sunset

My friend Timmy is going back to Chicago... so sad to see him leave :'( We had fallafels in the Marais district... the best fallafel in Paris.. good food doesn't have to be expensive!

We thought we should end his stay with one of the best views in Paris...

The sunset was breathtaking, bursting with the last light... as though the sun changed his mind a thousand times before sliding into the horizon.

We stayed till the tower lit up, the air became chilly, my nose turned red & Paris transformed from unfeeling grey to a twinkling warm hue...

But still we stayed on, each willing his mind to remember this moment when Paris was at her prettiest. xx

miracle of nature

A quiet Saturday at the theatre in Versailles... & a walk to see the Pièce d'Eau des Suisses, a little lake located south of the chateau de Versailles, used sometimes to supply water for the gardens.

It was -5 degrees Celsius but the skies were unbelievably blue.

The whole lake was frozen as far as the eye could see; the swans were walking on ice.

Thanks to the continuous paddling of the ducks, one small area of the lake escaped the deep freeze.

Franz-Oliver Giesbert once said that the setting sun is always less charming than when it rises... but on this beautiful late afternoon, i beg to differ. xx

a winter wonderland..

A beautiful day greeted us as we got off the train in Chamonix..



But the snow didnt let up & it continued snowing for the next 2 days we were there!



Mont Blanc in the distance..



The lovely church next to our hotel..



Taking the little train up the mountains to see the Montenvers glacier, the longest glacier in France.



Unfortunately it was all covered in fog & snow & we only caught a glimpse of it thru the howling winds.



Then just before we got on the train down, the clouds parted to give us a clear view :)



Then we went up the Aiguille de Midi by cable car only to get caught in such heavy snow we literally froze & our noses all turned red! It was -14 degs & i was not even properly dressed... everyone stared at us in the cable car... i guessed they must have been laughing at our tropical silliness.



At the summit with no view... just a sea of white for as far as the eye could see.



But the snow-capped mountains were so beautiful... just like a real-life Christmas card.
I've seen Chamonix in winter & summer... what a world of difference, but equally enchanting xx

Aix

Happy 2012! The last few days of 2011 were really wonderful... we stayed in Aix with friends where it was 15 degrees everyday & unbelievably blue skies.



Lula who was preparing to make a mountain of crepes for dinner... love her to bits! She is from Ukraine & a real darling. She opened up her house to us & treated us like royalty ♥



Along the famous Cours Mirabeau of Aix... much like Paris' Champs Elysées but alot more charming & less tourists.



One of the old squares of Aix where filmmakers regularly come to shoot.



We also visited Arles but i was very sick from flu & the effects of the mistral, a strong Provencal wind. However, the colors of the setting Provencal sun against the stone houses were too beautiful to let go.



A typical market day in Aix.



How i have missed the wonderful weather of Provence! The people are so warm & there's always so much light in this region.



Stephane choosing fresh lettuce for our New year's eve dinner. He retired early with Lula & decided to move to Aix where he now goes to the market, reads & travels. They are such a wonderful couple & 2 of the nicest people i've met in france :)



Aix is full of little squares & fountains & cafes... a very pretty city. Everywhere you turned, there was bound to be a cafe or fountain of some sort. Coupled with more than 300 days of sunshine a year, it's no wonder that many choose to retire here.



Tea break at Riederer, a famous Swiss patisserie in Aix. The cakes were exquisite & we bought so many of them to try.
Instead of counting down in one of the bars, we had a 5-hr dinner & spent the last few minutes dancing to strings of life, it was great. I hope you too had a wonderful start to the new year... I'm still unwell & my nose hasn't stopped running for days so it's time to rest（。_°)

Let's talk money...

I've received many emails over the past few months about studying & expenses in France... sorry I havent been able to get back because I was trying to figure out the best way to give a clear picture to all of you as it covers so many aspects of one's life. I did some accounting over the past 2 months too. So here goes!

[1]. School fees. Taking a language course is different from studying full-time in a university & coming to Europe on student exchange from your home university, in terms of hours & fees. I pay about 1800 euros per semester (Oct-Jan) for my course, whereas studying full-time in a public uni here sets you back about 200 euros per annum & student exchange tuition fees are probably waived. (As was my case many years ago when i went to Belgium).

