jeudi, juillet 27, 2006
Les Vacances d'Été
Bikini, sunscreen, fluffy new beach towel, budget airline tickets: check, check, check, and check!
As alluded to in the last post's comments box, it is time for a summer holiday! Doing as the French do, Alex and I are taking three and a half weeks off (actually, that is quite a conservative holiday, most of the lab is already gone, and not returning until September!) to swan around a little explored (by us at least) part of Europe: The Exotic East. We are flying into Budapest with WizzAir on Saturday, making our way to Slovenia, and then island hopping our way down Croatia's Adriatic coast! Finally a big ferry will take us over to Italy, where we will spend just a few days in Venice, before heading home with RyanAir, sun-kissed and relaxed (hopefully!).
I wasn't really too aware of this area until we started looking into it, but it looks fantastic! The Croatian islands are pretty famous these days, and are often described as similar to the Greek Islands, but cheaper and not as crowded and touristy. One of the islands we're going to, Hvar, has such good weather, some hotels offer refunds if it rains (touching lots of wooden objects)! And Slovenia sounds magical, mountains and lakes and caves and castles.
We're both really excited and can't wait! I am particularly looking forward to days of lazing on gorgeous island beaches, whereas I think Alex is more excited about goulash opportunities.
I might or might not post while away, but otherwise we'll be back to civilisation 23rd August, and I'll have lots of photos and stories!
Dubrovnik, right down the bottom of the Croatian coast.
As alluded to in the last post's comments box, it is time for a summer holiday! Doing as the French do, Alex and I are taking three and a half weeks off (actually, that is quite a conservative holiday, most of the lab is already gone, and not returning until September!) to swan around a little explored (by us at least) part of Europe: The Exotic East. We are flying into Budapest with WizzAir on Saturday, making our way to Slovenia, and then island hopping our way down Croatia's Adriatic coast! Finally a big ferry will take us over to Italy, where we will spend just a few days in Venice, before heading home with RyanAir, sun-kissed and relaxed (hopefully!).
I wasn't really too aware of this area until we started looking into it, but it looks fantastic! The Croatian islands are pretty famous these days, and are often described as similar to the Greek Islands, but cheaper and not as crowded and touristy. One of the islands we're going to, Hvar, has such good weather, some hotels offer refunds if it rains (touching lots of wooden objects)! And Slovenia sounds magical, mountains and lakes and caves and castles.
We're both really excited and can't wait! I am particularly looking forward to days of lazing on gorgeous island beaches, whereas I think Alex is more excited about goulash opportunities.
I might or might not post while away, but otherwise we'll be back to civilisation 23rd August, and I'll have lots of photos and stories!
Dubrovnik, right down the bottom of the Croatian coast.
mardi, juillet 25, 2006
La plage à Paris
The winter surprised me, not so much for the extremity of the cold (not so bad), but the length of the damn thing. It just wouldn't quit! A bit of cold anyone can take, on a skiing holiday, the Australian winter, even a few months in Sweden over winter is managable. But when the coat and (gorgeous soft black leather) glove wearing goes on for six damn months, enough was really enough.
And so it is that I am equally suprised by the summer. Unfortunately I don't think bikini season is quite as drawn out as the scarf season, but my gosh! It's ferocious! The average temperature for June and, thus-far, July must be about thirty, with plenty of days topping 35. Today for example, it is only 31 at the moment (just before midday) but the max predicted is 36. And of course, there is no such thing as air conditioning here. Not at home, certainly, but not at work, not in shops, not on the metro either. And the beach? 200 km away.
Until last week...! When the annual Paris Plage opened! This "Paris Beach" involves shipping in 2000 tonnes of sand and spreading it out along the bank of the Seine, adding deckchairs and parasols, palm trees and polynesian hula dancers. A perfect beach! Oh, except you can't swim in the water. Luckily there is a pool, tiny, but still a pool. Luckily again, most Parisians are more interested in lying around in bikinis and tiny tiny shorts that actually swimming!
