HAPPY HALLOWE'EN

LIBERTY

This (awfully windy) Sunday was spent crossing New York Harbor to visit Liberty and Ellis Islands. Coincidentally, yesterday was Liberty’s 120th birthday but somehow there was no birthday cake for this ‘universal symbol of freedom and democracy’. Instead, she had a day off from the tourists. But I felt quite at home reading all about how the French sent their gift of friendship. Meanwhile, over on Ellis Island, I learned about the 12 million people who intentionally chose to become Americans and who passed through these islands on their way to a new life. Then it was up to the top of the Empire State Building for a night-time view of New York. Okay, lecture over. I definitely need some sleep!

IT'S HARD BEING A TOURIST!

Today, I am quite tourist-ed out. Don’t get me wrong, I love wandering around and seeing all the sights and hearing all the sounds and experiencing all the new sensations of being in a foreign country but there’s only so much a little brain can deal with, especially when it’s not even sure what time it really is.

I have been learning lots of interesting things like: people here are really friendly but they are not ashamed to wear fur, wellington boots and baseball hats. There are meteorites 'in captivity', apparently. I also discovered that I weigh 3 moon pounds. And it’s not just in France where random strangers talk to me.

And tonight the clocks go back which means a whole extra hour for more exploring!

Oh, and thanks to the wonders of technology, I know that Stade won their H-Cup match against Ospreys, with a try from Mirco!

PARIS – ASHFORD – NEW YORK

Well, I know I had only really just arrived in Paris (and you’re probably going to say that teachers never do any work) but it’s the Toussaint half-term holidays already and here I am in New York! And somebody had the brilliant idea of bringing their laptop with them and the hotel room has internet access, so blog and I can happily keep you up to date on all the fun we're having ..

BON COURAGE

© iko

I just wanted to wish good luck to a lucky and brave (or mad) friend and his black belt who are off to Australia to do some fighting. Go get ’em! Grrr!

BIRTHDAY BOY

Because I’ve been ill and confined to my sick bed, I have been avoiding bright lights and big crowds. Which means that I haven’t been able to go out and choose a card for a certain somebody’s birthday today. Hence, there’ll be no letter postmarked ‘France’ for which I’m very sorry but I hope Hannie and Farley spoil you rotten today! Have a lovely time. And drink lots of wine! :)

THE H-CUP

© millennium stadium

This week-end sees the return of the Heineken Cup, with Stade away to Calvisano tonight (without Mirco, who’s injured his back). I don’t know if you will remember but Stade lost a few of their away matches last year which surely cost them a chance in the Final. I’m sure this is Stade’s year but in any case, I already have my tickets for Twickenham, whoever’s in the Final! :)

Victory for SF 45-10 against Calvisano!

YVES DUTEIL

Sorry, I'm a bit poorly at the moment, hence a woman of few words, so I'll let you have some nice French from this song I've discovered recently:

La vie sans toi / Le coeur à l'envers
C'est l'eau sans la mer / C'est froid comme l'hiver
C'est long comme la nuit / C'est lourd comme l'ennui
La nuit sans l'aurore / C'est long comme la mort
La vie sans toi / Vers qui et vers quoi
Le sol sous mes pas / Se dérobera
Tout seul sur la Terre / Le coeur en enfer
Dieu me garde de vivre un seul jour
Sans toi

Vivre sans vivre
Moi qui n'ai jamais su marcher / Que pour te suivre
Ivre de vivre
Pour respirer l'air que tu respires
Laisser parler nos coeurs sans rien dire
Vivre ou survivre
Sans plus jamais trouver dans tes yeux / La fin du livre
Vivre sans vivre
Dieu me garde de vivre un seul jour
Sans toi

http://sg1.allmusic.com/cg/smp.dll?link=m6krc8ija5io2eetg767wb4&z=MP3&r=20.asx

THE LOUVRE

The visits to the Louvre continue apace but this time the cows don’t seem nearly as prominent. Instead, I find I’m being even more drawn to the beautiful marble sculptures. Just being surrounded by these amazing sparkly white/ cream pieces of stone is very soothing. And what’s nice is that they can be found in the most unexpected places.

DON'T CALL ME BABY

While I love living in France, there is one thing which I will NEVER EVER get used to. And that is being called ‘Madame’. Now, I acknowledge that my teenage years are well behind me but to be called ‘Madame’ makes me feel like I’m about 8o years old. And I don’t like it. For goodness sake, why can’t they just simply say to strangers ‘hello’, ‘goodbye’ and ‘thank you’ like we do!

