France

We have been staying here for more than a week and it has been great, our work has been extremmely manageable , food great and people lovely.
I really enjoy the country side and am starting to realise that waking up to the mountains and big grass fields are something ill not experience once i get back.

There has been several random occassions that add extra flavour into the day here,

1) Hugo suddenly says: Shawn come outside and see the rainbow ! Beautiful Ranibow withthe mountains and a small village in the backdrop ( the pictures never do justice)

2)Marie( their mum) suddenly shouts out, look what the dogs brought for us !

Haha, as Leon would say : Stunned

We spent a few hours working on monday. I was sawing wooden planks into the correct size in order to be 'pasted' to the wall.
After that we had a really dinner as there were guest around. (everytime there are guest the food goes 1 class higher and the courses go 2 courses more haha ! ) Our dessert were 2 different Pies Chocolate and Apple( this time the apple pie was way better than the 1 we had in Paris, lovely !) and the Chocolate Tart was like a Lava cake without the Lava But really super good

The next day, we continued our work of putting the wooden planks on the wall ( its more or less finished now Adrien even said 'well i didnt know we would finish so fast' He really is the most hardworking French we have met so far. The ultimate DIY man, construction, cooking, taking care of children.....Imagine constructing and repairing an entire house by yourself.
While we were working, Hugo made so Crepe for tea and In jason's words ' It makes me not want to buy crepe outside anymore' haha
During dinner, we ate Rice ! It was the first time we had rice in Europe and oh, do i miss rice haha. The main dish were roasted pork stuffed with dates and cheese, and the other dish was a vegetable stew which again tasted so nice i had a second helping ( for those of you who dont know me, this is quite amazing )

Wednesday,
We went to Marie's friend Sonia's Farm to help remove an old and construct a new fence for the field in order to allow the sheep, cow and goat more area. Sonia's husband ( a real chef) cooked lunch for us. After a tiring day, we came back for a simple dinner and crashed.
I slept for a long time....I hardly sleep so long, everytime i wake up from a long sleep, i dont feel good...

All this aside, most of you should know that i belong to Generation Y, i have always been sure that i do not conform to most of what describes a typical person in my generation. However, i have begun to see that i have been surrounded almost every second by unnecessary media ( which i find undesirable) Hence, i have decided to take a few days off the Internet and truly enjoy the Countryside before i leave.

On a lighter note, Today i experienced something i have always dreamed of doing but am unable to do in Singapore.
Lying in the big field surrounded by flowers and starring at the clouds. Lovely

L'Escapade is a guest house, bed and breakfast with possibilitie to have diner and an house in a barn i'm renovating to host 20-25 people. We have 34 hectares half to produce hay for horses and half of forest to produce heating wood. We have pig also but we'll kill the first one to transform it this automne, it is the begining, we have chikens, ducks, gooses, horses, donkeys, goats and black sheep. Next year i want to produce patatoes and oignons and have some cows. The aim is to have a traditionnal poly-cultures to be the most as possible autonome. I'm sorry not to have an english good enought to explain it in details but you will see it soon!

This is what Adrien sent me in the first few emails we exchanged. When we first arrived, I was quite shocked as Adrian was alot younger than i imagined. He was 28 but already had 2 Kids (Raphael and Gabrielle) and looked really young. ( not as young aas lisa though haha) We were also very excited to enter the Bed and Breakfast, it was essentially a very old farm house ( build before 1631) and it had a fireplace ! haha. Adrien said it could get as cold as -20 at times. The ' farm consisted of 4 donkeys, 3 horses, 3 dogs, 5 pigs, 2 goats, 2 black sheep( baa baa black sheep , 6 cats, 5 ducklings, 1 goose and 1 chicken...the rest of the farm area was mainly forrest. Adrien and his 2 sons stayed at the Attic of the house while the 4 guest rooms were at the second level. The barn was going to be a stage for plays and Theatre. The place we stayed at was an attachement to the main house. The entire basement was also quite big, cool and a little scary haha.
If any of you have heard of the movie Psycho by Alfred hitchcock, the entire scenario is quite similar.
I was explaining to Jason, how similar we were to the girl in the movie. 5 big house, mother that was never seen, friendly guy maitaining the entire bed and breakfast...) haha

He than proceeded to give us a tour of the entire house and the barn. We were given our own room(with heater !) and we had our own toilets. I couldnt see any significant difference between our rooms and the ones guest were given ( maybe a little dustier) and we had an even better view ! haha
After we settled down, It was almost dinner time and Adrien being extremely tired decided to whip up an extremely easy dish.
It was basically baby food, haha ( potatoes, carrots and tuna boiled and mashed). We took a shower and had an early night.

