This pretty much sums it up

Happy Canada Day!

I wish I could say that we spent the day celebrating the Dominion of our great country, but in reality, we spent the day shopping. Which was quite satisfying.

We did celebrate at dinner by opening a magnum of champagne. Well, I guess you could say it opened itself. Daryl took the wire cage off and the cork exploded out of the bottle followed by a rush of delicious, delicious champagne. We hope Daryl and Nancy don't get stopped at customs, they might be red flagged now that their luggage has been saturated with bubbly (it spilled all over the floor!). I guess that counts as fireworks?

Speaking of fireworks, there may be some tonight. Who knows. France is playing Brazil, and I'm sure all hell will break loose regardless of the outcome.

That's it for now, hope everyone is enjoying the holiday.

PS. Had to add, now that we've opened the second bottle of the night. This PS is more of a 'Public Service' announcement. We've now deduced that hot champagne is highly pressurized. You'd think we would have figured that out after bottle number one. Unfortunately, we had to spill a second all over the floor to finally get the message. Duh.

PPS. One of the disadvantages of visiting Champagne is that you become accostomed to drinking champagne that you probably can't afford to drink on a regular basis. It's been a bit of a shock getting back to reality.

26 kinds of Champagne.
4 days.
Some said it couldn't be done.
We proved them wrong.

Break out the bubbly!

We're leaving in a couple of hours for Reims, Champagne capital of France!

I hear there's some nice churches there...

See you in a couple of days.

Erik's other career....

Had a good laugh after finding this headline in my news inbox.

Blues take Erik Johnson No. 1

Allez les bleus!

My fitness class was cancelled tonight. Because of the 'match de foot'. France just scored and the city went crazy. Erik ate dinner with his head craned around to see the tv. Ahh...football.

I'm not complaining.

They scored again. I guess that means they're moving on...

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Other funny things that have happened this week:
-Daryl ordered a Hoegarten last night at dinner and got a Long Island Iced Tea.
-Erik ordered the cheese course at dinner on Tuesday. It was a full wheel of raw milk camenbert. About halfway through the wheel, Erik asked the waiter if he was expected to eat the whole thing (it was quite delicious!). The waiter couldn't stop laughing! When he cleared our dessert plates, Erik's plate was put on the counter next to someone elses. They had only a tiny wedge. Not too bad for someone who once claimed to be lactose intolerant!

That's it for now. Tomorrow is my last Saturday! I can't wait. Although I need to spend this weekend planning for the camp that starts in two weeks. Any ideas of things I can do with 13year olds that are related to American Culture? I feel like I don't have any good ideas...

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

La fete de la musique--or, the longest day of the year.

Before I spill the beans, here are some good guesses from mom...
Guess number 2- You came home from shopping to find that your appt. was being fumigated, so you ate in the hall

Guess number 3-It was 45 degrees celsius in your appt, and only 30 in the hall, so you decided to eat there.

Guess number 4- you wanted to picnic, but it was raining outside and the hall was the alternative "out of the appt" location.

Guess number 5- the mess in the appt was beyond eating around, so like the Mad Hatter, you changed locations

Guess number 6- when you went into your appt to eat lunch, there was a rat/bat already waiting for the party to start, so you ate in the hall before doing pest control.

So, yup, we locked the keys in the house. Just as the door closed behind me as we were leaving last night, I realized I hadn't picked up my keys. Unfortunately, no one had picked up the other set of keys either. After trying to find our landlady for about an hour, we realized that we actually couldn't leave the building, or we wouldn't be able to get back in. Luckily, we had a picnic in hand, as we were supposed to head over to Zoes to eat before enjoying the Fete de la musique. So, Nancy and I headed out to the grocery store to pick up some essentials like a bottle opener, a knife, more wine, more bread, etc. and after returning to our building, we parked ourselves outside our elevator and enjoyed a delicious meal.


Nancy had smartly noticed that the Inno closed at 9:50, so as we approached the bottom of bottle number two around 9:30, we set out again for more sustinance in the form of wine and chocolate. When we returned, the reality of not getting back into the apartment tonight was starting to weigh on us. One of the residents who had helped us initially, also gave us the number for the serrerier, or locksmith. We made the call around 10:00 just to find out how much it would cost. For the low price of 180euros, someone would come to our place and open the door. We told them we'd call them back if we needed them. However, weren't we surprised when someone got off the elevator on our floor saying he was here to open our door. Great. He tried for about three minutes with some special paper before deciding that he couldn't open our door. Well, he could, but it would involve drilling a hole in the door (same price) or breaking the lock (800euros). We decided to keep waiting for the landlady. We were not impressed that he then told us we had to pay for his time. I mean, we told the company we didn't want anyone to come yet. After a heated phone call with them, and another heated argument with the guy, we forked over 21euros and he left.