And so it is that I am equally suprised by the summer. Unfortunately I don't think bikini season is quite as drawn out as the scarf season, but my gosh! It's ferocious! The average temperature for June and, thus-far, July must be about thirty, with plenty of days topping 35. Today for example, it is only 31 at the moment (just before midday) but the max predicted is 36. And of course, there is no such thing as air conditioning here. Not at home, certainly, but not at work, not in shops, not on the metro either. And the beach? 200 km away.
Until last week...! When the annual Paris Plage opened! This "Paris Beach" involves shipping in 2000 tonnes of sand and spreading it out along the bank of the Seine, adding deckchairs and parasols, palm trees and polynesian hula dancers. A perfect beach! Oh, except you can't swim in the water. Luckily there is a pool, tiny, but still a pool. Luckily again, most Parisians are more interested in lying around in bikinis and tiny tiny shorts that actually swimming!
lundi, juillet 17, 2006
Balles des Pompiers
The weekend of le quatorze juillet (Bastiile Day, unfortunately not translated as Jour de la Bastille) starts of with firemen's balls. The Bals des Pompiers invloves the firemen opening their firestations - complete with sliding poles! - and the erection (hee hee, okay, enough smuttiness) of a couple of ladies toilet cubicles, putting on a couple of cheesy french pop bands and selling tins of beer. Obviously the party is full of firemen, and yes girls, they do wear their uniforms! Unfortunately, this is not as exciting as one might hope (as I had hoped) because the firemen are all oddly block-shaped. The phrase "cut from the same block" takes on new meaning, square shoulders, square jaws, even their too-short haircuts were square. Now, don't get me wrong, they're still firemen... just kind of... blocky firemen.
And while I had my fun on Thursday night, Alex had his on Friday morning when an endless procession of tanks and gun-toting trucks and other green-and-brown dangerous-looking vehicles rumbled down the Champs-Elysées. Add all sorts of fighter jets and radar thingos (I'm starting to think Alex should have posted this himself) flying not very far overhead and cavalrymen with gleaming swords, and I didn't know whether to be impressed or scared! Somehow tank parades seem like a wierd way to celebrate national pride.
Couldn't they have bakers and cheesemakers and Chanel-clad models and the moustached policeman from the Yoplait ads (I can't believe I couldn't find a picture of him) instead?
And while I had my fun on Thursday night, Alex had his on Friday morning when an endless procession of tanks and gun-toting trucks and other green-and-brown dangerous-looking vehicles rumbled down the Champs-Elysées. Add all sorts of fighter jets and radar thingos (I'm starting to think Alex should have posted this himself) flying not very far overhead and cavalrymen with gleaming swords, and I didn't know whether to be impressed or scared! Somehow tank parades seem like a wierd way to celebrate national pride.
Couldn't they have bakers and cheesemakers and Chanel-clad models and the moustached policeman from the Yoplait ads (I can't believe I couldn't find a picture of him) instead?
jeudi, juillet 13, 2006
La Défense de Paris
Rather than sully the skyline of this ridiculously picturesque city with steel and glass skyscrapers, some very smart people decided to put the CBD district of Paris outside of Paris. Genius! This district is called La Défense, not, as a Russian general once thought, because the country keeps its weapons arsenal under these buildings, but because it is the name of a statue that has stood there for A Very Long Time.
It was initially just offices, and no residential buildings at all, and the place was therefore apparently a bit of a ghost town on weekends. They've since opened up a big shopping centre there though, so when Alex and I went to check it out last Saturday there were lots of people, but still a strange sort of a no-man's-land. And apparently some time in the 70's they decided to put up some very low cost housing commission style apartments in the middle of all the shiny office blocks. Makes for some interesting contrasts, but God, it looks bleak. A bit of a 1984 feel about it. Not helped by the cemetary which rings one whole side of the complex.
It was initially just offices, and no residential buildings at all, and the place was therefore apparently a bit of a ghost town on weekends. They've since opened up a big shopping centre there though, so when Alex and I went to check it out last Saturday there were lots of people, but still a strange sort of a no-man's-land. And apparently some time in the 70's they decided to put up some very low cost housing commission style apartments in the middle of all the shiny office blocks. Makes for some interesting contrasts, but God, it looks bleak. A bit of a 1984 feel about it. Not helped by the cemetary which rings one whole side of the complex.
lundi, juillet 10, 2006
La Première Poste de M. Yuen CEA/SAC DSV SMMB LMT
Hello all and welcome to my inaugural France-tastic post.
