Heat and Other Highlights

Fall has officially arrived here in gay Paree, and although the days can occasionally be sunny and cool, the nights tend to be more on the damp and cold side. I was thrilled to discover that the heat had been turned on at school this morning, and even more excited to discover that the heat in our apartment has also been turned on. It's the small things that tend to make my days lately.

Small things like the lights in the toilet and the bathroom. This is old news for Howard, because he and Erik took care of this more than a week ago, but I thought you would all like to see photos of these great lights.




Other highlights in apartment land include the installation of the freezer (still not plugged in, but pretty looking)


The construction of our closet by moi (no doors yet, and they will eventually be placed properly against the wall and in the corner but there's still wallpaper hiding behind there...)


And I think I mentioned in the previous post how Ross and Katie had fun de-wallpapering our toilet. They also had fun signing it. :)

Visitor's Part Deux

We just said goodbye to our second wave of visitors this morning. Our good friends Katie and Ross were here for a week, and were kind enough to say many nice things about the construction site that we were all living in.

No construction this week, although Ross did a great job of peeling the wallpaper out of the bathroom. They can come back anytime!




The wine harvest in Montmartre was being celebrated this weekend, so we headed up there last night for the fireworks. We had a snack of escargots before the show.


A really bad shot, but the fireworks were amazing! None of us had ever been so close before. We were sitting on the hill in front of Sacre Coeur, and they must have been lit from the big park just below. It was great!


We had dinner after at the Zebre. Champagne for the ladies.


I'm not sure what to say about this shot. Let's just say that it was an entertaining night.

More photos

The photo tour continues with some more realistic shots of our humble abode. The place is a mess, and I make no apologies. As soon as this post is finished, I'm going to dump the contents of the bedroom on the bed to make room for the assembly of our new wardrobe. Fun.

You know what else is fun? Spending seven hours at Ikea on a Saturday. Anja and I went out for what I thought would be a well organized quick pick up trip. Hah. We got there around 12:30, and by 6:00 we were just lining up for delivery. An unexpected problem at the cash had me picking up the pieces for our wardrobe by myself in the warehouse. The main pieces are about 50kgs and 230 cm long. I like to think I'm strong, but there was no way I could get those suckers onto the stupid rolling cart by myself. Anyway, I eventually got everything through the cash, and we got out of there a lot later and a lot more tired than we had expected. The kicker is that I didn't get everything we need, so we'll have to go back at least another time. Fun.


Let's start the tour in the 'living' area of the main room. Please note the original style of wallpaper removal.


The 'work' area of the main room. Howard has taken to calling it his 'studio'. Or more appropriately his 'atelier'. This is where the magic happens. It also seems like the freezer (on the left, in it's box) is being used as a workbench.


The entry way, leading into the kitchen.


I wonder if this is up to code??


My lovely kitchen. The only room that is almost completely unpacked, and with electricity. No light though.


Please note the counter that Howard made for us. The freezer will eventually go in the space next to the stove. I'm not sure why it hasn't been installed yet. I try not to ask too many questions.


The bedroom. The arrival of the armoire should help tame the many clothes monsters that we have developed. The cord hanging down the middle of the shot is for the temporary light hanging from the ceiling. Best to ignore that and just appreciate the view of the courtyard.


The bathroom with our temporary shower fixture and plastic sheeting coverred walls. Surprisingly I haven't seen this look in any of the decorating magazines I've been reading.


Howard's handywork removing the bidet and installing a drain and vent for our washing machine. The lead drain pipe was bent into shape with a hair dryer, and he bent the taps back by hand to allow the machine to sit more completely in the corner. You can also see the wire casings propped up in the corner. The goal this weekend is to get light into the toilet and bathroom. Cross your fingers!!

Photos

Here are some photos of the boys hard at work.  Obviously taken before we moved, it's hard to remember how clean and big the place looked.  I'll have to take some more today so you can see how we've evolved.  And no, there still isn't any light in the bathroom.  Or any room other than the kitchen.  But we do have a working washing machine and a makeshift counter.  As one of the teachers at school said to me yesterday: "petit a petit, l'oiseau fait son nid."*  I have however completely unpacked the kitchen, and had Anja over for dinner.  There is so much cupboard space that one whole side and most of the upper shelves are empty.  And the kitchen is so big, all three of us were able to be in there as I finished making the meal.  What a treat!  One other advantage to our new place is the huge shower.  And I used to think the shower stalls at the gym were spacious!

