I don't even want to know when I last blogged. I just know it's been a long time. We've been busy, you know, traveling to Canada, celebrating Christmas and New Years, meeting friends' babies, then getting over jet lag and dealing with snow and life here in Paris.

I can't remember how I ever had time to blog more regularly.

And since we've been so busy since we got back, busy doing things that aren't particularly interesting (anyone want to hear about the fun that was my two-day BodyStep training last weekend? It started at 8am on Sunday. Good times), I'll thought I'd share with you two pictures of what we seem to do best. Or at least consistently.

Eat.


Oyako-don (Chicken and egg on rice)

This is a Japanese dish that we always enjoy in Japan, and that I tried to make very unsuccessfully once at home. Luckily Erik has a Japanese colleague at the lab, and he and his wife made a video for us on how to make this simple dish, complete with a shot of the all important timer that tells you just how long to let the egg cook before it's time to eat.

It was so oishii that we made it twice that week, and is now one of Erik's specialties. (A list that also includes risotto and fajitas so delicious they rival Sneaky Dees).


A hero sized sandwich

Next up is the sandwich Erik made for breakfast/lunch today. This kind of sandwich is his weekend specialty, best enjoyed after a weekend workout. Today's sandwich featured three kinds of meat--leftover roast chicken, sausage and duck pate. Plus cheese and condiments. And it was enjoyed while watching the Wire, a show that my brother got us hooked on, and anyone who hasn't seen it should absolutely check it out. It's great.

Other exciting things that have happened to us involve the purchase of a new tv stand/buffet, that we carried home ourselves from Ikea. The fun part about going to that store is trying to decide if what you're buying is worth spending 50euros on delivery for. Bed, yes. Tv stand, we didn't think so. Lets just say that manoevering 50lbs of Ikea cabinetry on a bus, train and then finally metro is a feat that makes 50euros seem like a steal.

So there you go. Life here in Paris is as glamorous as ever, the snow has melted and we are now dealing with a typical Parisian winter involving rain and gloom. Epiphany was celebrated in a shower of galettes, and my lucky husband found the feve in all three pies that he sampled. People are fleeing the city for ski holidays, and we're counting down the weeks (3) until our next holiday weekend in Berlin.

Bits and Bobs

And we thought the weather here in Paris was bad!!

Weren't we surprised to step off the plane last Sunday and have it be so cold here in France that it actually snowed! Erik got up to go to work on Monday, and I didn't believe him when he said there was snow on the ground. But there was, and a fair amount of the stuff. Weather across Europe has been unseasonably cold, with snow all the way down to the south of France, and even in Spain! Unfortunately there were no snow days, and business went on almost as usual, save for some weather related problems with the trains. Luckily Canada prepared us well, and Erik has been getting good use out of his boots, and me out of my down coat. I definitely miss central heating!



We've come a long way, baby!

Or have we? I thought it would be fun to try on my wedding dress while we were in Ottawa. Might have helped if I'd actually been wearing real clothes before hand, but here you go, morning hair, glasses and all. And Erik's shirt says: Clothes Make the Man, which is obviously not true, in his case. :)

Straight from the mouth of a four year old:

(in the middle of me reading a story that she obviously didn't find very interesting)

"Torie, you have a lot of hair!! I don't know how you sleep."

I told her it was like having a pillow attached to my head, but she wasn't buying it. Too funny.

This is too good to not blog about....

We're a bit worried about the cold.


Just out of Erik's mouth:
"It took me 26 years to find you, and 32 years to find this vest."

I'm such a lucky girl. And he's going to be so warm in Ottawa!

Fur Kid

Nothing keeps the cold at bay like a fur coat.

When you're four.

At school.

Also

it snowed today.

I looked out of the window in the middle of one of my classes this morning and there was white stuff falling from the sky. Yuck. It didn't last long, and eventually turned into cold, wet, rain.

Welcome to winter in Paris.

Le Grand Tasting and Enjoying Paris

Yesterday was the Grand Tasting, a wine tasting event at the Carrousel du Louvre. Being the wine connoisseurs, or perhaps just appreciators, that we are, we of course got tickets to check out the big event with our friends Alex and Marie and Julia and Thomas.

We've been to many wine shows in the past, but this one was different in a couple of important ways. First of all, we actually had to pay to get in. Usually producers just send out free invitations, but this was a slightly 'higher class' event, so there was an entry fee, and it was fairly high (20€). Luckily we found reasonably priced passes online. Secondly, you had to pay a deposit for your glass. Which meant that you got a real wine glass (yay!) but that we couldn't take the glasses home (boo!). Thirdly, this wine show was all about tasting, with very few of the booths actually selling bottles on the premises. It was nice to taste and not feel pressured to buy anything afterwards, and not being able to buy right away forces you to take notes on the wines you really like so that you can remember why you like them, and where you can actually find them.

