Dinner with Pat and Victor

Of course there's a picture, Joan! :)

On Tuesday night we had dinner with Pat and Victor, friends of Joan and Howard's who were in Paris visiting.

Not having seen them since our wedding, it was nice to catch up with them, and hear about their adventures in Dublin, London and finally Paris. We had a lovely meal at Le Cerisaie, one of our favorite restaurants, just around the tower from us.

Getting Cultured

Yesterday morning we decided to take a field trip to the Musee duQuai Branly to see an exhibit on Japanese design, l'Esprit Mingei au Japon.


It was an interesting exhibit, highlighting Japanese design of everyday objects, created by unknown artists, and using traditional techniques. On display were many pieces of pottery, handmade textiles from Okinawa made using palm fibers, and many pieces created using bamboo.

For the Love of Pumpkin

How one can of pumpkin can become two delicious, delicious treats.

First up was this scrumptious pumpkin cake with Jack Daniels soaked raisins and spiked whipped cream. Erik was particularly excited to get to the grocery store and discover that Jack Daniels was on the grocery list, and the feat of him whipping cream with a wire whisk has brought me a little bit closer to my ultimate goal of one day bringing home a stand mixer. Who needs to go to the gym when there is cream to be whipped? :) We had Alex and Marie over for dinner last Saturday, and we had this cake for dessert, but unfortunately we didn't finish it. Which meant that there was lots left over for me to eat with lunch for the next three days.

Luckily the pumpkin cake only called for one cup of pumpkin, and not wanting to let the remaining cup go to waste, I whipped up these pumpkin cookies this morning. I replaced the currants with bourbon soaked golden raisins (yes, I am same girl who used to pick all the raisins out of the cinnamon buns that mom made. Apparently the trick is to soak them in booze.....) and eliminated the pumpkin seeds. I now have a ton of cookies sitting in the kitchen, and the only thing preventing me from eating them all right now is the fact that I'm typing.

Make These Now!

Possibly the easiest cookies I've ever made, and by far the best results I've gotten from cookies baked in our 'not really an oven' oven. Oh, and they taste awesome also!

Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup super chunky peanut butter
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips (about 6 ounces)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix first 5 ingredients in medium bowl. Mix in chocolate chips. Using moistened hands, form generous 1 tablespoon dough for each cookie into ball. Arrange on 2 ungreased baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart.

Bake cookies until puffed, golden on bottom and still soft to touch in center, about 12 minutes. Cool on sheets 5 minutes. Transfer to racks; cool completely.

Blindness rewarded?

I went to the eye doctor this morning to get a prescription for new contacts. The last time I bought contacts here I learned that if I had had a prescription, I could have been reimbursed by my private insurance. So off I went to my friendly neighbourhood opthamologist, where I learned that in France, if your eyes are bad enough, you get a special prescription, on a special paper, which allows you to be reimbursed partially by the social security. Apparently if you are myopic enough, it's considered a sort of illness.

I certainly don't consider my poor eyesight to be much of an illness, but I'm not going to complain if two different health insurance plans want to give me money because of it.

I celebrated by buying new boots.

Eating Japan

Trees (Jardin des Plantes)

Cherry Blossoms

Dinner at L'Escarbille

Last night we had a very delicious dinner at the one star restaurant in Meudon, L'Escarbille.

On the menu: Entrees of veloute de cresson avec beignets d'huitres (watercress soup with fried oysters) and salade de lentilles avec filet de rouget (lentil salad with rouget filet). Main course was pigeon for Erik (quite tasty!) and lamb for me. For dessert I had a fig tart with amaretto ice cream, and Erik had his all time favorite of tiramisu.


After dinner we went back to Julia and Thomas' apartment for an all important course of digestifs.

Then we came home way too late, and I got up way too early to go to work. Thank goodness for afternoon naps.

Because I've been a bad blogger lately...

Here are some pictures from our Saturday night.

Anja had a housewarming party, and in true French fashion, posted a little sign in her building to warn her neighbours.


Anja's parents have just recently left, and her dad did some fatherly things around the apartment for her, many of which required the use of tools, which were purchased while they were visiting. The drill, however, did not get used, and as soon as Erik realized it was up for grabs, he was all over it. How often do you get to leave a party with a beer AND a power drill?

