Cycling to work during strike

As we all were afraid of, the public transport strike has continued ever since the 5th of December. On some days, like Tuesday, there are even less trams, metros and buses, but even on a "normal strike day" I cannot use my travel card to take trains and metros to go to work. Trains and most of the metros run only during the rush hours and also on those times there are only 1 out of 3 or 4 of them compared to usual. Good luck pushing yourself in...

For the last week "my family" evacuated themselves to Bourg-la-Reine, a few kilometers South from Paris, to stay at their grandparents house. That way the parents could go to work while the grandparents looked after the kids. I went there daily to take over for a few hours in the afternoon and I was luckily offered a bike to borrow, so I was no more dependent on the train timetables or even on the city bikes that are harder to find during the strikes. Six kilometers back and forth was not too bad with a good bike. Except when the chain fell down on one day on my way home... Luckily I have a husband who thinks very logically and was able to figure out and fix the problem that kept making the chain fall down constantly.

Cycling through some smaller roads to Bourg-la-Reine.

This view was impressive every day.

Last Friday the family moved back to their home close to l'Arc de Triomph in Paris. The length of my commute became a bit more than double but luckily I got a ride from the family's grandmother who was taking the kids to Paris. They picked me up on the way and the grandma took us home after which I took the little sister to the nursery and stayed for the day with the big brother. The parents came home early enough for me to catch trains to return home. However, I have been and will cycle every day during this week to go to work and day by day I feel that my legs are more tired to even try to cycle the uphills. 13 km is not impossible but since I hardly ever cycle normally, my thighs are not used to that kind of exercise. Two more days to go and then I will have my rest by sitting in a taxi, airplane and train to travel home to Finland. I needed to reserve a taxi taking me to the airport on Saturday morning because I don't trust that there will be any change in the transport by that. I also need to reserve some extra time for what it would usually take to drive to Charles-de-Gaulle airport because the roads can be stuffed by cars when people have no other means to travel. Yesterday on my way home, I was much faster than the car lines. It can be such a disaster when cars block each other plus the running trams. And boy, French do like honking horns in the traffic! Haha, like that would help at all while everyone is stuck. I can only wish for the best for when I return to France in January...

Crossing the river Seine while cycling along the boarder of Paris.

My vehicle and "my kid's" vehicle on Monday when
I picked him up from the school.

Last Friday I got to participate in the Christmas party of H's work. Lots of researchers, lots of foreigners and lots of food. Kind of nice that I was able to participate even in some pre-Christmas party now that I don't work in a school anymore to have the party there.

This triple chocolate ice cream cake we had at home. H told me it
is somewhat traditional to eat this at Christmas. I don't complain.

Illuminations des Champs-Elysées

Getting some Christmas feeling

Christmas is coming! And I am also slowly starting to feel like that. It took a while to feel christmassy here since the temperature returned occasionally to over 10 degrees but the recent Christmas lights around the city and some events have got me on the mood. It began at the end of November when I started to see Christmas trees and other decorations especially when walking on the busy areas of Paris. We also wanted to go and see when the illuminations of the most famous street in Paris got its lights switched on. I thought there would be even some bigger event since the mayor of Paris was supposed to be there and it was marked to start at 5 pm but actually I ended up walking the street back and forth with H, watching street performances and quickly visiting the Disney store until the red lights lightened up most of the trees along the long avenue.

Champs-Elysées was turned into a walking street for
that evening.

Disney store along Champs-Elysées.

Inside the Disney store.

These fountains were interesting. Shooting the
water down makes them look like rockets.

Christmas decoration at Les Halles station/shopping mall.

The windows of a Lego store at Les Halles. Just amazing!

Notre Dame built with legos.

The variety of different Christmas calendars at a supermarket.
I wouldn't have imagined they have a Dragon Ball version.

It was also the end of November when I got to sing some Christmas songs, in Finnish. Like last year, I participated "Kauneimmat joululaulut" at the Finnish embassy, though this time I was a bit late due to my work days that finish later than last year. Anyhow, it was nice to be surrounded by so many Finns again and listen to and sing in my own language, and I even saw some familiar faces.

One more event that got me up to the Christmas mood was when I joined H to go to his band's gig outside Paris a week ago. Their band was invited to perform at a Christmas market ~20 km to the North from Paris. We had to take two trains and then continue by cars to reach the destination. Quite some planning to move the band and the instruments so far, but I was lucky I could still fit in to the cars with everything else. It was a Christmas market of some smaller town quite much in the middle of the fields but it surely didn't look too small. There was a big decorated roof under which people could enjoy the food and drinks and other stuff they both from the stands. The band played well as usual but maybe the audience was not the best for it since I was often the only one dancing to their music. I had some photos and videos of the place but I lost them all, as well as I lost most of my contact information, when my phone was stolen at a supermarket last Tuesday... So please if you have my French number, send me a message with your name in it so that I can have them back.

French workshop & zumba

I have had my first French lessons here! Or actually I have participated a French pronunciation workshop two times. The Swiss school that teaches French to foreigners started to give free workshops about pronunciation and I joined it twice before they retreated for the holidays. They advertised that it is suitable for anyone with at least A2 level of French and that's why I was a little bit suspicious on the first time if I would be able to follow. I have no idea what my level is because I have only been learning the language in my everyday life - the life that is mostly all in English. Nevertheless, I was happily surprised I could actually follow the workshops that are completely in French. And I do plan to continue participating them in January.

How to pronounce the French vowels.
Behind there is a paper in which the students
needed to listen to which version the teacher said.

I have started another new hobby, as well. The dance school where I and H learn Lindy Hop and Charleston at, is giving zumba lessons on Saturdays. I went to test it if the lesson would be nice (since zumba lessons depend so much on the teacher if it is enjoyable for me or not), and I knew I found a place for me with the first try. The teacher plays good and fast songs and makes nice moves and uses the music well, too. I am always so exhausted after just two songs that I keep wondering how I can make it through the whole 1,5 hours lesson. But it is so much fun!

Public transport strike

It is not rare to have strikes here in France but this week I have experienced my worst one by now. It was known already weeks before that 5th of December there would be a huge strike with hardly any metros or trains in Paris. Also the following days were uncertain. Due to this strike, I didn't go to work on Thursday and I also got a free day to celebrate Finland's Independence Day on Friday for the same reason. The strike has continued for this weekend, too, forcing H to cycle to his trumpet class for 10 km each direction and me doing the same when returning from my zumba lesson. I got a tram to go to the zumba but since also trams and buses run much less often than usually, the whole tram was so packed with people that I didn't want to come back with it. Luckily the 13th district isn't too far from our home to go without the public transport. That's why we could also go out and eat on the 13eme yesterday. We took bikes (luckily there were still some city bikes because those are often taken when the other means of transport are unreliable) and went to a Chinese restaurant to have all-you-can-eat hot pot. Ah, it had been a long time since I had something like that last time! We ate so well and so much that it made good to walk back home.

Here you can go and take more food anytime you like.

I saw a small group of protesters walking on the streets of Gentilly on Friday:

I hope that the strike will end soon because it seems that I would need to cycle to work next week. And since I am dependent on the city bikes, I may have to walk from bike rack to another to find a usable bike...