jj orchestra concert

our road, rue du commerce was closed off today for pedestrians only. it is a sort of street fair with all the vendors having tents in front. it is terribly crowded on saturdays as it is, but this made it even more crowded and difficult to walk. 

later, jj had an orchestra concert. we arrived at 8:30, for the beginning of the concert, but another younger orchestra was going to play first and they hadn’t even started. we decided we’d go for walk while they played. (they were all playing the same music from the last concert). on our walk, we found a jazz club with a pianist playing, so we decided to stop and have a drink. they had nice sangria. we felt a little guilty, but we also laughed at the idea. we got back to the church just in time. her orchestra isn’t great, but the location, an ancient stone church with carved columns, was beautiful. i sat there thinking that at least this was an opportunity to make this complex music – even with mistakes – in an interesting environment. you don’t have this sort of place in the US. jj said that at one point, all the violinists had turned their pages to the next piece, but it was the wrong music, so they didn’t come in at the right time. funny, we hadn’t notice at all. on top of that, the audience, made up of parents and grandparents, were a bit over-enthusiastic. they applauded wildly at the very end, with a standing ovation and called for an encore. a bit overdone. the french get very enthusiastic about music. anyway, afterwards, jj went to the home of her friend (the other violinist) for a sleepover. 

p and i went to blvd montparnasse. p wanted go to cafe he remembered from past visits, to get a bite. it is called “le select” which is the namesake of a cafe in belmont. the food was ok, not great. the french salad nicoise is just not as good as it should be. i used to LOVE french salads, but salads in the US have now surpassed the ones in france. but it was fine. what was nice was sitting there on the boulevard. it is a very animated area. you could be alone and feel like you were with company, just sitting there watching the people.

royal wedding

spent a lot of time looking at apartments online.

today was also the royal wedding. some british friends from the conversation group organized a get-together at lunchtime at the local british pub to watch. i hadn’t been following the lead up to the event, but in any case, i decided i had to get dressed up and wear my big straw hat. we started off with champagne and then had fish and chips. it was good fun. i enjoyed looking at the royal couple and thinking that they actually seemed to like each other and hope they have a happy life together. it was quite touching to watch.

jj had another french lesson today. it really seems to be helping. she seems much more comfortable speaking than before. she just seemed to need a little practice to get things going. for dinner, we went to try out the chinese noodle restaurant that we found earlier. the cook makes fresh noodles and basically cooks them fresh for your dish. it was wonderful.

violin teacher concert

we went to hear jj’s violin teacher and her new quartet in concert at the american building in the city university. she played some astor piazola and philip glass. she does very creative stuff. they had a friend make a little film that went with the philip glass piece. unfortunately, with music playing and a film showing, i end up focusing on the images rather than the music. i tried closing my eyes to just hear the music, but kept coming back to the images.

maynard to dr

maynard has not been well. he barfed a couple of times. i’m worried that he has lyme disease again, so i took him to the vet to get some tests.  will hear back in a few days.

sue and her mom and brother visit

monday, m’s mom headed home and m spent the day with her dad.

meanwhile my friend from college, sue, arrived with her brother and 85 year old mother. her mother has been “in training” for this trip and was really amazing. she had broken her hip last year and just walked and walked to get back into shape. she leads an extremely active life, still playing in the same orchestra since sue and i were in college. they came to dinner. i made the same thing as the night before! 

the next evening, i went with them to the restaurant with my paintings. we had a very nice dinner.  i had told them about my "riz de veau" experience and her brother, who likes that sort of thing too, decided to have it, along with the suggested wine. 