The next morning during breakfast, i asked adrien ' So what are we working on today ?'
His reply stunned me momentarily ' Today is wednesday ! we rest...ok lets bake a chocolate cake and apple pie !
Jason and Shawn ' ok !!! '
Haha, i whispered to jason, are we at the right place ?
So we spent most of the day cooking, baking, eating, chilling and talking and eating somemore. Weeee ! on holiday !

Thursday, after breakfast we finally started work, We realise that the next few days work will be mainly renovation and improvements to the guesthouse instead of working with nature like Bouligat, but we were fine with it.
We were showed to a room where plaster had been applied to all the walls and ceiling, and we had to smmothen out everything in order for the different surfaces to be painted. ( sounds easier than it is) With sandpaper, a machine that sands surfaces, a mask, and MP3 we started work. It was hard work and quite tiring, but the real thing that bothered me was the mask( it was extremely hard to breathe)
We wprked all the way till lunch without stopping ( singapore power ! ) haha Adrien than took us for lunch, and we continued working after lunch, but we worked so fast it was finished around 1 hour later
Than we rested and played ping pong and had dinner

(Good) Friday
I didnt know it was good friday until recently. ( i have lost track of time since i came) It felt like any ordinary friday. Oh well...
As there were guest coming today, We were going to help Adrien's mother who arrived last night to clean the house.
Adrien's mother ( Marie Francoise) said ' Sweep the living room, kitchen and after you can listen to some music, or use computer or do whatever you want'
Shawn thinking to himself ' EPIC' haha
We than cleaned the house asian styled We sweeped and mopped and wiped the tables the entire place looked different.
We also agreed that we would continue helping after that ( cannot la, stay there eat so much food than help a little only, haha )
After we finished, we were talking with ( we didnt know what to call her) Marie beside the fireplace.
All of a sudden a strong gust of wind blowed through the Chimney and stirred up all the ash distributing it finely across the living room....
Jason and I ( sian we clean for nothing) but it wasnt so bad, after some minimal cleaning, it was slightly better.
We than went to help remove a old fence, dig a small hole for the pond and relocate some rocks to build a wall. ( incomplete task as they were all big projects)
When Adrien came back( during our pizza lunch where i stuffed myself ) , he had bought some wooden planks for the walls. He asked us to help him carry them up to the room that was being renovated. After less than an hour, we were done. Adrien: ok You are done for the day
Shawn and Jason : ok Ping pong time !!! haha ( Jason thrashed me)
We saw him walking past us a few more times and i asked, Do you need some help ?
Adrien: No, No its ok
After that, Shower and Dinner time, I asked Marie what was for dinner ?
Raclette !!! ( for those of you who dont know what it is ! this is the the one i had in Switzerland ) oh the wonder of melted cheese (Leon you will love this !!!!)
Desserts was strawberries in mint Syrup ! ( she plucked the leaves with me !)

Oh man im so full now, i cant walk to my room !!!
You are going to see a fat shawn when i come back

Jules: Do you know what they call a Quarter Pounder with cheese in France?
Brett: No.
Jules: Tell him, Vincent.
Vincent: Royale with cheese.

In the previous post, i stated the different options to get to our next 'farm'. It was actually only 140 km away, but regular trains didnt go there so... That made things quite hard for us.
Adrien very kindly offered to pick us up from Aubenas, but when Lisa and Xavier heard it, they were surprised as it was around an hour drive away. (70km) So i decided, since we could take the bus (which saved us alot of time), we would arrive at 12 pm at aubenas( the halfway point) and we could try to hitchhike there.
Jason was very against the idea though, He felt since Adrien offered to pick us up at Aubenas, why hitchhike ?
I just felt bad making Adrien drive so far, just to pick us up... and if there was time to be wasted, why his instead of ours.
Lastly, for us it was a one way trip but for him, he had to pick us and go back.
I dragged Jason along and 'force' him to hitchhike with me.
We got off the bus and after jason tried another attempt to not hitchhike and get a bus to Langogne (which failed ) i navigated to what i thought was a good hitchhiking spot.