Different schools charge different fees so do check again. Language courses start at a few hundred euros per semester depending on your level, the school & the number of hours.

Decide what works best for your situation & what you want to achieve. Do u want the experience without the stress, or are u in for the credentials? I only really wanted a year off so I knew i wouldnt want to plunge into university routines again.

[2]. Housing. My friend, who lives in a 2-bedroom apartment with his roommate pays about 1000 euros a month. Rent is expensive in Paris, & it varies greatly depending on the district you live in, your proximity to amenities, etc. However, this drops drastically when you are living in a student hostel so it really depends on your resources & yr school! I'd say this is the single most important expense of studying here and deserves the most effort in planning.

[3]. Food. We spend about 150 euros a week on groceries for 2 people including wines. My student friend spends about 200 euros a month for himself. It depends on whether you cook alot, buy ready-made food, or even if u buy supermarket house brands over established ones.

[4]. Transport. If you are a student & younger than 26 yrs old, you qualify for subsidised fees & u pay like 30-40 euros for unlimited travel on the metro every month. I live in the suburbs & am older than 26 so i pay 98 euros a month.

[5]. Lifestyle & entertainment. Take into account your lifestyle back home & what is important to you. I can't live without being connected to the Internet. My mobile plan has data included & costs me only 30 euros a month. I have classmates who use a prepaid SIM card (10 euros/month) & use the Internet & free computers in school & that saves them alot of money.

Are u contented to watch tv at home & study or do u prefer to hang out in bars knowing new people, going to museums, catching the latest french films? Can you live without eating out at restaurants? All these entertainment expenses add up so u might want to factor them in. I think 300-400 euros is a fair amount to put aside for all these. Of course you can go without these too. Some students I know have alot on their plate academically so they seldom go out.

In my opinion, i think it's a shame to be in a city like Paris & not visit the museums. Museums are free one sunday of every month & there are free museums around the city too.

[6]. Travel. France is a wonderful base to explore the rest of Europe so do factor in holiday expenses. It's also cheap to travel around if you buy yr train/plane tickets well in advance. Also going in a group with yr classmates helps u to split the costs too.

[7]. Work. If you are on a long-term student visa, you can work max 20 hrs a week part-time. This can help to finance your stay in Paris... the minimum wage is about 10 euros an hour for most student jobs.

[8]. Medical. If you are a student less than 28 yrs of age, you can buy insurance from the uni health system for 100-200 euros a year. As i dont qualify for that, I had to get my own insurance. This is important when u see a doctor as you only need to pay a token sum. However i also know people who did not buy insurance for the past 3 years living in Paris & they were fine.

------

My situation is very different from most students so this is the best i can come up with, after talking to my classmates. At age 29, I feel comfortable with a certain quality of life, after having worked for the past 6 years. Hence, I spend alot more than my younger peers in school on shopping/ films/ museums/ coffee,etc. However, I planned financially for all of these before coming to Paris.

Sorry for the late replies & feel free to drop me an email if you need more details & i will try my best to answer in my capacity. xx

Auvers-sur-Oise

One Saturday not long ago...

when the sun was still out everyday.. we went to Auvers-sur-Oise on a whim where Vincent van Gogh lived & worked & commited suicide. It was amazing to see in real life the landscapes he was inspired by... the exact things he painted still standing today.

This church is one of my favorite paintings by him because of the color of the sky - is it day as most people say or is it a bright moonlit night as i feel.. that's the beauty of art.. no one tells you what it should be :)

And the graves of van Gogh & his brother... their story is heartbreaking... his brother was the only one who supported him & stood by him his whole life...

"One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul and yet no one ever came to sit by it. Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their way." - Vincent van Gogh

 

Giverny & Reims

October poetry in Monet's garden, Giverny ::

We also had the pleasure of seeing his water-lily pond & Japanese bridge... inspiration for all his water lily paintings.

And of course his famous house.

Since the weather was fantabulously warm for late September, we also went to the Champagne region to visit cellars of champagne houses. There are hundreds of kilometres of chalk cellars below the city of Reims... all owned by the champagne houses. Unfortunately, the one we really wanted to visit - Ruinart - was fully booked so we settled for Veuve Clicquot which was just as impressive.

