I love Paris in the summer.

My second impression of the city was not as good as the first which is surprising seeing as the weather was much better this time around, well, except for the Saturday when it rained like cats and dogs. The city is pretty, don’t get me wrong, I love the Flemish style architecture. It just seemed a little like peasantville to me.

I know a lot of Parisians (real Parisians) look down on those from the provinces and sometimes I completely understand why. They’re a backward lot!

Disneyland Paris

Seeing as L is THE expert on Disney, she showed us around and explained how it all worked. We started at the very tame Haunted House and then went on some other tame, but fun, rides including:

• Pirates of the Caribbean
• It’s a Small World
• Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups
• Autopia
• Le Carrousel de Lancelot
• The Land of Fairy Tales

My favourite was probably the carrousel and the Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups. I was pretty dizzy after the tea cups, lol. The least interesting was the Land of Fairy Tales boat ride but seeing as we didn’t have to wait to get on, no biggy. The Autopia was the most disappointing because we waited for almost an hour and it was pretty boring. We should have skipped that and gone home.

The more exciting rides were of course the roller coasters. We only did two, Thunder Mountain and Indiana Jones, because we ran out of time. I know they aren’t super big roller coasters but I love that kind of thing so was happy. I wasn’t expecting the 360 on the Indiana Jones ride so that was a bit of a shock, lol. Felt a bit light headed after that

I’m going to try to go back next week before F heads off on holiday but it’ll all depend on the weather. Thanks to L for showing us around!

I was hoping to see Pearl Jam play in Paris but for whatever reason, they are only playing in a few festivals around Europe, they are not doing any concerts on their own. So I booked my tickets to see them in Arras and arranged to stay in Lille for a few days to check out the city.

The festival started at 2pm but I really couldn’t see myself standing around all day, listening to bands I barely know so I got there at 9pm, just in time to see Ben Harper.

I’m not at all a fan of Ben Harper and only recognised a couple of the songs he played. Towards the end of his set, Eddie Vedder joined him on stage to sing Under Pressure, which was pretty cool and was probably the most popular song in his set, lol. Eddie Vedder > Ben Harper

Pearl Jam started their set at 11:30pm and they played for 90 minutes. They were brilliant. I can’t believe I have never seen them live before, especially seeing as they have toured a lot over the years. They played a couple of newer songs I hadn’t heard before but other than that, they played a lot of their most popular songs from Ten, Vs, and Vitalogy including:

• Black
• Alive
• Jeremy
• Corduroy
• Even Flow
• State of Love and Trust

Ben Harper joined Pearl Jam to play Red Mosquito during the encore. It seems like this is a pretty regular thing for them. I guess a lot of the bands end up playing in the same festivals.

This was one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen but that’s not surprising seeing as they are one of my favourite bands of all time. Eddie Vedder was brilliant as were the rest of the band. I didn’t really follow Pearl Jam that closely after the mid-90s so was surprised to learn that Matt Cameron (ex-Soundgarden drummer) is now the drummer for Pearl Jam. I was even a bigger fan of Soundgarden so it was great to see Matt Cameron playing once again.

I didn’t get any good photos at the festival as I only had my iPhone with me so this is all I got:

• Espace Max
• Private Outlet
• Brand Alley
• Showroom Prive

There are up to 90% off some items so hurry before they sell out!

The original plan was to spend 5 days in Marseille doing a little site seeing and then spending the rest of our time in the gym and spa or lying by the pool. Unfortunately the weather didn’t co-operate, and we were both quite sick, so we just stuck to site seeing and searching for nice places to eat.

The Vieux Port and Le Panier was our first stop. This is definitely the most touristy part of Marseille and only really worth a quick visit. You can see the Hotel de Ville, Cathedrale de la Major, and the Vieille Charite, a beautiful 17th century building set up to help (hide?) the poor. There are lots of cute little streets to explore here but after a couple of hours we were done.

Every day at the port, you can visit the fish market. They sell all kinds of local fish, crayfish, and crabs, which were caught that day. The fish is so fresh that some of them were still moving. If we had stayed in an apartment hotel, we definitely would have been getting fish from here every day.

Next up was Le Pharo, a nice little park which overlooks the port and the islands out to see. This was right next to our hotel so we made a couple of visits, just to sit and relax and watch the boats go by.

The last major site is Notre Dame de la Garde. This basilica is high up on the hill overlooking Marseille. It’s a tough walk up the hill (especially when sick) and I noticed we were the only ones to walk up. The walk was worth it because the views are fantastic.

We spent the rest of the time visiting the beaches, exploring the markets and shops, and just relaxing.

On our last day heading to the train station, Ferbent, who knows no more than 5 people in all of France, ran into a former co-worker of his. They worked together here in Paris about 3 years ago and they never saw each after he left the job. She has recently moved to Marseille and completely by chance, both were walking down a little side street in Marseille on the same day at the same time. Comme le monde est petit!

Irises – Parc de Bagatelle

It’s only been a month since I first went to this park but it has already become one of my favourite parks in Paris. It’s quiet and beautiful and a nice alternative to the overcrowded parks you find in the centre of Paris.

Peonies