It was quite a walk, the sun was beating down on our backs, and the roads were all uphill, but i perservered on in excitement
We finally reached the highway 102 Put down our heavy bags and started hitching
The sun was not in our favour and the glare was really strong and coming from the same directions as the approaching cars.
After ten minutes, the first car stopped !!! It was a middle aged man, i told him Langogne ? He said no, but he was going to the next village 2 KM away, so we hopped in He was a PE teacher and was going to school. He than dropped us at a much better location where the sun wasnt shining directly in our faces.
After 15 minutes an old man stopped, langogne ? No but xxx village 5 km away, as he didnt speak English and i didnt know where XXX village was, i turned him down politely
Another 10 minutes, and 2 Girls stopped for us !
We got in their small car, They were lesbians...Lucy 20 and Jessica 23, they were going past langogne and could drop us 'there' (which we found out later) was still 9km from the village...We had a decent conversation and found out that Jessica got 1000 Euros unemployment money every month for a year when she lost her job last year, so she was on holiday ! haha... She also finish her degree in Commerce but didnt want to work in that line so she decide to go back to school to study Nursing... Yes education in University is free ( amost, some misc 400-600 Euros a year )
I got a little carsick as the journey was quite long and the roads were winding ( it was a mountainous region ) so i stopped talking.

After they dropped us, we found out jason left our entire Plastic bag of stuff on the road !!! Oh man !!! All my wang wang that i have conserved for so long ( i only ate 2 ) and our Maggie mee !!! which we also ration ( ahhh mee goreng ahhhh!!!!) and my shorts and other stuff
Oh well, suck thumb.
As it was still quite a distance away, we had to Hitch again, but when we put our stuff down, in less than 5 mins our next ride appeared !
David in a minibus ! haha, he was listening to English punk rock (which he said he didnt understand haha) He was going to drop us in Langogne. He was asking us where we were from and what our plans were when we explained we were going to a farm to work and stay. He asked oh which Farm, L'Escapade...
Oh L'Escapade i am going there too but i have to buy some stuff first, if you will wait for me i can drop you there straight as it is quite a distance from the village .
Shawn and jason . ' Alright ! Sure we have the time ! '
So yes, We followed him to buy chicken feed he kept 30 chickens and fed them so that he could eat them and their eggs) haha.
Adrien was very surprised when we arrived suddenly at his door. He was supposed to pick us at Aubenas, and we didnt tell him that we were hitchhiking over in case we failed haha.

Yay Pass

“A child on a farm sees a plane fly overhead and dreams of a faraway place. A traveler on the plane sees the farmhouse… and thinks of home.” – Carl Burns.

It was a really tough decision, to stay or to leave.
There were many different options, we cpould stay longer in Bouligat, up to 3 weeks, or go on to the next farm or even next 2 farms !
We had so many options it was a bit of a headache. Even among the next farms there were several options to choose from.
As we had 'mass send request to several farms, somehow the many that replied all seem interesting.
A super embarrassing thing even happened, while at the thursday market, another farmer selling bread ( Michel ) came up to me and said Are u Shawn... yes.... You are suppose to come next week right ? ....redfaced shawn stunned and mumbles errrr we are waiting for some stuff to happen so we will contact you online. ( i neither considered him nor replied him after awhile as he was a little strict and there were better options)

In the end i decided to leave as, i felt yes they were really nice people and all and we really wanted to stay and help, but it would be better for us if we could see more farms and experience more. The next awaiting farm was a Bed and breakfast 34 ha big !! in contrast to Ferme de la bouligat which was 3 ha

We told them we were leaving on tuesday...Daniel left us earlier as he had to go back to Cambridge to study. this next portion is a description of our last night.
It was 9pm and they were still busy, so we decided to cook them our instant noodles for dinner, haha beef noodles and mee goreng.
After dinner, the three of us were sleeping in the trailer when Daniel suddenly said, I'm going to put the Cat in the cupboard ( the same cat scratch daniel went he tried to carry it) Are u guys ok with the meowing the whole night.
Are u serious ?! i repplied ( with daniel, u never know when he is joking) haha
Thinking he was joking, i just laid down and said, ok la
The next moment he got up, wore his jacket and went out into the night in search of the cat.
He found it, brought it in and put it in the cupboard !!!
I was stunned and was confused, whether to laugh or feel sad. Daniel said the cupboard was lined with pillows, so it would be very comfortable. I made him promise to remove the cat in the morning, and in my mind i thought, should be quite comfortable and warm so i went to sleep.
i am a very light sleeper, and i could hear the cat meowing and scratching the door at different intervals during the night !

