Thursday, May 03, 2007

"One Tonne Rodeo, Its a One Tonne Rodeo"

So I arrived in ye olde England

I am staying at Gemma house in Maida Vale which is rather posh part of town, Jude law lives down the street and Kate Moss around the block but haven't seen anyone famous yet but I am keeping my eyeballs peeled.
Been out to see all the galleries and been to a million museums - Portrait gallery, National Gallery, the Victoria and Albert museum which was so great and something I have wanted to see for about 5 years. Did all the Tourist stuff, Big Ben, Buckingham palace, South Bank, Piccadilly and other things I forgot...
Been wandering around the city and all the shops, my new favourites are Harrods, Agent Provocateur, Liberty, Vivienne Westwood and Selfridges. Yep, I got the expensive taste buds now!

Went and spent a few days with my Aunty in Brighton, which is a cool place kind of like Newtown with hippies and weirdo’s but awesome little shops and galleries and cool stuff. Caught up with my cousin who was 10 last time I saw him, now he is a man its weird but he is awesome and 6 foot 4 tall. We went south and spent the day with me Grandma.

The weather has been pretty good, the London marathon was on, and the radio announced that it was the hottest day that its every been run and that the organizers were concerned that people would suffer heat stroke..... It was 23 degrees these people have no idea what hot is.
Meet up with a friend of a friend and had a beer for Anzac day in and Australian pub in Soho.

Then headed to Paris for a week, crazy cheap airfares. Went with Gemma and meet up with her mum Bev and her best friend Heather.
We stayed in an apartment on the Ile of St Louis which was just awesome and central to what we wanted to do.
Mission up to the Basilique Du Sacre Cceur which is in Montmarte and is at the top of a massive hill and has the best views in town. Then headed to the Flea markets which are has hundred of stalls selling crap but it was worth a look, think we caught some fleas whilst we were there as it is in the ghetto part of town.

Had a dinner with one of Gemma’s friends from London who was also there, sent the oldies off to bed and we hit the town with the friends cousin who also lives there...we went out to a few bars and ended up at some strange gay club and carried on till all hours, broke into a carousel in the town square and tried to steal the horses to ride them home, as our legs where tired, random.
Had massive hangover and of course had the biggest day planned. Took the train North to Giverny which is a quite town where Monett lived worked. After 2 metros a train and a bus we got there and got on the end of the worlds longest queue and then it started to rain. A little at first, then allot then the thunder and lightning started then the hail came. We stood there and got pelted by hail stones but it eventually stopped and the queue had disappeared so we finally got to go into the gardens and it was well worth the perseverance.
You can walk around his gardens and house and see the ponds where he painted all the water Lilly picture and its really peaceful and beautiful, no photos because I didn’t want to get my camera wet
Headed back to town, our train was cancelled so we where stranded in Giverney for 2 hours still soaking wet and freezing but we eventually made in back to our place at 10.30 at night.

Went to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Napoleon's apartment, Michelangelo’s Dying Slave and a few hundred other things.
Walked up the Champs Elysees to the Arc De Triomphe which is in the middle of the worlds largest round about. Wandered over to the Eiffel Tower which is really really big. Then the Hotel De Invalides which was Frances first military hospital and home for war veterans then made our way down the Seine back to home.
Went out in the Latin Quarter for dinner and had drinks at a old piano bar and had a bit of a sing along. Back in Sydney there was a TV ad a few years ago for Holden and they sang ' one tonne rodeo' 'it’s a one tonne rodeeeeeooooo’, to the tune of this famous French song that I have no idea what it’s called. Well the girl was singing that song at this bar and we where doing our own rendition which was hilarious at the time but now not so much.

So the 1st of May is May day in France, its a big public holiday and everyone is roaming the streets, but not everything is open so we wandered around and had lunch and people watched and at night went to the Moulin Rouge. It was great, not sure if it’s supposed to be funny but you got to laugh at some of the male dancers and there orange tans and permanent cheesy smiles. The costumes where out of this world and the stage is pretty impressive and all the different 'acts' like the girls swimming with snakes and they did the Can Can. It’s in a dodgy part of town in the red light district; saw a lot of skin that night.

Last day, went to the Catacombs. Back in the day the cemeteries where over flowing so the dug up all the bodies and buried them in an old quarry underground to make more room, seemed like a good idea at the time!It is 20 metres down and a bit damp and there are just piles and piles of bones down these massive corridors, it goes for 3 kilometres under the city and there are about 6 million French peoples bones stacked down there which is really weird but not creepy just different
Then did a little shopping and then unfortunately had to get on a plane and head back to London, could have stayed in Paris for ever it’s really beautiful and even though peeps say the French are rude we didn’t find that at all. I think if you try to speak a little you can get by just fine.

Heard on the radio that they are audionitioning today in London for the Take That musical - defo going to see that one!