It's getting cold in Paris.
The temperature today was aroud 2 degrees.
Erik put long johns on to go to the gym. We've had to turn the heat on overnight.
Then we realized that 2 degrees in Toronto would feel like a spring day. We might go to the gym in sweatshirts. We'd think that summer was on its way.
We're getting wimpy.
And if one more person tells me I should be used to it, I'm going to snap. Just cause I'm Canadian doesn't mean I like the cold.
Don't worry, we don't expect any sympathy. But if anyone is looking to escape the cold, may we suggest Paris? :)
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Sneaky Snackers
At Christmas I received as gifts a few small boxes of chocolate, one of which was in a pretty dish that I put by the television.
While Steve was visiting, he and Erik would often stay up watching sumo and drinking sake late into the night. Wasn't I surprised one morning to wake up to a kitchen table covered in chocolate wrappers and an empty candy dish. All I could say was: "you ate ALL my chocolates?" I guess I need to start watching more sumo, and I had obviously forgotten about the hold that chocolate has over Erik and his family :).
This morning I got a nice email from Joan, thanking us for the Christmas package that they finally received. She went on to mention that the box of chocolates that we had sent were delicious, and that Howard had really enjoyed them as well. So much so, apparently, that when Joan returned from work, all that was left was an empty box.
I always thought it was women who have a hard time controlling themselves around chocolate!
Maybe we should get Howard his own box next year?
(and this is still not nearly as sneaky as the squirrels that ate an entire box of chocolates that I sent to my mom a while back. Apparently, Ottawa squirrels have good taste :) )
While Steve was visiting, he and Erik would often stay up watching sumo and drinking sake late into the night. Wasn't I surprised one morning to wake up to a kitchen table covered in chocolate wrappers and an empty candy dish. All I could say was: "you ate ALL my chocolates?" I guess I need to start watching more sumo, and I had obviously forgotten about the hold that chocolate has over Erik and his family :).
This morning I got a nice email from Joan, thanking us for the Christmas package that they finally received. She went on to mention that the box of chocolates that we had sent were delicious, and that Howard had really enjoyed them as well. So much so, apparently, that when Joan returned from work, all that was left was an empty box.
I always thought it was women who have a hard time controlling themselves around chocolate!
Maybe we should get Howard his own box next year?
(and this is still not nearly as sneaky as the squirrels that ate an entire box of chocolates that I sent to my mom a while back. Apparently, Ottawa squirrels have good taste :) )
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Tang Frères
As I mentioned earlier, this afternoon we ventured into Chinatown, in the 13th arrondissement, just south of Place d'Italie.
We met Alex at the Tolbiac metro and headed to her favorite pho restaurant. After three delicious and satisfying bowls of soup, which Erik claimed might even be better than the pho at Pho Hung in Toronto, we continued on to do some shopping.
While Erik got sidetracked by a Vietnamese sandwich shop (apparently he was still hungry...), Alex and I poked around in the Asian version of Picard, a French store specializing in frozen prepared dishes. If only we had a freezer, I wouldn't have left empty handed. Next stop was a Chinese bakery, and Alex and I chose two treats, a coconut cake, and a sesame encrusted ball filled with yellow bean paste. Both were very yummy.
By the time we were finished our snacks, we had arrived. When we managed to make our way into the store, I was overwhelmed by the amount of people, and packaged noodles. Once we made our way out of the Mr Noodle section, and found baskets, the fun began. Every kind of Asian ingredient you could ever need was packed into this huge supermarket, which was absolutely teeming with people. Erik was quickly delegated the 'basket holder' as Alex and I threw in bottles of soy sauce, curry paste, lime leaves and bags of rice. Erik found his favorite curry paste, the Aroy-d green curry sauce that he used to pick up on Spadina, and was also pleasantly surprised by the beer selection, especially the Japanese beers that were 1.15 euros each (compared to the 5 euros that they cost at the Inno). The produce section contained whole aisles of greens that I have never heard of, and all sorts of exotic and scary looking fruits. There was a whole aisle of frozen Chinese dumplings (again, why don't we have a decent freezer???). I think the best deals were the boxes of coconut milk for 45 cents, the tubs of curry paste for 1.50euros and the kilogram bags of rice for 1.20 euros.
