traipsed through the entire Latin Quarter - we spent nine long hours simply walking around, taking photos and wandering wherever our fancy takes us. Luq was pretty embarassed by my 'touristy' attitude. *Sigh* What's the point of going to a new place if you don't give in to your inner shutterbug?

Wanted to go to the Musee de Lourve, but it was really crowded. We DID traverse the length of the Lourve three times in our quest for new sights, though! It was huge - but my feet really did not appreciate it.

Walking along the River Seine and cruising along it in a boat are very different experiences. On the boat, everything passes by really quickly - good for a snapshot of the places lining the river, but it's only if you actually tread the streets on your own two feet that you see the finer details in the carvings, and the painstaking effort their creators had put in. Wow.

Went to Notre Dame and took some photos outside. Grand, gothic... The gargoyles were pretty cool, and the carvings decorating the exterior spectacular. Hard to believe all that was done through sheer artistry and what must have taken a whole ton of chisels. Couldn't get in, though - the queue snaking outside ensured that. Guess we'll have to visit Paris' sights some other day, when admittance is not free like today.

Still, the very age of the city takes one's breath away. There's more history and culture here in one street than in most other countries, and what's truly amazing is that they have weathered it all relatively intact! Especially given the fervour of the French Revolution, and the fire-happy instincts of the mob mentality.

Interestingly, there are a lot of sorbet shops in Paris. There must have been one or two at every street corner. Hm... isn't it cold enough without cooling your insides? But I bet they'd be really welcome in summer. Yum Yum.

Japanese restaurants have also become ubiquitous in Paris. Must have walked past at least six or seven different outlets. It's really strange, though, to see Caucasians sitting happily in an Oriental setting, chatting over a cup of green tea and wielding chopsticks with relative ease. You don't even see that very often in Singapore, but here, it seems to be the norm and not an oddity.

Spotted two really lovely bags, but the first, at 70+ euro, was way too expensive. Cute, though, and pretty unique. It had a Japanese silk painting on one side, and I really like the shape, which is kind of like an upturned chef's hat.

We may joke about people living under the bridge, but it's really sad when you actually encounter someone doing it. Took a photo of what looked like a bunch of rags, but turned out to be a man sleeping in a 'nest' of cast-offs. Can't imagine how he survives the cold, but he seemed pretty blase about it. Still, I would think it's not exactly a great way to spend one's night.

The weather was so cold that even the policemen guarding some of the public buildings in France were snugly enclosed in man-sized little glass cases. And there I was thinking that was a very beautifully coloured, life-like statue!

Brrr....

Autumn seems to have crept in on France all in one weekend. Suddenly, it seems, there are red and yellowing trees wherever one looks, while fallen leaves abound on the ground. It's also turned a lot colder, but the good news is that the heater in my room has now been turned on. Hooray! No more huddling under the blankie hoping my frozen toes would have thawed by morning.

It's very beautiful, though, especially in the school's temporary canteen. That's a place that would have been a very very expensive restaurant if located in Singapore. Floor-length windows give long views outside, and we're surrounded by windows on three sides of the place.

There's a lush park right on its doorstep, with a pond nearby and all the tranquil walks one could wish for within a stone's throw away - literally. Bet it's a favourite haunt of young lovers when it's a little warmer, but in the meantime, this makes my lunch hour way more scenic than a quick sandwich gobbled over the keyboard in my room.

Luq's coming in a few days, and I'm really looking forward to it. Have lots of plans for sightseeing during the month that he'll be here - I'm really hoping to go to Versailles, and maybe even check out the rest of Europe (on his travel allowance!) since I'm such a poor student. Hehe.