The guide opening the great cellar doors which would lead us 30metres underground into their chalk cellars, known as caves or 'crayeres' where they age their champagne.

We were guided into huge humid caves with a constant temperature of 10-12 degrees celsius and there, thousands of dusty bottles awaited their destiny to be dressed in the modern VCP colors. The guide also explained the process of sedimentation & degorging of each bottle. I think its nice to know the work that goes behind each glass of champagne we drink.

After that, we were given a tasting of La Grande Dame '98, delicious!

Since we had some time, we also visited Taittinger's cellars... the view underground was amazing... a sea of champagne bottles! they had sections like these - 10 days to pile over 19000 bottles.

With my silly best friend... we were so happy with ourselves that we ended up missing the train back to Paris. Ah moments like these make me miss her so much now that she's gone! Have a bubbly weekend xx

new home...

I received a number of messages about where I live now :) I don't live in central Paris but a suburb of it called St Germain-en-Laye.. it's about 25mins from the center of Paris by train.

After the weekly Tuesday market (Sunday is market day too), I took these pictures of the main square which is about 5 mins from our place. 

It has pedestrian streets with cinemas, mcdonald's, cafes, bookshops, restaurants, pubs, supermarkets, florists, post office, banks... everything really... but most important, many fashion boutiques I love can be found here! (which is tres important for the morale when u first move in)

There is also a castle at the end of our street where Louis XIV was born & a forest nearby... both of which I'd like to discover soon! xx

//

Many years ago, I went to France for the first time. It was for a summer intensive french course in Lyon & we stayed at a house with a delightful old french couple. They had chickens, dogs, horses & even geese. We plucked cherries & tomatoes in their garden for our dinner salads.

It was wonderful & i got to know this japanese girl Mine who lived in the same house as us. She had worked for 10 years as a stewardess in a japanese airline & then decided to drop everything, go to France for 2 years & learn french! She was worldly & introduced me to Zara (still unheard of at that time in Asia) & the perils of french cuisine (made her put on 10kg). I was so impressed by her courage; she moved not because of work/marriage but because she chose to take that leap into the unknown.

Since then, I've thought about her once or twice, but little did i realise that she'd inspired me unknowingly... Fast forward 9 years, I've also seen enough of the world & will be moving to Paris for a year... To study french at the Sorbonne.. I'm even thinking of working part-time at a cafe! Not so much for the money but the fact that i've always wanted to do that... The whole working-in-a-cafe-in-a-foreign-land thing. Well, ideally in some remote Provencal village but Paris will do for the moment. Imagine, with my track record as a cabin crew, i could roll my eyes & sigh loudly at unsuspecting tourists & still be the most polite waitress around! We're in Paris after all! Just a thought heh heh.... :)

For now though, i'll concentrate on trying to fit my clothes into my luggage. More than half of them are already in Paris (little perks of my previous life) but i underestimated the size of my wardrobe... If only i could point a wand & yell *REDUCIO!!!* at all of them!

snowfall

The old castle of St Germain-en-laye, after yesterday's snowfall.

I miss you too. xxx

murakami x Versailles

Murakami x Versailles, old vs new.

The palace gardens all covered in snow was a beautiful sight to behold. Despite having been to Paris many times, I have never stepped foot in Versailles. The Murakami exhibition which ends 12 december finally made me haul myself there despite the cold.

Tongari-kun, Mr Pointy greets us as we entered the whimsical colorful but sometimes dark world of Takashi Murakami. He is such an icon in his creative use of thousands of colors... you are always left speechless when u stand before a giant work of his.

Kaikai & Kiki are 2 of my favorite Murakami characters! I loved the juxtaposition of contemporary Japanese art & old French aristocratic gild & busts.

Miss Ko2... i think i saw her in Frankfurt 2 years ago!

The magnificent Hall of Mirrors.

Flower Matango in the Hall of Mirrors.

 

And finally, the most happy piece of art - Kawaii - Vacances, Summer Vacation in the Kingdom of the Golden and a carpet full of happy flower faces! The kids were all laughing here & even the museum guard seemed relaxed & friendly.

It was a breath of sunshine in an otherwise freezing & bleak winter afternoon.