I've got a lot of Asian cooking to do now, and I'm inspired to find some new recipes to take advantage of all the yummy things we saw. Any ideas for persimmons? Or Asian greens?
Time Flies
It's been a busy couple of weeks, and I have to apologize for not posting recently. Our lives have gotten back into our regular routine, which I have to admit I quite enjoy. Work, gym, eat, tends to be the daily plan, although we do mix it up occasionally with the odd evening out.
Last weekend we went for drinks with Alex and Anja at the Quebec bar, l'Envol, that we had tried to visit while Steve was here. Erik and I enjoyed their hamburgers for dinner, and Erik was so hungry that he ordered the bucheron (lumberjack) sized burger, which was a whole 250g (cooked, we thought) of premium ground beef. Just the kind of sustenance that you need to fuel a good game of Scrabble en francais, and a rousing game of pick up sticks before running out to catch the last metro.
On Saturday, Alex and I hit the soldes. They started last Wednesday, so there was quite a large selection of goods still on hand. I picked up two new sweaters, a pair of shorts (tres francais) and a cute dress. We rounded out the day with hot chocolate, and a trip to the books department at the FNAC to pick up some French reading material (which of course I haven't cracked yet because I'm still working on French or Foe, then I have two weeks of Economists' to catch up on).
Erik and I both feel like our French is plateau-ing, and we really need to start making more of an effort to speak French regularly. I've almost completely stopped speaking French at the nursery school, which is good for the kids, but bad for my French. Erik at least has the benefit of the French post-docs in his lab to keep him up to speed on French slang. Perhaps more French movies are in order? We're also getting to the stage where we find ourselves speaking French English. There are lots of words that the French use, that don't really translate exactly to English, but tend to get used anyway by non-native speakers. Or sometimes there are just words that we think are funny. Like 'charging' the bar at the gym (to put weights on a bar). I guess the most common irritatingly overused word is to 'propose'. The French love to use this word in French, and although its English translation has the same meaning, it's not really used ever in the sense that it is used in French. We've now gotten into the habit of 'proposing' to go somewhere, instead of making a 'suggestion'.
This weekend took us back to the 11th arrondissement, to two favorite bars that we've been to before. One is a Martinique rum bar, Le Carbet, that serves delicious drinks, my favorite being the cilantro mojito. The other bar is one that we call the 'scary bathroom' bar, because, well, it has a scary bathroom. The bar is kind of like the owner's living room. A couple of tables squeezed into a tiny room. So tiny, that there isn't actually a bathroom in the place. You have to ask for the key, which used to include a flashlight, because the light used to be broken (we were impressed to discover that it has since been fixed). The bathroom is in the garbage room of the building next door, and the owner accompanies you to enter the door code. Now that I've written this all out, I'm not sure exactly why we find this so funny, but the drinks are cheap, and the atmosphere is warm and friendly. It will be weird to go back to North America where all public bathrooms are clean, have multiple stalls and sinks. What a novelty!
The only downside to trekking out to the 11th on a Friday night, is that if you miss the last metro around 12:30, you know the evening is only going to go downhill. It is almost impossible to get a cab in this city, taxi stands usually have queues at least 10 deep of people looking for a ride. We ended up walking for about 45 minutes all the way to Chatelet to catch the night bus. Luckily it isn't really cold right now, and Paris is so beautiful especially at night, that it's never too painful.
And today we are headed to Chinatown to check out their markets and enjoy a Vietnamese lunch with Alex. Paris has been enjoying some unseasonably warm temperatures lately, and apparently the mercury will drop 15 degrees in the next couple of days. Which I guess doesn't mean too much to all you Canadians since that will only take us to a chilly 0 degrees. I keep wondering why I'm so hot all the time, and it's because I'm dressing for the cold that hasn't arrived yet. And I love it. I'm encouraging Erik to apply for jobs in cities that have warm winters. We both admit that it's hard to remember exactly how cold the cold feels when it's 30 below, and to be honest, I'm not too keen to be reminded. Unfortunately for us, limiting his search to cities that don't get cold in Canada pretty much eliminates the entire country, short of the west coast. So, we're keeping our options (and our minds) open, and hopefully something will come up. I have to say that this city is growing on us though, and we wouldn't be disappointed at all to have to stay another year or two....
