Burgundy

Steve and I spent Thursday night in Burgundy, in Vezelay (partly famous for its church). November 1 is a holiday in France so we took advantage of the extra day off and drove south for a few hours to see the beautiful fall colors. Here are just a few pictures.

Romania

Steve and I spent the first weekend in October in Romania. The trip was Steve's birthday present from me. We stayed in Bucharest. Saturday we rented a car and drove north to a town called Sinaia. Sinaia is the home of Peles castle, the most amazing castle I have ever seen. We had an excellent time and would consider going back. Pictures are here.

Rugby World Cup

The Rugby World cup is much more exciting than I ever would have thought and France won a huge game Saturday night against the heavily favored New Zealand All Blacks. Before each game every island nation team performs a dance. Check out this tape from YouTube and imagine how crazy intimidating it would be. Click here.

Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Montenegro

Steve and I spent a week in Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina, and Montenegro. Each day we were amazed by the sheer beauty of the land in each place we visited. We spent a day in Split, two nights on the island of Korcula, two days and nights in Dubrovnik and a night in each Mostar and Kotar.

With one exception, in each town we stayed in a sobe, an apartment or room you rent in someone’s home. Most of the hotels in the area have seen little improvement in the last twenty or thirty years and are not terribly inviting. Sobes are everywhere and made a lot more sense for us, plus it gave us the opportunity to talk to our hosts and hear their stories. We learned so much from them about what is was like living in communist (former) Yugoslavia, and how their lives are different now.

Split and Dubrovnik were similar as far as being on the water, having interesting and beautiful architecture and history, restaurants, and tourists. Dubrovnik has a leg up on Split with its architecture and city layout. As Steve kept saying, it’s as awe inspiring as Venice, without the canals.

Korcula – an island two hours by ferry from Split. We relaxed, sat on the beach, rented a car and drove most of the island, and fit in wine tasting along the way.

Mostar – this city still has serious signs of war as you’ll see in our pictures. Some of the city is modern and beautiful and then you turn a corner and see a building riddled with bullet holes and only partially standing. The city is a really interesting mix of religious and pre/post war evidence. We saw a great video that captured the Old Bridge being bombed. It eventually fell and we rebuilt a few years ago.

Kotar – the Bay is stunning and visiting this country that established its independence just over a year ago was a treat.

Here are a ton of pictures - it was too hard to widdle them down.

Steve's 30th/1 year

Steve celebrated his 30th birthday on August 30th. He and I spent a fun evening at La Table in the 16th. The next day his cousins from Switzerland arrived for the weekend. We had fun spending time with Anna and Hendrick, exploring more of the city and eating a few more delish meals.

Sunday was our one year wedding anniversary. How time flies!

Pictures if you're interested.

Greece

Steve and I just returned from a hot and fun week in Greece. We flew into and out of Athens, spent one day in Athens and three days on Santorini and three days on Naxos.

Athens did not impress me as much as I expected it to, and in thinking about why, I decided that it is since the city got such great coverage during the Olympics, I felt like I had already seen it all. I have never felt that way about anything I studied (either in school or elsewhere) and then saw in person. Usually it's the opposite. I liked Athens, but amongst all the old buildings are a million tourists, smog, dirt and a bustling city that has a lot more than ruins. We encounted a total fiasco getting into the Acropolis where Steve and I and about 500 cruise ship tourists were trying to enter the site at once and it took about ten times longer than it should have. One guy joked that they have had 2000 years to figure out an entry plan and they should have had it under control. Every single person around us was complaining quietly but I was embarassed as usual when the only people to make a huge stink about the situation and yell and make threats were Americans. It always seems to be that way.

Santorini is a five hour ferry ride from Athens and is beautiful! We spent time exploring different beaches and relaxing. We had great meals and enjoyed beautiful sunsets with good wine. Santorini is known for its wine, which comes from grapes that grow on the ground. For some reason the Greeks don't prop the vines up.

After Santorini we went to Naxos, which is a couple of hours by ferry from Santorini. In Naxos we did more of the same - sitting on the beach, eating, drinking, exploring. We spent one morning hiking and finished the hike with fresh figs straight off the tree. I had never seen a whole fig before, so I was thrilled, and they tasted so good that I will never forget those figs!

