j had the idea that she would learn pastry making here and then open a pastry delivery business in cambridge. she started surfing the web on the ipad and came upon the idea of making chocolate from scratch. some website said "it's easy!" and j was convinced. she went to buy the things she would need. she was going to follow the recipe from the website which called for cocoa, sugar, vanilla, butter and milk. also needed was a candy thermometer and chocolate molds. so we went shopping to the kitchen supply area of paris - near the cathedral st eustache, above les halles in the 2nd arrondissement. that's also where you can buy beautiful copper pans. (3 shops we know of: e. dehilleron, mora, and la bovida). she picked out one mold with several different shapes, but forgot to buy the candy thermometer. j was so hot to start making chocolate that when we got back, she decided to try it without the thermometer. she read about the "softball" stage - when the candy is hot enough to form a ball when dropped in water, so decided to try that method.
try 1: she added the butter and vanilla too early. she boiled and boiled the mixture and dropped it in water to test if it was "softball" stage. finally decided it was ready and poured it into the mold. it was a gooey, sticky mess and tasted burnt. even after 24 hours in the fridge and freezer, it did not harden.
j went by herself to the cooking store around the corner and using her limited french, proudly succeeded in buying a thermometer. but when she came back, it didn't seem to be the right type at all, since it only went up to 50 degrees Centigrade. she didn't want to go back, but in the end, we both went down and had a long talk with the owner who also gives cooking classes in the shop. j was glad that i was there because she only understood about 1/2 of what he said. he was very informative. he said that the recipe didn't sound right - that there were 2 enemies of chocolate - water and temperature. water ruins chocolate and keeps it from hardening. the recipe called for milk - which was mostly made of water. he said that normally chocolate should not be heated to over 55 degrees centigrade, but the recipe required 116 degrees and then putting it in the freezer. he said the thermometer she bought was a chocolate thermometer -used for "tempering" the chocolate. if you start with a chocolate bar and melt it, it will only harden again if you temper it - which is to bring it up to a temperature, then cool it to a certain temperature and then heat it again a tiny bit to another temperature. when it is tempered it is shiny and will harden. he said he had never tried making chocolate from scratch, but the 3 ingredients should be cocoa, cocoa butter and sugar. we bought a candy thermometer, and kept the chocolate thermometer for later.
try 2: she decided to try the recipe again, just to test it, this time using the proper candy thermometer. she put everything together and tried to get the mixture up to 116C. but guess what? centigrade is defined by the freezing and boiling point of water. 0 is freezing, 100 is boiling. since milk is mostly water, it did not rise above 100 degrees. the recipe was ridiculous.
she saved the chocolate liquid to drink as hot chocolate. (we tried drinking it later and it was just too sweet. we tried adding more milk etc, but we ended up just pouring it out!)
try 3: she went back to the store and bought cocoa butter. she followed a different recipe. it called for very fine sugar - powdered sugar with no starch added. it called for powdered milk. we only had normal sugar, so that is what she used. she bought some powdered milk. it was a relative success. she made thin chocolate slabs which tasted good, though gritty from the sugar. i kind of liked it that way.
try 4: she made some more
try 5: tempering chocolate. she took her chocolate, melted it, brought it to temperature A, cooled it to temperature B and raised it again to temperature C. though it was a bit inexact, she poured the finished liquid into her molds and put it in the fridge. it worked and beautiful little chocolates (though a little gritty and crunchy) popped out of the mold.
j is acting a bit the purist about things. she's talking about making chocolate from scratch extreme. she wants to get the beans and grind them up. she wants to grow the tree and pick the pods and do the WHOLE process. not to be discouraging, but i told her that she would have to move to within 20 degrees from the equator. i told her that when i bake cakes from scratch, i don't grow the wheat and grind it into flour.
we went to the chocolate museum in the 10th arrondissement - called "choco-story". very informative and perfect for j. chocolate pod and bean displays, history (maya and aztecs used it in spicy drink and evolution to current sweet chocolate in western world). cocoa beans were a measure of wealth and used as currency. but more importantly were the displays of the process - beans are ground and create a paste referred to cocoa mass which can be squeezed to separate out the cocoa butter and the solids which become cocoa powder. all kinds of historic chocolate paraphernalia was displayed - cups, stirrers, molds.
we were gathered to watch a demonstration. this was the best part. the lady had a big machine that constantly stirred a vat of chocolate and then dispensed it into a mold (plastic grid of chocolate shapes) with a grid of poured liquid. she let it sit for a minute and upended it to pour the chocolate back in the pot - but leaving a thick coating in the mold. she used what looked like a masonry scraper to clean the mold. put in the fridge for 10 mins (she had one already prepared) and pulled it out to put in the filling - praline. put in fridge for 10 mins, and then poured chocolate on top and scraped clean and back in fridge. then she banged the mold hard to have the chocolates fall out. this was valuable for j to see exactly how to handle it. then we all got to taste them. delicious.
