under and over the channel

(I apologize for any upsetting absent accents.)

I left early Friday morning, not knowing exactly what to expect with a bus ticket to Paris. Unfortunately, the bus driver used no magic spells - we simply drove onto a train and popped through the chunnel.
Unlike my boring bus, Paris did not disappoint. I stayed with my good friend Christine in her 5th floor apartment near Trocadero. And as if walking up and down the stairs wasn't enough, we walked all over Paris. But first things first: Montmartre and Moulin Rouge. We had lunch at the cafe where Amelie works, then explored Montmartre including the Sacre Couer

We found a lot of street markets
The rest of my wandering in Paris was mainly along the Seine. Parisian autumn is beautiful until it starts raining. Then it looks a lot like this: On Monday it was rainy, but I went to all the touristy things while Christine was in class. I found a great museum called Guimet Musee National des Arts Asiatiques. I loved it but it made me sad how little I know about Eastern culture and religion. My last minute tourist stop was Chopin's well-loved grave in the Pere Lachaise cemetary. No magic on the way home either - our bus caught a ferry to Dover from the French coast.

Mind the Gap. really.

I forgot to Mind the Gap and I have a big bruise on my shin to prove it! The nice announcer woman tells you over and over again "Please mind the gap between the train and the platform" but it's hard to mind the gap when there's a huge mass of humans rushing to get in and out of the carriage!

Did you know that the color of the underground lines MATCH the poles and seats of the individual carriages on that line? I am so impressed.

For instance, here is a District Line train, which is green on the London Underground map:

Recent interior design upgrades

Flat 1, 39 Marchmont Street recently got a new look. Is it Mod, Retro, Classic . . . ?

An Art Exhibition in the stairway

Halloween Decorations, compliments of our American holiday design consultant, my mom

Slug Trail

And another living decoration which I couldn't document: a mouse!

The slugs are gone now, but the mouse is still with us. Jane's ceiling had a very bad leak whenever the guys upstairs used their shower, but it's been fixed. We've also had a difficult time trying (and failing) to set up the internet in our flat.
I love our little home away from home, including its quirks and malfunctions!

Shakespeare's old stomping grounds

Last weekend we went to Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace. Shakespeare's grave is in a beautiful church on the river. The cemetary outside was fascinating too, but I didn't get to check it out as much. There were three organs inside the church and (of course) a giftshop. The grave was in a very honorable place near the alter and his bust was above it on the wall. The bust holds a feather which they replace every year, in case Shakespeare's ghost wants to come back to write some more! Jane and I walked around town after the church visit to see all the Shakespeare touristy things, but we decided that the cost was not worth going in. It was much better that was because we had money to spend on scones with clotted cream and jam with tea!

In the evening we saw the Royal Shakespeare Company perform a GREAT production of Twelfth Night. All the theatre productions I've seen this semester in London have been really well done! After the play everyone went to The Dirty Duck pub next door because that's where the actors and actresses go after the show. We saw Viola, Antonio, Sebastian, Lord Andrew, etc. They were very popular (Antonio was especially popular with the giant group of 18 year old girls).

We spent the night at a B&B, got a full english in the morning, then went to Warwick Castle, where all the castle scenes from Monty Python and the Hold Grail were filmed!