25/08/07

Mr Fouin drove me to the train station and saw me off I the morning. Fouin by the way is pronounced Fwa and is said the same way that ‘hay’ is said – so if my sister Hayley married Blandines brother her name would be Hay Fouin or Hay Hey – cool eh? I took the long train ride from Le Mans to Pairs as it was cheaper and I wasn’t on a time limit. A lady who sat opposite me in the isle talked to me once in a friendly way, I said ‘Je ne pal pa fonsay’ which means I don’t speak French – and she said this back to me in a way that gave me the impression that I had pronounced it all very wrong and that she believed me. Once in Paris I used the metro to find the hostel without any problems. I then set off to explore the area. Bastille was the suburb that I stayed in and according to Blandine is a pretty high class area. It was also the area where up risings took place during the French revolution and on my walk around the place I found a massive obelisk with a golden women perched on top commemorating the event. I walked along the river which started off quite pleasant as there were people laying on grass watching the boats go by, then the path got narrower and it turned into a tent city as I went under a bridge, then I passed a man lounged across the whole path soaking up the remaining sunlight just wearing a white jock strap, I stepped over him and kept going. It was partly for this reason that I decided to walk back a different way and in doing so got a little lost, not panickingly lost, merrily lost as I knew roughly where I was in relation to where I should be. I got back just as the sun was starting to go down and used a local internet café.