Pictures of the trip are here. Enjoy!

Southern France

Steve and I just returned from five fabulous days in southern France. We started with two nights at a family friend's house in Lumiere. From there we travelled around most of Provence. We then spent the day in Aix and St. Tropez and finished the trip in Marseilles. Provence is incredibly beautiful and full of endless landscapes that are breathtaking. The food and wine were outstanding and although we missed the lavendar, we caught some fields of sunflowers that were absolutely beautiful. Here are pictures from the trip.

Tour de France

Our very cool and wet summer weather continues, but now that it's almost August most people are leaving. A handful of local businesses closed from Bastille day through the end of August, but many that were open during the last two weeks are now closed. Steve and I attempted to find a dry cleaner yesterday morning and after finding three with signs on the door saying they are on vacation until the end of August, we gave up and resigned to having our clothes cleaned in September. I hope we don't need to buy flowers or a newspaper in the next month, because we'll be out of luck. So much has slowed down and it seems that the city is exhaling.

Today was the final day of the scandal ridden Tour de France and despite all the problems, I thought it was a very cool day. We arrived on the Champs Elysèes around 11:30am, met three friends and settled in about a block from the Arc de Triomph. We weren't early enough for the front row, but we were close. We spent the following five hours chatting with friends, walking around, eating lunch, and taking things in. Running late, the riders arrived about 5pm and took their eight laps. The first lap goes at a friendly pace and then the remaining seven are more competitive. We purposely settled near the Arc because we knew the riders would have to slow down to turn the corner and head back down the Champs Elysèes but they still were flying by and as you will see in many of my pictures, I had a hard time focusing. It seemed like it was over almost right after it started, but after watching for the last three weeks on TV I realize how hard the riders train and that making it to the end is a true achievement. It was just another day of me wondering how I got so lucky that I get to live in Paris.

July

Brian and Sarah McAdam came to visit and we were lucky enough to spend three days with the at the end of their trip. They left the morning of Bastille Day. The French (at least the ones in Paris) celebrate Bastille Day with a series of Firemen's Balls the night of the 13th, a parade the morning of the 14th, and a fabulous fireworks show the night of the 14th. My pictures come nowhere close to how awesome the fireworks were.

Italy with Lauren and Betsy

Lauren and Betsy came to visit. We started with three days in Southern Italy. We flew from Paris to Naples and stayed in Sorrento. We used Sorrento as our home base and took the ferry and a bus for day trips to Capri, Positano, Amalfi, Ravello, Pompeii and Naples. Ravello and Positano were our favorites, mainly because of the beautiful views and the feel we got from each place. Each of the beach towns fall out of the Italian hillside into the most beautiful beaches and oceans, except Ravello - this is above Amalfi in the hills. Apparently the cruise business is booming because these towns were overrun with cruise tourists during the day. Luckily at night they all returned to their boats and sailed away so we got to hang out with plain old tourists.

The morning we visited Pompeii was so hot that I couldn’t take out my camera to capture anything as I was too focused on avoiding being run over by the aforementioned cruise tourists and finding shade to escape the blazing heat. After our morning in Pompeii we took the train into Naples and played human Frogger with the traffic. I have never been anywhere, especially in a really busy city, where pedestrians simply cross the street and hope for the best. While there we ate at the pizza restaurant mentioned in the book Eat, Pray, Love. If you’ve read it, you’ll know what I’m referring to. If you have not read it, you should. The pizza was probably the best I have ever had, or ever will have. I would love to repeat the trip someday in September or October as I think the weather would be a cooler and the cruise tourists wouldn’t be as prolific.

After Italy Lauren and Betsy spent five days with Steve and me in Paris. They walked the city during the day when Steve and I were at work, and we met up each night for fabulous meals and night time fun. Summer is here and we are so enjoying the fact that the sun doesn’t go down until after 9pm and it doesn’t get dark until after 10pm. Last week was the Fete de Musique which was so interesting and fun. It happens each June 21 when musicians fill the streets and perform. There was a band or a DJ almost every other block throughout the entire city.

Here are Italy pictures and a few recent Paris photos.

Food. Church. Beach.