Here he his working his magic.

Then Erik and Daryl decided to try to open the door with a Rogers video card.

It didn't work either.

So, we finally start thinking about hotels (Nancy was all for stretching out on the floor right there in the hallway). Erik made one last phone call to our landlady, and she answered! I have never been so relieved! We finished off the night with the bottle of champagne that Nancy and Daryl had bought, and fell asleep to the sounds of the music on the street.

Wait till you hear about our night....

Here's a teaser picture for you....try and guess what we did....

Ack! Long time no post...

Sorry about the lack of blogging...we've been kind of busy around here, for no particular reason.

Here are some highlights:

• We helped Zoe move yesterday from her awesome house in Villejuif to her even awesomer new apartment in the Marais. We ate dinner afterwards at L'As de Falafel, and Erik and I are officially jealous of her new neighbourhood. It's awesome. I have also decided that I am never moving with furniture again! I am still impressed at how awesome Zoe's move was. Her new place is on the 5th (so 6th for all you North Americans) floor of a super old building and there's no elevator. I thought it was going to be pretty bad, but the whole thing, from Villejuif to being finished was maybe two hours tops. We each took three trips up with stuff, and it was done! It wasn't nearly as hard as I was expecting it to be.
  
• Our building had a party on Tuesday night. I won't write too much about it because Erik took some pictures, and it really could be it's own post, but it was really nice to meet the other residents.
  
• We said goodbye to Hilary on Monday night. She is our Australian friend who was here studying French, and left on Tuesday to travel around Europe. We sent her off in good Canadian style with another well recieved pancake night. (Hilary lived in the apartment that Zoe moved into). At our pancake party we discovered that Hilary's (now Zoe's) roommate has done the Shikoku-no-michi! What a small world! Didn't get too much info from her because I was busy flipping pancakes, but I'm looking forward to finding out more, and now I REALLY want to do it!
• Zoe and I have been trying to figure out a way to keep Pam here all summer. And Alex and I are working on convincing Zoe to stay longer. It's hard to believe she's thinking about leaving in the fall!
• It was sooooo hot at the beginning of the week. It's when it gets above 30 that you really realize that NOTHING is air conditioned. I think I will be spending a lot of time in the frozen food section of the Inno...
  
• Only one more week of school! Woohoo!
  

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Does this make us European?

Tonight, we ate dinner at 10:45. We both really wanted to go to the gym, and the class I took ended at 9:30, but it wasn't like we could have eaten before either...we both got home around 7:30 and headed out almost right away. When we first got to Paris, it used to drive me nuts that dinner time was so late. Now I can't figure out how we could possibly eat any earlier. I think about going to the grocery store around 5:00 now, and we rarely eat before 8:00. It will be interesting to see what happens to these habits once we get back to Canada...

**********************
Here come the visitors!

As I write this, Nancy and Daryl are on their way across the ocean to visit us! Can't wait to see them, and we are looking forward to visiting Champagne with them the last week in June.

**********************
Alrighty, I think that's it for now. I have been horrible at responding to emails lately, and I apologize.

Mom, how are the parties going? How many days till you're free? I loved the photos that Rob sent, they look great!
Joan, thanks for the postcards and the pamphlet, they arrived today. And also thanks for the 10 month congratulations. Can you believe it's been almost a year?
Steve, guess what's coming to Paris in September???? Erik donned a scarf mawashi and stolled around Paris throwing salt into traffic circles when he found out....
Melissa, the pictures of Noah are too cute, and I can't believe you're moving!!
Karina, we loved looking at your pictures. When are you coming back???

Ok. Now I really need to go to sleep.

Hope everyone is well, we'll talk soon.
E+T

Website? Website!

After almost 10 months of neglect, the website is alive!

We've figured out enough to be able to post picture galleries - not much but it's a start. We'll keep adding pictures as we go, so check back occasionally to see what's new (follow the France link at the top of the page)

Let the procrastination begin!!!

Yup, it's that time of year again. The best part about being a teacher. I know you're all jealous....it's report card time! Woohoo!

I'm hoping to make a good dent in them tonight (wild and crazy Saturday night, here I come!), so for now, I'll leave you with an article that Erik just found.

