Barbados

Well, we're back to good old grey Paris. We were worried about our connection through New York on Tuesday evening, as JFK had been closed for the two previous days due to the blizzard (we got stuck in the snow in both directions. What luck!). There was an American Airlines agent waiting for us when we got off the plane--our flight from Barbados was late arriving due to the backlog of flights trying to land--and he rushed us through customs and security. We got one back checked through but decided not to wait for the second, and sprinted through the airport--literally, we were puffing, Erik's shoes still untied from security--only to find out that our next flight was also delayed. Enough time for a drink, and then we sat on the runway on that plane for another hour before leaving. The good news is of course that we made the flight, we were worried that if we missed it we would be stuck for a couple of days, and the plus side of the delay was the the second bag made the flight too, a nice surprise to see it come round the baggage carrier at Roissy. One of the first bags, so I imagine it was one of the last ones on!

Anyway, it's always good to be home, although Erik and I think our apartment building could really benefit from a pool in the courtyard. And of course more sun to go with it. I still have lots to say about this trip, but in the mean time, I've posted some photos on Facebook for you to peruse.

Can't believe it's the end of the year already! Do I really have to go back to work on Monday?

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Paradise

After a couple of snowy hours in the Paris airport watching the snow come down, and two delays to our departure time we finally left Charles de Gaulle airport on our way to Barbados. 24 hours of traveling later (literally-Erik's alarm clock from the day before went off as we stood in line to clear customs in Bridgetown) all the snow was but a distant memory, and we very quickly found ourselves our way to the beach.


Not the best picture, but it is literally the next one on the camera after the snow.



It didn't take long for us to get used to this stress-free way of life, and begin wondering why we hadn't come down sooner.



We drove up to the most northern part of the island the other day and saw some impressive cliffs.



And then we spent some more time at the beach. The beaches are BEAUTIFUL, and I, the one who never thought I would enjoy a beach vacation, am literally in heaven. I've never seen water so turquoise, the beaches are clean, the people are friendly, and so far, the flying fish has been delicious.

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season, we wish you were here!

Winter Wonderland

It's been snowing A LOT here in Paris lately. In the five years that we've been here, I've never seen so much snow, and never so early in the season.

I took the first picture a couple of weeks ago when it first snowed. I was amazed at the amount that was on the ground. (can you even see it? I'm pretty sure I had to zoom to be able to see the white.)



Turns out that was nothing compared to what has come down today (the snow never sticks around). It started snowing around noon today, and it's still going strong.



These last two pictures we taken about two hours apart from our kitchen window, and you can really see how much it has piled up. The roads are a mess, and I had to laugh at the little screen in the metro that tells you about any service problems: this afternoon it was announcing that bus service was quite delayed. And like a good Parisian I battled the snow with shoes and an umbrella. Not quite ideal, but I made it home in one piece. Now I wonder how many people will be at the gym tonight?

Alex and Antonio's Visit

We had two lovely Swiss house-guests this weekend.

Alex and Antonio arrived on Friday, and they brought snow with them. How kind! It snowed for about 20 minutes on Friday afternoon, and for about 10 minutes the scene outside my classroom window was a winter wonderland. Then, what little snow had stuck to the trees melted, and all that was left were freezing cold temperatures.

Their presence warmed things up, and we had a lovely dinner at Le Baratin on Friday, where Erik tasted 'les cervelles' for the first time.



On Saturday we wandered through the Christmas market at Nation, and admired the recently restored towers at the place du Trone.

After a yummy and spicy Chinese food lunch, Alex and I headed to the Petit Palais to see the Yves St Laurent exposition.



Unfortunately we were about three months too late. Luckily the permanent collection is free, so we wandered around that, and were happy to discover that there is a beautiful garden in the courtyard of the palais, and a cafe with a terrasse looking out, that we are already planning to visit when it warms up.



Then we walked through the crowded Christmas market on the Champs Elysees, and decided to warm up with hot chocolate at the famous Angelina. The line up to get in was literally out the door and around the corner, so we opted for the much quicker 'take out' version, which was really very good. (Karina, I think you should come visit so we can do a proper hot chocolate tasting....)



