La Bise

This happened earlier this week at McDonald's.  I'll translate.

Gaius (to me):  "He took my hat (actually a happy meal box) and held it in the air and ran away from me.  I took it back and hit him in the face with it."

Boy and his mother approach.  I can see him gesticulating to his mother that Gaius hit him in the face.  "C'est lui!"  ("It's him!")

Boy:  (in French) "He hit me in the face with that box!"

Boy's mother:  "What?!"  (judgmental look)

Me:  (in French) "Your son took my son's box and ran away with it.  My son grabbed the box back and hit him with it.  Gaius, say you're sorry."

Boy's mother (to her son):  "Dis pardon." (Say you're sorry.)

Boy: "Pardon."

Gaius:  "Sorry.  Pardon."

Boy's mother:  "Bise lui!" (KISS HIM!)

Gaius: Recoils, thinking, "WTH?"

Me:  "Gaius, he's going to kiss you...let him kiss you.  Now, kiss him...on the cheek!"

Who knew?  In France, after kids battle it out on the playground, they say they are sorry and then kiss each other on the cheek!  That's going a bit overboard if you ask me.


La Bise.  The kiss.  I can now say that I have some friends who kiss me on both cheeks when they greet me.


FRIENDS WHO BISE
John Hayes (he's American so he goes with the flow.)
Gilles Fortin
Jens Rekling (he's Danish, but goes along with it anyway.)
Jean Quintard (my landlord)
Mylene Quintard (my landlady)
Francoise Nguyen (my next door neighbor)
Janine Desalles (my across the street neighbor)
Simone Bianco (my Italian friend in Williamsburg)
Nanza Bianco (my other Italian friend in Williamsburg)


I'm working hard to add Christopher to that list.  He is willing, but it takes some getting used to.  Gaius is really good at it.

la bise

The way I do it is I put my cheek next to yours and make a quiet kissing sound to the air, and then repeat on the other side.  Some people do three kisses, one side, other side, and back again.  I actually read about this style of bise on the Internet.  Not that I needed to look it up.  Just out of general curiosity, you know.   I had to make sure that the triple whammy style was authorized.  As it turns out, my new friend Magda tells me that the triple whammy kiss is the norm in Poland.  :)

BTW, some of you might have learned in school that "baiser" means "to kiss".  Technically, yes, but in modern slang, it means something entirely different.  Something that begins with an F***.  So, be careful how you express yourself in France!

Anyway, if you want to get added to the list of FRIENDS WHO BISE, let me know!  This is one custom I would like to bring back home with me!

Gaius didn't get the memo to pucker up.

à bientôt!

how to write a love letter v.2

Look what came in the mail today!  Our love letters!  Pretty cute, huh?

the real deal - french love letters

Here's a peek.  Christopher and I picked the same stationery!

Today is the big Halloween Party with Message Paris in Versailles (the town, not the palace).  Gaius and I worked on these drink labels for the party last night.  It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun!  Check out our artistry!

Felix Felicis (liquid luck), Embalming Fluid, H boo O, Bat's Blood, Poison Apple Juice, Pumpkin Juice & Bat's Blood

Witch's Brew (pardon the typo), Vampire Blood Juice & Embalming Fluid

the ever popular FRANKEN POP!

my little monster

For the party, Gaius is going as a vampire, I'm going as a witch, and Christopher is going as a neurophysiologist on sabbatical!  Ha!


à bientôt!

how to write a love letter

Apparently, they take love letter writing very seriously here in France.  When word got out about Pascal's pathetic attempt at writing to his Bébé, La Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie (the Museum of Science & Industry) got right on it.  Here is their response:

service d'amour - public facteur

Look at the line!  All of these people are in line to write love letters with the help of these postal workers!  When there was down time (no one waiting) the postal workers would play instruments and dance (very romantic).  At the front of the line, they would hand you the catalog.  There was only one catalog, so the line got very long.  The catalog was filled with samples of writing paper in about twenty different designs.  Once you selected your paper, you turned to the front of the catalog and selected one of about 40 colors of ink.  After you selected your ink, they brought out the jar of quills and you selected your writing implement.  After that, you were directed to the tables in back to write your letter.


