Bon Jour Paris

For Frank and the boys this is their first trip to Paris. As a seventeen year old I travelled to Paris with my mum as part of an eight month long trip around the world. Paris was one of my favourite cities and I have long dreamt of returning to it.

I have heard that Paris is perhaps not as I remember it and Parisians perhaps not as friendly. In an effort to get up to speed on how Paris may have changed I have been reading Oliver Magney's book, 'Stuff Parisians Like'. The book offers a tongue in cheek look at the life of Parisians. I have discovered that 'le beauf' (pronounced bohf) is the French equivalent of a bogan or red neck and for the Parisien all strangers are essentially beaufs. Beauf can also be applied to non human things that are not good; white socks are quel beauf (luckily, all our white socks turned black when Frank put them in the washing machine). Black is the height of fashion and Parisien's like to wear all black, navy blue is also acceptable. Black's slimming properties are part of the reason for their love of black. Apparently everyone is always on diet and the women always practice moderation when it comes to eating and drinking (doesn't sound like much fun). The exception to the wearing black rule is one's scarf (worn by both men and women). You can use this to express a bit of personality (but not too much unless you are mentally unstable, then it's okay). I am very proud that Frank has gotten into the swing of things and is not only wearing a scarf but also carrying a manbag.

To be cool in Paris, apart from wearing black, Magney says that one should have an iPhone (check), eat sushi (well, Rocco and I do) and wear converse sneakers. Converse sneakers - we won't be wearing those! I guess that makes us le beauf x 4!

It is now our third day in Paris and it is different to how I remember. There is lots of graffiti and litter, particularly on the metro. This morning we went looking for the flea market on the metro and ended up in a ghetto. We left pretty quickly and headed to Montmartre. On the Metro an elderly lady picked up a guitar and burst into song. She had the most amazing voice and Frank and I looked at each other and said, 'this would never happen on a train in Perth'. This has been the magic of Paris; expecting the unexpected! People have mostly been very friendly. I have tried to use the little bit of French I remember from school and Parisians have been very patient with me.

Today is New Year's Eve and tonight we will head to Champs Elysees, which will be closed to traffic, so pedestrians can rule the street. Happy New Year!

Czeching Out

On our last day in Prague we walked to the Prague Castle. It was quite a walk for the boys but well worth it for the architecture and the view.

The boys marched behind the guards at changing of the guard. Sam got a little too close to the action and was told off by one of the guards. It had a way more immediate effect than when we tell him off!

We thought this was quite amusing - is it 20% off the massage or the car!

Prague was amazing...we feel so fortunate to have spent a christmas here. For us it is a place we will always remember but not one we will long to come back to.

Unlike Paris; which I have longed to come back to for more than two decades...

Christmas Day

Just as well we went into the town square on 23rd December as it was very quiet on the 24th. This is because all the locals were all at home having their traditional Christmas meal on the Christmas Eve. We did think about trying to find a traditional Christmas meal but with none of us liking Carp it was hard to get excited about it. Still it was a lovely night to be up and about.

After some searching during the week it looked like we would not get a traditional Christmas lunch like at home. I thought this was important for the kids with us being so far away. Luckily, we managed to book the last table at the Hilton's Christmas brunch (from 12:30pm - 3:30pm with all the trimmings). This turned out to be sensational value at $55 a head for adults (including all beverages - champagne etc.). Children under ten were free and they had their own special buffet. We woke at around seven thirty and and as we are seven hours behind Perth realised that celebrations back home were well into the afternoon. This was a little sad as we would have liked to call home around lunch time or before. We had our own little Christmas tree and the kids were very excited to see presents (they thought either Santa, or Frank and I, were not organised enough to make this happen). They had been reminding us for days 'shouldn't you get the presents now'. That we managed to buy, hide and wrap the presents when we are together almost constantly was a feat in itself.

The boys had some kid's non alcoholic bubbly with breakfast. Doubt our liquor laws would ever permit this type of marketing.