See? Life really is better in Paris :)

Life is getting back into that busy routine, of school, tutoring, gym, repeat. I've started everything now, except the American School, which goes back in October. I'm working an extra afternoon now at the nursery school this year which is great, and have less tutoring this year, which should also help minimize the craziness that tends to ensue when I end up working six or seven days of the week (depending on what replacements I do at the gym).

Erik has been busy as well, off to Valencia for a week long conference (which the lab secretary forgot to pay for...) where he enjoyed a visit to the aquarium with his boss and enjoyed a beer while watching the dolphin show. Then he had a work retreat last week for three days in the south of France where he wowed his lab with his superior presentation skills.


In other news, upon returning from Japan, and deciding that we were probably going to have to stay in our apartment for at least another year, we decided that it was time to get a new bed. We've spent the past three years sleeping on a rock hard mattress on a trampoline like frame of springs. The only thing that made it possible to sleep on it was the fact that we stored our suitcases under the bed and they provided enough support to keep us from constantly rolling together into the middle of the bed.

When we were in Japan, Erik decided that it was more comfortable sleeping on futons on the floor than our bed, and hence dragged me out to Ikea the Friday that we returned. Let me tell you, if there is anything that you should avoid when jet lagged, it's shopping at Ikea. It's guaranteed to drive you crazy and test your relationship on a good day, but when you're just barely managing to keep your eyes open it will likely end in one party not speaking to the other, and leaving the store with some random things that serve no purpose whatsoever to improve your sleeping situation.

We returned the next day (a Saturday, aka the worst day to visit Ikea) purchased a bed frame and a mattress, waited thirty minutes for it to come out of the warehouse then promptly lined up to have it delivered (although we seriously considered trying to bring it on the train--it was only 30 kilos. We're tough, right?).

Sunday was spent dragging the old solid metal bedframe and rock slab mattress down 6 flights of stairs and out to the curb, then hauling the new mattress back up the stairs (luckily the frame, in it's handy Ikea sized boxes fit in the elevator.) Erik enjoyed an evening of bed construction, and I like to think that we've been together long enough to know that it's best if we don't try and do that kind of thing together. I mean, he actually reads the manual! And uses tools other than the Allen key! Who'd a thunk?

*****
We've also finally figured out what we're going to do for Christmas. After a couple of months of tossing potential ideas around, and watching ticket prices get steadily more expensive, we've settled on Ottawa. Erik's family will all be there to join in the fun, and I'm looking forward to being home for the holidays for the first time in five years. I'm not so much looking forward to the cold however...

Rewind

Here are the daily updates for the last week of our trip:

Friday 15/08:
Head back up to the Iwami Ginzan silver mines, and this time actually go in. Do the tour of the smaller mine shaft, and enjoy the walk back through the bamboo forest. Visit a shrine perched high above the mine shaft. Lots of stairs!

Go back into Oda for a quick rest before dinner at the Osawa's.

We have a fantastic meal with way too much food. A huge dish of sahsimi, fried fish, grilled seafood, egg custard, soup, somen noodles, it just went on and on. So delicious!

Go to Eddah's apartment for a drink before calling it a night.

Saturday 16/08:
Say goodbye to Yoshimi and Yuko, who stopped by at the last minute. Hard to believe our time in Oda is already done!

Stop at a beautiful gorge on the drive from Oda to Hiroshima. Walked down the many stairs, then picked our way across the slippery rocks of the gorge to see a small shrine perched on the other side.

Continue driving all the way to Hiroshima. Grab a quick lunch, then walk through the Peace Park before heading for the airport.

At the airport, Pete has to check his walking stick, and then later his jacknife, which we find amusing. Domestic travel in Japan is so easy! You can bring liquids on board (as we did....), no one ever looked at our passports, Pete's jacknife which he accidentally left in his backpack was quickly put in an envelope to be checked. So accomodating!

Once in Tokyo, we drop our stuff off at Pete's and head out for dinner at TGIFridays. It's fairly late, and lots of stuff is closed because of obon.

Sunday 17/08:
Started out the day with a run around Ueno park, near Pete's place. The weather is drizzly and grey, but perfect for running. The park is beautiful, with an enormous pond full of lotus flowers.

Take the train to Shinjuku (area in Tokyo) and go up the Tokyo Goverment Building to the observation deck. Unfortunately the lousy weather meant that there wasn't much of a view.

Grab umbrellas and walk back towards the station to see if the Mexican Beer Garden is open (it's not). Meet up with Pete's friend Emi for a drink and then we all go for dinner at a fancy restaurant specializing in tofu. Delicious and beautiful food.

