June19th

yesterday June, the 19th

The next day, Darren and I went and visited the Catacombes. I really wanted to do it, and even if, i admit, i was really scared to feel claustrophobic, i was determined to do it. Though, once i was in the cave, my courage fainted. It was really weird...It was awe-inspiring and very solemn, but at the same time, it seemed somewhat wrong and disrespectful... You walk along in the underground cave , and you are only surrounded by bones, arranged in such a way that it makes patterns. There are signs with some famous writers' quotations about death in French or Latin...It was half spooky, half fascinating but i definitely dont regret to have seen it! Later, to go on the freaky trend, we headed to the Museum of Magic. It was quite interesting and funny as there were loads of games and scary creatures that jumped out at you, and lots of magic tricks were explained. Though, it was quite short (30 min altogether) whereas it was quite expensive (7 euros). Then, we took the metro to Barbes where lots of juggling stores are established, as i needed juggling rings. At night we came back to the Seine banks to eat in a traditionnal french restaurant as i wanted to make darren taste different specialities of my country. For 22 euros, he had snails, supreme de dinde aux morilles and creme brulee, whereas i had for the same price fois gras, magret de canard au miel, and tarte tatin. The meal was delicious and the waitress really nice! Later, we went to the Hotel de Ville to meet Nico and Nath who had offered us to do a guided tour of Paris by night in their car. So we did, and we admired the Seine bridges, the Eiffel Tower, etc....
The day after, the four of us went to the Buttes Chaumont Park to have a picnic in the sun. We were meant to walk a bit around the Park but unfortunately Darren hurt his foot and we prefered to go back to the car to let him recover. Then, we went to Montmartre that Darren was really eager to visit. We needed 1 hour to find a place to park, but once we d left the car, Montmartre magic strated to work on us. Place du Tertre, the Sacre Coeur Basilic, The last windmill of the Rue Lepic, and the last vineyard in Paris....True tourists! LOL Then, Darren and I left Nico and Nath and we rushed to the Champs Elysees where we had to meet my sister Marion and her boyfriend Marty. We were a bit late but they ve been nice enough not to grumble at us, and then we went to have a beer in a coffee, and finally a tex-mex meal in a latino kind of restaurant. I had a margherita, and only for it, it was a really good dinner!lol I LOVE margherita and finding it in UK is just too much hard work for just a drink. We eventually left, had a last night at Nath's and then left for the airport in the early morning. Bye bye Paris!

Once in London I had to fight with a cashier of the GNER as i missed my train to Newcastle. It was really unpleasant and make me come back to reality quite promptly....

The following week i had some exams to sit, and in general it went quite well. On the thursday, Darren came up North and picked me up to go in the Lake District for 4 days.
The first day was nice: The weather was a bit hesitating between rain and sun but it was ok. We went there by car, which is already a pleasure in itself, as everybody who knows me also knows how i like to travel by car. Hence our (darren and I) clear decision to do this European trip by car and not train. Anyway, we arrived in Glenridding, near Ullswater, where i saw there was a Youth Hostel that looked nice. It was indeed very nice, as it was half way up the mount Helvellyn, lost in the desert of trees, grass, sheep and streams...SO PEACEFUL! We unloaded our stuff and then took the car back to Penrith (the nearby "big" town ) to go and eat italian food. Yummy!
The day after, we went to Glennridding toursit information centre and got tips about the nice walks in the area, and we decided to go and do the Aira Force one. We first stop in the Royal inn in Patterdale to fill in our tummies, and then we started walked around the Aira Force, which is a waterfall. It was really nice and the weather was fine too (thx god). Then we went to Penrith to buy some food for the followind day , as we wanted to do a picnic. Unfortunately, once in Safeway, Darren realised that... he HAD LOST HIS WALLET! (once more...) So we took the car again and went in every place we've been during the day....Following my advises, he finally called the police, who told him that his wallet had been found at the top of the Aira Force and that it was patiently waiting for him at Penrith police station.So we went there and took the blessed wallet....
On saturday, we decided to climb up the mount Helvellyn as far as we could, as we hadnt the appropriate footwear for rockclimbing. Crazy as we are, we ended up at the top of Helvellyn, burnt by the sun, out of breath and with our feet completely smashed, but man, that was worth it! the view was SO awesome! really breathtaking! Then we climbed down and had a nap at the hostel to let ourselves recover. In the evening, we took the car and decided to do a car tour of the whole Lake district and thus we saw Windermere, Coniston waters (where we stopped to see the sunset) the charming town of Ambleside, Keswick and also a stone circle but i cant remember were it was exactly. Once back in Glenridding, we stopped at the traveller's Rest, a pub were all the travellers meet up at night to talk about the day. That was really nice and the atmosphere was well congenial.
On sunday we finally left, and stopped just further Carlisle to have a delicious sunday meal in a pub, and then we did a little extra miles to go and see Hadrian's wall. AT 3pm we were in Newcastle and at 8am the day after i was back to uni, focusing on some economy questions for my exams......

Be patient, the photos of these 2 trips are soon gonna be in the gallery!