'Artopsy'

dat Ash

Just found out that the delicious goat cheese I was eating is coated in ash...et fait exprès (on purpose) !    Somehow, it's delicious.  Vive la France.

Voilà:

le Chèvre Cendré

NYE in London

New Year's Eve was spent in London with the Camden crew, even Michelle made it !  Mike stayed until the 3rd of January, and I stayed until the 7th.  We mostly just hung out with everyone, but Mike and I also did a bit of sightseeing.  On NYE we went to the bar Ant works at, The Colonel Fawcett, which is right next to the flat, for a 90s video-game themed party (or 'fancy dress' party as they call it in London) lol.  It was a great night of dancing to 90s music :D  The next day we got an American brunch at a resto that I forget the name of.  They had bloody mary's in pitchers lol.  And your typical American breakfast and lunch dishes.  They also have respectable collection of 'onesies' at the flat, so we had a onesie day.

I went back to London from the 17-20th for Misch's birthday ! We went to Paramount, which is a bar at the top of a skyscraper with amazing views of London.  Amazingly delicious and expensive cocktails.  We also saw and met the band To Kill A King (well I met, Ant and Misch already knew them).  Their show was great!  Amazing people.  On the night of Misch's actual birthday we went to a club called The Nest.  During the day Michelle, Ant, Kosch and I went to a 'Mexican restaurant' where we ate enchiladas and fajitas.  We washed them down with tequila, Coronas, Pacificos and Misch had a birthday margarita, frozen of course :)  It was the London version of Taco Tuesday.  It was snowing outside!  We were so excited it was finally snowing!!  Normally just thinking about Mexican food makes me miss California, but it was impossible to be homesick around Ant, Kosch and Misch.  Such a good day.

Misch!

Big Ben

London's Eye

Dan and Greg

Ant!

Dan as Starfox

Charlotte!

New Year's Kiss

Misch being cute

Paramount

Kosch!

Snow!

Onesies!

Christmas in Paris

Mike and I were lucky enough to be in Paris for Christmas.  We did a lot of restaurant hopping, walked around the Christmas markets etc.  The highlight was going to Midnight Mass at Notre Dame.  Being a heathen, I had never heard of Midnight Mass before, let alone been to one, so it was really exciting for my first one to be at Notre Dame.  I must say though, Catholicism has some funny looking costumes and rituals.  I love the hats.  It was a really cool experience.  Antoine was with us (we stayed in his flat comme d'hab) for a few of the days, but then he was in Nice with his family.  Lovely. Antoine is one of the funniest, best people I know!  So hilarious.  They have this thing in Paris called SOS liquor, and you call at night, and the DELIVER alcohol to you!  After all the stores are closed somehow they are still allowed to sell.  We should have that in the states, pull your head in America !

Coolest bar in Oberkampf

Chartier - Antoine's favorite restaurant (Grands Boulevards)

Antoine squared

Ready

This is France

Notre Dame

Inscents

Jardin du Luxembourg

Our xmas tree...lol

Marché de Noel - Champs Elysées

Pont des Arts

Antoine's room

To London we go !

Winter

What's the best thing about winter?  Skiing!  I only got 3 days in, but they were amazing of course, and will tide me over until the next time.  There is nothing like going down your first slope of the season.  Banking on that muscle memory, a little hesitant because you know you're out of practice, and then that feeling of success when it all comes rushing back.  Fabulous.  France is great because they make it quite easy to get up to the slopes.  If you buy a SkiRail ticket it's 37 euro, for your slopes ticket as well as a train there and back.  The train leaves at 6h30 and comes back at 17h.  I went up once with Brian, and once with Nihal, Matieu et Thomas (my flatmate, her bf and his friend).  With Brian we just went up for the day, which was not enough!  So, the next time I went up for the weekend.  The snow was better the first weekend, but the weather was better the second time.  Brian is a beginner snowboarder so the first day we just did baby slopes and intermediate, really fun and a good warm-up.   Nihal is also a beginner (actually first timer), so Matieu and her struggled along the bunny runs and I skiied mostly with Thomas, which meant mostly black and red runs, ah !  He was much more advanced than me, it was the reverse of me and Brian skiing. Super fun, wish I could have gone more !  Till next season...

Gorgeous air, gorgeous snow, gorgeous mountains.
Les Pyrénées

I didn't choose the thug life.

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