p asked how hard it would be to start from grinding the beans. the woman was shocked. she said that you'd need some serious machines to pull off the skins and grind them and squeeze them (or something like that). p asked about using fine powdered sugar as an ingredient- she said no, you should use glucose. hmmm, sounding quite industrial.
at the end of the exhibit there were sculptures and clothes made out of chocolate. also, there was a display explaining why chocolate was good for your cholesterol and for losing weight. not sure how objective these observations were, since the museum is sponsored by a large belgian chocolate manufacturer.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
we are a "type"
i have never been really excited about the eiffel tower. it’s too cliche. but somehow, we have landed 5 mins from it. i jog by on my morning runs. i am softening to it though, since seeing it reminds me to appreciate this special place and time.
today was the school social get-together for the new families, that took place on the champs de mars – the park under the eiffel tower. j’s new school is a bilingual french/english school which has a special “adaptation” class for newly arrived non-french speaking or writing kids, who will spend a year getting their french up to speed. after that, they go into the mainstream curriculum. we were excited that we would be part of an international community again. her class has around 14 kids. there seem to be a few koreans, a few italians, and unfortunately quite a lot of english speakers from england, australia and the u.s. (p and i would be happier if there were fewer english speakers, as we worry that it will be too easy for j to just speak english all the time.) j got to meet her classmates and the parents got to meet each other.
i have to admit that at first, we were a little proud of our plan to move to paris. we felt brave and different. we were then shown up by j’s friend who announced that she and her family were moving to bangalore,india. they sold their house and cars and shipped all their belongings. we greatly admire them for it, but it made us feel like wimps! worse than that is that now that we are here, we find that, not only are we not brave, but we are not unique at all. we are a “type”. we’re so common that there is a word for what we are doing: “family sabbatical”. it seems that adam gopnick and his book “paris to the moon” about moving his family to paris, inspired and gave courage to many other american families to do the same. apparently the school is full of them. we walk around paris and hear LOTS of english and LOTS of bilingual little kids. then to add to our feelings of being non-unique, we find that one of the girls in j’s class is from the boston area, has played the violin for many years, AND has an asian mom. this may be confusing for the other families...
as usual, j will be our social link to the community. in san francisco, because she went to 2 different schools, music lessons and a plentitude of fancy specialty camps and afterschool activities, she was always recognizing kids around town. amazingly, at this school function, she recognized a younger kid with whom she had gone to camp this summer in boston. also, j’s assigned school buddy who had lived in sunnyvale, california for 4 years, and gone to the sunnyvale french school, knew a family from j’s violin school in s.f. another family we knew in s.f., who had gone to the s.f. french school with j, have just moved back to paris. i got an email from the mom saying that she saw us from the bus as j and i were wandering around town. then, saturday afternoon, we were across town and j greeted a kid on the metro, who she had met just that morning at the school get-together. all these encounters in the last few days and we’ve only been here a month. paris, our new small town!
today was the school social get-together for the new families, that took place on the champs de mars – the park under the eiffel tower. j’s new school is a bilingual french/english school which has a special “adaptation” class for newly arrived non-french speaking or writing kids, who will spend a year getting their french up to speed. after that, they go into the mainstream curriculum. we were excited that we would be part of an international community again. her class has around 14 kids. there seem to be a few koreans, a few italians, and unfortunately quite a lot of english speakers from england, australia and the u.s. (p and i would be happier if there were fewer english speakers, as we worry that it will be too easy for j to just speak english all the time.) j got to meet her classmates and the parents got to meet each other.
i have to admit that at first, we were a little proud of our plan to move to paris. we felt brave and different. we were then shown up by j’s friend who announced that she and her family were moving to bangalore,india. they sold their house and cars and shipped all their belongings. we greatly admire them for it, but it made us feel like wimps! worse than that is that now that we are here, we find that, not only are we not brave, but we are not unique at all. we are a “type”. we’re so common that there is a word for what we are doing: “family sabbatical”. it seems that adam gopnick and his book “paris to the moon” about moving his family to paris, inspired and gave courage to many other american families to do the same. apparently the school is full of them. we walk around paris and hear LOTS of english and LOTS of bilingual little kids. then to add to our feelings of being non-unique, we find that one of the girls in j’s class is from the boston area, has played the violin for many years, AND has an asian mom. this may be confusing for the other families...
as usual, j will be our social link to the community. in san francisco, because she went to 2 different schools, music lessons and a plentitude of fancy specialty camps and afterschool activities, she was always recognizing kids around town. amazingly, at this school function, she recognized a younger kid with whom she had gone to camp this summer in boston. also, j’s assigned school buddy who had lived in sunnyvale, california for 4 years, and gone to the sunnyvale french school, knew a family from j’s violin school in s.f. another family we knew in s.f., who had gone to the s.f. french school with j, have just moved back to paris. i got an email from the mom saying that she saw us from the bus as j and i were wandering around town. then, saturday afternoon, we were across town and j greeted a kid on the metro, who she had met just that morning at the school get-together. all these encounters in the last few days and we’ve only been here a month. paris, our new small town!