Monday 18/08:
Steve, Erik and I walk to Kappabashi-dori to look at all the kitchen ware and fake food stores. Very interesting, and I wish that we had another suitcase! Buy some chopsticks.

Visit Senso-ji temple in Asakasa. Huge temple with lots of incense. Peruse the busy souvenir stands surrounding the temple.

Go to the Asahi headquarters, a huge building designed to look like a pint of beer. Nothing to see there aside from the building, so we carry on back to the subway to go back to Shinjuku to try the Mexican beer garden again. We had great weather all day, and are very optimistic. Get completely turned around in the huge train station, and by the time we find the right roof top patio, it looks like it's going to start pouring. We are determined to enjoy some all you can eat/drink fun, so we tough it out, and luckily the weather cooperates. We had a great time, and all ate too much, and way too fast (two hour limit, we were worried the rain would force us out early).

After the beer garden we randomly decided to go bowling. We all got vending machine shoes and socks and had a great time.

Went back to Ueno for one last drink, then one last snack (the boys only, I couldn't believe they were still hungry!), then the combini to finish the night at Pete's.

Tuesday 19/08:
A bit of a rough start for the boys, so I go do some shopping at the department stores at Ikebukuro by myself. Didn't buy anything, but enjoyed browsing the food floors. A lot like the Grande Epicerie/Galleries Lafayette with a Japanese spin.

The three of us met up again at Ueno park and visited the temple and shrine there before going to the Tokyo National Museum, a perfect choice for the day because it was so ridiculously hot outside. The museum had an excellent collection of artifacts chronicling Japanese history. Could have easily spent a whole day there, but we ran out of time (and energy).

We wanted to go boating on the pond in the park with Pete when he was done work, but it started to rain, and we got hungry, so we had a pre-dinner meal of Korean food before meeting up with some friends of Steve's for dinner and drinks at an Okinawan izakaya.

Wednesday 20/08:
Our last day!!! :(

We actually got up at a reasonable hour for the first time the entire trip and went to the Edo Museum which is by the sumo stadium. We enjoyed the well presented history of Edo (old Tokyo) with many scale models of old neighbourhoods and living quarters. Again very interesting.

Have lunch at a delicious ramen shop nearby.

Take the subway to Roppongi to see the Mori Tower. It's a huge tower with a shopping center inside. Less interesting than we expected, so we decide to walk from there to Omotesando, where we're meeting Pete and Emi later on.

Omotesando is like the Tokyo version of the Champs Elysee, with all the big designer brands and some really interesting architechture. I liked the Prada building, and the Tod's building and Dior were also really cool.

Had a taste of Canada with maple flavoured soft serve, then hit happy hour for a quick drink before meeting Pete and Emi.

Emi had arranged for us to go to a sake tasting organized by the Danish embassy at a famous tonkatsu restaurant, Maisen. The sake presentation was by Miyasaka breweries, and was lots of fun, and the food was also delicious. We had a guided tasting of five different sakes, then they left all the bottles on the table for us to enjoy with the meal.

A perfect way to end the trip. Not that we wanted it to end...

Then we were up bright and early yesterday morning to get the train out to Narita. Steve came along for the ride before continuing on to catch his flight out of Haneda. We were pretty disappointed when we checked in and were told that we wouldn't be able to sit together. After saying goodbye to Steve we cruised half-heartedly through duty free and were waiting to board when we got paged by the airline. Lucky us, we got upgraded to Premium Economy, which meant not only did we get to sit together, but a bigger seat, way more leg room with a leg rest, better food, and best of all champagne! It was a pretty good flight home.

And now we're back in Paris. Not much has changed. The weather is still grey, and it's absolutely pouring rain right now. It's nice to not be sweating all the time, and we slept with covers on the bed for the first time in two weeks.

Really not looking forward to going back to work.

enfin chez nous

12.5 hours is all it takes to be transported to another world. We said goodbye to Steve and Pete this morning, and now we're sitting in our lonely little apartment wondering what we're going to eat for dinner.

What an awesome trip. When can we go back?

Thursday

We went and watched Steve play taiko at a local performance in the morning, it was fantastic!

Lunch at the Queens Cafe, yummy.

Beach.

Dinner at the kira-kira (means 'twinkle', the restaurant has Christmas lights outside) restaurant.

Karaoke!