These three things pretty much sum up our visit with Maeve and David, as you'll see from these pictures.

Vacation

We have just finished a fun filled ten days of vacation. We started in western France with Maeve and David and finished up with five days in Tuscany with eight friends. We went to Brest, France to explore, and attend the wedding of the son of Steve’s French family. The wedding was fabulous – full of lots of good food and wine, and really genuinely nice people. The reception took place right next to the ocean and was amazingly beautiful.

In Tuscany we rented a villa with eight American friends, four who are living in the US, two who are in the navy in Sicily, and two who are living in Marseille. The week was full of fun, good food, wine, friends, games, and laughs. We visited Sienna, Bologna, Pisa, Lucca and Viereggio, and their surrounding regions. I had been to Sienna and Pisa before, but it was great to see the cities again, and Bologna, Lucca, and Viereggio were all interesting, beautiful, and full of history and good gelato. One of the trip highlights was a tour and then a tasting lunch at Castello di Verrazzano (Verrazzano as in the Verrazzano bridge in NY). The food and wine were some of the best I’ve ever had. We also had a local cook prepare dinner for us during two nights in the villa. The woman did not speak English, couldn’t have been nicer, and made one of the best meals I have ever eaten. We all thought about her with a smile as we attempted to finish off her tiramisu the next morning for breakfast. Here are some very so-so pictures that do not even begin to capture how pretty Tuscany is this time of year.

Colmar

Last week our friends Lisa and Matt joined us for a night in Paris, and then the four of us headed east to Colmar and Strasbourg, both in eastern France. Lisa and Matt were in the middle of a two week honeymoon in France and hence we felt very lucky to be invited to spend any time at all with them. Saturday we rented bikes and rode from winery to winery. We shared some excellent meals and had a fabulous weekend! Pictures for you if you'd like to see what it was like...but overall it was kind of like Napa, but in my opinion much better because the bike paths are in such great condition (only on the road next to cars at the very beginning), and no need to drive. The scenery was breath taking and Saturday was a perfect day, not too hot, not too cold, and somehow we missed the downpour of rain that Paris and London got. Clearly, the wine is one of the main attractions, but the region is known for other things as well.

The new president

As of tonight Jacques Chirac is out, and Nicolas Sarkozy is the new French president. Steve and I have loved following the election and learning more about the French culture in the process. This is our absolute favorite (albeit American) commentary on the French election process. I really recommend you watch it.

May Day

Steve and I have the day off today for Labor Day. It’s a beautiful spring day, and lilies are being sold on every corner. We spent the afternoon at the famous cemetery, Pere Lachaise. To me, it is part park, part art museum, and part cemetery. The cemetery holds 1000s of gravestones, some belonging to very interesting and famous people.

The first picture is Oscar Wilde's grave, full of lipstick kisses. The second picture is the lilies Steve gave me.

Giverny

Kate and Ken came to visit and yesterday we rode bikes through Giverny. Enjoy the pictures.

Pâques (Easter)

Steve and I had a great Easter. It started with a Catholic mass at the church at Madeleine. After we had brunch with two friends and then spent most of the afternoon sitting in the park. Spring is here, and it is beautiful.

Champagne

Steve and I spent Saturday in Reims. Reims is about two hours by train, north of Paris. It’s the center of the Champagne region. Needless to say, I loved it! We went to Taittinger and Veuve Clicquot and I had a smile on my face the entire time. The town has an awesome cathedral that is somewhat well known, but I believe overshadowed by all the tourists trying to get to the champagne houses. Our morning tour, at Taittinger, was in English. You don’t need reservations at Taittinger so their tours are big, and frequent. I asked our guide how many visitors they have a day and she was flustered and said 100, but I think she meant 1000. Reservations are required at Veuve and our tour was in French so that tour definitely had a different feel. I could understand a little of what the guide said, but mainly because it was essentially a repeat of the tour we’d had that morning. Here are pictures for you.