The sky's the limit

Kind of scary. Makes me feel a wee bit guilty for all the travelling I want to do...

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend. The sun has finally come out here and it is H-O-T! Love it!

A-choo!

Well, it's been a bit of slow week around here.

Erik is officially sick, and even went to the doctor, and will hopefully write about that when he's feeling up to it. I'm feeling less than 100%, as a result of Pam, staff meetings, wild kids, report cards, and someone coughing through the night...

So, you haven't missed much, and I'm sorry we've been a bit out of touch.

It's finally nice out though! (nice enough for a 'mouvement sociale' by RATP on my metro lines today. After waiting 15 minutes on line 9 for my train, I walked home). Although I'm still carting my umbrella around, I'm almost ready to risk saying that it's summer...

Maybe it's not such a great holiday after all?

French split over former holiday?

(in a recent attempt to stay more up to date with the news, I've figured out how to get BBC and CBC articles sent directly to my inbox. Problem now is that I get about 50 updates per day from the BBC alone. I've got 130 right now to go through from the weekend. This was a highlight. Back to work [at least I have the day off...] )

Guess who's in town?

Flash Slideshow

La vie est dur

So, in case you were worn out from your extended four day weekend this past weekend, not to worry, there is yet ANOTHER holiday coming up. On Monday.

Pentecoste.

Don't know what it is, but I'm getting the feeling that people like to take their holidays...

(again, all you religious fanatics out there, Erik and I would love to know what this one is about too. We figured it's when he comes back down from heaven to check up on his homies. Which means there should be another holiday after that for him to go back, non?)

Erik and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

I woke up tired this morning. I didn't sleep well because I ate too much at the BBQ yesterday.

It rained on my way up the stairs to school, and I didn't have my umbrella.

When I got to school, the meeting that was supposed to start at 9:30 and last 40 minutes started at 10:00 and lasted two hours. And the room was freezing!

Everyone in the lab is at a conference in Nice, where it's 30C. It's cold and rainy here today.

The salad that I brought for lunch today opened up in my bag and spilled dressing everywhere.

I dropped pepperoni from my replacement lunch pizza down the front of my white shirt.

The automatic lights turned out while I was going to the bathroom.

The NSERC office lost both copies of the application form I sent for the next installment of my fellowship. I can't send another one until next week because they have (had) the original and Pere needs to sign it.

The oven broke (again) while dinner was cooking.

AND when I was putting hot sauce on my pizza for dinner, it came out too fast and my pizza was too spicy.

I have to wear my railroad pyjamas to bed tonight. And I hate railroads!

I think I'll move to Nice.

Torie says everyone has bad days.

Even in Nice.


**inspired by one of Torie's favorite stories, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, by Judith Viorst.

I've added an update to our Enlightenment post. Thanks Howard and Mom for helping us figure out this holy day.

Our Victoria Day Celebrations

Here are some pictures from our Sunday afternoon at the Jardin des Tuileries.


Enjoying the sun.


A posed action shot of Erik returning from the snack stand with beer and ice cream.


Enjoying the beer.


Enjoying the scenery


And of course, a painted cow. Why not?

Expensive Dinner

Totally worth every penny.

Ok. Where to start.

We started off our evening with drinks at a new place, les Nemrods, on rue Cherche Midi. From there we headed off in search of another satisfying place in our neighbourhood. Unfortunately, because of the holiday, it seemed like many places were closed, and we ended up doing a large loop around the 6th arrondissement, before ending up almost back at our house.

At this point, I also had to go to the washroom quite badly. We decided to just go to the first place we had origially thought of going to, and walked past, only to realize that it was of course, closed. Next option, the restaurant across the street, the Fleur de Sel. Looked a bit touristy, and there was only one table of guests inside, so Erik convinced me to check out one more place a couple of buildings down. Looked cute, and it had a bathroom, so in we went.

What an interesting place.

My first thought once we sat down and glanced at the menu was "this is NOT the kind of place we were looking for." Glancing at the decor, we tried to figure out what kind of restuarant this was. Antique hat boxes on one side. Paintings of naked women on the other. An old pump organ in the back. The menu seemed to consist almost entirely of caviar, foie gras and smoked fish.

The owner, however, was super friendly. And we were the only table in the place, so he had lots of time for us.

