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School is over, the bags are packed (mostly), and we are outta here! I can’t believe the adventure is over.
I have been compiling a list of things we will miss about Paris. But it’s time for one last pastry and then a trip to CDG.
To all our Vermont friends: order up some snow for us, please! Thanks. We can’t wait to see you all!
Here is a last day picture of Lila’s class, most of it anyway, in its Holiday Show performance of “Renaissance Man!”
That’s Lila in the middle with Princess Leia hair!
I am having trouble motivating myself to post on this blog, for a variety of reasons. My computer is still broken, which I realize is a pathetic excuse since Dennis lets me use his every day. The big reason is that we are leaving in one week, and I have checked out. Mentally, that is.
I am still enjoying Paris. I continue to see new things and visit new neighborhoods. Yesterday I went to Belleville for the first time, and I walked through the Père Lachaise cemetery, where all kinds of famous people are buried. (Jim Morrison!)
My friend Dana came to visit from North Carolina this past weekend, and we tried a new restaurant in my neighborhood that I can’t believe it took me 3.75 months to try. We also went to a fun party in a fabulous apartment. So…things are good. There is still fun to be had.
But the homestretch can be tough. Winter has definitely arrived in Paris, and that means rain. There are only three more days of school. Just like at home, we have about 8 billion things to do before the last day. The school has a big winter performance in that last day. Should be interesting. Then it’s packing time!
One more week and this adventure is over. L&C cant wait to see Beasley and play with their toys. Dennis cant wait to open the mail. I can’t wait to see the snow, though we have to drive home from Montreal so not too much please!
I am sure we will miss Paris. Most things. Big city living really is fun. You never know what you might find, walking down the street. Or the median.
Lila and Claudia are taking ballet as their only extracurricular activity while we are here in Paris. We took a little break from piano since we didn’t have an instrument in our apartment nor a teacher. But ballet seemed a little easier, and I found a bilingual school, the American Academie de Danse à Paris. They mostly like it, though they complain a bit. School does not get out until 4 pm and they are very tired, often too tired to change and rush off to an after-school activity. I can understand that. Interestingly they don’t seem to have a problem when there’s a playdate after school!
Lila is taking two ballet classes per week, and she was relieved to find out that both of her teachers speak English. Her Monday teacher speaks mostly French in class though, which is hard for Lila. Of course, I think it is good for her. But she doesn’t. Lila is ready to get back to Vermont, and tells me all the time how much she misses Helena, her ballet teacher at the Stowe Dance Academy. Claudia has only one class per week and loves her teacher, Jennie, who speaks mostly English in class. I think Lila dislikes it because she hasn’t made very many friends in ballet, and she’s used to having loads of friends in her dance classes at home.
The school is much larger than Stowe Dance, with maybe 10-12 classes per level while Stowe offers 1 or 2. It’s a big beautiful building with pianos in the studios. Yesterday AADP put on a performance of the Nutcracker. As many of you know, my girls have danced in the Nutcracker in Burlington with the Albany Berkshire Ballet for the past 4 years (Lila) and 3 years (Claudia). Here in Paris they were in an all-student production,but it was quite good.
Claudia was a gingerbread girl and Lila a patissier (baker). I loved their costumes. The production was quite different from the one we have seen so many times at the Flynn. For example, AADP has no Mother Ginger with her children under her skirt, and the party scene at the beginning was almost nonexistent. It was adorable, though. Something to add to the list of experiences — performing in the Nutcracker in Paris!
We are most definitely in the home stretch of this trip, with less than two more weeks of school and only 15 days until we leave for good. It’s weird to think about it and I have mixed feelings, but that is a topic for another post (maybe). Anyway, Paris certainly looks lovely in the holiday season and going to the Nutcracker was très festive!
Thanksgiving is not celebrated in France, a fact which I am sure you all know. Halloween had much more of a presence here in Paris. On Turkey Day the kids went to school. I had lunch with my French friend Sebastien and dinner with my American friends, mostly other parents from the school. I did not eat any turkey (sushi for lunch, chicken for dinner).
The girls had a Thanksgiving meal at their Franco-American school (a phrase which always makes me think of Spaghetti-o’s). The school provided turkey and vegetables and stuffing, and the parents provided everything else. I was asked to bring popcorn for Lila’s class, which is weird since I don’t know many Americans who eat popcorn at Thanksgiving dinner. For Claudia’s class I brought apple juice. Other parents who are braver and have better-equipped kitchens made apple and pumpkin pies, and whipped cream.