Versailles

Before Steve and I moved to France we had a friendly debate about who would have more friends visit while we're here (although technically his friends are now my friends and vice versa). I win for having the first friend come to visit - a co-worker, Kate - from New York who has never been to Paris before. Steve's friends have more trips planned than my friends, but I am sure that in the end, I'll win. Kate's loving Paris, and we had a great weekend - a cold and rainy Saturday spent at Versailles and a lazy Sunday spent wandering around in the sun and enjoying a beautiful spring day. A few pictures for you: http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=6611175460150870/l=258881700/g=2307863/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

Bern

Steve and I spent the weekend in Bern, Switzerland with Steve’s cousin, Anna, and her husband and two kids, Louise and Jon. Louise is 12 and speaks four languages. Bern is the capital of Switzerland and has a large international community. This site explains it better than I can. We had a great time chatting and catching up, and eating a lot of wonderful food, including my favorite, fondue. For those of you who attended the wedding, Anna is Louise and Conal’s youngest daughter.

Pictures

A few recent pictures for you.

Chartres

Steve and I went over to Bon Marche on Saturday. It’s a great store, but their food store across the street is even better. It’s actually a very close replica of Whole Foods, with endless gourmet offerings, a beautiful fruit and vegetable department, and a great prepared food section. It was also crawling with Americans. If we lived closer I would probably do a lot of my shopping there, so it’s good we’re not next door.

On Sunday we took an hour train ride to Chartres. The main attraction in Chartres is the cathedral, which is very impressive. The stained glass was like nothing I’ve really seen before, and the interior of the church was literally amazing. It was the most gorgeous spring day outside, but inside it was freezing and dark. Grace Cathedral and Chartres have a connection, including the labyrinth which Grace copied from Chartres. Because it was Sunday almost everything was closed in the town, but we walked all around and really enjoyed the day. It must be puppy season because we saw four yellow lab puppies – so cute! The town is very French, very old, and full of adorable winding roads, a stream crossed with beautiful old bridges every few blocks, and a lot of very well dressed French people out for a Sunday walk on a beautiful day. Steve was particularly happy because no one responded to him in English, which drives him crazy; although I maintain that the French are so polite that they are only trying to make him feel comfortable (because they assume Americans can’t really speak another language). I'll post pictures soon.

The election

In May the French will elect a new president. I doubt this race is getting much attention in the US, but I find it rather interesting as there is a good possibility that they will elect their first female president. Segolene Royal is running against Nicolas Sarkozy. The first election will take place in April with the final runoff in May.

Hemingway's at the Ritz

Not too much to report this week. Steve and I had our six month wedding anniversary on Friday, but we both forgot (oops!). Forgetting was actually a good thing because we started the night off by having our friends who we had invited to dinner call and cancel 30 minutes before they were to arrive, which turned out okay because then our oven broke, again. After eating a very modified menu of what we were planning to have, we trekked over to Hemingway's bar in the Ritz. It has an interesting history, but also charges €25 per drink so when the snobby hostess told us there was no room because it is fashion week we headed off. We ended up at another bar which we thought was okay until we noticed a handful of transvestites, so we called it a night.

Saturday night we made it to a crazy club which was so much fun it made up for Friday night's lack of fun.

I made my first ever tart, which I am pleased to report turned out to be delicious. I followed this recipe, but added in powdered hazelnuts and skipped the pears, instead I topped the tart with a ring of raspberries. Delicious!

We're an aunt and uncle

I’m an aunt! Last week, very excitingly, Steve and I became an aunt and uncle when Steve’s brother, Greg, and his wife, Emily, had Ella Caroline Franklin. We can’t wait to meet her!

Steve and I have just returned from a fun filled weekend in London. I went over on the Eurostar on Thursday morning and worked Thursday and Friday and met Steve after work on Friday evening. I had a bit of time to kill before meeting Steve so I stopped in one of my favorite places, the National Portrait Gallery. They always have the most interesting exhibits. Saturday we met South African friends who we knew in Boston for brunch and then Kate’s college roommate, husband, and new baby for lunch. I spent the afternoon wondering around and went into Harrods. I trust I saw the most important facets of the store – the fine jewelry section and the food halls. After Harrods I went over to the National Gallery, another one of my favorite places to visit in London. We stayed with one of Steve’s friends in his flat in the suburbs of London and overall had a great weekend.

