Belleville Rendezvous

I had a lovely surprise this weekend.
I was summarily summoned to Paris by Dani, where I was told there would be people waiting for me. At first I thought this might be Ron, our old French teacher, but it turned out to be none other than Purzelle and the Nurp themselves, Patrick and Ella.

Purzelle(L), Nurp (R).

Before I relate all the fun we had in the city of lights, I just want to relate one absolutely terrifying moment that occurred in Gare Du Nord. I should preface this story by saying I fully acknowledge that I overreacted and it was only really scary because I'm a country bumpkin who's not used to the big city ways and sees terror everything like the bloody Salem Town Council. But, as I was going to meet Dani at the Paris metro, I smelled a strange smell, very unpleasant, and my mouth began to dry out and tingle as though I'd just eaten something extremely spicy. It wasn't only me, either: all around me, what looked like hardened Parisians were pucking their noses, covering their mouths with sleeves or 'kerchiefs, and moving very quickly away from the area. Then, the police shoved past me and bolted into the underground station below- they literally (and I do not misuse that word) jumped over a couple, bent over their luggage, to get there quicker.
You may be able to guess where my mind went after it put these events together: I was embroiled in some sort of horrible gas attack, and, worse, I'd dragged Dani into it, too (she was waiting for me on the platform). For a moment, I considered just running from the building and gulping in the uninfected air. I wanted to warn other passengers from entering the platform, but all my French had suddenly abandoned me. But then, my sense of proportion returned, and I realised that, were there some kind of gas attack, there might be a few more people panicking than just me. I got myself together and went to meet Dani.
Soon, after a couple of misdiversions, we were united with Patrick and Ella and went to dinner.

The restaurant at which we dined was called 'La Cantine de Belleville', leading to Patrick, Ella and I all making the same joke (hint: it's the title of the blog post), revealing that Dani had never seen or even heard of that film. It's also meant I've had that bloody song stuck in my head for the past three days, and now you will, too.

If I could set that to autoplay, dear Reader, know that I would.

Anyway, after a delicious dinner, Dani said her farewells, and we retired back to the flat in Montmartre which Paddy and Ella had procured for the trip. There, we got blind, stinking drunk on a mixture of wine, apple juice, tonic water, vodka and sugar cubes (Patrick called it 'Portuguese Sangria').
We laughed, and sang and took incredibly stupid pictures:

She's very deer to my heart (she's holding a Reindeer's heart, for the uninitiated).

And then Ella, like Travis and Smallface before her, found the joys of playing with my hair.

She also made me pose like this, I swear.

I liked them so much, I left those Bear Ears (note the incredibly masculine name) in all weekend. I kid you not. Honestly, unless I could actively see my silhouette, I kind of forgot I had them in, and so I was just puzzled by all the strange looks I was getting- although, they might explain why I kept on being given Silly Straws with every drink that I ordered. I was also given a free chestnut:

It tasted like parsnips. I don't know why people eat these. I can only presume that this was a reflection of my hair, as well, which would explain why Ella and I got normal chestnuts and Patrick got a dud.

Anyway, after checking out Montmartre cathedral,

 

 And the view therefrom,

We went back to the flat for more Paella and Portuguese Sangria, cos we're pan-European. There was a lot of hugging and water to the face and improvised French/German renditions of 'Baby, it's Cold Outside'.

SIDENOTE: I love how they put in so much effort into adding consent to this song (notable by absence: "The answer is no" and "What's in this drink?") and then still manage to make it incredibly creepy by synching the voices to children.

It was the perfect way to spend the last weekend I have in France before I head back to Shropshire. It makes my final week of work this term much more faceable, and has given me another possible hairstyle to rock.