Of course, I thought about all the things I am thankful for. I am thankful that we have been able to pursue this cool adventure and live in Paris for a few months. I am thankful that my daughters are happy and healthy. I am thankful that we have met interesting people here in Paris, and that the girls have nice friends. I am thankful that Dennis is here with me, despite original plans to spend most of the time in Vermont. I am thankful for our house sitter, Charlie, who is taking such great care of Beasley and our lovely house, both of which I can’t wait to see. I am thankful for people who invited us over for Thanksgiving. And, last but not least I am thankful for everyone who is taking the time to read this blog right now!
I am still having computer problems, thus the infrequent blog posts (thankful to Dennis, who let’s me borrow his computer regularly) and the absence of pictures. But we are still here and having fun and enjoying our final month abroad. To all you Vermonters: save some of that snow for us!
It occurred to me that I never posted the second installment of my vacation series. We got back to Paris, started school again, and things got busy. Actually, here’s what really happened. We got back to Paris, went back to school for three days, and were faced with another mini-holiday. Last Friday was a national holiday, Armistice Day, and the school tacked on Thursday for a teacher workday. So there we were, fresh off our Toussaint vacation and faced with a four-day weekend.
As our four-month stay starts to run out, we knew this was one of our last chances to visit London while living so close. So we went. Dennis was excited to take the Chunnel, and I adore the train, so we quickly booked 4 tickets on the Eurostar and went on another vacation. We stayed in London for two nights and explored the city. The girls were ecstatic to speak English again!
We did touristy stuff. We walked over to see Big Ben. We rode the London Eye. We strolled around Buckingham Palace and spied on the royal guards. We ate Indian food (well, Dennis and I did). We meandered around Hyde Park and played at the Princess Diana Memorial Playground. We shopped at the famous toy store, Hamley’s. We rode the double-decker buses (cool) and the Underground (also cool). We went to the Tower of London but decided to forego the tour. I am finally realizing that the girls don’t really like sightseeing. Maybe they are just tired of it, but they make everyone miserable with their complaining.
But they did like the toy store! Here are the girls with a giant Darth Vader, made completely of Legos, at Hamley’s.
I don’t really have any good London pictures because my computer is on the fritz. I am posting from Dennis’s computer and am limited to the pics that he had on his phone. Here is a gratuitous shot of Lila demonstrating one of her talents.
I love this video! I watched this during my Year of Learning French, also known as my Year of Obsessing about Paris. Or YOP for short. It came from one of the French food blogs I read, Chocolate and Zucchini .
You should watch this just for the gorgeous macarons. Makes you want to visit us in Paris, n’est-ce pas?
In the planning stage for this trip, I decided to make a big effort to learn as much French as I could before I left. I have posted about this before . At one point I decided to try a Skype conversation exchange. I searched a Skype forum for real live French speakers trying to learn English. Most of the offerings were the other way around. I guess a lot of English speakers want to learn French, or else it is just a sheer population issue. But then I found an ad from a 29-year-old French woman interested in learning English. She specified that she was looking for a conversation exchange where she could improve her professional vocabulary but also talk about philosophy and film and art and topics like that. It sounded promising and potentially entertaining to me!
This is how I “met” Esméralda, Esmi for short. We have been speaking on Skype, half in French, half in English for nine months now. She has been an incredible resource, teaching me language points, recommending films, teaching about culture, laughing and just chatting about life. Since we met she has gone from single to seriously dating, unemployed to employed. Her best friend (whom I met on Skype) is now pregnant and Esmi lost her dad, who was quite sick. Needless to say, we have had a lot to talk about.
A few weeks ago, Dennis and I realized we would be staying only a few hours from Grenoble, where Esmi lives, while on our vacation. When I told Esmi this, she mentioned we should try to get together! Esmi and her boyfriend Christopher recommended meeting in a small town between Megève and Grenoble, called Allevard, for a hike and a picnic.
She and Christopher came armed with ideas for manageable hikes for us to take with kids. The one they chose was beautiful, plus it had some historical interest. The area used to contain numerous iron mines, and the miners used mules to carry all the iron from the mountains back down to the town. We saw old mine shafts, cool old shelters, plus actual donkeys! We also saw a beautiful French horse having a conversation with a beautiful French cat, plus a flock of sheep guarded by an adorable sheepdog on an impossibly steep hillside.
Needless to say, it was a spectacularly fun day. The hike was very pretty and the foliage was bursting with color. We had such a lovely time hiking with Esméralda and Christopher. Esmi is sweet and wonderful, even more so in person than on-line. Her enthusiasm for all things is inspiring. She is patient and intelligent and open-minded and generous, but she is also fun and funny and loves to have a good time. She is smart and philosophical. She loves exploring and doing new things. The girls both fought over who got to sit next to Esmi in the car. Esmi has joie de vivre! It is contagious! I want to be more like her.
