The 14th of July

Today is the French independence day, which is supposed to be a party of great significance. So, after a festive dinner here in Emmaus last night (which to quote our anonymous friends was a total fag/children's party), we wanted to see the real celebrations and went to Paris. Our first stop was Tour Eiffel, where we "met" two backpackers: we followed them just for fun making jokes about their huge packs and that they're probably looking for a youth hostel (it's an inside-joke with Xavier and Joe) when suddenly they turned to us and asked if we knew where they could find a youth hostel... We laughed our asses off! But we were quite nice to them and didn't say anything rude about backpacking :)
Next stop - Champs Elysées, where we hoped to see some kind of a sign of parades or party, but RIEN! Only a lot of stupid flics and military people. Yuk.
Therefore we just had to give in to our good-old habits and take the metro straight to Montmantre, where we finally (after being whistled out of the Sacre Coeur park twice!) found a store that was actually open and headed to a well-known corner behind La Maison Rose. It is a great and quiet place even on those tourist-overflow days like today. There were a couple of guys playing guitars and singing, so we were able to wine and dine accompanied by great live music. Since we were sharing a bench with the two musicians and all of us were having a little drink (they had the French traditional anise-thingy), then unavoidably we got into a conversation. I asked one of the guys if he could play Noir Désir and then he played me about 3 of their songs. Sweet.
We talked about music, drinking, working etc; one thing lead to another and tomorrow midnight we are invited to one of the guys' birthday party that will take place on the little streets of Montmantre... And as if that wasn't enough! After we told Marco and David that we don't have much money and therefore are forced to drink the cheapest wine, they gave us 10 euros and told us to go and get something good because we should enjoy the best wines since we are in France!
Now we have to figure out what to get Marco for his birthday (he's going to be 23 tomorrow). Party recollections coming up...

The magic of Montmartre

We have had two day-offs recently: Friday and today. And ironically enough, it was raining on both days. On Friday we were planning to go up on the Tour Eiffel because Emmaus promised to pay us back all the tourist-sightseeing stuff and all the tickets we need for getting around in Paris. We gave up on that Eiffel-idea pretty quickly cause it was very wet and foggy, so we thought that why not do that on Sunday instead... We took our great cheap Rosé and Camembert and headed straight for the most beautiful place there is - Montmartre. There we had a little picnic right in front of the Sacre Coeur, enjoying a moment of blue sky and the spectacular view. After that we went for a walk in the neighborhood and by a lucky accident found a circus shop with cool and good-looking sale-guys. There we both bought ourselves diabolos. That was actually one of the many reasons why I wanted to come to France, because there are no such things on sale in Estonia; Maiu just couldn't resist the temptation of getting one as well because it's highly addictive. And by the way our practicing is going now - we will be truly professionals by the time we get back home!!! :)
Today we didn't even bother to consider the Eiffel Tower and went straight to Montmartre, where we sat in a quiet corner right in front of the house where Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, Dali, Renoir and other artists used to hang out. There we thought about how beautiful life really is, which is a usual thought for us after we started the tradition of Montmartre-picnics.
After that we tried to find the café called Deux Moulins, the same place where "Amélie" was made, but no luck... Then we decided to follow the yellow arrows on the pavement that lead the way all over Montmantre just for fun and to see where we might end up (secretly hoping that it would be behind the door of a good-looking Nino-guy who drew the arrows). Instead we ended up in a café, drinking beer with two crazy Belgium guys and having a conversation in English, French, German and Russian at the same time; I ended up being proposed to by a marquee and eventually we ditched them as "coincidentally" as we found them. That was lots of fun. After that we had our second picnic on the mountain and now we're back in Bougival... Soon going to sleep because tomorrow is work-day, we must get up early and be perfectly fresh too, we need our beauty-sleep ;)...
Bon nuit!!!

Emmaus

Here we are, in Bougival (about 13kms from the center of Paris - so near and yet so far). We are planning to stay here until the end of July, but only planning still cause it's not like a vacation camp here.
We are staying with an organisation called Emmaus, which is for homeless people who live and work here and even earn some money by collecting old things that people donate, then sorting, repairing and selling them. We are working as volunteers in the camp along with few other young people (one Chinese and two Polish girls and a fat ugly coca-cola-boy from France, they all speak French better than we do so we don't really talk to them). The people who live here are men with questionable pasts, but as much as we've met them they're very nice and fun. I even have a few fans... :)
We live in a tent, which unfortunately does not seem to be too waterproof, but extreme conditions don't bother us (yet?)... Our schedule is quite strict: first breakfast at 6:30; work at 8:00; second breakfast - 8:45; lunch at 12-13:00; branch at 15:45; work ends at 17:00 and then we have dinner at 19:00. Yes! I'm sure you noticed that all we really do here is eat, eat, eat... And the food is great too! But we've decided to sleep longer and give up the first breakfast, besides - I'm getting really worried about my weight...
Our work for now is sorting clothes: throwing away the dirty and broken stuff and saving the good stuff for the store. Which basically gives us a chance to make the world a better place by getting rid of some of the most obscenely ugly clothes you could only dream of in your worst nightmares. It's not as simple as it may sound because all the stuff there is VERY dusty and dirty - we sneeze all the time and our noses water non stop.. But on the other hand we can keep whatever cool things we find (after two days of work I have two hats, pink tennis shoes, a watch, make-up, lots of chocolate and jewelry etc etc).
Friday is our first day-off and we're going to The City :) Reflections coming up...
Hugs to all!

Wining in Paris

We have now been here for three days and have got a better picture of the spectacular and spectacularly expensive city. This is one of the first things that we'd like to wine about - nothing here is for free, unlike Berlin, where we got almost everything for free: train & subway, food, beer and even some little souvenirs. Plus we earned money by collecting beer bottles. But here... we pay 1.05 euros for every subway ride. I did try jumping over the bars, but it didn't really work, besides - they have cameras everywhere. So therefore we're forced to walk a lot.
The worst part about Paris so far is that we haven't seen any so-called alternative people except for some shameful dready hippie-wannabes. Boo-oring!!
That is why the only thing we can really do here is drink a lot of cheap wine and tolerate the horrible dark and fat French guys in undershirts who think that they're really sexy when they tuck their pants into their socks. *Burp*
But don't get me wrong - Paris is great, everything here is breathtakingly beautiful and I wouldn't mind living here at all... if I was rich as hell or at least had someone who'd drive me around the city on his motoroller like Amélie did...
Any ideas how to make our life more interesting and cheap here? Let us know!!
A one-euro-wine-cheers from the city of romance!

à Paris

Hello dear friends! Or should I say bonjour from Paris! For unavoidable circumstances we were forced to make a quick change of plans and leave Berlin a day earlier. Yesterday at noon we started hitchhiking from Berlin and got to Aachen in 8.5 hours and only by three cars. We spent the night in a gas station. Woken up by a little rain, we didn't even make it to the road when a truck driver picked us up... A few more long and sleepy rides (Germany -> Belgium -> France) and here we are!!!
Tomorrow we will go on town and sightsee our eyes out :). But for now I need a shower and some sleep.
Hugs to all and don't forget what all of you must do on Saturday!!!