| Living the Paris Dream. |
| Written by Brendon Green |
| Saturday, 07 November 2009 06:02 |
|
Let’s not focus on the bad things. I don’t need to talk about how my job hunt is going, which is basically consisting of “I know I don’t have what some people would call the ‘appropriate skills’ to do this job, but gosh darn it if you give this kid a chance I won’t let you down mister.” Although if I keep telling myself it’s all because of the recession, I may just start to believe it. Until then, the idea of freelancing as one of the thousands of homeless people asking for money by holding out their cup shaped hands looks more and more enticing. No! I should talk about the awesome fun times I’m having (I’m living the Paris Dream, that’s what I keep telling myself while looking into the mirror after brushing my teeth). Example 1: for Halloween I went as James Dean and I’m pretty sure I looked badass. Fortunately there’s no photographic evidence, so you will just have to trust me on that one. Example 2: I went on a day trip to Chantilly with 2 other kiwis. Chantilly is a 30 minute train ride out of Paris and they make cream there (or at least there’s a cream called Chantilly and it’s quite a good one, as far as creams go). For a town famous for cream it sure did do its best to be quaint. Even though its not that small of a town, all the shops closed for lunch time and all the local’s were absolutely charming and helpful. Even the trees decided to turn all sorts of beautiful reds and browns and yellows, and provide a comfy carpet of leaves to walk on. (That could be due it being Autumn here, but I do think they just like putting on a show). In a not so surprising turn of events, we discovered Chantilly has a Chateau filled to the brim with history and beauty. (Honestly, you can’t throw a stone around here without hitting an ancient palace or castle with historical relevance and getting told off by a security guard for vandalism.) Chantilly’s Chateau was last owned by the Duke of Aumale, the son of King Louis-Philippe, and is now basically a huge art gallery. And I wish I could say that that is what attracted me to it, but if I’m being honest I was most excited when I saw they had a Kangaroo enclosure in the huge grounds surrounding the Chateau. Kangaroos! The Chateau itself was beautiful, and standing outside it, I’m slightly ashamed to say, I felt like a Disney Princess (more a Sleeping Beauty or a Belle, than a Jasmine or an Ariel). But we were running out of time so I didn’t go inside, choosing to roam the outside estate with one of my friends instead. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see the Kangaroos because we were distracted by the hedge maze, admittedly designed for children, which we raced around garnering both disgusted and impressed looks from the families slowly making their way through. (Fun fact: I am faster than most 8 year old French kids.) And after a nice dusk lit stroll through some more of the gardens, our day in Chantilly ended. A day that I realised later hadn’t involved eating any Chantilly cream. I’m sure it was delicious though. As delicious as cream can be. Hmmm, maybe I could get a job as a cream tester. There’s got to be a job like that right? |
