I'm alive and in Paris

OK, it has been a little while. I'm sorry that i've been a little lax with my entries here of late. Internet in Paris is a pain in the arse. The internet cafes are a bit difficult to find and they are expensive. Then once you've found one and paid, the internet is slow, the keyboard is totally screwed up with letters in different positions, and the place is either too hot or cold and badly lit with smelly people all around you. Needless to say it is not condusive to writing a well planned entry on a internet site as well as spending a reasonable amount of time emailing and uploading photos.

I'm going to hopefully find another internet cafe to upload a little later, but for now I've just got to get an entry up the site so everyone knows I'm alive.

Paris is incredible. I love this city so much and I'm delighted to say that it hasn't changed since I was last here. Things are different but the city is the same. It is a beautiful, strange and interesting city, but the kind of place everyone recognises as special. The streets and the apartments are so beautiful, there are so many sights to see, and simply walking around the streets is a wonderful experience. It is like a heap of small villages all together. It is both dirty and clean. People walk the streets until late, kids play in the parks, dogs are everywhere, random people say bonjour and bonsoir to you when you walk around, people smile. The sights are busy but controlled. Life just seems to be good here. The food is spectacular, and the gardens and parks are almost perfect in their symetry and cleanliness.

I've been here a few days now and I'n starting to get the hang of it a little. My french is poor but acceptable and I can understand reasonably well when people speak slowly and don't say too much. I have a feeling that my pronounciation is a bit Australian but I'm going to work on that. I'm doing some french lessons next week in an attempt to open up some kind of secret vault of french in my brain which has been accunulating in the past years of french that I have studied. Following the improvement of my french I hope to find a job and get some form of long term accomodation, but about the two I really have little idea. I have to work it all out for myself because no-one seems to know anything.

Yesterday I went to Versailles on a bike tour. We took the train there then rode around the vast parks on our bikes, then had a beautiful pique-nique avec des baguettes, des tomates, beaucoup de fromages, et bien sûr des vins. C'était formidable, parce-que j'étais avec mes amis nouveaux et le canal et le palace étaient beaux et fantastiques.

I miss you all very much and i'll let you know more as soon as i can.