*"little by little, the bird makes it's nest.

Day Two

Status: We have a working kitchen!!  Turned on the gas stove for the first time since we bought it in June.  Fridge is busy cooling, and we expect the freezer to make an appearance within a week. 
We celebrated with a fanatastic Thai dinner, and I think that we will all sleep soundly tonight.  Cold milk on cereal tomorrow, what a treat! 

The Big Day

Moving day has come and gone, and I know I've been promising pictures for a couple of weeks now, but you're just going to have to wait a bit longer.  The card reader for the camera is packed in one of our many boxes, and as we don't really have anywhere to unpack, I can't say when it will surface.  But I am taking pictures, and you will see them soon!

Yesterday was the big move.  We got started early, picking up the truck at 8am.  We found a great parking spot just outside our building, and Erik and I got to work right away, taking the bed apart, and moving the matress into the truck while we waited for our movers (aka strong friends) to arrive.  Thomas and Alex arrived, and we quickly started loading up the elevator and sending it down.  We had gotten most of the big items out before the elevator jammed and we had to call the 'depanneur'.  While we waited for him to arrive we continued to run up and down the six flights of stairs with most of the remaining items.  An hour later, the elevator was unstuck, and we loaded the last things into the truck.  Then we hit the road en route to the new place.

Parking at the new place was a bit more complicated, and Erik decided that our best bet was to simply park in the entry to the underground parking garage and then move the truck whenever someone needed to get in or out.  Lucky for us, a friendly stranger showed us how to pull up two guard rails so we could park the truck on the pedestrian walkway right next to the building.  Unloading the truck was pretty quick, being on the ground floor everything went in through the window. 

By 1:00 we were amazed that it was all finished.  We headed out for a pizza lunch, and then an exhausted Thomas and Alex left, and Erik and I went back to drop off the truck--four hours early!!  We should have gone to Ikea or something, but we all know that Ikea and exhaustion are a recipe for disaster.  The afternoon consisted of more Leroy Merlin for Erik, and old apartment cleaning for Torie (so dusty!!).  I'll go back today to finally empty out the fridge, and collect our deposit.  I'm sad to be leaving that place. 

Life in the new apartment is rustic.  It's a bit like camping.  The only difference is that there is no tent, and the toilet is right next door.  Also, there's no campfire or smores, which are pretty much the only reason to go camping, right?  Anyway, all that to say that there isn't much electricity yet, and aside from two work lights plugged in by extension cords to the one working outlet in the entry, we were in the dark last night.  Howard has a handy headlamp, and there is a very powerful LED flashlight/torch that serves as the bathroom light. 

At 10:00 we were all crazy from exhaustion and hunger, and headed out in search of food. The first place we passed was a Turkish/Greek restaurant, and in honour of Joan and Karina's trip, and due to the fact that it was open and really close, we stopped in.  It was great.  Simple, tasty, satisfying and cheap.  Three course dinner for 15euros!  We'll be back.  It was a good way to end a long day. 

Moving

So.  We're moving.

Every time anyone mentions our upcoming move, I automatically state how much I hate it.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm still excited about the potential 'final' destination, but it's all the stress and boxes and dust and WALLPAPER in between the start and finish that make me just want to curl up and stay forever in my bright yellow furnished apartment.  (Have I mentioned that I will never ever ever in my life willingly wallpaper a wall?  Please remind me of this time if I ever consider putting paper on our walls.  Mom how did you deal with all the wallpaper in our house?  I can remember at least two different patterns in my room...)

So.  I've taken myself off wallpaper duty, and fully invested myself in packing duty.  One of the things I hate most about moving is the packing.  And the unpacking.  I hate living out of boxes.  I unpack as soon as I get home from trips because it drives me nuts having clothes in a suitcase for longer than necessary.  The best part about this move is that there won't be anything to unpack our lives into.  Fun.

Our landlady is coming over tomorrow night to check out the place, so I've brought up all the boxes of her stuff that we stored in the cave, and have spent the afternoon washing the disgusting brown glass dishware that lives here.  (Was it ever possible to make food look appetizing on brown glass plates?  I can't look at them without being reminded of beer bottles, and I can't think of a less attractive colour for dishware).  I've also packed up all our dishes and pans, helpfully packing the baking dish I need to make tonight's dinner at the bottom of a box.  The worst part is that because we've been living in a land of boxes for a couple of months now, it doesn't even look like I've accomplished anything. 