OUR LADY

It being Sunday, it seemed appropriate that I should visit a church so off I went to Notre Dame. By chance, the choir were singing evening mass and it was a lovely peaceful atmosphere, despite all the tourists. And no: it wasn’t struck by lightning after I left. It’s still there – at least it was the last time I looked! ;p

SF: 22 - BIARRITZ: 16 :)

ALLEZ ..

.. a little one of the double-try scorer! ;p

© bbc

BIG MATCH TONIGHT

I’m very excited because Stade are playing Biarritz at Stade de France tonight! Apparently, the stadium will be full to bursting since nearly all 80,000 tickets have been sold.

Unfortunately, Mauro and Mirco won’t be there since they were with Italy for their world cup qualifier against Russia - which they won 67-7 with two tries from Mirco! BTW: the new poster advertising the AIs:

© mbergamasco.it

‘SWIMMING’ AGAIN

Well, it had to happen sooner or later that I would behave like a complete wuss and spend half an hour adjusting my bonnet and clinging to the side of the pool and then going underwater holding my nose while pretending to ‘acclimatise’ myself instead of kicking those legs and moving those arms. Beloved tutor was not amused. But I did eventually do two lengths (with float); not quite the 35 lengths of beloved tutor! As you can see, I have a little way to go yet!

QUEUING AGAIN

Um, I have a confession to make and I do apologise that I keep going on about this, it’s just that being in France brings this particular English thing into sharp focus for me but: I am beginning to take full advantage of the lack of “queue rules” here to leave my place to do something else (fill in a form properly, look at something interesting on a shelf) and then return to re-take my rightful place in the queue. I admit I am not proud of myself but don’t worry, I’m not doing the pushing-in thing, well, not yet anyway.

A LA CAMPAGNE

Yesterday was a beautifully sunny day and my lovely friend had the very fine idea of escaping the city to go mushroom picking in the countryside. We had a fabulous time roaming through the forest, discussing the state of the world and gathering the cèpes. Luckily, she is much more adept at these things than me otherwise we would have been hospitalised through food poisoning and in the end, we collected two and a half kilos of these gorgeous brown mushrooms. It’s so nice to be able to come home and enjoy what you have gathered with your very own hands, especially with a nice glass of wine :)

MONTAUBAN

© sport24

Ah crap, just as I get canal+ to watch the Top 14 matches live, Stade Français lose away to Montauban (15-9) .. :(

Never mind, there's always the Italy-Portugal world cup qualifier later today .. and they won 83-0 with 13 tries (one from Mircooo!)

MORE SWIMMING

© muppets

The other day I had a bit of a shock when beloved tutor took me to a new swimming pool and the SHALLOW END was 1.80m! (this is quite a bit taller than me in case you didn’t know). However, four things saved me: my determined, tenacious nature; the presence of beloved tutor; the handy little ledge all around the side of the pool; and the floaty belts they kindly provide in French swimming pools! Thanks to the above, I am now able to move without the aid of my float and pull myself forward with my arms as well as trying to get those frog's legs of mine moving, although I admit there is a looong way to go here! However, something I did notice was that a lot of people were doing lengths like I do (i.e. using floats). This surely can only mean either that: this is really how people swim; I have started a trend; or that particular afternoon was dedicated to ‘swimmers’ like me!

CALENDAR

Hmm, you know what I was saying about not judging a book by its cover? Well I’m sorry to say that, although there are some beautiful images, and Mirco is there in (nearly) all his glory, this year’s Dieux du Stade calendar is not all that .. :( Good job the official photo is nice! :)

© stade.fr

TEA

There is a charming little tea shop which a lovely kind friend has told me about tucked away in a little road in the IVeme (incidentally near a street called rue des mauvais garçons ;p ). I love discovering little places like this; you can buy tea and all sorts of tea-related things and drink tea in their tea room and even visit their tea museum. I suppose it must appeal to that well-known innate English love of tea!

FIRST DAY

Ah, it almost feels as if I’ve never been away from school. Okay I went in twice last week to observe the little darlings but today was my official First Day. Luckily, the task ahead appears not so insurmountable, since beloved tutor and I are a good team and most of the pupils are incredibly motivated to speak English. All we have to do is equip them with the means to do so! Oh, and another positive note: this year, there are toilet seats!

ALBI

And yet another win for Stade! This match had almost everything: French passion, a lively opponent, missed opportunities, fighting, a yellow card, Mirco everywhere, a downpour with thunder and lightning, Skrela kicking slowly but accurately, a score of 25-12 and a new record of nine consecutive victories in the Top 14. Yaaay!