Back up to the Marais, we did some shopping before meeting up with Antonio for a drink at a cozy bar, and dinner at the Rendez-vous des Amis, a place we haven't been in a long time, and were happy to discover was still as good as we remembered.

This morning we marketed, then wandered along the canal St. Martin before escaping the cold in a cute little Irish pub. One that we were pretty sure was actually Irish! Then it was back to the Gare de l'est, so our guests could get their train back to Basel. As always it was great to see them, and I'm still trying to convince Alex that she should move back to Paris. The city is always more fun when she is here.

Smart Food

We went out for dinner on Friday night at our new favorite restaurant, and Erik decided to try one of the few things left on his 'disgusting things that the French actually eat' list.

Can you guess what it was?

Giving Thanks

We had a lovely American Thanksgiving dinner last night with some friends from the American School. Turkey (well, chicken) with all the trimmings. I made the pumpkin pie for dessert.



Didn't get a shot of the full plate, but there didn't seem to be a lot of scraps left for the dog.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Danke shun!

It will be a good thing when I go back to work on Thursday, because all this holiday time has become a lot of baking/eating time.

I've been wanting to try this recipe for a couple of weeks now, and just haven't gotten around to it. A chance discovery of gros sel at the grocery store prompted me to start making pretzels at 6:00pm, instead of going to the gym.

I think I made the right choice.



We ate them for dessert (after leftovers of the meat hand), but that didn't stop us from polishing off four. They were so good. Just like the ones that I always get Erik to bring back from Germany.

Guten appetit!

Meat Hand

We had a special Halloween themed dinner tonight.

Inspired by these two bloggers, I decided that we would be making meat hand for dinner.



It was delicious.



We gave it one thumb up.



I don't really know what to say, other than that it is meatloaf shaped into a hand and baked until delicious. Erik took the time to carefully craft finger nails and a wrist bone out of potato. It's definitely the weirdest thing that has ever come out of our kitchen, but I'm hoping it will become a Halloween tradition.



To accompany the hand, we roasted these cute little potimarron squash.



And we'll be eating this applesauce cake for dessert as soon as I finish this post. The icing is delicious, and the cake smells great, so I assume it will be a hit.

Edited to add that the cake was in fact delicious, and that it was well worth unwrapping the 12 squares of Kiri cheese to make the cream cheese icing. You should make it now!

Sunday at the Cemetary

It's Halloween, and we live near Pere Lachaise, and we needed to walk off an exceptionally bad Chinese lunch.



You can't really tell from these photos, but the leaves are changing, and it was quite pretty. Not as impressive as the changing leaves in Canada I'm sure, but we'll take what we can get.



Last night we went out with Julia and her friend to Ave Maria, a Mexican bar near Oberkampf. They were having a Halloween party (or maybe a Day of the Dead party?), and there was a live mariachi band, and frozen margaritas. What more could we want?




Public service announcement: Daylight savings time ended here today, so for the rest of the week we are officially an hour less ahead of North America. It's not even 7 and it's already dark... :(

Louvred

It's school holiday time for me, and I've decided to play Parisian tourist for the week. I have to admit I've been a bit lazy about it, and went to Ikea on Tuesday with Julia, which I doubt any self respecting tourist would do. But we needed wine glasses, and I was looking forward to a visit without the crowds, so that took care of Tuesday.

Ever since Steve and Yoshimi visited this summer and spoke so highly of their visit to one of the world's most famous museums, I've been wanting to go back. I haven't been to the Louvre in years, having been very quickly intimidated by it's size.



This time, again hoping to avoid crowds by going in the middle of the week (probably not possible during considering that it's a major tourist attraction on a school holiday) Julia and I fortified ourselves with lunch first on the rue St. Honore before braving the masses inside the Louvre.



Geared up with audio guides, we followed the masterpieces tour which took us to the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory, and of course the Mona Lisa. We also went through the Grande Gallerie to admire the paintings by da Vinci and Raphael, before spending a good moment admiring the Greek sculptures.



It was quite satisfying, and I felt very cultured, if also exhausted at the end of the visit. I would have also liked to do the French Collection tour, but at three hours, I thought I'd save that for the next visit.