Wednesday

Today was culture day. Also, our third anniversary! :)

We drove out to Omori to check out the silver mines. The Iwami Ginzan silver mines have recently been declared a World Heritage site for both cultural and industrial reasons. Erik and I visited them on our first trip to Japan, but lots has changed, and Pete was in, so off we went.

We stopped first at the new museum explaining the history of the area, and the special way that the silver was extracted from the mines. Then we continued on to Omori, first to have lunch and meet up with Yuko. While we were looking for a place to eat, we ran into Matsuba-san, the woman who owns the samurai house that we stayed at on our last trip. She invited us over for lunch, and we had a fantastic meal in her beautiful house.

After lunch we checked out another samurai house, and visited the shrine with the special dragon that roars when you clap in the middle of the room. After a stop for ice cream, we realized that we were too late for the mines. Hopefully we'll be able to do it another day.

Steve had a taiko practise that evening, so we were on our own. We found a rooftop patio and hung out there for a bit before continuing on. There was a big bingo festival happening outside the grocery store, but we were too late to get in on the fun. Ran into Asano-san, the woman whose family owns a sake brewery.

Picked up some groceries, and had dinner at home for the first time. Pete's a good cook! We had been given some fresh fish at the bbq we were invited to on Monday, so we grilled it, and it was delicious.

Tuesday

Anyway, here's how the day went (after we ate):
Decide to go to the beach.
Go to combini for sunscreen. No sunscreen, but get ice cream (it's sooooo hot!!)
Go to Juntendo home store for sunscreen. No sunscreen, but get two sunflower themed inflatable inner tubes.
Go to next combini. They have sunscreen. They also have frozen drinks.
Go to beach.
Apply sunscreen.
Inflate inner tubes.
Float around in the sea of Japan for a couple of hours.
Get out. Reapply sunscreen. Drive to next beach.
Eat.
Onsen.
Eat.
Watch Olympics.
Go to combini. Buy snacks.
Consume snacks and beverages.
Sleep.

It was a tough day.

Monday

Monday was the return from Matsue. Stopped for breakfast at the Gusto in Izumo, then drove back up to Hirata to say goodbye to Yoshimi. We were taking the train back to Ohda. One train from Hirata to Izumo, no problem, but the train we got on leaving Izumo ended at the next stop. We got off and hung around the super exciting train station for a bit, before checking out the wave pool, and noticing the brewery across the street. The brewery was unfortunately closed, but the hotel next door was able to sell us some of the local specialties.

Back on the (correct) train, it was a pleasant ride down the coast before arriving at our destination. Ran some errands (groceries!) before heading back to the train station to pick up Pete! It's great to have him here.

We were invited to dinner that night at the Marugame's, where we barbequed fresh fish and local beef. Very delicious!

Sunday

**You can see all the pictures we've been taking by clicking the link for the slideshow to the left**

Sunday was festival day.

We treated ourselves to lunch at McDonalds, the halfway point in our drive to Matsue. Before getting dressed up for the festival, we checked out Matsue Castle, the only other original wooden castle aside from Himeji in Japan. Then we stopped by the samurai house quickly, before going to get dressed up for the evening.

The summer is festival season in Japan, and many people get dressed up in yukata and jimbe for the event. Yoshimi was kind enough to lend me a yukata and help me put it on. It was a fun experience. At the festival, we watched a couple of different taiko groups perform, we snacked on festival food, and then found a spot to settle in for the grande finale, the fireworks. The show was quite impressive, and quite long! It went on for about an hour. We watched most of it before heading back to the stands for some more snacks, and then we called it a night.


Matsue Castle


At the top of the castle (it was a bit warm....)


Girls in yukata


The boys in their jimbe

Saturday

Late start to the day.

Yoshimi made us some delicious Korean food for breakfast/lunch, then we hit the road. We were headed south of Ohda to the town of Yunotsu where we stopped at a little wine store run by a Japanese man who regularly goes to France to source wines for his store. Picked up a couple of bottles to taste later in the day. Kept going, stopped at a Buddhist temple on the top of the mountain before continuing on to Gotsu where we had dinner at the tanuki (racoon) restaurant. Delicious ramen, and enormous portions. Drove back up to Yunotsu to see the fireworks that were part of their festival, before driving back to Ohda to enjoy some wine.



At the temple


Dinner

Friday

Bike trip.

