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Thursday, 7 October 2010 - 22kms of fun time!

This is my route (until I find more) between my apartment (bottom-left) and work. It's exactly 11kms each way and takes in the Lourve, Place de la Concorde, the Champs-Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe, Bois de Boulogne, La Défense, and the Seine - not bad huh! Full route on Google Maps here.

We've had a bit rain over the last few days so the bike needed a clean. It's a tight squeeze but I managed to jam it in the shower and hose it down. I left a small lake on the bathroom floor and the usual ring of grease around the bath tub which won't impress the cleaners too much but hey, the bike ain't gonna wash itself ;)

Friday, 8 October 2010 - Can I do love to you?

Story time: I was walking back to the office after lunch this afternoon along a large open pedestrian area beside one of several tall glass buildings in the area (La Défense). So I'm strolling along, and all of a sudden something falls out of the sky and goes plop on the pavement just a few metres in front of me. That 'thing' turned out to be a wee sparrow! I assume it's flown into the side of the glass building I was walking beside (as they seem to do sometimes), knocked itself out or broken its neck or whatever, and plummeted. Either way there wasn't much life in it, and no one around me seemed to notice. I picked the poor thing up and placed it in one of the massive flower beds nearby (I didn't want to just hiff him the rubbish bin). After that happened I decided to take a quieter route on the bike back to the apartment after work hehe, just in case ;) Anyway, when I got back I dumped my work crap, threw some shorts on, and went straight back out again to see what I could see before dark. Paris is bloody brilliant for cycling: if you want to race scooters and cut cars off etc. there's plenty of places you can do that, otherwise most streets have some sort of separate cycle area even outside of the central city - London take note!

Hotel de Ville (good shot of it here by night)...		Notre Dame...		The Madeleine Church, all within spitting distance of me.

This courtyard is right beside the Louvre, and there's usually something going on here. Today some folk had put a ramp together and were flying around on rollerblades.
This guy totally meesed it up, and it looked painful hehe.		Sweet ride homey.
This odd-looking building is the Pompidou Centre, and houses a massive public library and the National Museum of Modern Art which is the largest museum for modern art in Europe. It was named after Georges Pompidou, the president of France from 1969 to 1974, and was architected by someone on drugs.

Opposite the Pompidou Centre appears to be a good spot to chill out, and wonder what the deal is with the building that stands before you.		Or you can sit outside the adjacent cafe and wonder about it from there.		Or you can get your puppets out, and try making a buck (or a Euro).

After I biked away from this area I came to a busy road along with a big bunch of pedestrians waiting at a red man. I waited with them for traffic to either stop or clear so I could get out onto the road. While waiting, some dude approached me and asked me something in French (directions I think). I asked him (in French) if he spoke English, to which he replied "Ahh no, no English" and walked away. Then another dude who had overheard this approached me and quietly asked in English "Where are you from?" "New Zealand." He then asked in an even quieter voice "Can I do love to you?" HAHAHAHAHA! That's very sweet of you but non, merci! Then thankfully the bloody light turned green and much awkwardness was avoided hehe. I haven't even been in Paris a month yet and already I've been propositioned on the street in broad daylight by a guy - imagine how many I could pull if I wore proper tight Lycra cycling gear ;)

After turning down the opportunity of some Parisian guy-love, I continued east for a ways until dusk before heading back.		Incidentally the Parisians bloody love their roundabouts, but not just any sort of roundabout - huge open ones with a lot of roads coming off them and where you just create your own lane and wrestle your way through. It's organised chaos, and I love riding through it!

Tuesday, 12 October 2010 - The daily grind; this is why I cycle to/from work!

This is the constant swarm of people spilling out of the metro during morning rush hour. And this is despite most of the metro being on strike at the moment (story here). Bugger doing that every day!		The Champs-Élysées during the evening rush hour. This was rear-end collision number one (very minor - no damage to his car and only a scratch on hers), and what they're both looking at is rear-end collision number two that happened off to my left as I took this shot hahaha! Another minor one but it happened literally seconds after these two got out of their cars to exchange details. Bugger driving that every day!		Paris - park your truck somewhere else ;)

Thursday, 14 October 2010 - 0730

Arc de Triomphe at 7:30am...		...still utter madness with traffic! It's usually light by the time I fall out of bed and cycle into work but I had an early start this morning. I'll have to get used to this darkness soon - winter is coming fast!