The next morning, i awoke...Daniel was gone, but i could still hear the cat inside !!!
nonsense Daniel, he didnt let the cat go !!! and i was too scared at the thought of wha i would find behind the door to open it. So Jason did the dirty work and let the cat out of the Placard
Haha, it seemed perfectly fine

Sunday,
i awoke at 7.30 am and walked over for breakfast.... the door was locked. Feeling very cold, i went back to the trailer to wait.
8.30, i went back, still sleeping !!!
I decided to read my book outside the trailer...
They finally awoke at 12.30pm !!!! Wa, they forgot to tell us they sleep in on sundays
We had breakfast than.
Oh man, after breakfast they went to laze around,and so did i...
After awhile jason and i decided to cook Lunch.
So i cooked them a Rosti, haha and jason baked them a cake apple crumble : )
We had a nice lunch, off course they said my rosti was nice

Monday,
Pierre, Xavier, Jason and i finish the green house, finally ! haha the job was completed...
We had a simple dinner and more cake and crashed.
After dinner Xavier asked me what was i studying in University, i replied Should be business.
He immediately said You devil !!!
haha, and everytime i tried to explain, he said devil !!! haha
Than he said Shawn you are a cool guy man, but you are the devil !!!
Haha,oh well, i guess he is right in some way
Tuesday,
Breakfast time, i had a super heavy breakfast as i didnt know when my next meal would be ( wise choice)
They bid farewell and thank us for our work and Xavier brought us to the bus station.
After shaking hands and Thanking Xavier, he turned to me again and said: Shawn you are a nice and cool guy, dont be the devil
I smiled and said ok thanks, i really will miss him...
We went to the train station, it xas either a 5 hour free train, a 3 hour train we had to pay a reservation fee or a 1.5 hour(very expensive or free) bus ride. We went to check with the train station and it was.....FREE !!!!
Weeee !!!!
Backside pain bus to Aubenas

“Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.” – Paul Theroux

The subsequent days were getting better.
Like going outfield and all new things, its all abut getting used to it.
Ironically, from wanting to leave the Far, we now cant bear leaving and are thinking if we should change our plans to stay longer or continue or tour....
Xavier and Lisa are extremely nice people, they give us so much and take extra care to ensure we have everthing we need.
The food has been simple, but really fresh !!! At least half or more is usually freshly harvested before the meal haha,
I have been eating alot of cheese, carrots, salads, beans, bread, potatoes, and random stuff. i think my diet is at its healthiest
The work has been quite fun at times, especially harvesting !
We pluck red Spinach leaves, pull carrots from the ground...
The one thing that we cannot stand ( literally) is weeding, haha you squat on the ground the whole time ( which is really tiring) beant over pulling out weeds with your bare hands. This gets worse when you are weeding plants to help the specific plant grow and that specific plant looks like weed ! ( like beetroot)
Another thing we have been helping with is the set up of the new greenhouse.
Its quite a big job as the greenhouse is big and we have to carry the plastic sheets, measure and cut them, carry it to the top, spread it out, stretch it, dig and cover the base with soil and adjust again ! Not easy man.
After the first hour, i said to Jason, this is totally not a 5 men job.
Haha, another thing that is crazy is the temperature variation, at night its mega cold, even with 2 blankets you would still feel cold. In the day its gets so hot, i take of my shirt to work ( i dont wanna sweat )

While walking the giant container for a shower, i saw jason peeling potatoes with a small little girl. I went into the shower and thought to myself who is that little girl, maybe its Lisa's nice she talked about....
After i came out, she said hi in probably the best english since we left england. I asked her what she was studying, and she said she stopped studying a long time ago.
Hmmm, does she want to be a farmer too ?
She than explained she finish uni long time ago.
Than i couldnt stand it and asj her, How old are u this year ?
She replied 29...
I fell off the chair, remember the electric shock in Switzerland, this was like same intensity but in my face haha
I thought she was 14 !!! Serious Its like if a fountain of everlasting youth ever existed, she drank from it everyyday...
Ok, never mind...
She stayed and studied in London for 9 years ( v good english) and off course v good french
She was a very nice girl and we had a nice tme chatting over dinner.
We soon found out she earns 9 Euro(x1.8 to Sgd) an hour and she gets accommodation and food also !!!!
I xas just thinking, maybe she is more experienced than us but still her productivity cannot be 9:0 right !!!
Oh well, for now, The delicious apple pie and Rhubarb cake are our wages
I asked her about so French habits and she admitted that she was not a typical french, haha
We had nice chats the next few days while working, and i liked her alot, but i guess i ll never see her again. Oh well, we could have been good friends.

