In recent years I've developed the annoying habit of not telling anyone where I'm going before I start a trip. The veil of secrecy on this one has been record-breakingly long: 629 days. I can be very precise about this because each morning the Duolingo app updates me on my current French learning 'streak', which began in spring 2024. At that time I already had plans for Italy and India, but I knew France would be next. And here I am.
As a result of those 629 days of Duolingo - plus a big slab of podcasts and YouTube and reading and study - my conversational French is 'just about there'. Hopefully, by the end of the next two months of total immersion, it'll be 'there'. Learning Spanish was a hard slog and I assumed I didn't have it in me to do it all over again. But Spanish itself gives me a useful head start in French, as does my GCSE from all those years ago. And I do like a challenge.
I began well in Paris by conversing intelligibly with my landlady about what I was reading (de Maupassant), although I probably lost most of that newly-gained credibility when she saw what I was cooking with (Bisto gravy granules). My digs are in a distinctly posh western suburb called Saint-Cloud. I'd been there a full day before I noticed that my bedroom window has a view of the Eiffel Tower. In my defence, it's partly hidden behind a tree.
Paris was buried under quite a lot of snow when I arrived. Fortunately it's melted now. I can handle the cold and the wind, and the rain and the snow, but it was no fun walking everywhere on black ice, having to keep my eyes down and concentrate on not falling over rather than taking in my surroundings. Taking in my surroundings is the whole point of my travels, after all. Incidentally, it's cheaper to take the Paris Metro all the way across the entire city than it is to take the Tyne & Wear Metro from Pallion to Park Lane. Discuss.
Anyway, you all know what Paris looks like so I won't bother going into too much detail. Token photos are below if you're interested. The rest of this trip will be devoted to the slightly less-well-known parts of France, and to my hopefully not-totally-farcical attempts at asking my way around them in French. To say nothing of all that luscious French food...Mange tout, Rodney. Mange tout.
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| Inevitably...(1) |
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| Inevitably...(2/3/4/5) |
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| Inevitably...(6) |
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| Bohemian book-laden duplex apartment. I'm only renting the spare room. |
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| I'm sure you can all translate this headline. |
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| Here's a map of all the European places I've visited (as an adult) outside Great Britain. France was plainly overdue. |
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| Edd vs Food #163 At a Paris McDonalds: "Royal Cheese" burger, and French fries with mayonnaise. IYKYK. Disappointed beyond words to learn that you cannot, in fact, wash it down with a beer. |