Last weekend we went for drinks with Alex and Anja at the Quebec bar, l'Envol, that we had tried to visit while Steve was here. Erik and I enjoyed their hamburgers for dinner, and Erik was so hungry that he ordered the bucheron (lumberjack) sized burger, which was a whole 250g (cooked, we thought) of premium ground beef. Just the kind of sustenance that you need to fuel a good game of Scrabble en francais, and a rousing game of pick up sticks before running out to catch the last metro.
On Saturday, Alex and I hit the soldes. They started last Wednesday, so there was quite a large selection of goods still on hand. I picked up two new sweaters, a pair of shorts (tres francais) and a cute dress. We rounded out the day with hot chocolate, and a trip to the books department at the FNAC to pick up some French reading material (which of course I haven't cracked yet because I'm still working on French or Foe, then I have two weeks of Economists' to catch up on).
Erik and I both feel like our French is plateau-ing, and we really need to start making more of an effort to speak French regularly. I've almost completely stopped speaking French at the nursery school, which is good for the kids, but bad for my French. Erik at least has the benefit of the French post-docs in his lab to keep him up to speed on French slang. Perhaps more French movies are in order? We're also getting to the stage where we find ourselves speaking French English. There are lots of words that the French use, that don't really translate exactly to English, but tend to get used anyway by non-native speakers. Or sometimes there are just words that we think are funny. Like 'charging' the bar at the gym (to put weights on a bar). I guess the most common irritatingly overused word is to 'propose'. The French love to use this word in French, and although its English translation has the same meaning, it's not really used ever in the sense that it is used in French. We've now gotten into the habit of 'proposing' to go somewhere, instead of making a 'suggestion'.
This weekend took us back to the 11th arrondissement, to two favorite bars that we've been to before. One is a Martinique rum bar, Le Carbet, that serves delicious drinks, my favorite being the cilantro mojito. The other bar is one that we call the 'scary bathroom' bar, because, well, it has a scary bathroom. The bar is kind of like the owner's living room. A couple of tables squeezed into a tiny room. So tiny, that there isn't actually a bathroom in the place. You have to ask for the key, which used to include a flashlight, because the light used to be broken (we were impressed to discover that it has since been fixed). The bathroom is in the garbage room of the building next door, and the owner accompanies you to enter the door code. Now that I've written this all out, I'm not sure exactly why we find this so funny, but the drinks are cheap, and the atmosphere is warm and friendly. It will be weird to go back to North America where all public bathrooms are clean, have multiple stalls and sinks. What a novelty!
The only downside to trekking out to the 11th on a Friday night, is that if you miss the last metro around 12:30, you know the evening is only going to go downhill. It is almost impossible to get a cab in this city, taxi stands usually have queues at least 10 deep of people looking for a ride. We ended up walking for about 45 minutes all the way to Chatelet to catch the night bus. Luckily it isn't really cold right now, and Paris is so beautiful especially at night, that it's never too painful.
And today we are headed to Chinatown to check out their markets and enjoy a Vietnamese lunch with Alex. Paris has been enjoying some unseasonably warm temperatures lately, and apparently the mercury will drop 15 degrees in the next couple of days. Which I guess doesn't mean too much to all you Canadians since that will only take us to a chilly 0 degrees. I keep wondering why I'm so hot all the time, and it's because I'm dressing for the cold that hasn't arrived yet. And I love it. I'm encouraging Erik to apply for jobs in cities that have warm winters. We both admit that it's hard to remember exactly how cold the cold feels when it's 30 below, and to be honest, I'm not too keen to be reminded. Unfortunately for us, limiting his search to cities that don't get cold in Canada pretty much eliminates the entire country, short of the west coast. So, we're keeping our options (and our minds) open, and hopefully something will come up. I have to say that this city is growing on us though, and we wouldn't be disappointed at all to have to stay another year or two....
