Everything under the sun and in the water

Two weekends and two dear friends from across the channel make for very fun times. We were visited by both Stuart and Andrew who took a liking to our Velibs (do you like how I have claimed possession over them? I feel like golum with the ring ... my precious Velib) and so we had much fun riding around day, night, rain, shine, sober ... not so sober. Of course one must remain alert otherwise buses have a habit of beeping loudly beside you. Could you get anymore French?
With Stu here, we went out to a few cool bars with our friends Franziska, Justin and Amelia. Justin found himself in a sticky situation!

Here's us living up to the name of a street.
Last Friday night we had the benefit of being invited to our first Parisien house party. Mel's friend Cecile just happens to live on Rue de Rivoli (think Louvre) in a penthouse apartment with a balcony overlooking said rue. So off we went, Mel, Andrew and I after dinner on Friday night to enjoy a very fun evening with real Parisiens. We managed to stay out later than planned because every time we tried to leave, a great song came on and apparently the rules of Paris are that you don't leave a party during a good song. Alas, there was no shortage of 'good' songs.

Cecile has this amazing cat - not only does he/she look like no other, but despite blaringly loud music and two dozen people dancing and singing like there's no tomorrow, this cat decides to stake out a comfortable bed in the living room without a care in the world. We were trying to work out if the cat was deaf or whether the French are all just like that?

On Saturday we went out to Fontainebleau, a town about an hour south of Paris. It is home to Chateau de Fontainebleau. It has amazingly expansive gardens and at this time in summer, the flower beds looked very impressive and I couldn't resist taking a few too many shots.

Andrew is trying to imitate another newly discovered space invader. If you look closely, you can just spot the difference.

On Sunday night we also hosted our first local dinner guests and I tried my hand at some Indian food hoping that familial genes would rub off. The Dhal seems to have been a success and so it might become a regular from now on. This is Franziska sporting the dessert: waffles with strawberries, ice-cream and the secret ingredient, Nutella sauce. Yumm.

Paris is currently amidst a heat wave, the temperature has exceeded 30 degrees and you can hear the locals going gaga. This brings me to Paris Plage - Paris' answer to a beach. Next a few rivers and lakes, the local council dumps a bit of sand, a few sun beds, table and chairs and calls it the beach. There's often live music, petanque (boules) and free dance lessons. Lots of activities for kids and lots of bars for adults. Despite the lack of swimmable water, Paris Plage manages to keeps locals and tourists amused. Here's a few random snaps of the Paris Plage landscape.

Sunday was the last day of the Tour de France and therefore Mel and her friend Kristen took a trip into town to watch the finale. I preferred to watch the finish from the comfort of our lounge room. I suspect I saw more of the race although Mel did enjoy the 'atmosphere'.

I also managed to engage in a few sports of my own - water sports using my iPod shuffle. More precisely, I sent my shuffle for a spin in the washing machine. I don't think it liked it very much because it is now blinking nastly colours at me. Amazingly, it still has power and the earphones work. There are a number of online articles suggesting that I may be able to salvage it. If this is true - I shall be truly amazed by the indestructable iPod - and I shall call it iSwam.