Apologies for the grumpy post.  I'm so far down the box tunnel that I can't see the light at the end.  The internet is really slow in here too, which doesn't make things any more fun.  However, Erik tested out the new line at the apartment today, and the phone works, same number as before.  I don't think they're leaving the phone plugged in, but if you send an email, they could probably organize a phone call.

The latest news from the new apartment is that they've finally started drilling, and Erik got to use his new angle grinder finally.  I'll try to remember to send the camera with them tomorrow, although it's unlikely I'll be able to upload photos until we move. 

There you go.  The happy update in our moving adventure.
:)

No more internet.  Our line has already been moved, and so we are technologically stranded until we move. 

Also, removing wallpaper is not fun. 

:)

It's Ours!!!

So, looks like we no longer have a phone.  Apparently our tv/phone/internet provider has already moved our service, but our internet is still going strong, for some reason (knock on wood).  If you need to get a hold of us, email is best, cell phones if it's an emergency.  Or maybe it's a good time to start Skyping :)

The Countdown is On!!

This will be our last weekend as renters. 

Money has been wired to the notary, certified cheques have been printed, new bank accounts opened, insurance bought and fingers have been crossed, many times.  Everything seems to be in order (knock on wood).  The owner should have moved out yesterday, and is hopefully now spending a delightful weekend cleaning. 

On Tuesday afternoon we will sign the final agreement of sale, and receive our keys.  We will then trek directly over to the new place with a bottle of Champagne and a screwdriver.  While I celebrate with a glass of bubbly, Erik will be anxiously pulling out outlets to get an idea of what to expect for the Great Electrical Adventure that he and Howard are undertaking, where our new apartment will be electrified to meet all and any possible electrical needs for the next 2000 years.  Which might be the cause of our most recent stress:  aesthetics vs. electrical code.  I'll let you guess which side I'm on.  I'm also pretty certain that my side is not going to win.  But hopefully any resistance from my camp will prevent the installation of light switches in the middle of walls. 

Two more days....I've been looking out of our window at the Eiffel Tower a lot lately, and I'm sure going to miss the view!  I'm also going to miss our Monoprix, and the Indian restaurant downstairs.  And the really good Korean place that we found too recently (why hadn't we gone there sooner??).  I'm going to miss being on the sixth floor, and being so close to the metro.  I know that there will be lots of things to love about our new location, but now that we're into our last couple of weeks here, it's hard to imagine living anywhere else. 

When we were kids....

I found these gems while I was cleaning out my inbox the other day. I think they are circa 2004. Erik's first comment was "who are the kids in these photos??"

And, funnily, Erik was actually wearing that same sweater the other day.

Amsterdam

Some of the hightlights...

Van Gogh Museum
Amazing! What a prolific artist. You really realize when seeing so many of his works together how versatile he was. He changed styles continuously throughout his career. I also appreciated seeing how much his style changed once he moved to France. There was a series of paintings describing how much his colour palette changed. And he was untrained! The number of paintings he produced in such a short time was unbelievable, and we both left feeling like we had some catching up to do.

Anne Frank House
Moving. And well worth the wait in line. This museum chronicles the period that Anne and her family, along with four others spent hiding in the upstairs annexe of her father’s business. Quotes from the book displayed on the wall really brought the situation to life. Neither of us had read the book before, and I'm now halfway through it, and wow. It's even more powerful being able to visualize the space and the people.


The city itself.
Neither of us had any idea how great this city would be. It had never been on my list of places to go, but now I'm imagining us going there for long weekends....it's the same amount of travel time as we would do between Toronto and Ottawa. My first impression of Amsterdam as we left the train station was that we were about ten years too old to appreciate the city. We got in around noon, and the streets were swarming with the 'I'm backpacking around Europe before starting university' types who looked like they'd just rolled out of bed (or been kicked out of their hostel), and were looking for a quick greasy meal to soothe their stomachs after a wild night on the town. However, the farther away you get from the red light district, the more laid back the city gets. The city centre is ringed with canals, with many of the buildings facing out over the water. We spent a good part of our time there hopping from one patio to another. The weather was great while we were there, and the canals were packed with all sizes of boats as people cruised around the city. We couldn’t figure out why this isn’t done on the Seine…


There's a concert going on in the middle of all the boats

(blurry, I know...)
We also had a great meal at De Kas, a restaurant basically inside a greenhouse that serves mostly locally grown/raised foods. Our waiter warned us that our duck main course might have bullet shards in it....not a very appetizing description, but the fact that it was wrapped in bacon and then barbequed made us forget about all that! Delicious! Erik also appreciated the solar panels.



