Je suis perdu!

It was the first time I decided to try to walk in Paris instead of the metro – needless to say I got lost after the first turn! However, this city seems to be great to get lost in it – I had an interesting encounter with a local Parisian!

La Table de Claire

I was walking by a small restaurant named Le table de Claire, and it seemed very much like the Paris we are used to from movies like Amélie. It was closed, but it seemed very nice, so I took a picture of it to maybe one day return for a dinner. The owner was just coming by to open it so he invited me inside to take a look, and he also kindly offered me with a glass of delicious wine. He has been a chef for 16 years, and now finally has his own restaurant – and he is very passionate about it. He treats every meal uniquely, and has a very positive vibe about his place and about cooking.

His restaurant seems to have a real Parisian vibe about it (which now seems to be somewhat lost in the metropolitan crowds on the main streets). I didn’t have a meal there yet, but I think I will definitively go after my first paycheck (charm seems to have a good price today). And his kindness and positivity really made my day! Merci, Lofti!

Château de Vincennes

The next day I decided to go for a walk again, and of course I got lost again! I ended up being on the exact opposite of where I was headed, but no worry – here it was, 600 years old castle just behind the corner. So far it seems I am doing better without a tourist guide (which I have!). You can check some pictures of this castle in the gallery (unfortunately, I only have a cell phone to take photos with).

Antrebloc

Finally, climbing in Paris! I was so excited going there that I ended climbing for 4 hours, non-stop! I left the place barely moving, and even now, 2 days later I have pain in my muscles.

The gym is great, with a friendly atmosphere like the one we are used to back in Croatia. Antrebloc seems to be the bouldering center of Paris.  They have a nice system of grading boulders here: each element of the wall has problems in the colors: yellow, green, blue, purple, red, white, black, where yellow is the easiest boulder problem and black is the hardest. I did quite a few purple ones but couldn’t do red ones, because I was too pumped from climbing all the time! I’ll start training normally next time 😉

Opera

This one was a bit perdu for me as well! I thought we were going to see the opera, but it turned out that we were having a guided tour through the famous opera building. The guiding was done in french, which I unfortunately still don’t understand enough, so I ended up just wandering around on my own! The building is really nice, and worth seeing, but I was more amused by the group of 20 traveling musicians that made a show just in front of the Palais Garnier! It was incredible – 20 musicians dressed in orange with trumpets and drums just came on the stairs of the palace and started playing some happy Spanish songs, amusing the crowd. I have never seen a show like this on the streets! Here is the picture:

Happy orange musicians at Palais Garnier

So, that’s it for my free time! Now it’s time to work, learn french and train hard at Antrebloc! Salut, tout les monde, à la semaine prochaine!