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Friday, 12 November 2010 - First weekend in Paris

Despite being in Paris for almost two months now, I'm yet to actually spend a weekend here. The first few weekends were spent going back to London to gradually bring some of my stuff through and the last several have been spent away on trips, so this one will be my first. My mate Charlotte from New Zealand (who recently moved to London) and her mate are through here for a long weekend, so I took them out to this random Brazilian restaurant tonight in northeast Paris that was recommended by my workmate. It's a cool spot if anyone is going to be around Paris at some stage - Favela Chic near Place de la République.
There's usually a random Brazilian DJ pumping out the Brazilian beats but I'm not sure where he was tonight. So anyway the weather forecast for the weekend is complete crap - I was hoping to get out on the bike of course but that probably won't happen.

Saturday, 13 November 2010 - And still they come

Another friggin' miserable day today - this is apparently the worst bout of weather anyone has seen here in ages. Anyway, no bike ride for me :(		While working on the Egypt photos I started hearing some hoohar outside, and sure enough another protest had formed down in the square.		Something about Palestine I'm guessing. They stood out there in the pissing rain for about three hours, yelling and carrying on.

Sunday, 14 November 2010 - Rain or not

After another night out with Charlotte and her mate Pip (which included a quick visit to Moulin Rouge hehe) I woke to another miserable day, but I didn't want to be working on Egypt photos all day again so miserable or not I threw my jacket on, pumped up the air horn, and went for a meander on the bike.

And this is what I saw: another reminder not to park my truck on the road overnight...		Various buildings and monuments and so forth that I know nothing about (all with plenty of tourists in front of them)...

The bridge from Inception (I assume you've all seen that, and if not then you should)...		The rear end of a Statue of Liberty replica (there are several of these the world over)...		And of course there was another protest beneath it hahaha! France really is the place to protest!

Looking north along the Seine towards the Statue of Liberty...		Trams! I didn't even know Paris had a tram system, so there you go - we've all learnt something today.		Every Sunday, various roads in central Paris are closed to vehicular traffic - only bikes and pedestrians (or piétons) are allowed in. I like that!

Lots of cute wee Parisian streets, nice.				The bike came back covered in shit, so there's now another ring of grease in the bathtub for the cleaners to deal with after I washed it down in the shower hahaha!

Monday, 15 November 2010 - Ooo I love my commute

Oh how I love my commute to work (when I'm biking it that is) - cutting in and out of traffic is good fun! Look at this - why do people bother?! This is the huge roundabout outside Palais des Congrès (Congress Palace), one of the largest conference centres in all of Europe as well as one of the largest entertainment venues for concerts and so forth.

There's gotta be better alternatives to doing this every day.		Like cycling for example, or getting a moped and riding it along the sidewalk hehe.		Anyway, after last week's miserable whether, today was much better, apart from the sudden thunderstorm that struck just as I was leaving work - I got back to the apartment drenched, and there's now another grease ring in the bathtub hahaha!

Tuesday, 16 November 2010 - Egypt stuff!
This one took friggin' hours to put together (much like it did to put the trip itself together), but anyway all the photos, videos, stories, tips, and everything from our week in Egypt is... here!

Wednesday, 17 November 2010 - My first Parisian hit (kind of)
Yup, I smacked my first Parisian pedestrian on the bike today - quite a minor one though. I was the only thing on the road, approaching a green light. A group of maybe a dozen pedestrians all started walking out on a red man maybe 20 yards ahead of me. I've seen them do this to cyclists a few times here, and in each case the cyclists have had to stop or at least slow right down which they really shouldn't be expected to do but I think that's just the way it is here. Be that as it may I have a completely different attitude and just plough on through at whatever speed I'm doing (usually about 30kph). In London they will try it but will keep an eye on you, and if they realise you're not going to cave in then they'll move out of your way. In France that's not how it works evidently, and these dozen Frenchies got the fright of their lives when they realised at the last second I wasn't stopping hahaha! They all dived for cover, except one chick who was off with the ferries, immersed in her iPod with her headphones in, not  looking and with no idea I was coming right at her. My only option was to aim for the gap between her and the nearest pedestrian diving out of my way. I made it through but she walked right into the side of me hehe, and my pedal smacked her across the front of both legs (right across the shins) and she got a bit of a shoulder barge as well. A metallic bike pedal across the shins at 30kph would've hurt like hell but as always I have zero sympathy for them. I'm on a green, they're on a red, and if they're too absent-minded to even look as they're crossing a road in that situation then that's their problem. Anyway, just thought I'd jot this down for posterity ;)