Tuesday, 19 October 2010 - It's all kicking off!

This is what Kristina and I woke up to yesterday morning in Istanbul...		...and this is what we woke up to this morning - the Paris Metro hahaha! Within a minute of taking this shot another fight broke out on the platform between grumpy French people getting off and on the train, just like my very first day here hehe. It must be a daily occurence.
Meanwhile a wave of national strikes and riots are continuing over the French government's plans to increase the legal retirement age. I stole these shots from a news article here. This all took place yesterday about a mile from where I work, and it apparently continued into today but I didn't bike to work so couldn't really get out that way to join in the fun hehe. I'll be biking tomorrow though ;) Also making news in my world, Christchurch continues to shake, more than a month after the first big one hit and revealed a previously unknown fault line.

Wednesday, 20 October 2010 - Well, it's apparently all kicking off

So I went looking for these apparent riots after work tonight that have been all over the news. Apparently it was all happening in the suburb of Nanterre, about a mile from my work. Apart from some smashed up traffic lights and a bit of broken glass here and there along the main road, there was no evidence at all of the supposed fun that people (students from the university mostly) had been having by hurling projectiles at the police and pushing parked cars and phone boxes over. It's quite a cute wee area though (graffiti aside).				Protestors have been forming blockades around France's oil refineries so the country is running low on fuel supplies, triggering panic buying at every fuel station in the city hehe.

I've been meaning to mention this joint for a while (I've been a few times with mates from work) - Relais de l'Entrecote. Check out the website and the waitresses in their French maid outfits hehe. It's off the Champs-Élysées, and the only thing on the menu is melt-in-your-mouth steak, best served rare (borderline bloody as hell) and damn it's good!				And for dessert, pending obesity ;)

Thursday, 21 October 2010 - Protest, but hardly a riot

The Grande Arche during my lunch break today - finally some action albeit very low-key and lasting barely ten minutes after I got there before they all left hehe.				This dude's job was to hold the speaker above his head, because this somehow makes the sound of people bellowing into the microphone carry further ;)

Anyway, since Kristina is here for a bit, we headed to the Eiffel Tower to visit my favourite bakery in the city followed by...

...my favourite cycle tour in the city! This is Fat Tire Bike Tours evening Paris tour, which takes you around the city and includes a cruise up the Seine with all the red wine you can drink - it's good stuff (so good in fact I've done it three times now taking different folk each time hehe).

Friday - Sunday, 22 - 24 October 2010
(Weekend in Amsterdam)

Saturday - Sunday, 30 October - 7 November 2010
(Week in Egypt)

Tuesday, 26 October 2010 - Istanbul!
Photos and videos are here from the weekend getaway to Istanbul last week.

Monday, 8 November 2010 - Party protest!

First day back at work after a week in Egypt, and at around 10:30 I started hearing some noise below, and looked out to find a few hundred protesters piling into the building across from mine hahaha wicked!		For the next three hours they cheered and played loud music out of the several massive speakers they brought in with them, blew air horns, screamed into megaphones, and generally just had a good ol' time. I don't know what they were protesting about, though I got the impression it was over wages.

A lot of fireworks got set of as well, all while the cops just looked on and left them to it. France - it's the place to be if you're into protesting!				Later in the day they started letting flares off as well hahaha!

Wednesday, 10 November 2010 - Cold!

This is the new view from my balcony - somewhat different to just a month ago and in fact somewhat different to just days ago before I left for Egypt when the trees still had all their leaves. So yes, it's turned bloody cold and bloody windy and bloody wet!		Never too cold to bike to work though, nor is it ever too cold for a protest. This one is the second in two days. No fireworks or flares this time though hehe.

Anyway, something different for lunch (different for me anyway) - a Japanese restaurant near work in which the food goes past you on a conveyor and people just take off whatever they like the look of, brilliant! Prices are based on the colour of the bowls. Yum :)

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