food photography, sickie & parking

I could never become a food photographer.  I always forget to take the picture before I take the first bite.

missing one falafel ball from l'As du Falafel

Buche de Noël with cut piece put back in place for the photo

crepe complète (ham, cheese & mushrooms) with about 5 bites taken out

christopher's dinner salad

Gaius is home sick from school today.  He's miserable.  I hope he gets better by tomorrow (French Wednesday)!

poor little sickie

On an entirely different note, I thought you might be interested in what is used as a parking meter here.

parking disk

You place this parking disk on your dashboard when you park.  In the window on the left, you indicate your time of arrival.  There is 90 minute free parking in Centre Ville.  The disk tells you that you have to move your car by the time indicated in the window on the right.  Isn't that clever?

à bientôt!

French Wednesday

There is no school in France on Wednesdays.  At least, not for Gaius.  So, every Wednesday, we sleep in, hang out and have fun.  Most of the time, it's just the two of us.  If we're lucky, Christopher will take the day off and join us.  And sometimes, if the timing is right, we'll spend the day in Paris with visiting family!  I just took a look at all my Wednesday pictures.  We've been busy!

How to spend a French Wednesday:

do lunch

sick day (what a waste)

go to Luxembourg Gardens with your mommy's cell phone # on your tummy

get a haircut

ride a motorcycle at the mall

attend a Halloween party in Versailles

watch TV

craft time (minus the smoking props)

hit a cafe with the coolest cousin ever (Nicole)

visit Notre Dame with grandparents

count the number of monuments at Place de la Concorde

climb up to Sacre Coeur

play pac man on rue cler

hit a patisserie near the opera

When we get back to Williamsburg, this is a tradition that I'm sure we'll continue.  Just not on a regular basis.  I think we can all use a French Wednesday once in awhile.  Maybe you should take one tomorrow, too.  Tomorrow afternoon, we're headed into Paris to tackle Les Soldes again.  Wish me luck!


à bientôt!

Les Soldes (The Sales)

For five weeks in Summer and five weeks in Winter, the entire country of France goes on sale.  Can you imagine?  When I read about this, I kind of freaked out.  It can't be true.  Designer clothing at 80% off?  No way!  WINE goes on sale?  This is freaking me out.  Can this possibly be about to happen?  I needed to get a handle on this.

Printemps (a fancy French department store)

So, of course, I decided we needed a plan.  Les Soldes started on a Wednesday this month (January 12th, to be exact.)  I decided that we should do a reconnaissance mission and go and find what we wanted to buy, try things on, etc. all before the sales began.  Supposedly, it's a madhouse.  So, Christopher took off from work (isn't he supportive?) and we went into the city to find shoes, purses, designer duds, perfume, etc.  Only, it wasn't as simple as that.


Everyone we asked about the sales told us the same thing.  "Nobody knows."  Is this going on sale?  I don't know.  Will you have things on sale?  I don't know.  What time do you open on Wednesday, the day Les Soldes begin?  I don't know.  Hey buddy.  Do you even work here?


None of our friends could actually tell us much about the sales either.  It's very frustrating wanting to do my research and be prepared for anything when there is no information available.  So, we spent the day window shopping.  I found absolutely NOTHING.  Christopher found two pairs of shoes and a "man purse."

I'm a little jealous

Anyway, we spent one more day scouting finds before the big day and when the big day finally arrived, it was kind of a let down.  None of the things we wanted were on sale!  Well, Christopher did save 10% on his "man purse" but that's about it.


Not to worry.  We still have a few weeks left.  This Sunday, I almost found my "big steal."  Is it still a good deal if the jeans you buy in France are made in Japan, are a little loose in the waist and still cost 102€ after the price reduction?  I guess not.  But they sure were cute.


Currently, on my ever-changing wish list is the following:

• a French globe (all the writing on the globe in French)
• French silverware by Sabre
• One really cute article of clothing that actually fits me, for a bargain price 

The good news is, prices are reduced more and more as time passes. Or so I've heard.  We'll just see about that.


à bientôt!

key to the city

When my cousin Nicole was here, she said I should do a blog about how nice people have been to us here.  It's true.  Many people have gone out of their way to be kind.  Just this afternoon, my next door neighbor, Françoise called me to ask if I would like a ride to an AVF function in the neighboring town of Orsay.  Isn't that thoughtful?  I'm telling you, people here in France are the BEST!


Just before Christmas, marché (outdoor market) was a madhouse.  The lines were a mile long.  Usually, everyone is very patient while waiting in line.  In fact, the verb for waiting is actually "patienter."  Standing in line and waiting your turn is a way of life here.  Something that is VERY French is that after waiting so patiently, once it is your turn, you take your own sweet time.  The vendor acts like you are the only person in the world, paying no mind to the throngs of people in line behind you.  You don't rush through your turn.  You really take your time.  It's hard for me to do this.  I mean, there is a line a mile long behind me and there I am, rushing like a fool to put all of my groceries in the bag and get the heck out of the way for the next person in line.  French people don't do this.  They waited patiently, so the person behind them can do the same.


