minke: adventure in paris

Notre Dame (and the flying buttresses out the back!).

Paris is beautiful. I walked from the hostel (in a beautiful old mansion with a funny sloping spiral staircase) to the Ile St Louis, and through streets lined with incredible shops and a fantastic old violinist busking [I really regret not having given him anything but I still wasn't sure of the comparative value of the franc], past cafes full of good food, across a pont, and suddenly here I am.

The setting sun is making the sandstone buildings around me glow. I figure I'll walk around a bit tonight, and eat and drink in the Marais.

I hate to say it but it does make Amsterdam look a little cramped and grey; but it's hardly a fair comparison.

It's so beautiful. Beautiful but crazy. The gargoyles are very cute, but very odd. The front of the building is covered in images of saints, financiers, or whoever. I can't wait to see the rose windows from the inside.

Lots of beggars, and one very vocal crazy man.

I've forgotten how to say I don't eat meat - je ne mange viande? Also to time how long it took to get from Gare de Nord to Pont Marie for Sunday's return trip.

Knowing a little Dutch is really fucking up my French, which was limited to 'merci' etc anyway, but now I try to say those basic phrases in Dutch.

So, I've been walking around. Found a bookshop, got a phrase book that has phonetics, and a f10 guidebook.

It still seems very weird that people are walking around speaking French. I'm sure someone said 'oh la la' before, and the Picturesque Committee put an old man wearing a beret and smoking an aromatic brown cigarello in my path.

Saw the Eiffel Tower! Just came across it while walking back towards the Marais.

Petit dejeuner. Coffee, bread, a tiny glass of jus. Those crazy Europeans and their bread for breakfast.

Got home about 12:30 last night, I didn't want to risk the curfew.

After dinner [Chez Hanna, fantastic fish balls, but I started to feel ill and couldn't finish them], I went to Amnesia, from a listing in Frommer's Online, of all places.

There were a few stools spare by the bar, so I asked the girl sitting near them if they were taken. We ended up talking, and hung out for the rest of the night.

She knew lots of people, as she's something of a regular, so I chatted to lots of people and ended up downstairs in what ended up being the most packed club in the smallest space in the world. So much for the French apparently not having rhythm! It's amazing how men can still pull their sexy dance moves in such a tight space. It must make picking up really easy.

Linda (such an Aussie sounding name for a French Berber!) was quite amazing. She had something to say to everyone. When speaking English, she mixed the genders pretty randomly, without a direct correlation between him and her, but then she was, or had been, a bisexual, so maybe her grammar was accurate.

It's so early still! But I was woken by garbage trucks and thought I might as well get it over and done with. It looks a bit grey outside. I've got see if I can get a room to stay in tonight or I'll be sleeping rough.