A date with wii, Niglo and Niglotte

We finally received an email from our removalists that our stuff is being delivered on 30 July. That would make it exactly 15 weeks and 2 days since it left our place in Australia (Almost 3.5 months, but who's counting?). You don't need to be an over-paid actuary to work out that if we are here for 1 year, we spend more time without our stuff than with it (assuming we have to send it back 3.5 months early). But, as much as we have suffered, I am looking forward to being reunited with my wii. The date of delivery also happily coincides with my second last day of language school. I think I'll be ready for some mindless entertainment by then. But, onto more interesting things ...

Last weekend we had both Nav and Barb with us meaning double fun. We visited the Picasso museum where yet again Mel demonstrated her quick draw McGraw skills on the Blackberry. We discovered that Picasso's artistic life ranged from the age of 12 to 92. Over these 80 years he produced over 20,000 works meaning more than one every two days. Even accepting that many of these would have been simple drafts or sketches for more complex works, it is still an incredible number to fathom.

In the afternoon, Mel and Barb head off to see the Notre Dame, do some shopping (Mel is now a proud owner of Camper shoes) and a haircut while Nav and I discovered the city on the Velib. In the evening we all reunited for drinks and probably the longest dinner wait of our life. Chez Justine, a local restaurant, was recommended by a friend of Mel's. We ordered at about 9 pm and received our meals close to 11pm. No joke. We had intended to move on and watch some jazz but alas, it was already breakfast time before we had managed to finish dinner. Luckily we had some great company to keep ourselves amused!

The brown brigade at dinner and Mel with my classmate Franciska (both sporting new haircuts). On Sunday we said au revoir to Nav and said hello to Troyes. You will recall we went to Marie and Arnaud's wedding a few weeks ago. Well, we were invited to their house for the rest of the weekend in Troyes. Troyes is a small town in the Champagne region, about an hour and a half from Paris on the TGV. Arriving on Sunday afternoon, we discovered a quaint little town where there was no one to be seen because all the shops were closed. Troyes is full of Tudor style homes from the middles ages and is incredibly beautiful.That afternoon Arnaud's dad was celebrating his 60th birthday with his 9 siblings, ALL of whom attended. Given the incredible hospitality of the French (but Marie, Arnaud and their families specifically) we were very privileged to be invited to share in dessert and champagne at the family house. We had seen a lot of the old style Tudor houses from outside but we now were lucky enough to be invited into one of them. The family was incredible and took us in as one of their own. We had a great afternoon. This is their house from inside and outside.
Afterwards, Barb took a short nap while the rest of us head out to the lake (of which there are three in the region) for a walk and then to visit is friend of Marie and Arnaud who just happened to keep two pet donkeys and a cat! We felt very rural.
Although Bastille Day was officially on the Monday, Troyes was putting on fireworks on the Sunday night. This is the team working out strategic placement for fireworks as we wait for dinner. This is us toasting to strategic success as was evidenced by the following choice snaps of the fireworks.
Marie and Arnaud have just bought a place- they'll be moving in here soon!
The following day was a bit of a surprise for me. Mel had failed to tell me that we were heading out to Nigloland (note: NOT Negroland), an amusement park. Now anyone who joined me at Jamberoo would know that this is like all my Christmases rolled up in one. I love amusement parks. So here are some select photos from our fantastic day out, including of Niglo and Niglotte, the park mascots. This is us trying to look scary.

And this is just scary. And here's Mel a bit upset with her bubble toy.
We had a great time thanks to Marie and Arnaud and we returned back to Paris very satisfied at an already full weekend. However, not wanting to accept defeat, we head out once again that night to view the Paris Bastille Day fireworks with an Eiffel Tower backdrop. There were lots of crowds as expected but we found a great spot on one of the bridges across the Seine for a fantastic display.

Since my camera has a night setting specifically using the Eiffel Tower, I was looking forward to incredible Eiffel Tower photos. Canon lied. That is all that needs to be said.

On a side note, I am loving not being vegetarian anymore. I think I'll leave that for another time and city. Paris is not for the weak-hearted or vegetarians. I hate the thought that I failed to keep up the momentum but at the same time, a month of Vegetarianism in Paris is like three years in Oz. I met my goal of one month and I think I shall rest on those laurels for a while.