Every girl should have a birthday in Paris

Paris has something very special about it and I don't think I could've picked a better place to spend my GOLDEN birthday. I can imagine most of you thinking, "Golden birthday? What is she talking about?", well it is quite simply your birthday that is when you turn the age of the day you were born. Mine was this year because I was 25 on the 25th. Most people miss their golden birthdays because they find out about it too late. I don't even know where I heard about it from but I do know that I have been planning mine for a very long time (maybe since I was 18) and Paris was no accident, I knew I'd be here years ago :)

I arrived on my birthday eve a bit later later than I expected because all trains were full but I got there just in time to make my appointment up the Eiffel Tower. I stayed at the same hotel (thanks to my lovely boyfriend) I stayed at when I first came to Paris back in winter so finding it was no problem. I quickly showered and was off because I'd arranged to meet a girl I'd met down in Nice there at 9.45pm to go up at 10pm. We said we'd meet at the ticket office but when I got there were about three different ticket offices and there was no way I was finding her. It got to 10pm and I had to use my ticket (thanks Jane and Murray I used some of your prezzie card to buy it) so I hoped she'd be up there and somehow we'd meet up. My positive thinking worked because I did bump into her up there! After we admired the views we went and got a nutella and banana crepe each and sat at the top of a small hill and watched the tower sparkle. Luckily we needed to catch the same metro part of the way together, I felt much safer catching it with her in the dark.

From the tower

From the hill

A sparkling Eiffel Tower, a beautiful thing to see!

I got back to my hotel safely, had another warm shower (because I could)  and curled up in my big queen sized bed, it was heaven! I woke up quite early and opened some birthday cards that Simon had given me in Singapore. These were the cards that had strict instructions on NOT to open before Paris. I'll admit I got a bit teary when I opened them because the messages were so lovely and it hit me that I wouldn't be seeing any of my loved ones on my birthday. Poor Simon had to deal with me sobbing into the telephone :( Then Mum and Dad called me after breakfast and I even got a few words out of my brother which was nice. As I was speaking to them they sent through a pic of my family having brunch and waving to the camera. Every birthday we go for brunch or have dinner so it was nice that they'd all got together even in my absence, I have the best family!

My mum does envelopes well :)

I waited, I promise!

I doubt my brother had anything to do with decorating this envelope

My Paris card collection!

For my birthday Simon also got me a ticket to a violincello concert in an small church in the middle of the city so I looked up where that was and planned the rest of my day around that. I didn't have to be there until 5pm so had plenty of time to go and find a nice spot for lunch and check out things I hadn't already seen. It worked out perfectly really because it ended up that it was in a part of Paris I hadn't explored on my last visit. I asked at my hotel for restaurant recommendations in that area and the man said I would have my pick of good places in that area so off I set with my pretty birthday dress on under my rain coat.

Paris must have known it was my birthday because as soon as I got out of the metro station there was a pick'n'mix stall so I stopped off there before finding a place for lunch.

Would you look at that!

One happy 25 year old!

I didn't take me long to find a place to eat, I found it down a side street and of course I looked at the menu but mainly choose it because it just looked so darn cute! I was warmly welcomed when I walked in and when asked where I wanted to sit I said, 'The nicest table because it is my birthday today', it worked a treat and I got treated like a princess! A complimentary glass of champagne quickly came my way and they looked after me very well. I set out determined to eat some snails but the pull of the fried goats cheese and steak were far more appealing. I can't even remember the last time I had red meat so thought today was the day to go all out. It may have been one of the best meals I have ever had (thanks Mum, Dad and Matt, I used some of your Euros to get it) so I left a very happy customer. When the waiter asked how it was when I was leaving, I said, 'Thank you, it was fantastic and I will never forget it', and he looked happy too :)

The restaurant! Cute ha?

Birthday champagne!

Cheers!

Fried goat's cheese - amazing!

More food!

MEAT!

I zipped up my coat and headed out to find the Luxembourg Gardens, gardens that Napoleon III dedicated to the children of Paris. Even in the rain they were beautiful. Such a vibrant mix of colours that must be even more stunning in the sunshine.

This is so Paris!

Pretty!

I love this colour!

The palace - closed until September

Happy to be by the flowers

Quack, quack

Then I just wandered around the streets, found a nice place to have a coffee before my concert started. The concert was in the tiniest little church called St. Ephrem so it was very intimate. If any of you are interested it was Bach's Violincello Suites, you can YouTube it to see what kind of thing it was. I got goosebumps and was mesmerised the entire time. What a thing to experience and I'm so happy that I went to it. Even though I'm not an avid classical music fan I thought it was great and something I'll always remember.

St. Ephrem's Church - tiny!