Well... After arriving in Paris via Singapore, Bangkok and Zurich, I was relieved to find Jen; ready to get me back to the apartment. After work Jen and I joined her friends at an Irish pub to watch the AUS/ITA soccer match. The less said about the appalling and disgusting travesty that occurred that night the better. Subsequent soccer matches were much more rewarding and every time France wins, it feels like a mini revolution occurs, with what seems like the bulk of Parisian youth letting of flares fireworks and blocking traffic.
Emily and Andrew arrived on the evening of the first Monday I was in Paris and a pleasant week was had where we promenaded around the better-known sites of the city.
The next week I started work at the CEA (Commissariat Energie de l'Atomique). It is an old (but very well funded) facility in Saclay, outside Paris surrounded by GM wheat fields and (probably) underground nuclear ICBM silos- just like your standard SPECTRE operation (Sorry ladies ask your boyfriends for the good word on Bond). In any case the whole place is like a fenced off military operation and I now have access and restaurant cards, so I can swipe in and eat on site like the rest of the employees (You always eat on site- since everywhere else is so far away and French people don't seem to like bringing lunch. It seems to be the biggest meal of the day and may or may not include a bottle of wine). The cool thing is I have to wear special red shoes inside the Restricted Zone and check myself for alpha and beta radiation contamination every time I step outside the building.
As you can see from the letters above the French love categorising their workplace duties into manageable chunks that indicate your area of work. Apparently according to my letters I work at the CEA, in the life-science division as part of the molecular labelling service in the tritium-labelling laboratory and nothing else.
Next post: the annual CEA rabbit extermination and crashing the Director's Soirée...
Alex already working hard.
N.B. Photo may have been taken last time he was here.
Posted by Alex, not Jenny.
Well... After arriving in Paris via Singapore, Bangkok and Zurich, I was relieved to find Jen; ready to get me back to the apartment. After work Jen and I joined her friends at an Irish pub to watch the AUS/ITA soccer match. The less said about the appalling and disgusting travesty that occurred that night the better. Subsequent soccer matches were much more rewarding and every time France wins, it feels like a mini revolution occurs, with what seems like the bulk of Parisian youth letting of flares fireworks and blocking traffic.
Emily and Andrew arrived on the evening of the first Monday I was in Paris and a pleasant week was had where we promenaded around the better-known sites of the city.
The next week I started work at the CEA (Commissariat Energie de l'Atomique). It is an old (but very well funded) facility in Saclay, outside Paris surrounded by GM wheat fields and (probably) underground nuclear ICBM silos- just like your standard SPECTRE operation (Sorry ladies ask your boyfriends for the good word on Bond). In any case the whole place is like a fenced off military operation and I now have access and restaurant cards, so I can swipe in and eat on site like the rest of the employees (You always eat on site- since everywhere else is so far away and French people don't seem to like bringing lunch. It seems to be the biggest meal of the day and may or may not include a bottle of wine). The cool thing is I have to wear special red shoes inside the Restricted Zone and check myself for alpha and beta radiation contamination every time I step outside the building.
As you can see from the letters above the French love categorising their workplace duties into manageable chunks that indicate your area of work. Apparently according to my letters I work at the CEA, in the life-science division as part of the molecular labelling service in the tritium-labelling laboratory and nothing else.
Next post: the annual CEA rabbit extermination and crashing the Director's Soirée...
N.B. Photo may have been taken last time he was here.
Posted by Alex, not Jenny.
vendredi, juillet 07, 2006
On est en finale, on est en finale!
The crowds turned out in force again on Wednesday night to celebrate. It's getting better now that we're starting to learn the chants and the songs...
...On est en finale, on est en finale...
...Qui n'est saute pas n'est pas français...
...Mais ils sont où, mais ils sont où les Portugais...
Anyway, enough practicing for Sunday, now here are the photos from the celebrations, taken outside the pub we watched the game, and on the Champs Elysée where we went afterwards along with a reported 500 000 people!The entire length of the Champs Elysées was packed, and as some of you might know, that is not a small road!