About ten days ago Steve’s French ‘aunt’ (the sister of the father of the family Steve lived with in high school) had us over for dinner, along with her nephew and his wife (who are about our age). It was my first official French dinner party. It was a fantastic evening, with delicious food, and I’d say I maybe understood 10% of the conversation. We had five courses, wonderful wine and champagne, and good company.

My French Soup

Last night I prepared my first French dish, cauliflower soup. Why do I consider this one my first, after already mentioning that we've been eating soup for weeks due to the broken oven (which got fixed last week)? Because the recipe is from a French woman who spends her days writing about French food, while everything else I've made is out of my US cookbooks. Kate pointed out her blog, and I have been visiting it a few times per week. The author is French, but spent time living in the US so she writes in English. I believe she lives somewhere right near us because she often writes about places within a few blocks of our apartment. I made cauliflower soup (recipe), which I have to say, was delicious.

On another note, Steve and I went to the police station this morning and picked up our receipts for our carte de soujours, our next step in the French visa process. In two months we will go back to pick up the actual carte de soujour.

Pictures

A few pictures from the last month+: http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=275121171318497238/l=244766853/g=2307863/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

The smoking ban

On February 1st news of the smoking ban was all over the place. I momentarily forgot about it until I opened the paper that morning. I smiled all the way to work. Over lunch I discussed the issue with a nonsmoking co-worker who didn't seem as excited as I was, and declared she was sure someone would strike over the issue. That night Steve and I decided to go out for a drink and as I practically skipped into the bar I came to a cartoon-like screeching halt and my smile quickly faded as I looked around and everyone was smoking.

It would be a lot more convenient if I were fluent in French. If I were, that morning on the train on the way to work I would have been able to read the article which outlined the phased plan to ban smoking in public. We are in phase one now, which bans smoking on the subways and trains, federal buildings, hospitals (?!?!). I am still not too sure of the schedule, except that the last phase is for restaurants and bars, and that will be implemented on February 1, 2008.

1-(415)-738-8725

We are finally connected! Steve set up the phone, internet and cable tv over the weekend so we now have a working Vonage number. The above number is a US San Francisco number that rings directly to our apartment. If you call from outside of San Francisco long distance charges will apply (unless, for instance, you call from your cell which doesn't have those fees), but other than that it is the same as calling any US phone number, there are no international dialing fees. We look forward to hearing from you!

Our weekend was fun and packed. A few highlights:
- We met our landlady, an American who married a French man 30 years ago and is currently living in Morocco. She was interesting to talk to, and told us about one of her old tenants who bought a pass to the Louvre and made it a goal to visit every room. It took him two years, but he made it!
- Saturday night we sat down to dinner and just as Steve was talking about how much he was enjoying the restaurant a group of three women walked in with their Golden Retriever, Vanilla. It was a smallish restaurant that had tables for two lined up along a wall where there are about 2 inches between each table so that if a table for four walks in they can push two together, or six, they can push three together, etc, but if you are two and two sitting next to each other you are officially at separate tables, but really just 2 inches apart. Steve is kind of luke warm about dogs in general, but he definitely doesn't think they belong in restaurants. We got our food before Vanilla's owners so she spent a lot of time sneaking over to our table, putting her head in my lap, then Steve's lap, looking so hopeless and hungry. Eventually she settled down and went to sleep but I got a good laugh out of the whole thing.
- We went to fun parties each night and met more Americans and a few French who are interesting and fun to hang out with.
- Yesterday a co-worker invited us for tea. This guy and his fiancé are getting married in June and moving to Boston for two years in July (us, in reverse). It was a fun afternoon and interesting to learn more about French weddings. This couple is having their wedding at city hall with 100 people and a buffet following the ceremony, then having a lunch for 400 people at a local restaurant/hall kind of place, then having a dinner/reception that evening at a castle outside of the city, with 150 guests. Some guests overlap for all three events, but most do not. I have read this is a typical French way to get married, and that stationary companies are doing a booming business with all those invitations.

