So you know what they call a quarter pounder with cheese in Paris?

Vincent: In Paris, you can buy a beer at McDonald's. And do you know what they call a quarter pounder with cheese in Paris?

Jules: They don't call it a quarter pounder with cheese?

Vincent: No man, they got the metric system, they wouldn't know what the fuck a quarter pounder is.

I spent three nights in Paris, in the lively Latin Quarter district, and am now in Lyon, in the south-eastern region of France. My visa expires tomorrow so I'll be leaving the schengen countries for a final time during this trip and entering Switzerland until my planned return to London on the 18th.

Paris wasn't anything special but I had a great time hanging out with my Canadian roommates: Lara, Tim & Hazel. I love Canadians, they have a great sense of humour, in any situation, and are always lots of fun. I visited most of what I wanted to see: on Friday we had gorgeous weather so I spent most of the afternoon and early evening at the Eiffel Tower. It's lit-up at night like a sparkling Christmas tree with flashing lights - very spectacular. I also stumbled on Banksy's "This is not a photo opportunity" stencil, across from the tower.

The other days were pretty arb, just walking around and taking in a few sights: Notre Dame Cathedral, The Louvre Museum, etc. The Mona Lisa, as I'd heard, was a disappointment. Only because the room she occupies is so poorly lit that you struggle to see any colour in the painting, and that's if you can push your way through the hordes of phone camera-toting tourists. As if there aren't enough photographs of the world's most famous painting already?

We planned to see a show at Moulin Rouge in the Red Light district on Saturday night but they were booked out for the next two nights unfortunately. I suspect we didn't meet the dress code. But in retrospect, looking at the ticket prices, we probably would have skipped it anyway.

Yesterday I just walked around for a bit, and saw the Statue of Liberty replica and (another) Pantheon. I might like to revisit in the Summer months, but I also feel I could have skipped Paris and not missed out on much. Also, I still maintain that the French don't live up to their unfriendly stereotype. Except for that Metro biatch who caught us trying to cheat the sytem with one ticket too few, and fined us €35. Pulling the ignorant tourist routine is never destined to work anyway.

I'm keeping an eye on the snow forecasts for Interlaken which is where I plan to spend most of my 10 days in Switzerland and hope to attempt snowboarding! It's not looking very promising even though the season has already started, so I'll just wait and see.

I upgraded to a paid Flickr Pro account yesterday because my free account was due to expire and it would be nice to upload a couple more photos when I get a chance. I love the Flickr community and it's ease of use, and will continue to contribute to my photosets over the next year, or until I decide what I want to do with digicam.coza.