La Neige à Paris!!

Yes, that's right, it was snowing yesterday morning! - Sunday 5 February 2012.  It was great to be here, inside and very warm, and watch the snow falling. The parked cars in the street were covered in it. A few centimetres deep.

view from our balcony on rue de Constantinople 8e

Our street, looking out the living room doors.

This is a view of the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur from the intersection of our street and the Boulevarde des Batignolles. Le Sacre-Coeur is a 30 minute walk from here.











This is an avenue of trees down the middle of the Boulevarde des Batignolles. We will look forward to seeing the difference in the avenue with the changing of the seasons.

 Sacré Coeur in the background

We are in the 8th arrondissement. It is very different to the area where we stayed last year. This is very much a residential area, very quiet and not a lot of people around. Last year, in the 1st arrondissemnet we were in the hub of everything happening, especially on weekends. Being alongside les Forum des Halles, there were lots of people around, also entertainers in the street and it was also a meeting place for the young African French kids.

Our local métro here, is called Villiers. There is an open air market street a few minutes away from our apartment called rue de Levis which is just as famous as rue Montorgueil in the 1st arrondissement. Rue de Levis is just great. It is so good to shop there for fresh produce and anything else we may want. This area is also the centre for musicians, as we are near the Paris Conservatoire de Musique. There are lots of musical instrument shops and schools of music. 

On Saturday, we walked to les Galeries Layfayette on bld Haussmann, It and au Printemps, les Grands Magasins are a 15 minute walk from here and the winter sales are on.  Whereas, last year, I would have been walking to BHV, Bazaar Hôtel de Ville. I had to buy another scarf. At times, it is incredibly cold. This evening when we were out, it was  -3 degrees and I can assure you that is quite mild compared to walking around in -8 degrees. Geoffrey is wearing 3 singlets, a shirt and 2 jumpers. His whole wardrobe at the one time.

We have pretty well settled into the apartment now and familiarising ourselves with the area and time is allocated each day towards improving our French. This time, absolutely everyone is speaking French to us. It is a big challenge and we are loving it.

à bientôt