Happy new year everyone!

'Everyone' probably doesn't mean much right now I should think, since I doubt I've any readship. Not that I mind - in fact having a readership might be a bit scary, like having a responsibilty to write stuff that makes sense, or at least isn't mind numbingly boring!

Anyway, new year was fun, although as usual still paling in comparison to the millennium new year - I wonder how long that'll take to wear off, certainly can't wait another millennium. The streets were full of english speaking people as usual, or apparently so anyway. I think we tend to get drunker and shout louder anyway.

I've also given up on the big spectacle in Paris too, even though somehow Paris got a good rep about new years fireworks after the 2K do. Usually nothing goes on anywhere. On one of the first new years eve that I was here (2001), we were all on the Champs Elysées, expecting big things. The road was sealed off and packed with people - at about ten to midnight the lights on l'Arc de Triomphe went down and we all waited in anticipation. Gradually as various groups saw that it was midnight (totally unsynchronised of course, no Big Ben chimes here, and even if there were, they'd be an hour late), we all realised that the lights on the arch had merely been turned off for the night and that was your lot. Happy new year.

The next day friends who had gone to other areas such as the Eiffel Tower said that it had been the same for them, and had generally all been damp squib like, assuming there had been a firework anywhere, which there wasn't.

So, new year in Paris, is it worth it? I guess so, just don't expect any organised events. The following year we went to Montmartre instead, and this time there were lots of fireworks! Nothing organised, just anyone and everyone letting rockets off left, right and centre. Often horizontally rather than up too, so it had a bit of a warzone feel about it, which the fire breathing juggler people added to (not that people breath fire at the enemies in a war, certainly not while juggling anyway). Much cooler and all the more better for its home grown and spontaneous feel!