The Gym

Weeks ago Steve and I visited the only gym we know of in Paris, a chain called Club Med Gym. They have something like 15 locations in Paris. We went to the gym nearest our apartment and had a tour. After about a week I decided to join. I trudged back to the gym one night after work with the magic four (passport with my visa, proof of residency – either a phone bill or an electricity bill, picture of myself, and bank information) in hand. These four things can get you almost anything you need in France. Anyway, I asked about a company discount and was told I can get one, but I have to buy the membership from work. So the next day my very nice French colleague took me to the employee perks office (I am sure there is a real French term for this, but I don’t know what it is). I was lucky my friend accompanied me because the woman who runs the office doesn’t speak much English. Anyway, I bought the membership (paying for the whole year up front, another thing the French don’t do – credit) and subsequently learned that we are able to buy wine and champagne from this perks office, at a good discount. That was for sure a very exciting discovery which I will definitely be taking advantage of.

I have made it to the gym four or five times now. The gym I go to is located in an old dance school so the rooms all resemble ballet studios. The rest is pretty much the same with weight machines and cardio machines. I will hopefully get to a class this weekend, which will be interesting since it will obviously be in French. One difference so far is the operating hours – the gyms do not open until 7:30 or 8am and most are closed (but not all) on Sundays.

More from Paris

Friday night Steve and I had dinner at a delicious Vietnamese restaurant. We intended to try a fondue restaurant but when we arrived we noticed the restaurant serves all its drinks in baby bottles and that we would be far older than the college aged crowd so we were lucky to find the Vietnamese restaurant across the street.

Saturday we took an hour train ride south to Fontainebleau. The famous business school, Insead, is located in Fontainebleau, as is a beautiful chateau and huge forest. We toured the chateau and walked for a bit through the forest, then ate a few snacks (crepes with Nutella, what else?) and walked around the town. We went to the cheese store and brought home the most delicious goat cheese called Pave du Gard. I have never heard of it before, but it was outstanding and I intend to eat a lot more of it. We had it with our dinner Sunday night, on a baguette. Buying a daily (at least) baguette is a national pastime, as is taste testing the baguette on the walk home. Everyday I see Parisians carrying heel-less baguettes with a content smile on their faces.

Sunday morning I woke early and made my way to the Musée de O’rsay. I was there ten years ago and have been anxious to return. The impressionist paintings in the collection at the O’rsay are so outstanding – Monet (my favorite), Manet, Degas, Van Gogh. It was a real treat to spend some time there and I can’t wait to return.

I made my way from the museum to a street market in the 2nd arrondisement. I only had about fifteen minutes so I made a quick loop, but it was a good market with a lot of hustle and bustle. Most of the street markets have a fish shop, a few butchers, a few cheese stores, a few vegetable stores, and a few restaurants. I always enjoy walking through to see what’s available that day and see what the real French are eating.

From the street market I made my way over to the Grand Palais where I met Steve and two new friends. Peter and Aubrey moved from Boston to Paris in September and we have a mutual friend who introduced us over email. We had a good lunch and walk – it was a gorgeous sunny day and everyone was out enjoying the sun. Not my typical Super Bowl Sunday, that’s for sure. I hope everyone ate a lot of chips and dip for me!

Steve and I are dealing with what feels like endless apartment issues. Our apartment in Paris has a broken stove. As I make my way though my soup cookbook we await anxiously for the repairman. For anyone who has read A Year in Provence, you know how difficult it be to find a repair person in France (and if you haven’t read it you should, it is a very entertaining book). We have an American landlord who is also from Boston, but has lived here for 30 years. She is currently spending most of her time in Morocco so she’s hired a local management company that is somewhat responsive, but we are certainly not holding our breath for home-baked goods. Steve’s condo in Cambridge is facing a bed bug infestation which is more expensive and time consuming to deal with than I ever imagined. And, last week there was a natural gas leak on the block of my Cambridge condo and the gas people had to break into my unit and rip up one of my walls to access the gas pipes. The management company lost my tenant’s contact information so he had quite a surprise when he got home from work. Knock wood that we have reached the end of our apartment woes.

Happy Friday!

A few random comments heading into the weekend:
- My French class is going well. I really like the teacher and think she does a good job. The class has about ten other students who are all around my age. When I took French in the US the students were all American so we would whisper to each other in English when we did not understand what was happening. The difference now is that everyone is from different countries and the only common language we have is French (and it is a bit hazardous at times because this is a beginning French class). It is interesting listening to classmates speak French with accents from around the world.

