Five more tourists in Paris 8-11 Decembre

Paris is really the heart of France, with a fifth of the population, the famous metro, the famous everything really, and so lots of things to see. So we put on our sightseeing boots, jumped on the 300km/h train and got ready to "do Paris" with our friends Rudy, Michel, and Julie.

The plan was to see as much as we could during the day, go out at night, then spend a few hours recuperating at Rudy's apartment for the next day. And despite sleeping through alarms two days in a row, and the warmthless sun, we managed to do find enough thigns to keep us busy for two days, one morning and three nights.

So, we climbed Mont St. Martre

Popped down to the Arc de Triomphe

Were inspired by le Tour Eiffel

Then we stuck around to see it at night

We saw the Louvre

Which is absolutely immense

And heard a choir in St. Eustache, which is immense too

And at night went to a nightclub on a peniche on the Seine, and to the Quartier Latin

Then we took a stroll down the Monopoly board, to the French equivalent of Mayfair: Rue de la Paix, where we felt right at home, because it just happens to be the street we so humbly live on (in Aix).

We ate nearby in a great Italian joint (white truffle gnocchi)

And found our first Israeli falafel in France (it's been too long)

And then generally sampled the drinks menu here and there.

While we were in Paris, it was the Telethon, which is a 50-year old treadition where every community group in France, schools, firemen, churches, sports groups, really, everyone, puts on uniforms and does fundraising in any which way to raise money for rare diseases research. Here, for example, are some pompiers taking kids up and down ladders for a small donation.

So, in the end we managed to keep ourselves well occupied, with the help of the "genialement grave" Mitch and Rudy, and of course our good friend Julie, and back on the train to Aix where our classes are finally coming to an end for this semester. Which means: next stop, les vacances!