Saturday-
We went to the market today !
There was only two avenues of sales for Xavier and lisa, one was to their regular customers on thursdays, the other was the saturday market in the nearby village Crest.
It was very exciting, as some of the products being sold were hand plucked by us !!! we had plucked and bundled carrots ( 40 bundles of 12-15 carrots) and some other random vegetables.
Also, Xavier suggested for us to cycle to the market, instead of driving there so we could see the country side better.
It was a pleasant but very tiring journey haha ! Jason and i were very happy at the market, jason because of the pastry and me beacuse i could finally get to see the authentic french market ive been looking for !
Haha, there was cheese; jam, honey, bread, eggs, vegetables.... many local produce being sold.
I was looking to buy something back home, but everything was either way too expensive, too bulky ( glasses of jam and honey, super nice), too silly ( bars of handmade soap) or couldnt last the journey ( cheese, bread, pottery...)
Everything that i mentioned was very nicely presented, and i was quite sure tasted nice.
I bought a crispy croissant for 80cents euro and a fruit cake for us to share at 4.50 euros ( ouch) While Jason bought some pastry for 2 Euros and a Chocolate croissant for 2 Euros. They were all very nice ( finally i had a crispy croissant haha)
We packed up and went back for a nice lunch of é eggs ( yes finally !!!!), more vegetables, brie cheese and off course cakes ! weeee !
haha.
It was a lazy saturday afternoon....
Oh ya, remember the carrots we plucked ?
All sold out !!!

We left the comfortable, clean, efficient and nice Switzerland to France. I mentioned before about the punctuality of the trains in switzerland, the same does not apply in France. haha
When we got off the swiss train for the train to the farm in France, we were relieved that we finally could afford some stuff( Haribo !!!)
However, we got quite irritated thatour train was delayed ( unheard off in the swiss) and we had to call Lisa to inform them we were going to be late as they were picking us up at the train station.

We waited awhile when Xavier suddely appeared and brought us to his car. His english was quite bad, and i was struggling hard to communicate with him, but first He did not look like the average farmer.
He was tall, young and with sunglasses and the only thing that gave him away was his hands and the dirty old car. Haha
When we arrived at the farm, we met Lisa ( his wife) and Pierre ( their friend and worker) who showed us around the Farm.
Honestly, it was smaller than i expected ( 3 Ha) but big enough as they were only 2 people and that had about 10 greenhouse and a horse ( Rosali) and another plot of land for other stuff.

They were sleeping in a mobile home (which was essentially a giant container) where the shower was located and had our meals.
We were sleeping in 1 out of the two trailers meant for workers and random friends.
There was 2 Dry toilets ( toilets without water, just sawdust to cover ur dump with) and a workhouse.
Our trailer was very bare, two beds and a cupboard, very little...but enough.
We were honestly a little disappointed as

1) there were only 1 horse and 2 cats...
2)the rooms were a little errrrrr
3) the toilets were quite errrr
4) the work on the first day was very tiring, boring and hard !!!

At the end of first day, we gathered for a simple dinner of green salad, beans and carrots.
We found out they were very poor, they had purchased the Farm for 111,000 Euros and were still paying it off.
After dinner, they took out 3 plates of different pastry !
Super nice, apple crumble, Rhurbarb cake and apple cake ( i gave them the names myself )
It really was good, and i told jason, ok at least the cake is worth it. haha

At this point of time, i have to share about my thoughts on traveling,

Every person at every age should travel.

For the young, it broadens perspective; inspires and induces them to set goals and priorities.
For the middle aged, It reminds a person of his identity and reminds and allow him to appreciate what is important in life.*
For the old, If you haven't seen much, you haven't lived much.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

We arrived in the evening at Tanguy's house in the late evening, after a quick introduction he decided to cook some dinner and we decided that that was a splendid idea, hungry and broke as ever
Tanguy was a really nice guy, he had spent 6 months in Ntu as an exchange student studying engineering, maybe michael ser knows him haha.
Jason and i watched quite a few Tv series ( Chuck, prison break, walking dead, Heroes, how i met your mother..) more or less but that night we found out during dinner that Tanguy watched at least 10x more than us, he showed us his Movie, music and Tv series collection and it was Crazy ! haha, i have no idea how he managed to watch so many shows and still manage to have so much time to do other stuff.
We also found out during dinner he was a real life engineer.
He made alot of the stuff in his house by himself, from altering the curtains to sewing the entire Sofa cover and installing his bed...Respect.
We were really tired soon and crashed after a nice hot shower ( which turned cold halfway for me )