We really enjoyed our afternoon, and discovered some interesting wines that we will definitely be seeking out, including a great Spanish wine, along with a recommendation for a tapas restaurant, that conveniently serves this wine. We were feeling quite festive, and took the 'scenic' route back to Alex and Marie's afterwards.

And so, without further ado, here are the obligatory pictures:

Group shot, near the end of the afternoon


Alex and Marie get serious about wine


Does this picture require a caption?


Marie and I after she sweet talked Piper Heidsick into serving us the 150€ bottle that they were hiding under the counter. We were actually trying to capture the wine glass chandelier in the background.


For some reason we decided to do a photo shoot in the Carrousel du Louvre after leaving the show. I'll spare you the rest of the many, many more cheesy shots we took there.


Who likes ferris wheels? We do!


Waiting to board, trying to convince the guy to let us into the VIP car.


Inside our little 'gondola'


Alex bought marrons chaudes afterwards, and we all happily caught the metro back to Alex and Marie's to watch the France-Australia rugby match before dancing to 80s tunes and then heading home.

We love Paris.

Happy France-iversary to Us!

Saturday marked our three year anniversary of living in France. I guess I should maybe be writing this in French, huh?

I can still remember how foreign everything seemed when we first arrived here three years ago. The novelty of buying fresh bread, buying wine for under five euros at the grocery store, and the minuscule elevator that we had in our first building. All things that seem so normal now that I literally have a hard time imagining life without bakeries on every street corner and good wine practically flowing out of the taps. And I actually did a double take when I got in a 'real' elevator at the Gap a while back.

Where we once had difficulty carrying on a conversation with a French person, we now we both speak French more than well enough to get by. Erik often cracks jokes in this crazy language, and has even spent the better part of the weekend reading the beshcerelle. I often find thoughts floating through my head in French, and there are certainly things that I find easier to communicate in French. Funny how our brains work. That being said, I also find myself throwing English words into the middle of sentences unknowingly, simply because they came up faster than the French version.

So far, we haven't done anything special to mark the occasion. I worked at the gym, and Erik spent the day preparing for some courses that he is teaching this week. Pretty exciting. We did go out salsa dancing last night, although it was for a friend's birthday. I'm happy to report that I still have all ten toenails, despite dancing with my lovely husband :).

Today we both worked again (perhaps not the glamorous life you were imagining for two foreigners in Paris) and napped for most of the afternoon. Very productive.

We have some more interesting things lined up for next weekend, I'll be sure to bring the camera and report back.

Dinner's ready, so I should go!
A bientot :)

Erik's Pot

Before I get into this, please note that 'pot' is pronounced 'po'.

On Wednesday afternoon, Erik threw his much anticipated pot in celebration of the start of his CNRS position.


One pot to go: 8 bottles of Champagne, 4 bottles of white wine, 12 bottles of red, one bottle of rye, 12 Canadian beers, assorted pop and juice, chips, veggies and dips, sliced ham, four kinds of cheese (gorgonzola and mascarpone, goat cheese, comte, brie de meaux), red pepper and goat cheese tarts, rice krispie squares, cheesecake brownies, peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, grapes and ten baguettes.

Tatiana came and picked us up around noon on Wednesday to transport us and all our goodies out to the ecole. We spent the next couple of hours finding ice, and transforming a conference room into party central.





Around 4:00, the entire lab, about 70 people, showed up to enjoy the celebration. Erik gave a little speech, then the bottles of champagne were popped and the party began.








Pavel graciously brought some smoked pig fat studded with garlic.


The rye whisky was quite popular. All that was left at the end was the purple bag.


The aftermath


The verdict: best pot ever!

The Cave

Ever wonder what all these beautiful Parisian apartments are like down below?

We finally got keys to our landlady's cave (pronounced with a short a, please), and thought you might appreciate seeing just what it's like.


Come on down, and check it out!


It's pretty much as unfinished as you can get.


One long hallway to each side leading to the storage spaces.


The lovely dirt floor.


Did I mention that our cave doesn't have a light? Today we brought down the flashlight, and I got to check it out for the first time.

It's kind of musty smelling, but I have to say, about a thousand times less scary than the basement that we had on Augusta in Toronto. Now that was a disgusting basement! I kind of wish I hadn't thought about it, I'll probably have nightmares now.

The Canned Food Aisle Just Got a Lot More Interesting....

Can you believe that this (minus the veggies):

Confit de canard, cassoulet (white beans, sausage and duck cooked in duck fat) and roasted vegetables.

came from this:


Well, maybe you can, but we were pretty impressed. Sure beats Chef Boyardee! We may have both consumed our yearly recommended intake of duck fat in one meal. The can of confit de canard even recommended that we save all the delicious fat that the duck was conserved in to use when making omelette's, or on toast. Don't worry, we didn't.

And next time, we might restrict ourselves to one duck delight per meal instead of three. Our arteries would probably appreciate it.

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...