I had never been more relieved to get off a plane than when I arrived in Paris after a long journey throughout which I felt feverish and nauseous. Was met at the airport by Marie and after a nutritious French breakfast of croissants, pain au chocolat, baguettes and coffee, moved on to Pierre's father's apartment in the middle of Paris, where I joined a Frenchman (Pierre), two Italians (Silvia & Chiara) and a Dane (Carsten). The soldiers patrolling the local train station with machine guns (an anti-terrorism measure) added to the sense of unreality induced by lack of sleep anad jetlag. My first night was almost sleepless and was filled with semi-conscious delerious nightmares that I had to sort out the bedsheets and figure out which ones could be submitted to Medicare for reimbursement (evidently there are scars from my time as a Claims Handler...)


Eiffel Tower, Paris, July 07


"Bastard Family" in Parisian cemetary, July 07


With Rose, Paris July 07


With Isabelle, Yasin, Silvia & Carsten, Paris July 07


Notre Dame, Paris July 07


View from Pierre's father's apartment in Montparnasse: Eiffel Tower by night, Paris July 07


With fake smile & Silvia, Paris 07


Drinking a Kronenbourg 1664 for Mike: Montmatre, Paris, July 07


Montmatre, Paris, July 07


With Pierre, Montmatre, Paris, July 07


Montmatre, Paris, July 07


My new workplace, Paris, July 07


The Catacombes, Paris, July 07


The Catacombes, Paris, July 07

Some cheerful thoughts from the Catacombes:

"Pensez le matin que vous n'irez pas etre pas jusques au soir et au soir que vous n'irez pas au matin" (Think in the morning that you may not make it till the evening and in the evening that you may not make it till the morning)

"Heureux celui qui a toujours devant les yeux l'heure de sa mort et qui dispose tous les jours a mourir" (No translation for fear of inaccuracy and consequential taunting by cruel Fwenchman...)

"Il est quelquefois plus avantageux de mourir que de vivre" (It is sometimes more advantageous to die than to live)


Romi arrived in Paris at some point, as is evident from subsequent photos...


With Romi, Paris, July 07


Fine specimen of an arrogant Frenchman with croissant, Paris, July 07


Romi dressed for Parisian summer, July 07


Romi & Pierre, Paris, July 07

Reluctantly I left Paris on 29th August and headed down to Grenoble, a town in the French Alps where I am to spend the first half of my year in France. As usual, I had a stupid amount of luggage.


With stupid amount of luggage yet again, Paris July 07


View from dorm room in Grenoble, Aug. 07

I arrived exhausted and discovered that I was to live in a dorm that takes the concept of"basic" to the extreme, but at least the view was good!


View from dorm room in Grenoble, Aug. 07


With Alex in Nimes, Aug. 07

It soon ( I would go as far as to say almost immediately) became obvious that I could not tolerate the dorm for half a year, as much as I enjoyed the odour of sewerage from the bathroom plumbing and oil from the deep fryer in the kitchen. To my great joy, I have just moved into an apartment in what appears to be the kebab district. I share the apartment with a Frenchman, a cat ('Chausettes'), a gerbil and often, the majority of the town's gay community (a lovely bunch of guys who call me "Mademoiselle"). The view from the apartment is also quite spectacular and I take much pleasure in sitting on the terrace dunking my baguette into a large bowl of coffee.


View from apartment, Aug. 07

Slowly I am adapting to my new lifestyle, though my French is still far from fluent. Fortunately my French class has just been given a new teacher, who is far less pushy and more cynical than the last, and to whom I took an immediate liking. The university semester starts in one month; trying to follow courses in French will be challenging but hopefully not impossible.