New Years Eve in Paris!
So, as you may have heard, I went to Paris for New Years Eve this year! The train left Cannes at 7h44, and as always, arrived in Paris late (I've never been on a TGV that has arrived on time. I guess it's just my luck).
My friend Kelly was there to pick me up, and we walked by the Tour Eiffel (crowded with tourists, like me).
Around 20h, we went out onto the Champs Elysees, which was crowded, as the police had stopped traffic at either end for the celebrations. We had dinner on the street, then headed over to a friend of her's place.
About half an hour before midnight we headed back out to the Champs Elysees, which was even more crowded by now. Some people were already drunk, as was evidence by the guy puking on the road.
Unfortunately there were no big firework displays (I was between the Arc de Triomphe and the Place de la Concorde), but several people lit some off anyway. We had a little champagne, and said Happy New Years in several languages. We wandered around a bit, then went back inside.
A little latter we ventured out again to discover that some people, probably drunk, decided to throw bottles at the police. So, the police put on their riot gear, and were standing in groups of about 10 at each corner. By the Arc de Triomphe they set up their big riot vehicles (that look like monsters), then started charging the crowd to disperse it. At the same time, further down the streets, non-drunk people were having fun, singing and dancing. I later found out the police ended up using some tear gas on the people who were trying to riot.
On January 1st, as I was leaving Paris for Lille, it started to snow! There is snow in Lille right now, as there is snow at my place back in Canada.