Saturday, August 21, 2010
vines & ikea
this morning, i went for a run among the vines. it was lovely. then we had breakfast and i brought p and j for a walk in the vines. i needed to take some pictures for an idea i have for a series of paintings. then, we headed back to paris, stopping at ikea to stock up on things for our apartment. j had been craving swedish meatballs, so we had dinner there and then, amazingly, we were able to fit all our stuff in the car, next to our wine and luggage.
was happy to be back "home" to settle in.
was happy to be back "home" to settle in.
Friday, August 20, 2010
macon area
drove through aix this morning. it has such a lovely color. lots of people out on the street. clothing marche day. had breakfast with amy and bob in their lovely garden. wonderful ambiance. this is the life...
heading back towards paris, but only going halfway again. (just want to mention here how amazing it is to have an ipad with which we can consult google maps for real time TRAFFIC! allows us to detour around terrible traffic jams. amazing!) p was able to book a bed and breakfast in macon wine country. we drove through the lovely hilly countryside, dense with vineyards and found our b&b in an old stone farm house at the edge of a very small town with narrow streets. we dropped our bags and headed straight out to find some wines to taste.
when j was born, we were living in paris. it was summer, and we had rented a house in macon for a few weeks after her birth, so we could get out of the hot city. my mother and p’s parents and sister came over to join us. now, 14 years later, we were back in the neighborhood. we didn’t remember the name of the town, but knew that the local wine was “st. veran” and it was over the hill from the town of fuisse where they make “pouilly fuisse”.
so today, we headed out on our first mission to see if we could find the town and maybe even the house where we stayed. p. recognized the town name of “leynes” and then recognized the landscape. i recognized the doorway that looked out over the main street and onto the hills of vines. p. recognized the owner’s name. we pulled in and were pleased to see that the owner was there. we explained that we had rented his house all those years ago, just after j’s birth. we asked if we could do a tasting and he happily brought us down to the cave. i remembered thinking that his wines were ok, but not great. we were pleased to find some decent and very reasonably priced “st veran”s. we bought 6 – 2 st veran, 2 macon and 2 cramant – which is a bubbly wine made with the champagne process. we drove through the town of leynes, which was very quiet. then we headed to fuisse, where we had hiked to, years ago. we found another very quiet town, but with places to taste wines. we knocked on one door on the street. it felt like a children’s tv puppet show when the big round man with googley eyes opened the shutters above the door and said in a booming voice “aah-oui?”. when we asked if we could taste his wine, he said that he would be right down. then, like in a puppet show, we heard the sound effects of feet clonk, clonk, clonking down the echoing stairs. he had only one wine to taste. it was markedly better than the “st veran” and a little more expensive. when we said we would take one bottle, he said “ah, no”, “[the minimum is 6 bottles. i am not running an epicerie (deli) here]’. 6 bottles was really more than we wanted so, we said, “no, never mind”, and he then offered us 3 bottles. we agreed, though i guess we could’ve negotiated ourselves back down to one bottle.
we then drove into macon, which being a larger town, had more to offer for restaurants. we had a lovely meal along the river and decided we really liked the town. it felt big enough to offer everything, but small enough to feel manageable, old enough to have interesting buildings and rich enough to have nice shops. in addition, it is close enough to the vines that one can be back among them in 10 minutes.
heading back towards paris, but only going halfway again. (just want to mention here how amazing it is to have an ipad with which we can consult google maps for real time TRAFFIC! allows us to detour around terrible traffic jams. amazing!) p was able to book a bed and breakfast in macon wine country. we drove through the lovely hilly countryside, dense with vineyards and found our b&b in an old stone farm house at the edge of a very small town with narrow streets. we dropped our bags and headed straight out to find some wines to taste.
when j was born, we were living in paris. it was summer, and we had rented a house in macon for a few weeks after her birth, so we could get out of the hot city. my mother and p’s parents and sister came over to join us. now, 14 years later, we were back in the neighborhood. we didn’t remember the name of the town, but knew that the local wine was “st. veran” and it was over the hill from the town of fuisse where they make “pouilly fuisse”.