Strike, Blogs and Recipes

Steve jokinging-ly implied that we were too busy striking to blog, and while that's not exactly true, don't you wish you were in France right now? Tuesday was the official start to the 'unlimited' strike, but by Wednesday the metro had more or less returned to normal. I don't have any connections to get to work, just one long train ride, which means that I don't usually have any problems (knock on wood). Erik was however takes the RER B to work, and it always strikes first and the longest. It kept up the fun all week. My favorite slogan for this whole strike has been 'greve jusqu'a la retraite' which means strike until retirement. Fun. It will be interesting to see how this mess pans out, but until then, I think we can anticipate some more crowdy metro trains.

~~~

Speaking of Steve, he and Yosimi have recently moved to Canada, and Yoshimi has started her own blog over at yoshimiandsteve.blogspot.com. It's in Japanese and English, but Yoshimi takes great pictures, so you shouldn't have any trouble following along.

~~~

In other exciting news, life around here has been pretty straightforward. I've been cooking a lot on weekends, so instead of boring you any more with the mundane details of our daily lives, I thought I'd leave you with some links to the tasty stuff we've been eating.

I made this Pumpkin Olive Oil cake this morning to use up the pumpkin left from pie making last weekend. Yummy!

Along the same lines, I made this delicious Zucchini Cake a couple of weeks ago, and keep looking for excuses to make it again.

We had this mushroom lasagna for dinner last Sunday and it was a very satisfying meal, and we're looking forward to pulling the leftovers out of the freezer soon.

Happy cooking!

Chateauneuf du Pape and the Last Day in Avignon

On our second last day we drove down to Chateauneuf du Pape to taste some of the more famous wines of the region. The town was charming, and well prepared for wine tourists. Armed with a map from the tourist office, we visited probably 7 or 8 different houses.



We took a break for a picnic lunch and visited the chateau neuf, which wasn't looking so new anymore.



We just couldn't escape from the great views!




So much wine!

Our last day in Avignon started at the local market where we decided to buy a picnic lunch to enjoy on the island across the Rhone.


Erik and I joined the locals for a glass of wine inside the market. Steve and Yoshimi thought that 11am was too early, but that didn't seem to be stopping anyone!



Boarding the water shuttle to take us to picnic land. It was HOT this day, and after lunch and a nap we wandered down to a little cafe on the edge of the water for cool drinks. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the musee du Palais enjoying religious art and sculpture. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant before racing to get our train back to Paris. After a nice nap on the train, we rolled into Gare de Lyon at 2am on a Sunday night, well after the end of the metro service. A full TGV full of people headed straight for the taxi queue, and there didn't seem to be any taxis. We ended up walking almost all the way home with our suitcases, it wasn't until we got close to the place de Nation that we were finally able to get a cab to stop for us. A very unpleasant end to our four wonderful days in the south of France.

Avignon: Ready for More?

After leaving the charming village of Mirmande, we drove back down the Rhone river in search of castles. We stopped at these ruins, and had the pleasure of having them all to ourselves because we happened to arrive around lunch time.



It was quite a hike all the way to the top, and we were all wearing the wrong kind of footwear, but we were rewarded with incredible views of the valley.











The disadvantage of visiting over lunch time was that by the time we were done we were starving and couldn't find a restaurant that was open.


Did I mention that our rental car was a beamer? Driving wasn't such a chore after all :)

Back to School

I've been back at school for two weeks now, and things are still going well. The kids are getting used to me, and to being back to school, which is a nice way of saying that they are perhaps not always as sweet as I initially thought. But I still have no complaints. I'm also enjoying my half days on Wednesdays, it's nice to have a bit of a break in the middle of the week, and certainly makes the week move along more quickly.




We've been out for dinner twice this week, on Tuesday with Julia and Thomas and again last night with Anja, who managed to sneak out for a quick dinner break at 9:30pm before going back to work. It's two weeks before Paris Fashion Week, and that means non-stop work for Anja as her employer gets ready for the show. We had a great little meal in a cute restaurant on rue Cherche Midi in Montparnasse, not far from where we used to live (our old neighbourhood was so pretty!). The waiter was charming, and we realized that it had been a while since we had a good, unpretentious meal, with good service, and great company. We hadn't seen Anja since before we went to Russia, so we had lots of catching up to do.