The next day Tanguy had three Fit and dangerously good looking man escorting him to work
After we departed from his office, we had a nice walk in half of Parc De Bercy and decided to go check out the National Library which he told us to go see.
It was a interesting and very big building, comprising of 4 'corners` which were mainly office buildings the library was like in B1 and B2 with a mini forrest growing from the bottom to the first storey.
However, to our horror we found out the library wasnt free ! Ya what the crap right, Toilets arent free now even libriaries arent free....
While sitting on some benches, we suddenly saw the backpacker again ! It was crazy, we have a lready met him 2 other times coincidentally and now at the library ! haha so this time we went to introduce ourselves formally.
His name was Chiam and he was 37. He said he has travelled through all of Europe except 3 places ( cant rmb) and i told jason`eh this guy a little niang eh` but jason say `no la, maybe he is like that`
He immediately told us a thousand tips( free entry into library 2 hours before it closed every day !) haha, and otbher tips about traveling and hitchhiking...
He was really super zai, he told us his has been enjoying himself on 3 Euros a week for the whole time !
Sweet...Knowing we were backpackers also he asked if we had a place to stay and food to eat and than explained how he managed to get so many things for free !
He explained that almost every cith had a homeless shelter that lets people sleep and a few outlets that distributed food to the broke and poor...
We than decide to go for dinner together at the `outlet` and as it was still early, we went for a walk in china town.

While walking there, he wanted to show us where to meet for dinner, and we saw a buch of hobos queuing.
We decided to go in for a hot drink for the road.
After, we had our drink they suddenly started serving food...So Chiam, said `Lets eat now, better to eat earlier than later`
So we joined the queue also, while queing i started to realise that we were totally dressed in the wrong attire (we didnt look like hobos at all !!!)
And a black man, looked at me and said with a cheeky face, No cheena ok !
So i smiled and laughed and continued queuing, and started feeling really sorry for all this people...
I really hope that one day if i can afford i can set up one of these shelters also to feed the hungry.
The rising income gap is just ridiculous, in the next street you have people dining in luxury and buying stupid branded stuff while all these people are hungry and have almost no idea how to get their next meal.

Yes, for some of them, they are in these circumstance because of their mistakes or bad choices in life, however i am sure that some of the people queing beside me found it hard to get out of the `rut`
With this, we were soon got our `meal` Seriously, it was great, one of the best meals i had in Paris.( i haven been eating much)
You would have a `minced meat wrapped with cabbage` some rice with minestrone sauce, bread, vegetable soup (cream based), yogurt, an apple and a lemon( yes a lemon) and a ice lemon tea or ice water... super nice, serious...
After a nice satisrying meal, it was time for chinatown...the whole time i had really nice chats with Chiam and really found he that he was a nice guy with alot of knowledge to impart and i felt a little sad that he had nowhere to stay that night.
He was calling the emergency line (really funny) half the time to try to get a shelter, i was thinking of asking him to Tanguy's house for the night, but Dan and Jason were against the idea...So we bid him farewell and went to meet Tanguy for grocery shopping..
He was cooking some morocco beef stew for us, feeling bad, we paid for the groceries ( my highest expense in Paris !)
We had a nice satisfying dinner and tried to have an early night as we had a train at 8.09 am the next morning.
We really enjoyed our time with Tanguy talking and eating Ice cream and watching Family guy haha !!!

Switzerland here we come !!!!

Time and tide waits for no man

(Sunday)

Time wasnt on our side again so we quickly booked our tickets for the next leg of our trip.

We went to port de clignancourt where the famous flea market was suppose to be.
However my excitement turned to disappointment when we got lost and visited a 'fake' flea market instead...
So we wandered around the area ( total black neighbourhood) and walked all the way to La chapelle where we took the metro home and had our dinner, discuss our trip and chill.

--while walking through the black neighbourhood in the afternoon...

Warning !