It was so cute seeing how serious everyone was about picking just the right paper and just the right color of ink.  It was very French.  No one was rushing, no one was really that impatient while waiting in line.  It was generally agreed that these things take time.

see all the ladies writing their letters (foreground)

As you were writing your love letter, a woman postal worker came around and took your picture.  Later you would discover that she had printed out a little "stamp" (sticker) with your face on to decorate the outside of the envelope.


After you wrote your letter, you had to get into a different line to find your personalized photo-stamp, select what imprint you wanted for your wax seal on back, and then select the perfect postage stamp to complement the color of ink you had chosen.  Et, voilà!  Christopher and I both wrote love letters and the whole process took us about 45 minutes.

finishing touches

Once the letters are delivered to us in the mail, I'll take pictures of them so you can see our artistry!  Here is a link to the company Le Service Public des Facteurs d'Amour.


La Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie was open free to the public all weekend.  It was an amazing museum!  Here are some of the wonderful things we saw and did:


We actually only saw this.  Gaius really wanted to fly on this blimp (there is a tether), and we were going to let him.  As it turned out, the minimum weight requirement was 40 kilos and he only weighs 20.  What a relief!

flying high

Instead, he did this.  Hang Gliding!  They had a real hang glider for little kids to fly with a simulation (sort of like a Wii.)  Gaius had a lot of fun!

feels like he's flying high!

We visited a section of the museum that was just for kids and Gaius made a beeline for the water games. In this section, you could also explore the human body, operate a television camera, "drive" a car, play in a rock band and much, much more!

luckily I packed a spare shirt!

This dome is called the Geode and there is a movie theater inside.  We saw this while driving down the freeway one day.  From a distance, it looks like a mini Earth since it reflects everything around it.  When we drove by it that day, Gaius commented, "I like Earth."

can you see the dome behind us?

One of the exhibits we missed was the model of the Ariane Space Launcher, which allows visitors to experience true weightlessness.  Isn't that cool?  We have to go back!  Even though we missed the space launcher, we still had plenty to do.  It wouldn't be a trip to a museum without a new addition to the shark collection:

meet "HAPPY SMILE"

 We got to tour an actual French submarine, the Argonaute.  It was super tiny.  I wonder how many people have to turn back because they can't make it through the exhibit.  I mean, that they actually might not be able to squeeze through the narrow spaces.  Isn't that crazy?

can you see the torpedo behind us?

After the museum, we hit Paris.  Here are some pictures of us on Pont Neuf which means New Bridge but is actually the oldest bridge in Paris.

can you see the Eiffel Tower in the background?

Here is one of Christopher and me.  Doesn't he look thrilled?  I am!  Because guess where we headed next?

see the bateau mouche on the water?

MEXICAN FOOD at FAJITAS!  This restaurant was written up in Food and Leisure as having the best mexican food in Paris.  Thanks for the tip, Auntie Bernadette!  The food was excellent and the margaritas were even better!  We ate an early dinner so we got there before the crowds.  Usually this place is packed!

we will definitely be going back here

I had the enchiladas verdes (pollo) and two margaritas.  Gaius had a sip of my margarita (when I wasn't looking) and split a combo platter with his dad.  We spoke to the owner and she is willing to sell hard-to-find ingredients to her customers.  I asked for some pickled jalapenos, but sadly, they were running low.  Maybe next week, she said.


Anyway, that was how we spent last Saturday.  We were out and about for ten hours, which is quite a feat with a 5-year old in tow!  Looking forward to a fun Halloween here in Paris!


à bientôt!

Allez Cuisine!

I went to my first cooking class today, Cuisine d'Automne.  It was amazing.  The class was held in the kitchen of Chateau Belleville, right near the grocery store I get lost coming home from.  Guess what!  After class, I made it home in FOUR minutes!


There were 16 of us in the kitchen, all wearing our tabliers (aprons).  

my tablier is very cute but not very flattering

They handed us the recipes, told us what we were making and all of a sudden, we found ourselves cooking!  It was kind of crazy, everyone just jumped right in.  Peeling shallots, slicing onions, plucking feathers, it was amazing.  On the menu:


Entrée: Figues farcies au chèvre (Figs stuffed with goat cheese)
(An entrée in France is what we would call an appetizer or a starter.  What we call an entrée is actually called a plat principal.)

before

after!