The concentration!

On the way back to catch the metro I found a crepe stand so thought a sugar and lemon crepe would be the perfect way to end a perfect day and I was right, it hit the spot!

Looking good!

Miam, miam!

So that brings my birthday in Paris to an end. I will never forget it, it was even better than I thought it would be. Thank you everyone for all the love you sent me today, I could definitely feel it even though I'm on the other side of the world.

Au revoir Paris! I think every girl should have a birthday here! X

I am very proud of myself, just figured out how to make this on my tablet!

Avignon

I am just sitting in Avignon TGV Station waiting for my train to Paris so thought I would have a go at writing my blog while Avignon is still fresh in my mind. I really enjoyed my two nights in this city and would recommend a visit here to anyone who is planning a visit to France. Things got off to a great start at my new hostel because it was half the price of the one in Nice and 100x nicer. It was called Pop Hostel and was in a renovated 18th century building. I only had to share a room with 3 other people and it's the first hostel I have been in that has air conditioning. Although it was on the main street it was very quiet inside so I knew I was going to be sleeping well there. Once I was settled in I went walking around the city centre on search of some good French food!   I didn't have to look far and found a comfortable cafe across the road from my hostel. I ordered a chicken baguette, mille-feuille and an iced coffee. I found myself a table outside and did a spot of people watching while I enjoyed my food. It was great!  

Nice room

Mmmm mille-feuille

The building my hostel was in

Then I had a wander around the cobbled streets, walked to the city wall (part of Avignon is inside city walls) and was justa real lady of leisure for the evening. All the walking made me hungry so when I found a small Risoto shop that had a deal for risoto and a drink for €6 I got in there quick and bought my dinner. I am not a huge risoto fan, never have been, but for that price thought it was worth giving a go. I was so pleased because I have never had such a good risoto! I got a chicken one that had lemon in it. It was so good that I went back last night to have the same thing again!  

Yum!

The hostel offered a French breakfast for a small price and as I was enjoying my croissant the next morning I overheard some Aussies asking about a day trip to the Pont du Gard and the town of Nîmes. Both of these were spots I was desperate to get to and had been trying to figure out how I could get there. The tours I'd found were €50+ and I just didn't have the funds to justify that so when I heard they were catching a bus out there I plucked up the couraged and asked if I could join them for the day. They happily welcomed me and at 11am we (4 Aussies and 3 Kiwis) set off to try and find this bus that would take us to the Pont du Gard.  

11.25am came around and the bus never showed. We were told to look out for a big yellow one but no one saw a yellow bus in sight. 11.40am, still no bus. A few of the group were getting a bit restless but I was happy thinking to myself how much better I felt about getting lost as a group instead of by myself. Finally we spotted a yellow bus in the distance and had to sprint to another stop and by 11.50am were on the way to the Pont du Gard. The bus only cost €1.50 can you believe!  

Good deal!

At this point I was feeling quite giddy with excitement. For those who don't know, the Pont du Gard is a Roman aqueduct and one of the oldest Roman hydraulic works. It was built around 20BC and brought water into the city of Nîmes from a spring in the mountains. I can remember when I first learnt about it in my Year 12 Classics class and marvelling at how clever the Romans were to build such a thing. Learning about this may have even been what sparked my love of Roman architecture, which I studied in more deoth at university, so you can understand my excitement.  I kept it quite well hidden though because I didn't want my new acquaintances to think I was weird. When I first got a glimpse of though I nearly burst. Oh it was a glorious!  

I made it!

Up close and personal

View from the aqueduct

So beautiful!

Just try wipe that smile off my face!

After our Pont du Gard visit we caught another €1.50 bus to the city of Nîmes, a city that was occuopied by the Romans for many years which explains the Roman influence in this region. The main reason for stopping off here was to visit the Nîmes Arena. This arena a Roman amphitheater so similar to the Colosseum in design and purpose only smaller. It could still hold 24, 000 spectators though! It was an amazing structure to explore because it was in such great condition, better than any other in the world. The entry fee covered an audio guide as well which was great because it gave so much mkre tp the experience. I managed to only pay €6.50 to get in because I said I was unemployed (kind of true) and they accepted my working visa as proof. At the Pont du Gard I got in for a student because I asked if they had discounts for teachers and when they said no I jusy asked for a student one and they agreed, sometimes you just have to ask!  

So happy I got here!

Yay!

Nice arches

So happy!

I wish they'd get down from here!