The photos aren't great because it was night and everybody (including me!) was jumping up and down the whole time, but you should get the picture (ha) anyway.
On the Champs Elysée, looking away from the Arc de Triomphe.
Outside the pub.
Crazy people in cars. Pretty much every car was like this, people sitting on roofs, bonnets, hanging out the windows. Actually not very funny, becuase several people died throughout France on this night from these sorts of things.
Us! Alex obviously, Rebecca peeking over his shoulder, Karine, Magalie, Paul and Franck.
...On est en finale, on est en finale...
...Qui n'est saute pas n'est pas français...
...Mais ils sont où, mais ils sont où les Portugais...
Anyway, enough practicing for Sunday, now here are the photos from the celebrations, taken outside the pub we watched the game, and on the Champs Elysée where we went afterwards along with a reported 500 000 people!The entire length of the Champs Elysées was packed, and as some of you might know, that is not a small road!
The photos aren't great because it was night and everybody (including me!) was jumping up and down the whole time, but you should get the picture (ha) anyway.
On the Champs Elysée, looking away from the Arc de Triomphe.
Outside the pub.
Crazy people in cars. Pretty much every car was like this, people sitting on roofs, bonnets, hanging out the windows. Actually not very funny, becuase several people died throughout France on this night from these sorts of things.
Us! Alex obviously, Rebecca peeking over his shoulder, Karine, Magalie, Paul and Franck.
mardi, juillet 04, 2006
Allez les Bleus
Saturday night, Paris went off. While, technically, yes, it was just a quarter final win, still several games from ultimate success, you would never have guessed it from the celebrations after France beat Brazil, the World Cup favourites, on Saturday. As soon as the final whistle blew, the street filled with thousands of people, and the party really started!
The fountains were full of people, several of whom felt inspired enough to get their gear off, and the tops of the bus shelters got so crowded that people started getting on top of the buses. Luckily most of them (the buses, not the people on top, they were dancing up a storm!) couldn't do any more than crawl forward through the throngs on the streets, so I don't think anyone was hurt too badly, though I did see one guy trying to climb off a coach and basically just fell! In the midst of all the madness were a couple of guys with bongo drums going nuts, as was everybody in fact! It was awesome, people were just so happy and celebrating madly, waving huge flags and shirts, dancing, singing, jumping up and down. And it went on for most of the night, streets were blocked off and the ones that were open were full of cars with people either hanging out the windows with flags or sitting on the roofs, horns permanently held down and plenty of screaming.
And now of course, Brazil beaten, everybody is aiming high! I am writing this celebratory post now rather than later in case that goes horribly wrong, but I can tell you that people have had to rearrange their schedules with this unexpected success. For those of you who haven't been following the Bleus' campaign, they weren't exactly on fire the first couple of games, so no one expected them to get even this far. Hopefully there will be more celebrating to do because I left my camera at home on Saturday!
So now, allez les bleus!!!!!!!!!!
The fountains were full of people, several of whom felt inspired enough to get their gear off, and the tops of the bus shelters got so crowded that people started getting on top of the buses. Luckily most of them (the buses, not the people on top, they were dancing up a storm!) couldn't do any more than crawl forward through the throngs on the streets, so I don't think anyone was hurt too badly, though I did see one guy trying to climb off a coach and basically just fell! In the midst of all the madness were a couple of guys with bongo drums going nuts, as was everybody in fact! It was awesome, people were just so happy and celebrating madly, waving huge flags and shirts, dancing, singing, jumping up and down. And it went on for most of the night, streets were blocked off and the ones that were open were full of cars with people either hanging out the windows with flags or sitting on the roofs, horns permanently held down and plenty of screaming.
And now of course, Brazil beaten, everybody is aiming high! I am writing this celebratory post now rather than later in case that goes horribly wrong, but I can tell you that people have had to rearrange their schedules with this unexpected success. For those of you who haven't been following the Bleus' campaign, they weren't exactly on fire the first couple of games, so no one expected them to get even this far. Hopefully there will be more celebrating to do because I left my camera at home on Saturday!
So now, allez les bleus!!!!!!!!!!