Plat: Pintade aux Poires à la Sauce Ambrée (Guinea Fowl with Pears and Beer Sauce).  It was a big topic of conversation trying to figure out what we would call a "pintade" in the U.S.  Turkey?  No.  Pigeon?  No.  Pheasant?  Duck?  No.  No.  I didn't find out what it was I had eaten until I got home and looked it up on the Internet (guinea fowl).  You might be interested to know that the neck was still attached to the bird.  I tried to not pay attention to that part.

the main event

this is what I'm serving for thanksgiving

Dessert: Crumble Pommes/Poires/Raisins Secs (Rum Raisin crumble with apples and pears).  This was served with a crème anglaise and was just delicious.

before

after!

Measurements
One difference I had heard about is that in Europe, instead of measuring out ingredients like flour or sugar using measuring cups, they go by weight.  What I discovered is that in instances where a scale is not available, they have these clever measuring cups that indicate weight based on volume.  Does that make sense?  Is that even right?  Here.  The left side of this measuring cup is just for sugar.  When the sugar reaches the first line, you would have 50 grams of sugar.  In the same cup, on the right side, you measure flour.  When you reach the first line with your flour, you would have 50 grams.  Pretty clever.  The other side of this cup also measures rice and liquids.

50 grams of sugar

Instead of teaspoons and tablespoons, they measured ingredients with soup spoons.  A heaping soup spoon is called a cuill à soupe bombée.


I discovered some pretty cool new ingredients.  Like this, a coing (pronounced "kwang").  It's sort of like a cross between an apple and a pear.  They are not eaten raw, you have to cook them.  We did not eat these today, instead, we used a coing jelly, or a gelée de coing.  In fact, we used une cuill à soupe bombée of the stuff in the "stew."

a coing

gelée de coing

I discovered that the French very rarely use garlic.  Instead, they use a lot of onions and shallots in their cooking.


D'huile d'arachide is not spider oil (spider is araignée, I got confused), it's peanut oil.  I guess peanut allergies aren't a big deal, because no one asked about it before we got started.


They did not salt or pepper the bird before browning it in the pan.  I was surprised.  Someone asked me if they drink beer in America.  Isn't that funny?


We got to eat lunch in the dining room of the chateau.  One of the women, Patricia did a fantastic job of decorating the table.  I am totally stealing her ideas for Thanksgiving.  

click for a closer view

Here are some shots of the space.  You can get an idea of what a French community center looks like.  :)

peeking into the dining room

the chateau's kitchen is back there

Gauis made me buy this hoodie (not my style) 

my plate

some of the gang

A bientôt!  
note: Christopher says that for capital letters, you omit the accent, which is why I do not put the `on the A in "A bientôt."

The Love Letter

I found this love letter sitting on the kitchen table.   OUR kitchen table.  What the heck?

the love letter

I took a closer look.  "Mon Bébé," ("My Baby.")  So, I took an even closer look.  What IS this?  It's dated August 12, 1988.  How did this end up on our kitchen table?

I figured it out.  Christopher brought home a bunch of scratch paper and old pads of paper for Gaius to draw on.  The letter must have been mixed in with all of that stuff in his office at work.

As you can see, the writing is very difficult to decipher.  All I could make out when I tried to read it was the following:

Mon Bébé (My Baby)
Bateau Mouche (those cool boat cruises that go down the river Seine)
les nuits me rendent fou (the nights make me crazy)
Arret sur image (stop this picture)
Comment vais je te retrouver?  How will I find you again?

Sounds pretty racy doesn't it?  I wonder if they ever got together?  She never received this letter, so maybe they broke up.  How romantic!  So, last night, I brought the letter with me to Nils's hockey game and asked Gilles to translate it for me.  Talk about a major let down!  This has to be the most unromantic love letter that was ever written in the history of the world.  It actually goes something like this:

My Baby:
One week in Bour en Bresse, then now I am in Brittany. (blah blah blah) but I brought 2 or 3 kilos of paper with me for work and I'll start tonight.  The bateau mouche (boat) works well.  I wish you were here.  Maybe I can see you earlier.  Nothing has really changed.  It's too hot here the nights make me crazy.  You have to come here one day.  Stop this image!  Someone is at the door and I've gotta go now.
-Pascal
P.S.  How am I going to find you again?