Got up around 11, and had a nourishing breakfast of an omelette with shrimp sticks. Yum. Shattered a wine glass all over the kitchen floor and spent a good chunk of time cleaning that up. Slathered on a thick layer of sunscreen, loaded up our bags, adjusted the bikes, and off we went.

Steve had chosen a route that took us up the mountains, then along the coast all the way to Hirata, a small town just north of Izumo. We had lots of stops, and just to stay true to our tradition of bike trips, it of course started pouring rain half way through. Luckily we were taking a coffee break when it started, so we hung out there till the worst had passed. The rain cooled things off quite a bit and made the riding much more pleasant. Stopped for a snack at the bakery then pushed on until Izumo for our reward of the Sake Gorilla and a sushi buffet at the conveyor belt sushi restaurant.

All in all it took us about seven hours, including stops. My bum has never been so sore, but the route was beautiful. Well worth the effort.

Friday night the boys went to the onsen, while Yoshimi and I hung out. We had a snack/third meal at Joyfull before heading back to Yoshimi's to enjoy some snacks and refreshments.

Thursday

We woke up late today as a result of a late night last night enjoying our Sake Gorilla purchases and watching No Laughing Hospital. Also could be the jet lag (so much easier in this direction!!).

When we finally got our act together, it was decided that today was a beach day. Off we headed to one of the local beaches. It was considerably cooler by the water with a nice breeze which made the extreme heat completely bearable. Not too many people, dropped our stuff and headed right in. The water was perfect, and there were quite a few waves, but the water stayed really clear. It was wonderful. Just as we were getting out, it started to thunder, and then pour.

After we cleaned up, we had a late afternoon snack at a cafe (Queen's Cafe) with two other ALT's. Enjoyed chicken, pork and shrimp sandwiches. Yum. Left there just in time to head up to Kuri-san's a kayaking friend of Steves, to help celebrate his youngest son's fifth birthday.

The kid was crazy, but the food was delicious, and our hosts incredibly welcoming. We got to meet the pet goat, and also the two pet hamsters. Good times.

Tonight we're taking it easy, in preparation for our big bike ride tomorrow back to Hirata (where Yoshimi lives). Hope it's not too sunny!

Picture Blog

Pre-dinner pizza on our first night


Our first meal. It was AWESOME


The super friendly owners of the restaurant where we had dinner the first night


Wine tasting at the Shimane winery. Don't we look impressed? (France wins)


Conveyor belt sushi. SOOOO good. We're going back tomorrow.


The Sake Gorilla



Working out (with Hibiki, Kuri-san's son. It was his birthday, and we were invited for dinner)


The whole family

Check out all the pictures here:

Nihon 2008

The Good, the Bad and the Steamy

The good: we're in Japan! Awesome flight, no problems with the connection (even had time to spare!) and couldn't be happier to be here. Had an awesome sushi dinner last night with Steve and Yoshimi, and had a fun day today touring around Izumo, tasting wine, and having conveyor belt sushi (sampled the Olympic menu, it was fantastic. So full now).

The bad: well, there's not really anything bad to report. :) It does get dark really early here though, which is weird. 7:30 and the sun is setting. What's up with that?

The steamy: it's hot here! The heat and humidity hit us like a wall the minute we stepped out of Narita. The air was so thick we could have cut it with a knife. We spent most of today in the air conditioned bliss of a museum, and otherwise it really wasn't to bad. It's kind of nice to be having a summer, finally!

Pictures soon, as soon as we get Erik's computer up and running. :)

Do you think we'll need our fur coats in Japan?

T-1 day

We're now officially on vacation, and are now also both anxiously awaiting our departure for Japan.

We had a nice dinner last night with Pavel and Tatiana. It's been a long time since we've had people over to our place, and it was fun pulling everything together. Plus it's nice to have a concrete reason to get the place cleaned up. The feature dish was Erik's os a moelle risotto, and everything else paled in comparison around it. Regardless, here's the menu:

Appetizers and aperitif:
Baba ghanoush with home-made pita chips
Purple potato chips
Raspberry kir royale

Entree:
Fennel salad, from the Barfoot Contessa in Paris

Plat:
Os a moelle (marrow bone) risotto
Haricots verts with shallots

Fromage:
Brillat Savarin triple creme
Goat cheese
Comte

Dessert:
Nectarine, mascarpone and gingersnap tart

It was a delicious meal, and nice to be able to host them for once.