so today, we headed out on our first mission to see if we could find the town and maybe even the house where we stayed. p. recognized the town name of “leynes” and then recognized the landscape. i recognized the doorway that looked out over the main street and onto the hills of vines. p. recognized the owner’s name. we pulled in and were pleased to see that the owner was there. we explained that we had rented his house all those years ago, just after j’s birth. we asked if we could do a tasting and he happily brought us down to the cave. i remembered thinking that his wines were ok, but not great. we were pleased to find some decent and very reasonably priced “st veran”s. we bought 6 – 2 st veran, 2 macon and 2 cramant – which is a bubbly wine made with the champagne process. we drove through the town of leynes, which was very quiet. then we headed to fuisse, where we had hiked to, years ago. we found another very quiet town, but with places to taste wines. we knocked on one door on the street. it felt like a children’s tv puppet show when the big round man with googley eyes opened the shutters above the door and said in a booming voice “aah-oui?”. when we asked if we could taste his wine, he said that he would be right down. then, like in a puppet show, we heard the sound effects of feet clonk, clonk, clonking down the echoing stairs. he had only one wine to taste. it was markedly better than the “st veran” and a little more expensive. when we said we would take one bottle, he said “ah, no”, “[the minimum is 6 bottles. i am not running an epicerie (deli) here]’. 6 bottles was really more than we wanted so, we said, “no, never mind”, and he then offered us 3 bottles. we agreed, though i guess we could’ve negotiated ourselves back down to one bottle.
we then drove into macon, which being a larger town, had more to offer for restaurants. we had a lovely meal along the river and decided we really liked the town. it felt big enough to offer everything, but small enough to feel manageable, old enough to have interesting buildings and rich enough to have nice shops. in addition, it is close enough to the vines that one can be back among them in 10 minutes.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
the south
aix-en-provence synopsis:
saturday we hung out in the house in the morning and i started my first painting of this new era... in the late afternoon we walked around aix with amy and bob. there is a great energy in aix en provence. lots of people, beautiful, warm light. yellow houses. lots of very small streets and very much an upscale shopping town. it is a very old town with small windy streets, encircled with a ring road and then bisected by a shopping street called the “cours mirabeau” which is lined on one side with cafes. north of this is the touristy crowded shopping, restaurant area. south of this is the university area, which was very quiet – but it's still summer. we went searching for a crepe for hungry j, but couldn’t find any, it being late afternoon. she had to be happy with some french fries. then we went back to amy and bob’s place to prepare dinner. we got to eat on the millstone again. we had bought a rotisserie chicken and then cooked salmon and green beans and j made mashed potatoes. we had wine and a cheese course and then the 10 flavors of macaroons we bought in town. j wanted to try every flavor, so divided each one (only 2" diameter) into 5.
sunday was a beautiful day. we all went to “l'isle sur la sorgue” – a town that was famous for its canals and beauty but later made a name as the antiques town. many antique dealers here normally, but every year, the weekend of august 15 (assumption holiday), has a special antiques fair with many more dealers exhibiting in the open air. lots of crazy and fun stuff - like giant metal pergolas, a 1920's wrap around shower with 10 heads pointing in, tables made from antique doors and retired industrial machinery.
monday we went to marseille to tour around. saw the beautiful church on the hill, “notre dame de la garde” with a stunning gilt tiled ceiling and wonderful model boats hanging from it. (these accompanied many paintings of boats in storms - marseille being a sailor's town, people gave thanks to notre dame for being saved at sea.) gorgeous views looking down on marseille and the sea. then we headed to one of the nearby beaches – sormiou, where you have to park and then walk for about a ½ hour – up and down a big hill to get to the beautiful white cliffs and blue water. unforturnately, we had been having a bit of wind which cooled down the water temperature to “cold”.
tuesday we hung out in the house and i worked on the painting. in the afternoon, we went to another beach area, called “cote bleue”. the water was still cold...
wednesday we went to visit the pont du gard (huge roman bridge extending aqueduct over the river “gard”). we had a picnic lunch and then p and j swam in the river. we went to the museum afterwards, which was very interesting and well done. the romans were quite the engineers. the bridge was built with stones that were cut to fit and then were layed on top of each other without using any mortar. they built many aqueducts and this one happened to extend 50 miles (into town of nimes) with a very slight angle of decline. on exhibit were some very modern looking lead pipes that were made by the romans. one amazing video taken by parachutist and small plane followed the aqueduct from the air. most of the aqueduct was underground and you could see the indentation in the earth. apparently, after the roman empire started disintegrating and the aqueduct was not maintained, little by little the water in the system got muddier and muddier. eventually, people stopped using it. i finished my painting and have included it here.