- I am in London now. I arrived on the Eurostar yesterday morning and am going back to Paris tonight. Before arriving I did not realize what a treat it would be to speak and hear English everywhere! Yay!

- The grocery situation is getting better and better as with each attempt at a new store I find more of what I am looking for. Our office is in a nice suburb of Paris and there is a grocery across the street that really does remind me very much of Whole Foods. I have found a few closer to home that I know I will visit often. This coming weekend though I will spend more time exploring French street markets and doing a lot of pointing for what I want. I have got to focus more on French food vocabulary words.

- Tuesday at work I had my work medical exam. Apparently it is a law in France that all new employees have an exam by an on-site doctor. This has nothing to do with my visa status, this is something every French worker has to do. It was a bit difficult because the nurse did not speak much English, but we got through it. I had an eye exam, provided a urine sample, gave a medical history, and then the doctor listened to me breathe, poked my stomach, looked at my throat, took my height and weight. Apparently this doctor lectures everyone on how important it is to eat fruits and vegetables but I don’t think she was up for the effort in English.

- I am still working on my own hypothesis as to why French people don’t get fat because the amount they eat for lunch actually really gets my attention every day. Picture five foot women, size zero, eating like football players, every day. I mean two trays of food, napkins tucked into collars, and taking a full hour to eat everything on the two trays.

- Steve and I are working with our company to obtain our Cartè de Soujours. The visas we waited forever for in the US expire after three months and the next step is obtaining a Cartè de Soujour. Every ‘moving to France’ book talks about these cards and what a lengthy process it is to get them. They are residence cards that give you permission to stay in France for two years. After two years you can apply for another two year carte. After those two years you can apply for a ten year carte. The process involves applying for the carte and then waiting and waiting. I understand that when you apply you receive a receipt and that receipt is our key to the next step to living in France. Someone from work will escort Steve and I to the police station in a few weeks to pick up those golden receipts.

Second Weekend

Our second full weekend in Paris was quite fun. Friday night we saw Casino Royal. Lucky for me it was in English with French subtitles (rather than being dubbed in French). Saturday morning Steve and I met our friends, the Garcias for an early lunch and a bike tour of Paris. The Garcias are moving to America next month and they wanted to go on the bike ride as part of their farewell tour of the city. We had a great lunch looking up at the Sacre Coeur and then set off for the tour. After an hour of discussing which tour we would go on (I am told this negotiation process is very French – we reserved for one tour, were convinced a second tour was better, and finally ended up on a third) we set off with a Dutch family of six and a guide who rode so fast we thought she was trying to lose us. Our guide has a license to guide people in Paris and she was quite knowledgeable, but her information was all in French so I got what I could from what our friends translated for me. We rode through some pretty busy streets and ended up in the much more peaceful19^th arrondissement. We saw beautiful parks where teams of older men were out for the afternoon playing balls, nice old homes, and a science museum that was built as a slaughter house but turned into a museum when they realized the doors were too narrow for the width of the animals. We rode past Notre Dame just as it began to rain and right as we rode into the Latin Quarter it started to pour. We took cover for about 10 minutes until it let up a bit and then rode for about 30 more minutes, returned our bikes and thanked the guide. I made a mad dash for BHV before it closed and completely enjoyed myself. The store is six levels and has everything you could need (a la Target), but with much more upscale offerings. The basement is all hardware and sells more than anyone could ever use.

Saturday night we went to a party at the apartment of a co-worker who Steve had met once before, and had a really good time. We knew no one before arriving but everyone was really friendly and interesting and there was no shortage of champagne. After, we met up with friends at two different bars until 3am when I pulled Steve home because I could no longer take the smoke. I am counting the days until the impending public smoking ban, but I am told there are quite a few questions as to how well it will be enforced.

Sunday Steve worked all day and I explored our neighborhood more. We are very close to the Moulin Rouge so I walked over there and past the Amalie hangout, Deux Moulins. It was very crowded so I did not go in, but I continued to find more wonderful stores, restaurants, bakeries, etc. which made me feel even more comfortable in our new neighborhood.

We are making progress getting the phone set up, but it will be a few more weeks.

Soldes!!