So, it was a shock to me that just before Christmas, the temporary helper at the poissonier refused to shuck 16 oysters for me.  He said something along the lines of "not today, we're too busy."  BUT, you see, I have a very friendly relationship with the handsome poissonier.  This is the guy who looks like the famous chef Jean Cristophe Novelli (from Chef Academy on Bravo TV.)  Anyway, can you believe it, he dropped everything and shucked 6 oysters for me.  Not the 16, it's true.  But who needs scalloped oysters for the Feast of Seven Fishes when oyster shooters will do just fine???

the guys who would NOT shuck my oysters

aw shucks!  (he's really very handsome in person)

That very same day, after buying the fish, Nicole and I walked over to the bread guy.  After our transaction, the bread guy says (in French), "Say hi to your husband for me!"  Isn't that nice?

the bread guy

The cavist (wine shop owner) at our local Cave a Vins is a very nice man.  You should see his shop, it is amazing.  I'll have to post pictures of the interior at a later date.  Anyway, we bought a very fancy bottle of wine from him awhile ago and he told us that we should decant it before drinking.  But, we said, we don't have a decanter.  So he said, "Here.  Take this one.  Just wash it and bring it back when you are done."

our local cave a vins

On Ile-Saint-Louis in Paris, a salesman ran out of the Pylones store to catch us and give me the purse hook I wanted to buy.  "We forgot to ring this up with your order, but here.  Take it anyway.  You wanted it."  How cool is that???  You have to check out this store. 


Today, the man who works at the key shop was nice enough to give me sixteen keys for the new board game I am designing.  SIXTEEN keys!  It's a trivia game about Paris that I've been working on.  We thought it would be a good way to remember everything about our time here.  We're using the Eiffel Tower keychains as the game pieces.  And similar to Trivial Pursuit, the goal is to win four keys (instead of wedges.)  That's why I needed 16 keys.  Check them out!

sixteen keys

our new game

So, if you come to visit us here, we can play this game together.  Guess what I've decided to call it.  Key to the City of Paris, of course!


à bientôt!

Le Réveillon & Fête des Rois (New Year's Eve & Epiphany)

We were very lucky this season to be invited to two important New Year celebrations in France, le Réveillon (feast on New Year's Eve) and la Fête des Rois (Epiphany).


Le Réveillon
We were invited to a Réveillon for New Year's Eve by our next door neighbors, the Nguyens.  We are very lucky to live in an area with such friendly neighbors.  Can you believe that the two little boys who live next door love Ben 10 and Spiderman too?!  Meet the Nguyens!

Françoise & Thien

Gaius with Damien and Julien

The word Réveillon comes from the word réveil, or "waking" because if you are invited, you must stay awake until midnight and beyond.  We arrived at 8 pm and ate and drank our way through the four hours until Midnight!  Can you believe it?  The food was amazing!  We were served fois gras, a delicious Mousse de Coquilles Saint-Jacques (scallops), stuffed pintade (guinea fowl), a sparkling wine from the Loire, two bottles of the real-deal (champagne from Champagne) and a 15-year old bottle of Bordeaux!  There was also a cheese course which we forced ourselves to skip, as well as dessert.


It was my cousin Nicole's last night in France.  So glad her last night here was such a memorable one!

Ma Cousine Nicole
(look at Françoise's beautiful table setting)

La Famille Del Negro on the last night of the year

Mousse de Coquille Saint-Jacques

 look at how well little kids use utensils in France

delicious!

La Fête des Rois
On the first Sunday of the Year, the French celebrate Epiphany with a Galette des Rois, or King Cake.  It's a wonderful tradition that you may be familiar with if you've ever been to New Orleans, where they have their King Cake during Mardi Gras.  In the North of France, the cake is made with puffed pastry and filled with Frangipane (almond paste).  Inside, is hidden une fève, a favor.  (A long time ago, the favor was a broad bean.)  In our cake there were two fèves.  Whoever finds the fève in their slice of cake is crowned the King or Queen for the day!

la galette des rois

la fève

We were invited to share a Galette des Rois by our landlords, Jean and Mylène.  Another family from the neighborhood was also there, and as it turns out, their little boy, Axel is in Gaius' class at Courcelle Maternelle.  Gaius really enjoyed having a friend to play with at the party!

Laurent, Me, Mylène, Valerie, Christopher, Gaius, Axel and Elliot (le chien)

I have actually met Laurent and Valerie before the party.  Laurent is a Pompier (fireman) and he walks Axel to school every morning.  I met Valerie one day while I was out shoe shopping with Gaius.  They are a very nice family.


Little kids play an important role in the festivities.  To ensure that the pieces of cake are randomly distributed, the youngest child (in this case, both Gaius and Axel played a part) sits under the table and says who gets the next piece.

Gaius and Axel under the table,  decide who gets the next piece of cake

Mylène slices up the Galette des Rois

King Axel

Jean and Gaius

A little bit of trivia for you.  The Galette des Rois that is served to the French President at Elysée Palace does not contain a fève because it would be inappropriate for the President to be crowned king in France.  When you slice up the galette des rois, you are supposed to slice one piece extra and give it to the first poor person who comes to your home.  We were greedy.  We ate it all!


To cap off the evening with a bang, Jean played guitar for Gaius.  The highlight of the evening was watching Gaius play the Fender Stratocaster (for real).  Click here for the video.  Jean, I apologize for not asking you to sign the release (signer un décharge) for this video.  :)



à bientôt!