Well I have my first Hogmanay as a French resident has come and gone and it was not all that bad.

Just before New Year my mother came to visit which was really good as I couldn’t really spend my first French New Year in Scotland.  We were going to go down to the tower to ring in the bells but I am really thankful we didn’t.

Apart from the thousands of people that were there, there were no Fireworks!

See what I mean?

Fireworks at New Year is an absolute necessity, the fireworks, apart from being part of the celebration and light show, mimics the old tradition of opening your front door, opening your back door and firing a gun to scare off the old year – Realistically you cannot do that now, that is unless you live miles from anywhere.

It made me ask what happened to stop all the fireworks, and apparently it all stems back to the activities in Suburbia and the riots that have occurred in previous years.  So while there are fireworks for Bastille Day and other special occasions you would be hard pushed to get a display at New Year, unless it is that of 1,000+ burning cars (as seen in 2008/9)

So next year, or should that be this year, I fully intend to be somewhere with smaller crowds and an organised display…

They say you live someplace but don’t see things until someone visits you…

That is actually quite true… since we’ve been here we have always intended to go to the Louvre, go to the cité des sciences, see the Sacre Coeur and other wonderful touristy stuff.

So with my mum in tow we decided to do some of it.  First we went to the cité des sciences more specifically to la géode which is a omnimax type of Imax theatre.  We saw a great 3D film about Dolphins and Whales – Highly recommended!

Trouble is with the cité is since it is a captive market they can and do make you pay through the nose for everything, even for Parisian standards.

If you do go, DON’T eat at the steakhouse named after a water dwelling African safari animal.

The 1st Sunday of the Month

In Paris on the first Sunday of every month, the majority of the museums are free entry.  Since this thrifty date happened while my mum was here we decided to go to the Louvre.  What a mistake that was…

Normally you get queues when waiting to get into the museum but this was beyond belief! there was the usual queue at the front of the pyramid, then an extended zigzag line, then round the pyramid stretching back to the old courtyard…

We gave up the first time and went for a coffee to warm up and returned with a fall back to go to the Musée d’orsay,  but after 40 odd minutes we finally got in.

I’ve been before and knew where to go for the main attractions, though the crowd of paparazzi around La Jaconde meant that the guards when the saw flashes pulled the offenders and anyone in their vicinity out of the throng and away from the relatively small – and in my opinion, lacking – piece of art.

We have since resolved to only go to the Museums and other touristy things on the Saturday before the first Sunday of the month…

So now back at work (for another three weeks) and looking forward to see what twenty ten brings…