saturday we hung out in the house in the morning and i started my first painting of this new era... in the late afternoon we walked around aix with amy and bob. there is a great energy in aix en provence. lots of people, beautiful, warm light. yellow houses. lots of very small streets and very much an upscale shopping town. it is a very old town with small windy streets, encircled with a ring road and then bisected by a shopping street called the “cours mirabeau” which is lined on one side with cafes. north of this is the touristy crowded shopping, restaurant area. south of this is the university area, which was very quiet – but it's still summer. we went searching for a crepe for hungry j, but couldn’t find any, it being late afternoon. she had to be happy with some french fries. then we went back to amy and bob’s place to prepare dinner. we got to eat on the millstone again. we had bought a rotisserie chicken and then cooked salmon and green beans and j made mashed potatoes. we had wine and a cheese course and then the 10 flavors of macaroons we bought in town. j wanted to try every flavor, so divided each one (only 2" diameter) into 5.
sunday was a beautiful day. we all went to “l'isle sur la sorgue” – a town that was famous for its canals and beauty but later made a name as the antiques town. many antique dealers here normally, but every year, the weekend of august 15 (assumption holiday), has a special antiques fair with many more dealers exhibiting in the open air. lots of crazy and fun stuff - like giant metal pergolas, a 1920's wrap around shower with 10 heads pointing in, tables made from antique doors and retired industrial machinery.
monday we went to marseille to tour around. saw the beautiful church on the hill, “notre dame de la garde” with a stunning gilt tiled ceiling and wonderful model boats hanging from it. (these accompanied many paintings of boats in storms - marseille being a sailor's town, people gave thanks to notre dame for being saved at sea.) gorgeous views looking down on marseille and the sea. then we headed to one of the nearby beaches – sormiou, where you have to park and then walk for about a ½ hour – up and down a big hill to get to the beautiful white cliffs and blue water. unforturnately, we had been having a bit of wind which cooled down the water temperature to “cold”.
tuesday we hung out in the house and i worked on the painting. in the afternoon, we went to another beach area, called “cote bleue”. the water was still cold...
wednesday we went to visit the pont du gard (huge roman bridge extending aqueduct over the river “gard”). we had a picnic lunch and then p and j swam in the river. we went to the museum afterwards, which was very interesting and well done. the romans were quite the engineers. the bridge was built with stones that were cut to fit and then were layed on top of each other without using any mortar. they built many aqueducts and this one happened to extend 50 miles (into town of nimes) with a very slight angle of decline. on exhibit were some very modern looking lead pipes that were made by the romans. one amazing video taken by parachutist and small plane followed the aqueduct from the air. most of the aqueduct was underground and you could see the indentation in the earth. apparently, after the roman empire started disintegrating and the aqueduct was not maintained, little by little the water in the system got muddier and muddier. eventually, people stopped using it. i finished my painting and have included it here.
Friday, August 13, 2010
arrived in aix
we left beaune thinking we’d find a cafe in one of the little wine towns. we headed to volnay, but discovered that it was such a small town, that at our late breakfast hour, there was no cafe open - maybe no cafe at all. i didn’t want to lose the opportunity to buy some wines directly, so on empty stomachs, we went looking. there was a man at the door of a winery and i went and timidly asked if it was too early to do a tasting. he looked at me shocked, and said, “[no, of course not]”. so we tasted his 3 wines and bought 2 of each. we eventually found a town big enough to have several cafes open.
arrived in aix. went directly to see amy and bob, who have keys to their friends’ house, where we will stay. they have a beautiful apt which is part of an older house with a lovely garden protected from the street by a wall. part of their space is a building that used to be an “orangerie” or conservatory. it is long and narrow with one long wall made of a series of arched windows. it was beautifully renovated to be a little modern and like a loft. the owner is always digging up roman artifacts on the property and the outdoor tabletop is an ancient millstone that he found. there is some sort of roman underground water system that he might use to make a lap pool. there are grapes hanging off vines which wind up an outdoor stairway. we had dinner outside, and it was lovely - exactly what i had been looking forward to in the south.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
heading south
after unpacking and settling into the apt for 2 days, we took off for the south. we were heading to aix-en-provence to visit my “cousin”, amy (close and longtime family friend) who has been living there for the last 3 years. it’s a 7 hour drive from paris, so we decided to break up the journey by stopping half way. we stopped in beaune, the historic market town of burgundy, where all the local wines were traditionally sold. it is an old town, with red tile roofed stone buildings lined higgledy piggledy down narrow cobblestone streets. it seems to cover a space of no more than 10 city blocks. it is a working wine town, but also a tourist town with lots of cafes, restaurants and clothing and shoe shops. it was a beautiful, sunny day and there were plenty of tourists milling around the pedestrian streets.