Lunch was fantastic! We had a great table and the kids had a visit from Santa and so many games and activities that they were hardly ever at the table.

The bubbles were nice too!

The kids were laden with gifts and cake from Santa.

Though we did miss home, it was a great day.

Christmas in Prague

I have to admit we didn't really get it get until last night. We saw Prague as amazingly beautiful, yet cold and somehow untouchable. Tonight we were touched in a sudden and inexplicable way; Prague enveloped us with her soul.

As we walked together through a narrow alley way and into the old town square, the true heart of Prague was revealed. Historic towers lit up along side huge Christmas trees, people from all over the world huddled together around small tables eating sausages and crepes and drinking hot wine, bright Chritmas markets selling there wares...

Christmas music was being played on a large intrument consisting solely of bells.

We suddenly understood the magic of Prague at Christmas. The heart of Prague could melt snow (that's why we haven't got any). Prague doesn't discrimiate; her most amazing treasures are free for all to enjoy.

Except these ones.

Tomorrow is Christmas day and naturally we are thinking of family and friends back home. The downside of being away at Christmas is that we can't share it with you. We are thinking of you and wishing you a safe and very happy Christmas. x

Prague - the land of photo opportunities

Prague is impossibly beautiful. Being here is like being part of a medievil movie set. Frank keeps excepting the Director to jump out and yell 'cut'.

We get daylight from around about 8am to 4pm...

From 4pm all the Christmas lights come on and by 8pm it feels like midnight, sending us into hibernation.

There are colourful Christmas markets selling Christmas trees, hot wine (not yummy), iced donuts, sausages and other traditional dishes.

Carp is the traditional Christmas meal enjoyed on Christmas Eve. The boys were horrified to see fish mongers bash a live Carp on the head repeatedly with a hammer. They said, 'that's mean', 'we're not eating that for Christmas'. We won't discuss where the ham on their pizza comes from.

Yesterday we moved apartments and extended our accomodation here until 27th Dec. Our new apartment is the size of the last one and in Old Town, one minute walk from the Town Square and big Christmas Tree. We can hear the town clock chiming on the hour which is nice. We discovered in the wee hours of this morning, upon waking to the Czech equivalent of 'doof, doof' music, that our apartment is above a nightclub.

Although it has been bitterly cold (by Aus standards) we have not had snow...although there has been evidence of it in the morning on car roofs etc. The icing on the cake would be if we did get some actual snow for Christmas...

Prague

Yesterday we flew from Dubai to Prague. We had a stopover in Kiev, Ukraine and everyone onboard clapped when the plane landed. Don't know if it was relief or a tradition. When we stepped off the plane in Kiev it was snowing. It was really magical and the first time the boys have seen snow.

Kiev airport was not so magical; especially the toilets (worse than any toilets on the trip so far and that's quite an accolade). You know the toilets are bad when you decide to hold on until the plane takes off and the flight is 2 hours away. When our plane was due to board our flight was not even on the flight schedule. On questioning staff we were told 'wait, wait' and given a stern look. Finally had to use the loo and used my scarf as a full face burkha to prevent me from passing out. After a delay we took off for Prague and arrived at about 4:30pm; it was quite dark we took a bus and metro ride to the stop near our accomodation and then spent half an hour walking up and down the same street looking for it. It was a beautiful cobbled street but we were all tired and hungry and accumulating an extra case (still carry on size) to carry around didn't help.

This is how dark it was by 5:30pm. Thankfully we finally got a text from our accomodation and the manager, finding out we were lost came to get us. Turns out we had walked past the place about ten times but failed to notice the small piece of paper with the name 'Charles Bridge Apartments' typed on it. This business has apartments all over Prague and we were taken to a very nice three bedroom apartment with a full kitchen and laundry - not bad for $61 a night. We have only booked 2 nights accomodation but can extend till after Christmas if we want to.

We went to dinner at a gorgeous little Italian place...

Tomorrow we will explore Prague; hopefully we won't need a torch!