Turns out there were also some specials on offer, which he explained to us, and described the kinds of foie gras that they were offering. We decided to each order different things, and told the owner that we were going to share everything. We started with a torchon of foie gras which ended up being a sample place with a slice of the torchon, and a slice of red wine foie gras and the terrine St. Jaques. Our main course was grilled tuna with garlic mashed potatoes and an African chicken dish served with rice. Dessert was the most delicious soft centred chocolate cake and sliced pineapple with mango sorbet.

The meal got off to a great start with our apperitifs. Erik had a fantastic glass of port, and I had the most delicious Kir that I've ever had. When the entrees came out, the owner recommended that we eat the foie gras first, and try it with a bit of fleur de sel, then eat the terrine second. The foie gras was delicious. Nice and smooth, a very delicate taste, very simple, and nicely accented by the fleur de sel. The salt that we added also added a nice crunch. The terrine was also fantastic. A more complex dish, but no less tasty, and we were glad that he had told us to eat the foie gras first, because it would have tasted quite bland after the terrine.

The main courses came out next, and were fantastic. Erik had asked for the tuna to be sanguine, or just seared on the outside. Again, the owner recommended eating the tuna first, the chicken second. The tuna was perfectly cooked, and we again sprinkled it with fleur de sel, wich added a nice amount of saltiness, and a great crunch. The chicken dish was also great. An interesting kind of chicken stew/curry, with a mild flavour and creamy sauce. There was some kind of unusual vegetable in it, but we can't remember what it was called.

With all of this, we drank a 2001 Chilean wine, which the owner recommended, and just to be sure, he had us taste the Chilean one, and another one he thought we might like. I remember thinking that it was a large bottle, but didn't think much of it until I noticed later on in the meal that it was a big bottle...100cl. Ah well, it was a long meal, and it was some darn good wine.

In between the main course and dessert, a gentleman came in. Turns out he owned the restaurant on the corner that we almost went to, the Fleur de Sel. Which led to an extensive conversation about this salt, why it is special, and how it is harvested. He proceeded to recommend that we go and visit this town on the west coast of France, Guerlande, and drew us a map of France indicating where this town is, along with two other places nearby that are nice to visit.

Dessert came, and was fantastic. He said the chocolate was the specialty, but I'm not a huge chocolate dessert fan, so I had the pineapple instead. The chocolate cake was in fact amazing, and it was a good thing Erik decided to get one or we would have missed out. The pineapple was also delicious, and a very light and refreshing way to end the meal.

After dessert, owner #2 got into a discussion with us about American politics, he was interested to know how all of that affected Canada. Finally the bill came (whoops, a bit more than we had planned on spending...) and we learned that there is an expression in French for when things are expensive...you say they are 'sale' or salty. He then wanted to know the equivalent expression in English, but we couldn't come up with anything...

Anyway, it was a fantastic meal, and as I'm writing this I want to go back and have some more tuna, and maybe that chocolate cake. It was just SOOOOOOO GOOOOOOD!

It's on our list, so if you're coming to visit, we highly recommend it!

Les Colocks
131, rue du Cherche Midi 75015 PARIS

Enlightenment Needed

So, the holiday on Thursday is Ascension (the things you learn at the grocery store...).

Erik has given me a bare bones explanation, but, as my religious knowldedge is extremely limited, I still have some more questions.

Here's what I know:

• May 25 is the day Jesus 'ascends' to Heaven
• That's about it.

Here are my questions:

• Why May 25? Why is Easter always a Sunday, but Ascension is a specific day?
• What the heck did Jesus do between Easter and Ascention (Erik and I had some pretty funny ideas, all of which I'm sure are wrong...)
• Why have we never heard of this holiday before? It's obviously a Christian holiday, so why isn't it celebrated in Canada?

Any answers will be much appreciated!

*********

So, we've gotten some interesting responses to this post (OK, well just two. I'm a bit relieved that I'm not the only one who is completely in the dark when it comes to religion).

Anyway, here is what I've learned, from Howard and Mom.

• I guess it's not always May 25th, but the 40th day after Easter. Makes a bit more sense.
  
• Apparently it used to be celebrated in Canada, but churches have moved the celebration to the nearest Sunday (shame on them! Who doesn't like a day off?)
• In between Easter and Ascension, Jesus visits his apostles and books passage to the south of France to set up house with his new family and leave clues for Da Vinci (thanks Howard for that one :) ). Erik and I figured he was probably at an internet cafe catching up on his email. That's what we would have done :)

There you go. I'm not sure how religious of a day it is here, as it seems like everyone has left the city to go on vacation.