We of course visited the Heineken Experience, which I think Erik enjoyed more than I did. It's not that there was anything wrong, but I couldn't get past the fact that a brewery tour could cost more than the Van Gogh museum.


We spent a morning walking around the Jordaan neighbourhood. It was full of markets and cute stores. Had a nice tapas lunch.


Our hotel was pretty cool too, not bad for a Radisson.


After visiting the Resistance Museum (excellent, if poorly displayed, and incredibly dense) we stopped on a bridge and had drinks while watching the continual parade of boaters.

On Sunday afternoon we hopped on the train and headed out to Utrecht, a small university town where Erik's conference was being held. Utrecht was a great little town, kind of like a miniature Amsterdam, with the same great canals and architechture, but minus the hoards of tourists. Not that there's anything wrong with tourists. I'm happy to be one, and I'm getting used to the Paris lovers in our neighbourhood. But I can appreciate their absence.

We had tapas canal-side, and once again, watched the boats. We saw a couple that were set for little dinner parties or barbeques. We'll look into that next time.


Walking back to the hotel, I saw this door to nowhere. And this:

I'll take one, please.

Getting back to Paris was a bit less fun (remember the lady on the TGV to Basel who was complaining about how slow the train was going? Hah! That was me this time!!!). First of all, the train station in Amsterdam is completely devoid of any signage to tell you what track your train is on. I finally found an info counter, with a long line of people, all asking the same question. The two ladies 'manning' it had just turned their screens around, and so when each person asked what track their train was on, they'd just point. So I get 'directed' to my track, which has a sign advertising the arrival of another train. There was another poor employee on the track, whose sole purpose, as far as I could tell, was to deal with all the people, who like me, wanted to make sure they were in the right place. Because, you know, the train is supposed to LEAVE in five minutes and hasn't arrived yet, and the sign says something else. Yes, we were in fact in the right spot, and the train did arrive, pulled out of the station five minutes late, made an 'exceptional' stop in Utrecht (where I'd come from much earlier that morning) then pulled out of the station and stopped. We sat on the tracks for at least 45 minutes before continuing our journey VERY SLOWLY. The Thalys is supposed to be a fast train. I could have walked faster.

I'm on a roll today! Don't even get me started on the post office....

Anyway, we were only gone for three days, same as Brussels, and I was still surprised how long it felt like we'd been gone. It's so nice just to get out of Paris, and see something different.

The Happy Travelers

Brussels en photo

Stocking Up

We bought two chairs off of Craig's List a couple of weeks ago, and of course had a great time transporting them home on the metro.

We are so cool.

And Then There Were Three....

.....refrigerators.

Tomorrow will mark not only the first day of our fifth year of marriage, but also the arrival of fridge #3 into our apartment, thus ending our six day adventure without refrigeration. To be fair, two of those days were spent in Brussels, so really we've only had to suffer four days without, and luckily we're both on vacation and can thus share the required daily shop for food.

You might be asking yourself why we are getting a third fridge.

It's not so much a 'third' fridge as a replacement for our current fridge which no longer works.

Why doesn't it work? you might be wondering.

We seem to have a problem with fridges/freezers and too much ice (but never enough of the kind that you put in your drink!). Our fridge on Augusta Ave in Toronto used to freeze under the freezer compartment, then defrost, melting the water all over the floor. Erik perfected the technique of chipping the accumulated ice off the fridge with a screwdriver....see where this is going?

Our current bar sized fridge doesn't have a separate freezer, just one of those useless freezer compartments, that regularly becomes so frozen over that not only can you no longer retrieve whatever it was you were stupid enough to put in there but you also can't close the door. Erik settled in for what will have been (hopefully!) his last freezer de-icing session, and near the end the screwdriver 'slipped', and all I saw was a big cloud of smoke (think dry ice), heard Erik say some choice words and slam the fridge door. Then he asked me how late Darty was open (well, first he asked me to Google and find out if refridgerant is toxic. Apparently not, and the same chemical is used in asthma inhalers??).

Off we went to our neighbourhood Darty, a store that always irritates me because it's always way too hot. So hot that all you want to do is get the heck out, which I imagine can't be good for business, but in the three years we've been living here, they've never installed air conditioning.