It was fun to spend the majority of a day with French people, though Esmi speaks excellent English. Christopher was extremely welcoming as well. He is very smart and knowledgeable, a biology student. He is 20! Needless to say I felt a tiny bit old (Dennis pointed out that he is closer in age to Lila than to us!). But Christopher is perhaps the most mature 20-year-old I have ever met, and I say this with my vast experience dealing with 20-year-olds! He was génial , and he and Esmi seem quite smitten with each other.
It was a splendid day, and we all spoke a lot of French. Even the girls! I liked how Esmi and Christopher would giggle every time Lila and Claudia would burst into a random French phrase. Esmi called the girls’ French accents “ élégant .” It was really a fun experience and the first day I had spent entirely with two French speakers!
I think it somewhat amazing that we have actually met in person, “en chair et en os” in Français, which means in the flesh and bone! I am guessing that this is somewhat rare for these international Skype exchanges. Esmi is coming to Paris later this month, to go to a concert and visit her brother. So I will get to see her again! Behold, the lovely Esmi!
As we were driving from Lyon to the Alps, we realized we would pass quite close to the Swiss border. Following on the success of our lunch in Italy, we detoured into Geneva for another lunch-in-foreign-country experience.
We walked around Geneva for a little while. Lila and Claudia fed the swans in Lake Geneva.
It was Sunday, so many shops and restaurants were closed. I did see two Starbucks in Geneva which were open and bursting with people. We finally found a restaurant which had cheesy Swiss decor (pun not intended, really!) but quite good food. None of us embraced the true Swiss experience by ordering the fondue for two. We ended up with a pretty great pizza, though, and the girls ordered Greek Salad of all things!
The Swiss, ever the non-joiners, don’t use the Euro so we had some problems with the machine in the parking garage. The bright side is, Swiss Francs look cool!
Now we are back in France, in a small mountain town called Megève. Stay tuned for a post about hiking with my incredible friend Esmi!
We are on vacation in Nice right now. Claudia wants you to know it is pronounced Nees. Nice is cool. It is on the Cote d’Azur. The water is soooo blue. Nice has a cool old city too. We think it looks like Florida because there are palm trees everywhere.
We got a bit tired of sightseeing. But Mom insisted on taking a picture of us anyway.
We love staying in hotels. Our hotel in Nice has a pool! It’s outside and has a retractable roof.
The pool is heated which is good because it is definitely not summer. You can even swim when it’s pouring rain, which we did on our first day in Nice. Dad and Mom like the hotel because it has jazz music on Wednesday and Friday nights.
The beach in Nice is very rocky. We put our feet in the Mediterranean Sea. Some people were swimming. It was cooooold!
One day we went to lunch in Italy! The town was called Ventimiglia. Dad and mom kept speaking French to the waiters which cracked Lila up because it was in Italy and the waiters were speaking Italian.
We ate pizza and pasta and tried to mooch cappuccino foam from Mom and Dad. And we had gelato, of course.
On the way back from Italy we went to Monte Carlo. We went on the train. It was fun being in three different countries in one day. France, Italy and Monaco, which is a tiny country with a lot of yachts.
Monte Carlo had a carnival! We got barbe à papa! Mom let us get a medium if we ordered all by ourselves in French of course. Barbe à papa is cotton candy. It means Papa’s beard. That’s funny.
In a few days we are going to the mountains. Maybe it will look like Vermont! We could see the Alps from Italy, and they have snow on the peaks.
Last night I went to a book signing by my favorite food blogger and Paris guru, David Lebovitz . Yes, the one with The List. I saw him on the street a week or two ago when I was at one of the bakeries on his list. I was with Sharon and Marcella but was too paralyzed to say anything to him at the time. So I decided I wasn’t going to miss this chance.
I thanked him for all his excellent recommendations and told him that my friend and I had been doing his list. He was nice and friendly, in that slightly awkward way as if you were forced to talk to 50-100 strangers about the same things over and over again.
The event was at the Sugarplum Bakery in the 5th. It had a very American feel to me or maybe it was just the 50 or so English-speaking-Lebovitz fans milling around. Or the “EAT MORE CAKE” sign on the wall. They served huge plates of brownies and chocolate chip cookies, and jelly jars full of chocolat chaud. I had two of the brownies and they were tasty. As would befit David L, though I am not sure he had time to eat anything with all that TALKING to FANS.
Already having read his book about Paris, I hesitated. I read it on my e-reader in the months before this trip (devoured it, actually, in about an hour!). But I needed to have a reason to chat with him! After devouring my two brownies, I caved and bought a copy so I could get it signed. I forgot to tell him that Sharon and I went around quoting his book everytime some Parisian scowled at or scolded us.
And here it is, my first autograph from what I think might very well be my first book signing with a semi-celebrity. Up next: first ride on the TGV!
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