Now we've got lots of time to learn Japanese, do laundry, clean out the fridge and start packing. Oh, and stress about the 3 hour connection we have once we arrive in Japan. Apparently it's more than enough time, but we've got to go through customs and change airports. Let's hope Japanese efficiency is on our side on Wednesday!

Sayoanara!

Finalement

en vacances.

Well, presque.

Yesterday was the last day at the nursery school, and so aside from some clean up that we have to do at school on Monday, I am now kid-free until September. What a relief! Plus one of the parents was nice enough to give us each a bottle of Champagne as a thank you gift, which I decided Erik and I should enjoy this afternoon. Because, when you're on vacation, you can enjoy things like Champagne in the middle of the afternoon. I did have to work this morning, but nothing makes bubbly taste bubblier than a couple of hours at the gym.

Anyway, the presque part is the fact that I still have to teach my fitness classes until I actually leave the country, but the fact that I have the weekends off is more than enough to make up for that minor inconvenience.

I'm off now to the FNAC to see if I can find a book about hiragana and katakana in preparation for our upcoming trip.

Oh, and did I mention that I got to go for a massage on Wednesday? It was a gift from one of the classes at school, and it was AWESOME. In a perfect world I'd be doing that every week. Plus I got a new cell phone (completely unrelated to the massage, and not a gift. Decided to take the plunge and commit to another two years of cell phone service). Very exciting.

Life is sweet :)

A Weekend Away

Last weekend was my first full free weekend since April. And it was a lovely three day weekend, thanks to Bastille Day on Monday. Our friends Alex and Marie have invited us many times to Tours to stay at Alex's parents house, and we have never been able to. Until now. We found last minute train tickets, and after a quick hour on the TGV we arrived in Tours on Sunday morning.
It was a wonderful weekend, complete with a degustation de vin, bbq and lots of pool time. It's finally beginning to feel like summer.


In the pool with a beer. La vie est dur!


Sunday wine tasting at Domaine Eric Bureau et fils

Marie takes a turn behind the bar

In the cave tasting the 2007

Julia give the pipette a try

Perhaps we got a bit carried away? (Don't worry, it's not all for us)


Aperitif by the pool


Alex makes aligot for dinner: riced potatoes mixed with fresh Cantal cheese

Erik takes a turn mixing

Bon apetit!


Petanque on Monday

One last meal (Alex next to me, Marie at the end of the table)

Thomas and Julia

Bloggity Blog....

Hey, anyone still out there?

I know it's been awhile. I'm going to blame it on the nice weather and the end of year craziness that is upon us.

Here's a quick update on our lives:

• the pregnant teacher at the nursery school was put on bed rest suddenly, and so I've taken over her class of 2.5 year olds until the end of the year. That alone should explain the silence around here. It's getting much better, but the first week, I was dreaming about the days when I would only see these kids for 20 minutes at a time then return them to their teacher. What a trying age!
• I've been working seven days a week for the last two weeks, and will continue to do so until the end of the school year. Come on June 26th!!
• Today I worked at a birthday party for one of the boys at the nursery school. It was alright, but the mother was so stressed out and worried that the kids wouldn't have any fun, that they didn't have as much fun as they could have. Who wants to colour when all your friends are there wearing knight costumes?? The cake was cool though. Erik thinks I should do something fun with the money that I made, and suggested I buy a bottle of Dom Perignon. Don't know when I'd enjoy it, but I do like the way he thinks...
• We bought our tickets for our trip to Japan this summer. Or, have almost bought them. I'm getting to know the ticket agents at JAL quite well seeing as our cards have been declined twice now. Turns out we have ridiculously low limits on our bank cards. Anyway, the guy that I've been talking to used to live in our neighbourhood and gave me a restaurant recommendation, and then the exact address when I called again today and he remembered me.
  
• Our friends Nancy and Daryl had their baby! (You may remember them from this post)
• Alex came to town for a quick visit last weekend. We had a nice dinner with her at Le Cerisaie, we had an apartment picnic with Anja when the weather failed to cooperate on Sunday, and then she and I spent Monday wandering around the Marais, enjoying falafel, and cherries and other treats. I didn't take any pictures.
  
• It's Saturday afternoon and our plans for tonight are doing taxes. Woohoo! At least we'll be on time for one country.
  

And voila, I think you are now up to speed.

Hope everyone is doing well, and feel free to drop us a line, or come for a visit. I think AirCanada is having a seat sale...