Bonne année!

New Years Eve

Started with a beautiful home-cooked French meal at a friends place, with
Champagne Apéritif,  Rôti de boeuf (or roast beef) baked vegatables, red wine,
folllowed by a nice rum. Thus by that stage I had probably consumed more
alcohol than necessary by 10pm.
 Next installment was a lovely little cocktail party with a melange of french and
Aussie friends, consumed in a a flurry of champagne and fruit flavored
beverages. A quick jog (in mega wedges) along the seine later, a group of 16
ring-ins arrived at Pont Neuf to ring in the new year.

We waited and hoped and prayed and crossed all fingers that our view of the
EiffelTower was enough to see the fireworks... which never came.
Paris is no Sydney, that's for sure, but it was still beautiful.

I am glad I didn't choose to partake in one plan that involved staking out a spot

at the Tower from 12pm. The dissatisfaction of no fireworks would have killed me

if the deathly cold hadn't.

New Year with New Friends

Even though we could see the same thing on the Tower every hour on the hour
for 5 mins each night, the sparkles were extra special that night. We went back
to the cocktails party where Annie and I promptly collapsed on a pile of coats in
the corner and giggled the night away.