Rachel J. Roche

What a beautiful day. I am sat in Montpellier Park in Cheltenham having lunch and typing on my little netbook. There are plenty of people about but it’s still fairly quiet even for lunch time. Well, apart from a couple of young girls who have now sat right by me laughing incessantly at something some boy has text them. Please be quiet I am trying to type!

There is so much to say as I’ve had a very busy week. This time last week, my friend Becky and I were on our way to Paris by plane – in fact, we would have landed a short while ago and we were probably wondering around Boulevard Saint-Germain about now, trying to find our hotel. We stayed in Hotel Observatoire (observatoirehotel.com) directly opposite the Jardin du Luxemburg (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jardin_du_Luxembourg) and it was exactly what we expected. The staff were super friendly and although the lift to our room on the third floor gave me the heebie-jeebies because it was a bit of a squeeze to get in there even with just our carry-on suitcases, the room itself was just what we needed and the bathroom was huge; perfect for a couple of friends of a girlie weekend away. The first night we had dinner at the restaurant which was adjacent to the hotel – a typical Parisian eating house and I couldn’t wait to tuck into steak frites and a couple of glass of vin blanc. The waitress was really helpful and I managed to get some tips from her about where best to go to get a French mobile. We had such a great evening. Becky and I hadn’t really had chance to catch up properly over the last 12 months or so despite me working in the same town as her since Christmas. All we had managed were a few short lunch breaks and that was never enough time to fill each other in properly on what we had been up to. Later in the evening after dinner, we took the Metro over to Le Louvre. The view walking though the square was phenomenal. The sun was setting and the light was perfect to make the most of the beauty of the place. Although I had been to Le Louvre before (a whopping 18 years ago) I certainly don’t remember it being quite as spectacular. Paris was also starting to feel strangely like home although this is probably my minds way of diluting the anxiety of moving to another country. It was still pretty early and Le Louvre was still open so we went in. We had a wonder around for about an hour and for those of you who have never been, it's a must-see! Totally amazing and I'll be back again to spend some proper time in there as soon as I can. Thereafter, we headed over to the Jardins des Tuileries where there was a fairground and had a wonder around there (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuileries_Garden). Persuaded by B we went on the air swing which was ridiculously high but gave us an amazing view of the city. It was dark by this point and Paris by night with Le Louvre and L’Arc de Triomphe looked pretty awesome. We resisted the urge to get doughnuts or sweets from one of the many stalls but we did stop by an open air bar where they were serving pancakes – we shared a chocolate pancake and a carafe of wine before heading back to the hotel. They were showing the Olympic basketball I think - strangely enough France v GB! We didn’t stick around to see the outcome!

The walk back to the Metro to take us to the hotel reminded me that you can never be too careful in a city in the eveing. Two men were clearly following us part way to the Metro from Tuileries but we double backed on ourselves a couple of times before they eventually stopped following us and walked away - we then went straight back to the hotel taking no short-cuts and making sure we stayed in busy areas where there were plenty of street lights. I will definitely think twice before heading out alone at night but then you have to be careful wherever you are and it’s dark.

I had such a good afternoon and evening in the city, but couldn’t wait to get up on Saturday morning to explore some more. Saturday was also the day that I was meeting Mireille – the lady who is renting her spare room to me for the duration of my stay. I was also looking forward to finding out where the university was and the office of research where I will be spending my first week.

More updates soon.