An Italian Family Christmas
Well, the moment you've all been waiting for has finally arrived. Here are our pictures from our Italian Christmas. I have to admit that due to the amount of pictures that we have, and the fact that Imagestation makes them ridiculously tedious to organize, they are unfortunately out of order. That doesn't make them any less fun though. I can't believe it's been almost a month since we went. It was such a great trip, and everyone that we met was so wonderful. We can't wait to go back!
Also, you may find that some pictures load more slowly than others. We've combined the shots taken on three different cameras, and the pictures from one of the cameras are pretty large, and load much more slowly than the rest. Be patient, its worth the wait (and mom and dad, this might be a good time to upgrade to a non-dial up internet connection :) )
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Monday, January 08, 2007
Teasers
The Italian Family Christmas pictures are on their way. Until I have a chance to sort through them all, here are some highlights.
So good!
Eating, again! Gorgonzola, my favorite!
Margherita and Sara get things organized for Christmas Eve dinner
Family dinner in the kitchen.
And because we didn't eat enough during our stay, we stocked up on Italian goodies at the grocery store before we left.
We had such a great time in Novara, but I have to say, looking at some of these pictures makes my stomach hurt.
Steve leaves demain, and it's hard to believe that it's time to go back to work already.
And back to the gym.
Hope everyone had as good of a holiday as we did.
So good!
Eating, again! Gorgonzola, my favorite!
Margherita and Sara get things organized for Christmas Eve dinner
Family dinner in the kitchen.
And because we didn't eat enough during our stay, we stocked up on Italian goodies at the grocery store before we left.
We had such a great time in Novara, but I have to say, looking at some of these pictures makes my stomach hurt.
Steve leaves demain, and it's hard to believe that it's time to go back to work already.
And back to the gym.
Hope everyone had as good of a holiday as we did.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Carte de Sejour
Nothing gets your day started like a healthy dose of French bureaucracy.
Today was the day that I got to go and do my medical (probably the third one that I've have for various non-medical reasons since we arrived. You'd think there'd be some centralized system to tell everyone that I've been vaccinated, have good teeth and can see). My appointment was scheduled for 9:30 am. When I showed up fifteen minutes early, there were probably about 75 people also waiting for medical exams.
Chairs were a hot commodity in that waiting room.
I waited in the first room for fifteen minutes before being herded into the next level of waiting. Where I waited for another thirty minutes.
Once things got started, I realized what the hold up was. The doctors (about four of them) were more interested in talking to each other than actually seeing people. The first screening was in a room with other people, and I literally stood in the middle of the room for five minutes twiddling my thumbs while the woman dealing with me had a loud conversation across the room with another doctor. Things ran a bit more smoothly after that, I got a chest x-ray, then a quick chat with a real doctor (who suggested homeopathy and qui gonn for my blood pressure, which was a lovely 170/110 this morning. I was certainly not relaxed).
When I finally got the letter saying I was ok, they inform me that I need to go and buy 220 euros worth of 'stamps' before I can get my card. They had a sent me a letter telling me this, but because they refuse to use my new last name, it got sent back to them. So, off I went on the next stage of this scavenger hunt. The stamps had to be purchased at a tabac across the street (seriously, I thought they were joking). Then I had to wait in another line to actually pick up the card. When I got the card, I asked the woman why they keep using my maiden name.
"Its according to your passport" she told me rudely.
Which I would hope it would be, but my maiden name isn't mentioned anywhere in my passport. Which I told them. She proceeds to flip through my file, and points out snarkely (is that a word?) "see, here you wrote your nom de jeune fille."
"Well, of course I did. It says to write your nom de jeune fille. " I replied.
At this point she got all huffy, and asked why I was so mad about it, which I wasn't. I was more curious as to why I would have a visa in a name that isn't on my passport. When she was tired of talking to me, she said "c'est termine. Bonne journee," and moved onto the next person.
So. I can work. I'm 220 euros poorer. And I have been reminded yet again about how poorly organized, unhelpful and downright unfriendly people here can be.
I do get to keep the chest x-ray though. Pretty cool, isn't it?
On a more positive note, today is Steve's 29th birthday. We're making Italian pizza (well, the boys are).
And here are some pictures of the boys in the new socks that they bought yesterday. Guess they didn't realize they would all be knee socks.
Monday, January 01, 2007
Happy New Year!
