A fondue experience like no other :)

On Saturday night some girl friends and I went out to dinner at my favourite fondue restaurant. It is delicious and an experience all on its own. It is a nice place and fun with just two people but always more fun with a small group. The meal starts with a little kir type drink and little apperitif snacks like olives, meat, cheese and such. Then they bring out the wine which is given out in baby bottles. That is right, your drink is served in a baby bottle which they have cut a larger whole out of the top. Then comes the fondue. You have a choice of cheese or oil. Usually with a group of people you can get both. With the cheese fondue comes bread and potatoes. The oil one comes with raw meat which you cook in the oil yourself. You then get dessert, either fruit salad or a plate of cheese. You can of course order other desserts which cost only 2 Euros more. It is all delicious and decently priced. On top of all the delicious food the restaurant is a fantastic atmosphere in its self. In order to get to the other side of the table you are required to climb over the table (therefore if you go I suggest not wearing a skirt! lol) The owner is a funny little old man who tries to convince most of the female customers to marry his son, he jokes with all the clients and just makes the meal even more enjoyable. If you are ever in the Montmartre area you need to check out this restaurant called 'Refuge de Fondue' near metro Abbesses. Like I said, delicious and fairly cheap!!!! Gotta love the french gastronomie :)

Christmas markets in Paris

One of my favourite things in Paris is the Christmas markets that are open this time of year. The one along the Champs Elysee is best visted at night. The lights are all up and the streets are simply magical :) I visited the market with a few friends and we shared some churaus and I had my necessary hot wine. The little booths are set up along both sides of the street. Some have chocolates, so have candies, some have candles, or scarfs, other great gifts. This year they also had a section of ice sculptures (of course it was 14 euros to go in so I passed) but the idea along was cool. They also had a live animal nativity with yaks and such. It was also interesting that they added a kids section with moon bounces, and climbing things. They even had one of those large luge slides, where you slide down on a rug thing. It was funny to see it in the middle of the Christmas huts. However it was nice to see that they had a photo with Santa booth. I just like walking up and down the market streets, and enjoying the christmas atmosphere. This is one thing I wish I could find more of back in Canada. It is the closest I get to the Christmas spirit here!

a bad day and then some!

So I don't usually complain about the transportation out here as it is a pretty good system, when it is working that is! lol However, yesterday was literally the worst day for transport that I have ever had!! I headed out around 10:30 in the morning and got to the station with the train still on at the platform. However, it then sat there for 15 mintues without even telling us that anything had changed or that it was delayed. I finally got to where I needed to be and did what I was doing. I then headed back into Paris to go out to Chelles to coach. The train worked fine until about three stops from where I needed to get off and then it slowed down and stayed a little longer at every stop. I then ha to run to catch the train to take me to chelles. Of course, I got there and two out of the three trains were cancelled. Eventually a train came and headed out to Chelles, however I think it was the slowest train I have ever been on. So I get to Chelles and I headed to the bus stop. I waited a few minutes and there were no buses around anywhere, which seemed odd to me. At some point two police officers came by and said: "didn't you know there are no more buses?" We were like no, there were no signs, nothing! So we find out that the reason there were no buses was because one bus driver was 'attacked'. There are 5 bus lines and they shut down all 5 of them because 1 driver was 'attacked'. Only here! so I then had to wait 20 minutes for a bus to take me 5 mintues from where I was coaching. Finally I got to coaching and wasn't really sure if I ould be able to get back to Paris. I ended coaching at 8:30 and was staying to train. I had two choices for getting to the train station. a) catch the 9:10 bus or b) the 10:25 one. So because I wanted to train I stayed and headed to the bus stop at 10:10. I got there and the electronic sign read 'service finished'. On top of that it started pouring rain. Finally the bus came at 10:25 anyways. Finally I got back to the train station, got back to Paris and home, around 12:00 am! What a day!!!! Thinking I need to find a job that pays me enough so I can buy a scooter! lol