Tourist Sites

Yes, I didn't have enough cheese and wine in my first visit, so I had to come back for more! Took some time to actually get there, left my place at 10am and arrived to Paris at 10pm.... in the meantime....
a) I got off the bus a few stops too late on the way to the airport so then I had to go to a nearby office where the lady called a taxi for me to come "as fast as possible"... so nearly missed my flight, but got there just in time!
b) Flight from Copenhagen to Paris was actually via Zurich, but the flight leaving Copenhagen was late, so I arrived in Zurich in 5:45pm, when my flight to Paris was supposed to leave Zurich at.... 5:45pm! So yes, didn't quite make it, so had a couple more hours up my sleeve, but was an excuse to stock up on some more Swiss chocolate
c) Had a lot of trouble navigating Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport. Would follow the arrow pointing to the railway station, but didn't lead me anywhere! Took some time, but finally made the hike to the right place.... then couldn't find a place to pay cash for the ticket, so after a struggle, was able to translate and use the ticket machines to be able to get out of the airport and on my way to the city centre.

Well, quite a day, but lucky for me I was in no rush, so it was all good. Had no definite plans for the week, but managed to see and explore more parts of Paris I never had seen before. Was staying with my local friend Ced, who had a party on the Saturday night, so helped to cook some nice French foods, like pate and other delicious things. Was a cool night, met some nice people and got to practise my French.... hmmm not quite, since I don't say much more than Bonjour. But in any case it was quite nice.

Spent three days pretty much just wandering around, seeing places such as Champs Elysees, Notre Dame cathedral, Arc de Triomphe.... didn't make it to the Eiffel Tower this time though.

On my last full day there, it was time for the main reason to Paris this time, to visit the BNP Paribas Masters, the last Masters Series tennis tournament for the year. Was hoping to see Roger Federer to play, but unfortunately he pulled out. In any case, saw three great matches, each involving a French player which helped to create an exciting atmosphere. The matches I saw were Paul-Henri Mathieu v Novak Djokovic, James Blake v Arnaud Clement, and Tommy Robredo v Sebastien Grosjean. Was a really cool day!!

My last night included a visit to a very French restaurant, at least in my eyes. Had some great wine, charcuterie, a nice duck dish, and some very nice dessert as well. Really enjoyed it!

So yes, while I was away, I missed the first snowfall of the season in Linkoping! But luckily for me, there was plenty left when I got back, which was really exciting for me to see It was really cold as well, so things really had changed in the space of a week. I only had a week left in Linkoping before my next trip, during which we had a great birthday party for the beautiful Beate, was a really nice evening. After a few quiet days, it was time for the next trip, our 3-day excursion to Stockholm for our Nordic Culture class.