After reading the next part your perception of me might change...
But cheers,
Dude ! just take it easy man

We saw that all the fruit and vegetable market were closing and alot of stuff were just getting dumped and the entire streets were in a mess.
There were alot of cleaners just getting all the thrash and spraying water all over the place.
Suddenly, we noticed alot of people just rummaging through the stacks and packets of stuff and keeping it !!
With excitement, i said "Jason ! eh lets take also la !!"
So i quickly, followed them ( lao jiao) and started rummaging also.
The first stop there was just almost 100 potatoes in a tray and i was like dude !!!
And when i tried to get some the black big woman who was feeling her plastic bag, shouted at me....
(im guessing it was something along the line, go away this is all mine you chinese punk) haha
So i quickly continued walking, when you start to open your eyes, you actually realise that there is alot of decent stuff there ! haha
ok cutting the long story short and helping you guys to be not as disgusted as you already are, here are some photos of our final spoils back home... Yes nothing much, but i still have a decent standard of cleanliness
Heh heh heh

After that, we went home cooked, chatted with Thibaut and just enjoyed our last night
The next morning. Goodbye Thibaut and Hello Pierre....

We took the Metro to Pierre house, very near the area we visited mentioned earlier.
Black neighbourhood, but thankfully a nice Condo ! haha
We put down our bags and he told us to come back at 5.30 pm for dinner.
So we left the house and walked around went to Montmartre (my favourite place in Paris ! its the place where you can find cobblestoned roads and like an authentic paris ! Featured in Amelie Poulain !!
didnt find her though )
It had a beautiful view seriously epic, the best view so far in probably my whole life.
A little tired to describe it but seriously, Wow !
However the place was a little spoilt by numerous touts (mainly from Romania)
Alot of nice shops (expensive though) and nice cafes.

After a tiring day we went back.
When we arrived, Pierre was already waiting for us.
We had a nice chat for an hour or so, and than it was time to cook dinner !
The dish of the day was Ratatouille ( Stewed vegetable dish ) !
While preparing the food, i was like oh no this is real bad, im going hungry tonight...
We also baked an apple pie for dessert !
We all learned to cook the Ratatouille together and had a real fun time cooking chopping talking...
As the Ratatouille needed some time to stew we had some appetisers while waiting ( Canapés) it was bread with a really nice spread ( Tarama) which is essenitially fish egg salad, similar to the one we have on sushi.
The whole time we were having real interesting chats about French people, history, culture....
Finally dinner was ready, i felt really rude if i didnt even try it, and after preparing it for so long. I knew it was only right to try it....
So, i summoned my reserve will power and dug into a mouthfull of vegetables !
Yes, i have to admit it, it was really nice !!!
Its one of the rare occassions i had vegetables and this time was probably the second time i liked it ! haha
Really nice dinner, healthy also pierre explained the amazing thing about the stew was that all the flavours of the vegetables were still preserved, and the taste only fuses together in your mouth ! Great
After we finished dinner, Apple Pie !!! really great serious, and we made it ourselves !!
Sweet juicy and delicious
simply lovely

The next night was almost the same thing just that we had pasta instead, Pierre is a really good cook and all our dinners lasted 3-4 hours everynight as we cooked, had appetisers, ate and talked the whole night.
In the day we went to montmartre, where this time the view was way better as the fog had lifted and we could see paris really well.
With perfect weather, great music ( african rastafarian singing and rapping as well as other people singing), great view... simply perfect.
We just sat there for a real long time enjoying the scenery and music.
We also met a fellow backpacker whom we had met earlier in the bus station ! haha not forgetting the stunning ang moh girls !
haha.
One thing that spoiled it though was a romanian gypsey (pretending to be deaf) who tried to get some money from me and when i said no, he grab my beautiful tasty pastry and just crushed the entire thing !!
Pek chek !
Also we did pop by a french hospital, and it was quite nice and pretty decent.
Lastly, we bough some middle eastern bread and nuts

Thank you Pierre !

Leaving for Tanguy house !!!

3.30pm-- Our bus brought us to Gallieni bus station in the outskirts of Paris and we had until 7.30 pm to find our way to Avenue De Ternes near the famous Champ elysees so there we went walking (full gear
While walking we got to see numerous sights that really was quite amazing(but i guess a little unappreciated due to our fatigue and me still dizzy from westminster abbey haha)
After a 3.45 hour (very tiring) walk, we finally arrived at our Thibaut house !!!