p and i wanted to go back to the “marche aux vins”, a great place where you can taste many types of local wines. we had come here years and years ago and in my memory, there were over 50 wines to try. perhaps it was because i had no alcohol tolerance then, and the actual 15 (or so) wines seemed like a huge number to me. in fact, the “marche aux vins” is really a store selling its own collection of wines but it does offer the opportunity to try a variety of wines from different local towns. the other fun thing is that it is housed in an old church. they charge 10 euros for the tasting, hand you your “tastevin” ( little silver wine tasting cup), and you descend into the “cave” and walk along damp, mildewy underground tunnels lined with wine bottles and barrels. at each station there is a barrel set on its end with an open bottle of wine on top for you to pour into your tastevin to taste. if you like it, you can go to the shelf and take a few bottles to put it in your wire shopping basket. as you go along, the wines get progressively better and more expensive. at the end of the tunnel of cellars, you climb up some steps and emerge in the main nave of the old church to find the finer wines. the first time i had come, i discovered that my favorite wine of the region was a “volnay premier cru”. the second time i came, i just passed by the wines in the cellar and came straight to the upper church. this time, i wasn’t as bowled over by the wines, but it i always like tasting and comparing wines, in the effort to broaden my wine sense. however, the most interesting thing on this particular trip was not the wine, but something else that happened.
we figured rather than following us around the dank caves watching us drink, j would be happier in the middle of the main square sketching drawings. so we left her in the middle of the bright center square, also thinking this might give her more practice in being more autonomous. as we were down in the subterranean part of beaune, p got a text from j, who said she was going to explore the town. we both looked at each other with raised eyebrows. hmm, this was progress. j has been typically timid about being independent, but i guess her recent shopping phase had enticed her into exploring on her own. when we emerged from our tasting, we were very pleased to meet up with her and have her show us around town. she dragged us to several stores in which she had found things she liked, and got our approval to buy some clothes. she got some really good deals too!
Monday, August 9, 2010
moving day
to make a long story short, there was another big run-around spanning several days,to get cell phones, with many things required, but finally, j and i each got one. then, we packed up our bags and moved our stuff to the apartment to take up residence. we are very pleased with the apt. it is in an older building (adds charm), has creaky uneven floors and is up 3 flights of stairs – no elevator. the layout is reasonable, with rectangular rooms (no weird shapes) and the living area is separated from the bedrooms by a door. it is 72 sq meters – or 775 square feet. this is quite a bit smaller than our suburban house of 1900 sq feet, not including finished basement and attic storage space, but it’s enough space for us. we knew it would be different. we are quite pleased with having everything furnished. unfurnished paris apartments sometimes have unfurnished kitchens, which means no stove, oven, fridge, microwaves or cabinets. this apt has beds, couches and even sheets and towels. i was thinking i wouldn’t be able to fit my clothes in the limited amount of drawers and wardrobe, but since we could only bring what would fit in our 2 suitcases, we have plenty of room. we are over a metro line and can hear and feel the rumble of the subway train every few minutes. loud motorbikes speed by on the road below the windows. but we have a famous cafe across the street, a fruit/vegetable shop next to it, a pharmacy downstairs and a park at the end of the block. we went to the cafe for dinner.we knew we would have a different lifestyle here, so this apt’s size is fine. we have a dual washing machine/dryer. i’ve always been skeptical about the dryer part of these machines and have never seen one actually work. i tried it and it seems to just heat up the wet clothes so hot that (when i gave up on it and pulled the clothes out) i could barely touch them. i thought i would not be able to live like the old days without a real dryer, but, i find that it’s just not a big deal to hang up the laundry over the tub on a rack. i set up a laundry line in the bedroom. anyway, there is a laundromat around the corner when it is too cold to keep the windows open.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
velib bikes
we got our velib bikes and went biking up the road where we were staying, blvd richard lenoir, a large road built over a canal. we followed the road up to where the canal comes out of the ground. above that, the road was closed for bikes and pedestrians for the day. at the point where the canal widened with a park along its banks, we dropped the bikes. “paris plage” was happening here too, and there were all kinds of free events. we watched a fencing lesson for kids. there were pedalo boats, canoes and upright bike-boats. j’s favorite were giant inflated human-sized hamster wheels in the water, called “spheres flottantes”. several people can fit in the middle and run along the side like hamsters, to make it roll through the water. we weren’t able to do it, as it was totally booked for the day. j. vowed to come back.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
smell of paris; l'ebauchoir
this morning we had a very expensive coffee and croissants in marais - need to remember not to do that. avoid cafes in the upscale neighborhoods.
