We enter the last month of the year without much fanfare. I have, afterall, been holed up a good bit at home this week, working on finishing up a few courses on Coursera. Many final assignments are due this week, and as we enter into the exam period, a little revision is in order too. I am happy that the courses have so far gone well (bar the little assignment incident last week), and found them rather interesting to boot too.

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25 Nov: On the River Seine, a Lady Liberty stands at the end of the artificial islet of Île aux Cygnes. This sister of the Statue of Liberty in New York stands at 22m, about one-fourth of the statue gifted to America, and they are oriented to face one another across the ocean. I am seeing this more regularly nowadays since it’s located right next to Beaugrenelle, and as we all know, I can’t seem to stay away from M&S Food Hall. She is quite a beauty, isn’t she?

26 Nov: All work and no dessert makes Lil a peckish girl, so I cracked today and headed out to Pierre Hermé for a little treat. The flavour combination of Ispahan – rose, lychee and raspberry – is quintessential PH, and one that I’ve seen other pâtissiers try to emulate but with much less success. In case you wonder, yes, I do eat the rose petal. It was strange eating it for the first time, but since then, it would have been stranger to eat an Ispahan range of pastries without the rose petal.

27 Nov: I debated grabbing a free book from the basket today. Afterall, this year, I’ve been rather slow at reading, and reviewing the list of Big Read for 2013, I know I could easily meet the English reading target but for the French, that’s highly likely to fall short. Unless I spend the last weeks of December doing nought but to read French books, this will be the first time I do not accomplish the reading goal I set out for the year.

28 Nov: More Christmas decor! This week’s Christmas special is this snowman, with its bright red nose from staying out in the cold. I think I will just continue to photograph Christmas-related objects elsewhere, for we are not decorating our apartment. Firstly, we will not be here for Christmas, so it seems a waste to put in so much work for the week that we will not be here. Secondly, we don’t have anything at all in terms of the decor, and I imagine trying to start a collection now will not come cheap either…

29 Nov: Sometimes, it’s good to just wonder around a neighbourhood randomly. If I had not done so, I would have undoubtedly missed this small art gallery near Place des Vosges, which is currently displaying some rather fantastical works of arts. Among the many colourful works in the gallery right now, I love this butterfly pages the most. A healthy dose of the whimsical and a touch of reminder that words can rise from a book into beautiful proses that leave butterflies in your stomach. Magical!

30 Nov: Most metro lines run underground, with rare exceptions like line 2 and line 6 have parts of the track above ground. Needless to say, I like take them. I like to be in these trains, watching the city changes as we pass from one neighbourhood to another, often time catching glimpses of various Parisian landmarks too. Line 6 is double special to me for its double crossing of the River Seine, once between Passy and Bir-Hakeim for the dreamy view of the Eiffel Tower, and once between Quai de la Gare and Bercy for the modern views of the Bibliothèques quarter.

1 Dec: Guess who’s loving this box of chocolate sticks? Not me. It was a really nice gift from my belle-mère, all minty and fresh, but I guess my chocolate aversion is not quite yet over. I’m hoping now that I don’t get too much chocolate for Christmas… which reminds me of my birthday a couple of years back. Somehow, I received quite a bounty on chocolate that autumn, that I had nearly 1kg of chocolate to eat within a very short period of time, since my friends were generous in getting the best chocolates (which usually also have short expiry dates). My colleagues were all too happy to help me eat them ;)