After arriving back in Paris on Sunday morning with only a few minutes of sleep under our belts, we (I) got set figuring out what we were going to do for New Years. The original plan had been for the boys to do their seafood extravaganza, a tradition that they started last year. However, both Erik and Steve promptly fell asleep once they made sure the champagne was in the fridge, and I, always being focused on food, decided to take it upon myself to tackle the Inno right away in case it was closing early (it was special that it was open yesterday, being a Sunday and all).
Moules frites were on the menu, and whatever else could be scrounged up for a seafood platter. And Alex and I were making crepes. I picked up the necessities, which included two kilos of Spanish mussels, and a kilo of scary looking cooked shrimp, complete with heads and feelers. Luckily the boys were ready to help by the time I got home, and they nicely took care of cleaning up the mussels, which were pretty gross initially. But apparently only wild mussels have beards, and they were packed with a load of seaweed, so I guess it's a good sign that they were so messy? Aside from a bit of chopping, all the food came together easily. We used the Barefoot Contessa again, and her recipe for moules was easy and delicious. The frites were the frozen kind, and maybe I would have tried making the real deal if I hadn't slept on an airport floor the night before. The shrimp were ready to serve after a quick rinse, and I made a sauce out of mayonnaise and mustard to dip them in. Steve had also brought some mochi from Japan, which is a traditional Japanese rice cake eaten on New Years, so we toasted some of them and enjoyed them with nori and soy sauce.
And because all that wasn't enough, and our stomachs have been stretched to a ridiculous size in Italy, we had a cheese course, and cautiously sampled some of the Gorgonzola that we brought back from Novara. I say cautiously because the cheese ended up going unrefrigerated for much longer than intended on our trip home. But nobody seems to be sick, so we might enjoy some more today.
Dessert was crepes that Alex whipped up using the recipe from the Williams Sonoma Paris book, and we served them with a choice of fillings: Nutella (of course), honey, or sugar. Alex had also made chocolate mousse, that was to die for. At midnight we opened our last bottle of Champagne, and watched the Eiffel tower from our window. We were hoping to see some fireworks, but they weren't going high enough for us to catch a glimpse.
All in all, it was a lovely evening, complete with good friends, good Champagne, and good food. What more can a girl ask for?
Well, maybe sleep, and was our bed ever comfortable last night!
Moules frites were on the menu, and whatever else could be scrounged up for a seafood platter. And Alex and I were making crepes. I picked up the necessities, which included two kilos of Spanish mussels, and a kilo of scary looking cooked shrimp, complete with heads and feelers. Luckily the boys were ready to help by the time I got home, and they nicely took care of cleaning up the mussels, which were pretty gross initially. But apparently only wild mussels have beards, and they were packed with a load of seaweed, so I guess it's a good sign that they were so messy? Aside from a bit of chopping, all the food came together easily. We used the Barefoot Contessa again, and her recipe for moules was easy and delicious. The frites were the frozen kind, and maybe I would have tried making the real deal if I hadn't slept on an airport floor the night before. The shrimp were ready to serve after a quick rinse, and I made a sauce out of mayonnaise and mustard to dip them in. Steve had also brought some mochi from Japan, which is a traditional Japanese rice cake eaten on New Years, so we toasted some of them and enjoyed them with nori and soy sauce.
And because all that wasn't enough, and our stomachs have been stretched to a ridiculous size in Italy, we had a cheese course, and cautiously sampled some of the Gorgonzola that we brought back from Novara. I say cautiously because the cheese ended up going unrefrigerated for much longer than intended on our trip home. But nobody seems to be sick, so we might enjoy some more today.
Dessert was crepes that Alex whipped up using the recipe from the Williams Sonoma Paris book, and we served them with a choice of fillings: Nutella (of course), honey, or sugar. Alex had also made chocolate mousse, that was to die for. At midnight we opened our last bottle of Champagne, and watched the Eiffel tower from our window. We were hoping to see some fireworks, but they weren't going high enough for us to catch a glimpse.
All in all, it was a lovely evening, complete with good friends, good Champagne, and good food. What more can a girl ask for?
Well, maybe sleep, and was our bed ever comfortable last night!
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