I thought Frenchmen were supposed to be romantic!  I'm pretty sure Pascal is still a bachelor, if any of you ladies are interested!

A bientôt!

So Annoyed

This might have to be my new tattoo:

only 2.6 km

How to get home from the new grocery store:

---

Carrefour Market Rue Chevry 91190 Gif sur Yvette, France

1.	Head south on Rue de Chevry toward Place de Chevry Go through 1 roundabout	140 m
2.	At the roundabout, take the 1st exit onto Rue des Goussons	150 m
3.	At Place du Collège, take the 2nd exit onto Rocade de Beaudreville	250 m
4.	At the roundabout, take the 1st exit onto Route de la Folie Rigault Go through 1 roundabout	500 m
5.	At the roundabout, take the 1st exit onto Rue de la Vacheresse	74 m
6.	Continue onto Route de la Gruerie	1.3 km
7.	Destination will be on the right	200 m

It only takes me 5 minutes to drive there.  How come it always takes me 35 minutes (or more) to get home?  I just can't get it right.  It's so annoying.  Even after I pass landmarks that I absolutely KNOW, I still manage to take a wrong turn and end up on the other side of town.

If only I could suck on shrimp heads.  Then I could just buy the fresh shrimp with the heads on and not have to drive to this new grocery store which is the only one in town that sells shrimp decapités.  Actually, it's a much nicer grocery store than the one I've been going to.  I'm going to have to figure this one out.

I hate Jill today.  (Our GPS).  Whenever I follow her directions home from the store, she sends me to the same dead end street with a stairwell at the end of it.  Jill, I cannot drive down the stairs.  Why can't she just send me home the way she guided me there (in reverse)?

Why?


A bientôt!

Le Soirée (The Party)

Last weekend, we were all very excited to be invited to a party at Gilles' home in Paris.  You may recall that Gilles is Christoher's boss here at CNRS and he was with us when we were in Denmark.  Gilles lives in Paris in a renovated factory with his lovely wife Anna and their three super cool kids, Karla, Simon and Nils.

Our drive to the party was our first venture out into the world in our brand new car.  Luckily, we had Jill (our GPS) to guide us on our way.  It has been suggested to me that we give our car a French name.  Any suggestions?  We were thinking "Megane" since that is actually the model name of the car.  But, we could probably get more creative than that.

Anyway, we drove our maiden voyage to Paris.  While driving along on the freeway, I looked out the window and thought, "Hey, that looks just like the Eiffel Tower."  And then I realized where I was, and that it WAS the actual Eiffel Tower, and it was a pretty thrilling moment for me.

Parking was very confusing.  We finally found an empty spot marked "reservé pour auto car."  Reserved for auto car.  We are an auto car, are we not?  As it turns out, no, we are NOT an auto car.  Lucky for us, it was after hours.  What the sign actually means is reserved for buses.  Why did they not just say that?  I actually know the word for buses.  Anyway, no complaints.  It was free parking and no ticket!

When we arrived at the address, I felt like we were at the entrance of an old fashioned speakeasy, or an underground club.

waiting with the secret password

We rang the bell and Nils, the youngest son opened the door and then ran away.  It was a little surreal, like following a white rabbit.  He led us into this garden patio that was just wonderful.  There was a fire pit, and at the back of the garden was the coolest house EVER.

It was very dark and I wasn't able to photograph the garden.  But, I did capture some photos of the fire pit area.  Sorry, I haven't figured out how to take pictures at night with this camera without having the flash wash out the photos.  Photographer-friends of mine, please chime in.

smoker's corner (these are kids - not smokers)

looking in the front of the house from the garden
that's Gilles, in the lower left

I believe the building used to be some sort of shop where they worked with metal.  I can't really remember what I was told.  But here is the inside, sorry for the photo quality.  I was trying to take pictures discreetly, so I didn't use a flash.

do you see the gymnastic rings in the foreground of the upper left?  cool!

some of the interesting people I met

Gilles' wife, Anna owns the Swedish Cafe in the Marais (an area of Paris).  Anna was very kind to give me a copy of her book, which has all of the recipes from the cafe!