When we first met he was a real nice gentleman and brought us to his studio apartment which was really nice and cozy (pictures will be up 1 day)
Next moment, breaking news. He was leaving the next day to his parents house (an hour drive from Paris) as he had a Duathlon to go to.
Puzzled, i asked " what about us ?"
Thibaut " oh dont worry, u will stay here. I give you my keys"
Shawn(with a calm composure) "oh, ok" ( EPIC !!!! Screaming in my mind !!! Wooooo !!!!)
Thibaut trusted us with his entire house before he had even met us !
We had changed our dates last minute and he could have very real rejected us as he wouldnt have been home but he didnt !
Instead he trusted us with his beloved apartment to me, evidence of people geniune kind nature

The next day we bid farewell and rushed off to Cathedral Notre Dame where Jason suggested for us to join the Paris "free" tour.
We were first given a brief history on how the cathedral was neglected and partially saved by Victor Hugo who wrote (the Hunchback of Notre Dame) inspiring people in paris to save it from neglect.

Right after, we had a nice stroll along the Seine river ( it was supposed to be romantic but..dude i was with 2 other guys) haha and headed to the Lourve, Yes ! the Lourve

• For those of you who dont know the Lourve it is basically the biggest toilet in Paris
• and for those who thought that was true please stop reading this blog and get out, find the nearest stranger and ask him to slap you

yes do it now

The Lourve was way bigger than we thought in fact one of the amazing things of it was the sheer size of the museum ( the queue also) but man, it was one big museum !
there are 35,000 artefacts in it !
If you see 1 artefact a second u would still need 9 hours to completely see them all !
We didnt go in... as

1)The queue
2)the price
3)we had already seen the british museum which was argued to be better or just as good.
4)The outside of the building itself was already worth the trip, also we did get to see the "invincible pyramid" haha

After passing through the Lourve, we walked pass the great garden " Jardin des tuileries" created by Queen Catherine de medici.
It was quite nice, as it had almost perfect symmetry from the start to the end on both sides.
However the real mind blower was at the end of the garden, there was a 6km amazing line of monuments (the Historical axis) go google it
where all the famous monuments run straight for almost 6km
simply amazing !

After we finished walking the historical axis, we carried on walking along the river and finally reached a nice small park where there was a great view of the Eiffel tower. Our guide explained that it was constructed for the 1889 world exhibition and it was meant to be a temporary exhibitation, but when the French finally fell in love with it they decided to let it stay so they put up a radio transmitter.
We left the tour (after paying about 3 Euros of tips, you just have to pay somehow) and went to eat and hang around the area as we wanted to see the tower at night

At 7.40 pm, we finally walked towards the tower and just waited for 8pm.
7.55 PM- the tower was beautiful (seriously) just standing there and admiring it for who knows how long. Off course we took photos.
8 PM - The flashing lights finally started. Sweet gotta see it if u are in Paris !
.....
Went back home tired and yes spent the night chilling and eating Cheese ! hahaha

Roger dont so sad eh !
i was going to buy the Eiffel tower back for you but they say 152 million, my pocket not enough money.
Sorry

(Initial plan)

Get tickets in the morning.
Meet daniel immediately after exams--3.30pm
Catch the bus to London--4.30pm to 6.45pm
Meet Richard for dinner --7.30pm to 8.30 pm
Catch bus to Paris -------9.30pm to 7.30 am

(Reality)

Meet daniel immediately after exams--3.30pm
Catch the bus to London--4.30pm to 7.45pm (nonsense jam)
Eat dinner in the bus station---7.45pm to 9.10pm
Attempt to catch the bus --9.10pm to 9.30pm ( missed the bus as we did not know we needed to check in at least 15 mins before, and did not do so !)

(Our first night out)

Walking around the train station and looking for somewhere to camp, we eventually found a flat "platform" between a staircase where it was quiet, laid out our bags and crashed. (11pm) we needed to wake up at around 6.30am to catch the 1st bus

3.45am
woke up shivering and needing to pee, jason and dan had both took out their sleeping bags and looked quite soundly asleep.
I was shivering so badly, it almost felt like the time i was sleeping in the rain up in "Mount Biang" (Brunei mountain)
So lazy as i was, i said " im not sleeping anymore, ima go pee now"
.....
went around the station looking for somehere to pee
pee in the backalley outside the station
walked around the station and read the local news
Dan and Jason got up
Finally boarded the 8 Hour bus to Paris !
Crossed the channel !
(the entire bus got swalloed by a train carriage, the shutters close and when the shutters open woala ! France ! haha )

Sorry the entries are getting less frequent, internet access is plenty but its hard to blog from a phone.
We havent really had a chance to use a computer for a long time and when opportunity arises, we had to use it for our "research"
So hang on ! lots of stories to tell, pictures to share but...
Patience is a virtue
Not many have.

Excuse me spelling errors and typos ( Darn this french keyboards ! )