European Trip 2015 - Day Fifteen

Still woke up early. Had to find a pharmacy that catered for Koreans. Some of the French staff even spoke Korean! The missus bought quite a lot of stuff but not quite enough for duty free status. Luckily it wasn't far from our apartment although she had the wrong metro station to get off at so it took quite a bit of finding.

After breakfast we walked down to the Seine and on to the Bastille monument before wandering around the Marais area. Lots of little shops, delicious gelato and outlet shopping at amazingly low prices.

Fuel is not cheap in Paris

The Bastille monument

Classical central Paris building

 Had lunch at L'Escargot. Fabulous snail, pork filet mignon, tuna and creme brulee. Set us back EUR38, including an expresso, but so enjoyable.

Down the hatch

L'Escargot - wonderful cuisine

Fill 'er up

Moving day

Academie Nationale De Musique

 Located Galeries Lafayette after some trouble. Quite a few Japanese stores/people in the area. Chinese doing most of the buying in this precinct - lots of shop assistants were Chinese too. Needed a Coke as I was tired and 500mL cost EUR3.90. Not everything was cheap.

Eiffel Tower from atop Galeries Lafayette

 Headed towards the Obelisk, had to backtrack due to heading in the wrong direction, and bought a macaron and choc croissant on the way. So good. Caught the metro home. Heaps of walking today, and woman shopping, so very tired.

The Obelisk and Arc de Triomphe

The Seine

The Most Fun You Can Have With Your Shoes On

This morning I just experienced the most fun you can have with your shoes on. At least if you don't wear shoes within your abode, that is. On the way to the bus stop, following an overnight shower, I noticed that the snails were out in force. I managed to squash a total of 47 snails and 3 slugs during my 10 minute trek to the bus. That's one snail every 13 seconds you know.

There are rules to squash by:

- Snails on footpaths must be squashed.
- Snails on grass next to footpaths are fair game if you have the time.
- Snails on walls and fences are generally safe. You don't wish to pull a muscle or be seen to be acting like a weirdo by passersby.

We've had a wet start to spring. So far we've experienced rain on 17 out of the 18 days of September. The average is for 15 days of rain for the month (although stats I found indicate that it's 11.6 days with greater than or equal to 1mm of rainfall). And the forecast is for showers every day the next week.

And still the snails keep coming. There's no end to them. And now you can see why I'm not allowed to wear shoes in the house.

Perth Forecast from Bureau of Meteorology


Perth Monthly Figures from Bureau of Meteorology


Perth Climate Statistics from Bureau of Meteorology

Bureau of Meteorology

Fifty Nine

Fifty nine is the number of the day. It's how many snails died underneath my feet as I walked to the bus stop in the morning. Well, that's what happens when it's raining at that time of the day and the snails come out to play. I do my bit to save the environment.

Diary Of A Snail Killer

I mentioned on Monday that I'd killed 37 snails on my walk to the bus stop on the way to work. I'm afraid to report that, although overnight/morning rain had taken place the conditions for killing snails was not as conducive on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday's tally was 10 snails, two millipedes and two slugs. This morning I could only manage two snails.

I'm disappointed in my efforts but perhaps my eradication program is all too effective. The tally could have been increased but I didn't feel the need to stomp on snails that were already climbing walls, just the ones on or near the footpath got my attention.

I Love Mornings Following Early Showers

Spring is such a beautiful time of year. The mornings can be quite sunny and warm with lovely days to follow. This morning was quite nice because it had rained overnight and just cleared before I left the house for work. The sun was out and so were the snails. I did my bit for the environment and killed thirty seven of them on the way to the bus stop. They may have been your common garden variety and not some mammoth African variety but who cares? There's thirty seven of the little buggers that won't be munching on my garden.

What intrigues me is the fact that at least half of them were making their way towards grassed/green areas from the road. Where exactly did they come from? It's not that you see snails sleeping in the gutter and they sure as hell didn't cross the road. So, where were they hiding?