Turns out Darty is really helpful, in that they don't keep a stock of big appliances at the store (it was a Saturday afternoon, and we were ready to carry a fridge in a box the three blocks home), but they do offer free delivery and removal of old appliances. Great! Only problem is that it takes two business days. And because it was Saturday, that would have brought us to Tuesday at the earliest, and our train to Brussels left at 6:24am. Which brings us back to the present, anxiously looking forward to tomorrow afternoon when we can go to the store and buy things like cheese! And yogurt!!

Man, our life is exciting!!

Stay tuned for a more interesting post about our trip to Brussels. We decided today that the overall theme of the trip was along the lines of 'Beer Nouveau, Solo'.....

Sunday

It's been one of those lazy Sundays, filled with baking and (online) newspaper reading.

For all you North Americans just waking up, here is a recipe for Orange Brioche to get your day started. No photo today, the ones pictured in the recipe are much nicer looking than mine. Didn't stop us from eating almost all of them, though. I didn't have any oranges, so I left that out, but I did add some chocolate chips to about half of the buns, for Erik. I also didn't have fresh yeast, and the conversion I found online suggested 10g of the dried stuff. Seemed like a lot, but you can't really go wrong with too much yeast, right? I think they also might have benefited from a second rise.

And some interesting articles from around the web for you to peruse:
No Apologies From the Boss of a No-Frills Airline is humorous (but accurate?) account of the CEO of RyanAir.

Out of the Kitchen, On to the Couch is an interesting (and long) article about how food television is doing just that.

The Calorie Delusion: Why Food Labels Are Wrong is a fascinating account of the science behind how food is digested, and what actually determines the amount of calories your body extracts from a food.

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend.

In the Kitchen

It's tough being on vacation. You know, having time to try new recipes, especially ones that take more than 30 minutes. I had fun baking yesterday. Once I get started, I just can't stop. What's one more dirty bowl in the sink?


First up were these Light Brioche Burger Buns which were remarkably easy, and really tasty. And about a million times better than the spongey buns they sell here. We ate them with the veggie burger from the summer issue of the LCBO's Food and Drink magazine (couldn't find the recipe online).


Then I came across this recipe for Cherry Hazelnut Loaf Cake, and figured it would be a tasty way to use up some less than stellar cherries I had bought at the market that morning. It made a lovely moist cake, that isn't too sweet at all. The only problem is that now I have almost an entire loaf cake staring at me from across the kitchen. It will be so nice when we can finally freeze things!

I think I'll take a day off from baking. I'm also busy researching restaurants and places to eat for our upcoming trip to Brussels. The hardest part is narrowing down the choices. Only two dinners!! Three lunches!! And street food (it is the home of frites, after all!). I'm already hungry just thinking about it. I'll have to have some cake to tide me over :)

Last night we went to Japan

Well, it seemed like Japan!

We had a karaoke night at a genuine Japanese karaoke joint in the Japanese quarter here in Paris. We've made some new friends who lived in Japan for a couple of years. They already had a tip on this location courtesy of some salary men that they had questioned on a previous outing. After meeting up at the Opera, we headed over to what appeared to be a restaurant, and were immediately taken down to the cellar and shown into out private karaoke room.


It was nothing glamorous, but what it lacked in glamour it made up for in authenticity. The song books were the real Japanese ones, and the machine showed all the Japanese translations along with the English words.


Our friendly host brought us ice cold Kirin beers, and we basically sang out hearts out for three solid hours. It was fantastic.

Christy's Visit

Photo Recap

Saying goodbye to Anja, who's off to New Zeland for the summer. We met up at a bar close to our new neighbourhood for a vernissage (art opening). She showed off her new blonde locks. Looking good!


There was a huge storm on Thursday night. It was so windy that three trees outside our building snapped. We fell asleep to the sounds of chainsaws, as the pompiers took care of the problem.

Banana Upside Down Cake

I thought I should at least share this recipe, seeing as I've eaten most of it myself, it was so good. Which is remarkable considering that there are three adults currently living in this apartment, so I really have no excuse. Except that it's really good. And so easy to make.

This is also the first recipe that my new Kitchen Aid mixed up, and it performed fantastically.

We're still enjoying Christy's company, and did an interesting walking tour in the 16th this morning looking at art nouveau and art deco style architechture.

Tonight we're headed for the Champs de Mars for a free Johnny Halliday concert, and then, of course, the fireworks. It is Bastille Day today, after all!

Probably the most exciting thing that will happen all summer

Aside from that whole apartment thing.

Now, what do I bake first????