This is as close as we got to culture in Paris…

I’m borrowing from Anne Boleyn’s motto here because a) I’m in France, b) have spent an obscene amount of money shopping and c) have finally had a meal where bacon “bien cuit(e)” was indeed well done! As you can see, it doesn’t take much to make me happy.

I know my plan was to see as many *different* countries as possible but one simply cannot come to Europe without visiting Paris. Our plan to see Versailles was swiftly ditched in favour of shopping in the Marais district on Sunday (Chris actually agreed to this – I kid you not!). We’ll get there one day but there’s a shopping inferno underway here and culture just doesn’t get a look in. After a few weeks of moping around being homesick, I’ve finally remembered the advantages of foreign climes and, shallow as I may be, they revolve around drinking and shopping. I’m still firmly set against living here permanently but the embargo on future travel this direction has definitely been lifted in my mind. Not only do I have a whole new outlook on life, I have a whole new wardrobe… or maybe the new wardrobe has led to the different outlook – who knows? That aside, I still haven’t had enough of Paris and probably never will.

Coming back through customs we obviously looked suspicious as we were stopped and asked if we had anything to declare. I promptly declared my two boxes of porridge in a bid to divert them from the national debt’s worth of clothing in my bag. Fortunately I was under the 20kg limit of oats so crisis averted. As Chris informed me after, they weren’t actually looking for shopping so it was just my general paranoia and guilt over spending my entire holiday savings in one day kicking in 🙂

Places we’ll go back to:

• La Cafeotheque: THE place to go for coffee in Paris.
• Lizard Lounge: Happy hour is good value for money and burgers were tasty. Cheap night out.
• La Mangerie: Yummy cocktails and tapas – get there early!