Saturday, 20 November 2010 - Disneyland Paris!

Every time I travel between London and Paris on the Eurostar I accumulate points that can be exchanged for various goodies. One of the goodies is tickets to Disneyland Paris hehe, and as of my last trip I had accumulated just enough points for two adult day-tickets. So Kristina and I were big kids for the day today and set out to meet Mickey! Photos and videos here :)

Monday, 22 November 2010

Monday mornings. We all hate them.

Tuesday, 23 November 2010 - Champs-Élysées Christmas markets

Fuck it's cold - perfect weather for German sausage and mulled wine! Every Christmas the Champs-Élysées has Christmas markets running along both sides, including a Ferris wheel on Place de la Concorde. As always they sell a myriad of odds and ends, but all we were really interested in was the food and booze hehe. Love the mulled wine!

Wednesday, 24 November 2010 - The Eiffel Tower, again...

I went up with Mo in September 2006, Mum and Jared in September 2009, Karen in June 2010, and today I went up with Kristina hahaha!		I took a sick day off work and up the Eiffel Tower we went for the usual round of cliché photos hehe.

Looking north towards the Arc de Triomphe...		Champ de Mars...		The river Seine...

La Défense, where I should be at work right now hehe.

According to Wikipedia, love padlocks are a custom by which sweethearts affix padlocks to a fence or similar public fixture to symbolize their love, so Kristina and I stuck one up the top of the Eiffel Tower. This is the city of love after all :)				I look good in a French beret (with a New Zealand jacket ;)

Thursday, 25 November 2010 - Thanksgiving, Parisian style

Thanksgiving Day - we all know what it is (some American thing or something) but probably none of us know what it's all about, so as always, Aaron Around The World is here to educate your dumb asses (including my own :) Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of every November, originally "to give thanks to God for helping the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony survive their first brutal winter in New England". Nowadays though it is simply a time to give thanks, for whatever. Anyway, like most things, America makes a huge deal out of Thanksgiving, and as this one was to be Kristina's first away from home we had to do something for it. Joe Allen is an American-themed restaurant just up the street from my apartment that does a full-blown Thanksgiving dinner every year. Turkey, sweet potato, green beans, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, crumble, and all that good shit that keeps Americans everywhere looking fit and heathy! So umm, thanks.

Friday, 26 November 2010 - Leffe!

Ahhh Leffe - I love the stuff! Leffe is a Belgian beer (one of some 400 beers that Belgium produces) originally brewed only in the abbey Notre Dame de Leffe which itself was founded way back in 1152. Nowadays, Leffe is commercially brewed elsewhere, but I've still always wanted to visit that abbey. We had initially planned to do it as part of the German road trip back in August/September, but plans changed and it got skipped. So instead, Kristina and I are hiring a car and going there for the weekend - nice! The abbey is located in the wee town of Dinant, just over the Belgian border from France about 100kms south of Brussels. We're driving up tonight, spending tomorrow in Dinant, and driving back on Sunday through the Champagne region of northern France (i.e. where the wine hails from). Y'all have a nice drunken weekend; I know I will ;)

Monday, 29 November 2010 - Leffe'd and Champagne'd!
Photos from the weekend here :)

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