I started work last week and I can not believe how kind everyone here is. So many people have made a point of introducing themselves and different people invited me to lunch each day last week.

Our first weekend in Paris was nice. Good weather, and a lot of exploring. We ate at two nice restaurants and found an excellent boulangerie which reminds me very much of the High-Rise bakery in Cambridge. On Saturday Steve’s French ‘parents’ (from his exchange program in high school) came to Paris and Steve had to work but they invited me to an excellent exhibit at the Grand Palais featuring buried under-the-sea Egyptian artifacts. The sales (soldes) are on and everyone is going nuts for the deals. Sales happen in France only twice a year, January and July, and they last for about six weeks each time. Even some stores were open on Sunday to accommodate all of the shoppers. I did a bit of looking but did not buy anything.

South Africa pictures

These pictures are all from Gillian. Enjoy!

The phone

Steve and I have Vonage but we have not quite been able to set up the internet connection at home. It is proving to be a somewhat difficult task because we do not exactly know how to navigate the system, I can not call (because of the language thing), Steve is working so late that the customer service centers are closed by the time he gets home, and we are not exactly sure of which provider to use. I have to get my cell phone through work and I imagine that will also take some time. I will let everyone know when we get connected.

Later Whole Foods

For the past few years I have always done my grocery shopping on Sundays and then cooked up a bit of a feast on Sunday evenings to pick at throughout the week. That’s all going to change now because almost everything is closed on Sundays in Paris, including most grocery stores. When Steve and I got back from SA on Sunday the cupboards were bare so we set out in a desperate hunt for something to eat. Luckily the fruit store was open so we started with that and even luckier the proprietor told us of a grocery he thought was open. We raced over and sure enough, success. Naturally, as expected, the grocery stores here are small because space is scarce, but this will definitely take some getting used to. Options are slim and supply is not quite what I would expect for a big city, but I am very excited to figure out how the French manage to be the foodies of the world on what I have seen so far. One store, Monoprix, is some sort of department-like store (more tomorrow because I am going there tonight) that added a grocery component. In a way this store most reminds me of Whole Foods because they offer a good selection of food prepared on-site. My French is not good enough yet to determine if they have a healthy slant on what they sell, but the prices are above other stores; a la Whole Foods. A French friend recommended a chain called Franprix which so far is okay, but the selection is slim – I almost jumped for joy yesterday when I found tomato paste. I have yet to find black beans, but I did manage to find canned and raw lentil, kidney and garbanzo. I need to spend more time in Franprix’s wine section – they seem to have excellent selections in the 5-7 Euro range. As I was lugging my groceries home last night I passed a store that sells only frozen food and reminded me of an extra large Trader Joe’s frozen food section. They even sell you insulated bags for your walk home. I will definitely research that store more as it looked very promising.

On to more important things: work! Day one has been successful. The offices are beautiful and the people are nice and mostly speak English really well, but even I could understand most of what was said in French. We have a cantina for lunch – a co-worker took me over and showed me the ropes. It was a bit intimidating because the menu changes daily and of course the menus are all listed in French. I grabbed the few vegetarian items I could find: salad, yogurt, bread and brie. The seating area is on the second floor and as you descend the stairs to the first floor there is a coffee bar where everyone has an espresso before returning to work. We skipped coffee today, but there were 50+ people there today – it was very French. I have my computer, phone, and desk so full steam ahead.

Back from South Africa

We had a wonderful two weeks in South Africa! Lots of beach and family time, drinking of wine and tea, food and family... lots of relatives! The Franklin's house is located here right outside of George, in Groot-Brakrivier (Great Brak River in English), Groot-Brakrivier in Africans (the local language). We spent a day in Plettenberg Bay, with a stop in Knysna. I will post pictures and more details when I get them together.

This morning I had my french medical exam which consisted of: me hoping they spoke English (the doctors did), waiting in the waiting room for an hour, being weighed and having my height measured, an eye exam, a chest x-ray, a quick consultation with a doctor who looked at my x-ray (and confirmed I do not have TB), listened to me take a few deep breaths, and sent me home. Now that I am offically healthy (according to the French) I will begin work, starting tomorrow.

Tonight I have my first French language class - not a minute too soon!