J'ai fait une grosse connerie...

One freezing Saturday, a couple of weeks ago, my flatmate and I found ourselves at the SQY-Ouest centre commercial in St Quentin-en-Yvelines.



It is approximately 50 minutes west of central Paris by the delightful RER C. So, what made me make such a journey, you ask? The answer is: a dress. A rather pretty dress, but just a dress nonetheless. This is where the 'grosse connerie' comes in.

Quite a while ago I placed an order with Zara's online store. Being the cheapskate that I am, I opted for 'in store delivery' which is free. When I entered my postcode, the website gave me a list of three shops to send my item to. I recognised two and, out of curiosity, searched the street address of the third. Google maps showed the shop as being a mere few streets away from my home, so thinking I was being clever, I chose that one. I thought nothing of it until Zara sent me an email kindly informing me that my order was in store...in a store with the postcode 78180. As it didn't begin with 750 (meaning it wasn't in central Paris), I googled it and found out it was at the end of the RER C line, 50 minutes to the west of Paris.



I ended up paying €10 train fare (more than three times the delivery fee!), making a 50 minute journey, and almost freezing to death waiting for the RER. The moral of this story: always pay the three euro delivery fee!

Just Another Night Out in Paris...

Last night, my flat mate and I decided to go out for "a couple" of drinks, and to not make it a "late one." After four cocktails and a glass of wine later, we ended up getting home at 5am with two members of quite a famous (at the time) band, strictly for providing a place to crash and nothing else, you understand.

So we get to Le Motel at around 10pm and find a drinks menu. Unfortunately, two gentlemen had decided to set up camp in front of it so we shuffled over to take a look and due to terrible eyesight, ended up squinting at the menu for a little too long and started to annoy said gentlemen. Luckily, we found another menu.

Le Motel is one of those grimy (in a good way) indie bars. They provide indie music (of course) and soft rock, none that I recognized but good for background music. There is a funky, circular bar right in the middle of the second room and not many places to sit. Luckily we found seats. With €6,50 cocktails, you can't go wrong (this is good for Paris!)

We had no more encounters with the bar guys until much later when they came over and got chatting to us. Friendly Irish chaps who, little did we know, are/were in a pretty famous band. I'm not going to say which, instead I'll just say we had a thrilling evening...

Anyway, bar closes around 2am and we've missed the last metro; so much for "not a late one." As is usual in Paris there were no taxis anywhere near the bar, so we headed to Bastille to catch one, to no avail. We all ended up going to a cafe and I got something I haven't gotten since I left England...post-night out chips! Granted they cost €7,50 but they were good chips!

After we finished chips and wine - oh so French - we headed back to our flat and provided a nice hospitable sofa. This morning (afternoon) my flat mate, being a good hostess, saw them out. A pair of forgotten gloves and a forgotten iphone later, that was it for Celebrity Encounter in Paris #2!

A Few Days in Barcelona

On Monday (technically Tuesday when we landed), I returned to Paris after a rather traumatic experience with delayed flights, no trains or buses running and an expensive taxi ride home, made all the more traumatic by the fact that I didn't want to leave.

Barcelona is amazing; it is pretty, bohemian, laid back and the people are friendly and accommodating. My friend has even decided that she wants to live there in the future. We stayed in the Barri Gòtic (the Gothic Quarter) for 4 days/3 nights. It was truly beautiful and this comes from someone who lives in Paris!

We explored the Gothic Quarter as far as Plaça Catalunya down to the sea front. The side streets were filled with people milling around outside shops, restaurants and bars. It wasn't unpleasantly busy, however, there were just enough people to still get around but enjoy the buzz. We went to La Sagrada Familia, Arc de Triomf, Jardins de la Ciudadela, Catedral de Barcelona, numerous Christmas markets and, of course, the high street.



Another (always) enjoyable experience was sampling the local foods and drinks: paella, sangria and xocolata a la tassa (hot melted chocolate in a mug). However, there was one unpleasant dining experience in the form of 'xocolata con churros.' Evidently, the 'chocolate' part was great, it was the 'churros' (deep-fried doughnut-pastry things) which made me scrunch up my face and throw away €3.50 worth of food.

All dining experiences aside, I found my new favourite spot in the world on Montjüic which is a mountain comprising a few gardens, museums, a castle and my new favourite place; a little cafe with outdoor seating and an amazing view of the city. Paired with reasonable prices, good coffee and a little sun, it was perfect.

The whole experience was, of course, enhanced by the fact that it was 10 degrees hotter than Paris and I got a break from the current end-of-year exams/essays stress. Et alors, time to stop dreaming of sangria and mountain-side cafes and get back to work...