the smell of paris in the cool morning = coffee + cigarette smoke + car exhaust mixed with a slight whiff of stale human urine - but emotes the feeling of freedom and adventure.
we went with the parents back to “paris plage”. j and i snuck in some shopping in the middle. the rue francs bourgeios is a great shopping street in the marais. the street runs out of the place des vosges and is narrow and lined with old buildings. what used to be my favorite bus, the #29, runs along this road. it was an older style bus with an open balcony in the back. it would run the length of rue francs bourgeois through this ancient part of paris and you could stand in the back, outside, with the wind and swirling exhaust and look in the eyes of the drivers of cars and motorbikes following. the feeling was a cross between being on a sightseeing bus and being in an old french film. sadly they have replaced the buses with modern ones that do not have the balcony. we also walked down the rue des rosiers – which is a sort of jewish section, with orthodox jews hanging out on the street next to the famous felafel shops and cool fashion stores. in addition to having the old jewish section, the marais is the gay/hip area, with the feeling of greenwich village, (though with many fewer people from new jersey).
it was p’s parents last evening and we went to an old favorite bistrot – “l’ebauchoir” in the 12th arrondissement – our old haunting grounds. it was still there and doing well, for good reasons. we were hoping they would have kidneys or something like that on the menu since the parents like that sort of thing. they didn’t, but we did have a wonderfully, delicious meal. i had lamb cooked with lavender goat cheese though i didn’t taste lavender or see goat cheese. j and parents had pork with honey sauce, which strangely DID have a subtle lavender flavor... both dishes were balanced, interesting and melt in the mouth tender. (when p and i were married, we went to the town hall in the 12th arrondissement and were married by the “mayor lady”. we had a few friends present but were mostly pretty informal about the event. when we were done, we came out onto the street, looked around and said, “ok, now what?” well, it was a little before noon, so we thought, “how about lunch?” and the 12 of us wandered over to “l’ebauchoir”. we arrived just before the lunch rush and so were able to get a table for all of us. “l’ebauchoir” is an authentic feeling bistrot and having our wedding lunch there, unplanned, was the equivalent to heading to a diner in the US. it was perfect. )
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
navigot and marche
getting any kind of official card in france is usually a paperwork nightmare, and typically will take 3 tries before you succeed. there is always some piece of paperwork that you don’t have or some part of the french system that foils you. after several previous attempts involving lack of various papers, bad timing, special summer hours, and reduced staff because of vacation time, j and i were successful in getting our “navigot” cards - a metro card that you can put a week or month pass on. we actually wanted the cards because they allow you to get a subscription to the cheap bike rental all around paris, called “velib”. this is sort of like zip cars, but for bikes. on our last try, everything went so smoothly, we were shocked and then even pleasantly surprised to find that there was no charge for the card.
“velib” is a publicly funded cheap bike rental program that has bike stations throughout paris. this is really a wonderful and forward thinking program. first, you subscribe – either 1 euro a day, 5 euros for a week or 30 euros for the year. you can pick up a bike at any velib station and ride it for ½ an hour for free, and then minimal costs for more time. then, you can drop the bike off at any other station. there is a deposit of 150 euros to prevent people from keeping the bikes. it works very well. you can see people all over paris on the slightly funny looking velib bikes.
anyway, after getting our cards, p’s parents wanted to see our new neighborhood, so we went there and walked around and went to the open air market. for me, one big reason to be back in paris is everyday life things like going to the marche for food. fish mongers, meat vendors, fresh vegetables and the rotisserie chicken guy. it’s not just the restaurants that have good food. the basic ingredients taste better. i don’t know why. are the vegetables picked when they are ripe? are the chickens treated better? even the potatoes taste better. is it just fewer days from harvesting to the table?
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
first visitors
p’s parents have come from london to visit. we are looking forward to seeing them more often. they have a room at a hotel near “place des vosges” – a great location, and only a few blocks from where we were staying.
(places des vosges is the oldest planned square in paris - 1605. lined with all the same style beautiful brick and stone buildings which sit over a vaulted arcade for the sidewalk – and one of my favorite places. contains shops, galleries, restaurants and cafes, overlooking the center garden). we went to “cafe de l’industrie” again for dinner.