From the outside

Shot of the OE

The audio guide was great at transporting you back to 2,000 years ago and imaging the atmosphere within the arena. The things that went on there would've been so gruesome, people getting mauled to death by lions and bears. The mkst interesting part was when I learnt about the gladiatoral combats and how, unlike Hollywood films would like us to believe, after the 1st century AD gladiators were actually free men who volunteered to fight. 90% of the combats ended up with a loser that survived because if one of them died the owner of the school he was trained at had to be paid to compensate for the training school's loss. It could cost the sponser of the event a lot of money if he allowed the gladiators to fight until death. There were also referees in the arena, can you believe? These were men who were retired gladiators and they were there to judge the effort and perseverance of each combatant. It was such a great and fascinating tour.  

On the bus trip back to Avignon (about 2 hours) I fell asleep because I was exhausted after such a funfilled day. As I mentioned earleir I went back to get soem risotto for dinner. I had mentioned it to some of my new friends so one of them came to get some with me. When we got back to the hostel to eat it the others wanted some so after I'd finished I took them back to get some too. They were all very impressed with the risotto and the young French girl who had served me both noghts was very happy at the extra people I brought along. She let us choose any risotto and drink for €6, instead of the chosen risotto of the day, and that was my first positive experience with a French person on this trip :)  

I had a few hours to spare in Avignon this morning before heading to the train station so again walked around the streets of Avignon, popping in and out of shops and jusy enjoyed the city. I walked along the river and admired the Pont d'avignon and then went back inside the city walls and climbed to the top of a hill to look at some views of the surrounding towns. Provence is a very beautiful part of France and I am very happy that I included it in my travels.  

Very French

The Pope's old residence

One more sleep until my birthday! Cannot believe I am nearly 25, that's just crazy! To start celebrations early tonight I am headinv up the Eiffel Tower with a girl I met in Nice and I have a very nice day planned for my special day tomorrow but you'll have to wait for my next entry to see what fun I get up to!  

Love to you all X

Nice, not so nice

Unfortunately I don't have too many fond words about Nice except that it broke up a long train journey from Italy to France. The train ride I talked about in my last blog entry ended up taking close to 12 hours because of a train getting stuck on the line in front of my one. Been stuck in a carriage with pretty much no air flow for a few hours was far from pleasant. I'm thankful I had my baby penguin fan, it has become a real life saver on this trip! It has also caused a few odd looks when I whip it out and begin extreme fanning ;)

Baby penguin fan from Marina Bay Sands!

I had quite high expectations of my hostel in Nice because it had some great reviews and was the most expensive one I'd stayed in (finding reasonably priced accommodation in Nice was difficult). I was far from impressed, it was so dirty and I couldn't believe that's what €40 a night got me. My hostel in Bled was not great but still better than this one and that only cost me €15 per night. In fact everything in Nice seemed over priced. I know I am not painting a good picture but for me Nice had no charm, sure a lot of money but nothing particularly special that I found myself marvelling at.  

 

I had one full day there and although my first impressions were not great I wasn't going to sit in my room and feel sorry for myself wasting time so I set out exploring quite early in the morning. Nice has the biggest outdoor fruit and flower market so I went to check that out. They had a good selection of fresh produce so I got myself a fresh fruit salad to keep my energy levels up. I had a walk around the old town and headed to check out the beach (which was already packed at 9.30am).

Sunflowers!

A nice selection

A local tending to his flowers

A great selection of fruit

View from the top

 

Found the museum of contemporary art on my walk

What is this???

 

I'd noticed that my hostel ran a free walking tour that left at 11am so I made sure I was back for that. The walking tour was good. The guide was quite comical and held a baguette as his pointer. From it I learnt that Nice used to be part of Italy until Napoleon III made a secret deal with the Italians to take it for France 152 years ago. In the old town there is a huge Italian influence and it is obvious why when you know it was part of Italy.  

The guide

Streets in the old town, quite Italian looking

Small church we passed on the way, I have been following the blue sky!

Three wheeler truck

 

We ended the tour on top of one of the hills overlooking Nice. It had some great views overlooking the coast and a nice area to have a picnic on.  

From the top of the hill

Nice (nice not Nice) waterfall - we needed a splash after the climb up the hill

 

After I got back to the hostel I headed down to the beach and in the crowds of people managed to bump into a few girls I'd got friendly with in my room. It was nice to sit and talk with them. The only uncomfortable thing about the beach was that it was covered in stones - there was no sand in sight! That made it incredibly tricky when trying to get in and out of the water because it hurt your feet a lot. These aren't small pebbles I'm talking about but stones similar size to those you'd find down the Hutt River.  

The waterfront before it got packed! Past 12pm it was hard to move

 

I managed to fill my day quite well I think and my next stop I'm very excited about - Avignon! I have heard fantastic things about this place. My dad's boss who lived in France for many years told me, "My heart is in Avignon", and with a compliment like that I think it must be good!