French, Art and Patisseries

We landed in Charles de Gaulle airport and the first thing I noticed was that everything was in French - all the writing, everywhere. We lined up to buy train tickets into Paris. I watched a man at another ticket office trying to get help from a French ticket seller.
French ticket seller: “Je ne parle Anglais! Non!”
Angry man: (loudly) “… just want to get some MONEY! F*** you!”
The man stormed off and I stood there, trembling in my boots. Don’t speak English! Gah! They’re all going to hate me because I’m a foreigner!
“Bonjour,” said my ticket seller solemnly.
“Bonjour,” I said.
I took a deep breath and in my best French said “Two tickets to Paris please.”
She smiled at me and handed me the tickets and my change. I pointed to the map she was holding and she said in English “For you I will explain!” She proceeded to give clear directions in English on how to get into the city.
She understood my French! She was friendly! I proceeded to spend the weekend using my pidgin French at every given opportunity, loving the fact that the people appreciated my effort to speak their language and that they didn’t seem to mind if I made a mistake or two.

Lauch and I turned up to the Louvre at 8.30am… only to join the queue of about 50 people. As we waited until it opened at 9am, we watched the queue snake around behind us and grow to a size of about 2500 people. Nothing like getting up early!




I loved the art, especially a couple of contemporary installations alongside the traditional French sculptures. There was a man (not a real one) with a microphone near some fighting marble statues. There was a group of mime statues holding clocks in front of their faces. There was also a strawberry patch surrounding some sculptures. Yes, with real live strawberries. We saw the Mona Lisa and I was most impressed not with the painting but the celebrity that the painting holds. See above the mad crowds coming to see Mona.

This weekend – seeing as it was my birthday and all – I ate exactly whatever I wanted. Which included, in no particular order: strawberry tart, chocolate éclair (with real chocolate, not cream in the middle!), risotto, baguette with gruyere cheese, chocolate coconut macaroons, crème brulee, chocolate tart, croissants, viennoise petite, tart aux fruits and pain au chocolat. Oh, and a few glasses of wine. Yes, the French definitely do have the best patisseries and boulangeries ever.




We spent the evening walking along the Seine. Wandered out of the Marais district away from a loud group of what looked like protesters. We heard lots of police sirens heading back to that area of the city and wondered what was going on. The next morning in the paper we saw that the French presidential elections had taken place - Sarkozy had beaten Royal by just 6% of the vote. We walked along one of the bridges, where an accordian player was busking just like in the movies. It was a perfect end to my most exotic birthday ever.