Monday, August 2, 2010
feels normal
one strange thing about being here, is how normal it feels on some days. since we had lived here before, getting back into the paris rhythm is relatively easy. a familiarity with the everyday things like food shopping and navigating the city comes easily. (that said, there are other days that are tougher. past experience doesn’t make dealing with the official paperwork any easier, it just prepares us, psychologically for the hassle factor that accompanies it. )
j. and i went to the art store to get our supplies. j. bought watercolors. i bought some canvases and a set of acrylics. i love oil paints, but our apt will be too small, and oils are too smelly. so i will experiment with acrylics to see if i can get what i want out of them. one goal of this year is to get my art thing happening. i am going to make art my job- ie. paint or draw pastels everyday and to work on selling them. i will post each painting or pastel on this blog, as i finish them. maybe i’ll show a work progressing.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
paris plage
after our breakfast on sunday, we walked down to the banks of the seine. the city of paris is amazing in terms of the extra entertainments and cultural things it sets up for the residents. "paris plage" translated as "paris beach" is a summer installation that has taken place for several years now. for 2 months, the highway along the seine is closed and divided into sections. the side of the road of one section has sand and beach chairs, another has shower-like pipes emitting a cooling mist over tropical plants. there are tai-chi lessons offered, trampolines, and art activities for kids. most activities are free. there are also cafes, smoothy stands, crepe bars and other food vendors. meanwhile, the road is open to pedestrians, bicyclists and roller bladers.
we walked along paris plage and enjoyed the festive feeling. towards the end we even found free "10 minute massages". p and i happily took part.
we walked along paris plage and enjoyed the festive feeling. towards the end we even found free "10 minute massages". p and i happily took part.
sunday breakfast
we were saving our breakfast trip to “cafe bastille” for a celebration of finding an apt. to me, cafe creme with a croissant is the taste of paris. maybe it's for nostalgic reasons that we like cafe bastille. the nice thing is that it is a little further away from the main rotary of the bastille, next to small road “rue de la roquette”, so it is a bit quieter.
sitting here watching paris life. rue de la roquette was closed to traffic by a lady cop dragging a giant sign to the middle of the road saying "rue reservee pour pietons et cyclistes" for pedestrians and bikes. we watched as she turned away cars, each driver getting out and having a ten minute discussion with her, but ultimately losing. she did let a bus go by struggling with the 6 foot sign, getting help from a lady passing by... doesn't seem very efficient.
i had a delicious rich and runny omelette, j had a crepe and p went with the breakfast special menu with cafe, oj, croissant, 2 soft boiled eggs and bread. but this particular experience is not going to be a regular thing since one coffee was $7 and our total bill was over $50.
it says on the menu that “cafe bastille” was opened in 1789. that was just after the revolution. probably, when the bastille prison was dismantled there was suddenly enough space for a cafe...
actually, the bastille is circled by cafes. across the way is the cafe de la phare, which has a special philosopher’s session on sunday mornings. apparently, it’s a philosphy free for all, with philosophers stopping by to discuss and argue whatever the topic is for the day. philosopy is big in france and i love that a person can list their occupation as "philosopher". they are often shown on the news commenting on some current issue or other.
sitting here watching paris life. rue de la roquette was closed to traffic by a lady cop dragging a giant sign to the middle of the road saying "rue reservee pour pietons et cyclistes" for pedestrians and bikes. we watched as she turned away cars, each driver getting out and having a ten minute discussion with her, but ultimately losing. she did let a bus go by struggling with the 6 foot sign, getting help from a lady passing by... doesn't seem very efficient.
i had a delicious rich and runny omelette, j had a crepe and p went with the breakfast special menu with cafe, oj, croissant, 2 soft boiled eggs and bread. but this particular experience is not going to be a regular thing since one coffee was $7 and our total bill was over $50.
it says on the menu that “cafe bastille” was opened in 1789. that was just after the revolution. probably, when the bastille prison was dismantled there was suddenly enough space for a cafe...
actually, the bastille is circled by cafes. across the way is the cafe de la phare, which has a special philosopher’s session on sunday mornings. apparently, it’s a philosphy free for all, with philosophers stopping by to discuss and argue whatever the topic is for the day. philosopy is big in france and i love that a person can list their occupation as "philosopher". they are often shown on the news commenting on some current issue or other.
paperwork
we went to the bank, AGAIN to add enough money for the deposit. then we headed back to the apartment to sign the lease and leave the deposit check. we celebrated by having lunch in the lovely cafe down the street looking out onto the park. a wonderful lunch in a place i think i will be spending a lot of time. j said this was the best meal so far this trip. she had a creamy chicken and mushroom pasta. i had a great salad with country ham - sort of like prosciutto - served with goat cheese melted on toast. p had pizza.
we toured the upscale shops on the street: sephora, amorina (fancy ice cream chain), etc, and j was thrilled with the idea of living in a mall. perhaps our idea of showing her a different lifestyle is going to backfire on us! then, as we were going to leave the area, the landlord called to say he had lost our check. it had fallen out of his pocket and we had to go and stop the check. so we went to get an official letter from him, addressed to the bank and we raced to get BACK to the BANK before it closed for the weekend! after not seeing me for 12 years, they are really getting to know me again.
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