I met a lot of interesting people at this party.  Fanny is a Swedish girl who works with Anna at the cafe.  She invited me to come to the cafe and learn how to make some pastries!  How cool is that???  I also met Marie, who plays the cello and is currently doing research on the role of urban art in architecture.  Marie's son was pretty cool.  I think he said he was 15 and he studies hip hop dancing.  He's been studying for 3 years and is supposedly really good.

In the picture above, in the lower right hand corner are Miles and his wife, Akiko.  Miles is American.  He knew Anna when she lived in Stockholm.  He works in commercials and his wife is a photographer.  She is going to give me the name of her hair stylist in Paris.  In the picture, they are talking to their friend in the pink drapey shirt who is a fashion designer and a stylist to the stars.

The food at the party was excellent.  You would not believe the size of the wedge of brie they had out on the table.  It was like the size of half of a large pizza!

Here are some more pictures of the house:

the loft

In the house, there is a loft built on top of the bedrooms.  You can just barely see Gaius on the other side of this ladder.  Pretty exciting place to play for a 5 year old.  Don't worry, there were bigger kids there making sure no one fell off!

the barbell looking thing in the center is from the original factory

the party was winding down, so I took a picture with the flash

Seriously, within one minute of our arrival, Gaius had disappeared.  He made so many new friends and had such a wonderful time.  He told me that Neils was teaching him to speak in French.  I was happy to see him so happy!  Gaius thought it was so cool that they projected the movie ET on the wall for the kids to watch.  He loved it!  

movie for kids (can you see Elliot?)

Here he is saying hello to me for a brief moment before going on his merry way:

party animal

We got home at about 1 in the morning.  Party animals, right?!  We actually left the party at about midnight, and then took a few wrong turns on the way home.  Luckily, we had Jill to set us straight, "Recalculating."

Tonight, I am going to a Girls Night Out with a group of women from this organization called Message Paris.  It's a group for English-Speaking parents in and around Paris.  It will be my first time meeting with them, and I'm hoping to make some new friends as well as have some of my newcomer questions answered.  I'll let you know how it goes!

A bientôt!

PS- I have forgotten how to type the accent over the "a."  Christopher reminded me of how to do it just last night, and it just escapes me.  I can still do the "ô" accent though.

Je vous presente notre nouvelle voiture. (I introduce to you our new car.)

Voila la voiture!

we love the license plate

at our RER station, Courcelle sur Yvette

actually not a very small car

One of the coolest features of the car is the keyless start.  The car did not come with a regular key.  Instead, it came with this:

as big as a credit card 

As long as this card is inside the car, all you have to do is press the START button.  This can get pretty dicey.  We had parked the car at the RER station and left Gaius in the car while we went to the parking machine to figure out how to pay.  Gaius got out of his booster and moved up to the driver's seat.  It would have been an easy matter for him to press the START button.  He probably would not have been able to release the emergency brake, put the car in drive and step on the gas.  But, you never know.  Since the key card was in my purse and my purse was in the car, it could have happened.  Note to self, don't leave Gaius alone in the car with the key card!

car aficionados will not be impressed by the start button

One of our first errands after obtaining the car involved driving to the RER station and parking and taking the train into Paris.  Even though we now have a car, it's just easier to take the train into the city (usually).  So, we took the train to check out one of the huge flea markets in Paris, le marché aux Puces de Saint Ouen - Port de Clignancourt.  Lots of furniture and knick knacks there.  I even found some floaty pens!  But what I will remember most is the squat toilet I happened upon that instantly brought me back to last summer in Japan (in a bad way).  Although this may be TMI, let me just say that I walked in and walked right out.  But first, I dropped my purse on the ground.  Y U C K!  

So then, we headed to Les Halles (which looks just like an American shopping mall) and went to FNAC (their version of Frys) to buy a GPS.  Meet my new best friend:

on our way to Paris for the coolest party EVER 

We call her Jill, but pronounce it in a very french way, "Zheel."  She speaks English and she helps us get from here to there quite well.

In fact, we actually drove to Paris a few hours later to attend the coolest party ever at Gilles' house.  I'll have to post about that one later.

a bientôt!