one more week off

we got back last sunday and p went to pick up the dog from the countryside. the dog returned skinnier and stinkier. i gave him a bath the next day (out in the courtyard of the building). the weather in paris is gorgeous. jj is on vacation for this whole week too. i’m trying to take jj out to do things in paris and not forget that we are here in this amazing city. we went wandering a bit in paris and were crossing a street next to our apt and almost got hit by a car. we had the light to walk, and a car was turning the corner slowly. i thought the driver was looking at us. he got closer and closer and didn’t stop when he should’ve. finally, i screamed. jj saw that he wasn’t paying attention and scooted out of the way. he was all apologetic, but meanwhile, everybody around us looked. i’m glad that jj was paying attention and could tell he wasn’t seeing us. as everywhere, there are plenty of crazy drivers here too.

we went to see an exhibit on “madame gres” who was a dress designer. apparently she started out as a sculptor. the exhibit was at the musee bourdelle, bourdelle being a sculptor who worked at the end of the 1800’s until 1929 and made very large chunky sculptures of heros and large people – “monumental” sculture. sort of a funny name too, because it sounds like “bordelle” which means “whore house”.

jj’s friend m and her parents, arrived on wednesday morning on the red-eye flight and didn’t even take a nap. jj went over to pick her up and show her around. jj brought her to the eiffel tower and biked on the champs de mars and then took her to have macaroons at Bon Marche. then they came back to go look at an apartment with me. our lease ends on june 15, so now is the time to get serious about finding a new one. the apt was very close to school, but a bit frumpy in decor. a little old lady must have lived there and left her furniture... m and parents went off to giverny for the day thursday, but we met up with them for dinner. we went to “l’auberge nicolas flamel”, a restaurant housed in the oldest building in paris. nicolas flamel was an alchemist and built this house in 1407. food was good and reasonably priced.

jj spent a lot of time with m, and it seemed like m hardly spent time with her parents. but i guess that was ok with them, since they got to see paris on their own terms. easter sunday, we all went biking on the highway along the seine. later, they all came to dinner. i made duck breasts with raspberry sauce and also salmon teriyaki. i forgot that they weren’t big meat eaters. oh well.

end of trip

we packed our bags and brought them back to the car, and then went back into venice. we took the ferry and got off at the rialto bridge. we split up, jj and i went shopping at touristy stalls and the fish market where i bought some beautiful dried tomatoes. then we sat on a pier and i did a drawing. we met p and went to have lunch a sandwich at a sandwich bar and a pasta at a fish market cafe. then we headed back to car to drive to bologne airport. we into the city thinking maybe we could take a quick peak. last time we were here we decided that we really liked bologne. but we quickly hit traffic and decided to just go to the airport instead.

venice full day

our only full day in venice, we got up, had breakfast and let jj sleep in. when we finally got going, it was 10:30. i had to mail some gifts we got for the cousins, to the US. we walked to the post office along the water. i bought a box to use and as i was building it and packing my things, the post office computer broke and the lady started shooing people out of the office. she told them to come back in an hour, i didn’t understand what was going on exactly, but an old man came in and she was trying to explain it to him, he made some comment and she made some strange gesture with her hands waving up and down her body. i really wish i knew what she said. then an old lady came in, insisting on something. the post office lady was nice, never lost her temper. just tried to explain things over and over. i finished packing my box and by the time i figured how to close it, the computer was back up, so i got to send my package fine. it just took a 45 minutes...

we walked inland and back towards our b&b so we could go to the peggy guggenheim museum. apparently this is the best collection of 20th century art in italy. she had jackson pollacks, miros, kandinsky, jean arp, salvador dali, yves tanguy, joseph cornell, really everybody... we had a lovely lunch there in the museum cafe. then we walked towards the center. we decided to head to st mark’s square. we went at the wrong time- it was packed to the gills with tourists and it was exactly the bad impression of venice that p had had from his first trip here. we quickly walked through and headed inland. i would like to go back there in the early morning, when it is more empty. we finally found a less crowded spot and decided to splurge on the gondola ride. some gondola facts: there used to be 4000 gondolas in venice. now there are 400. it used to be the only form of transportation. there was a big battle between the gondoliers and the “vaporetti” which are the boat buses, and motor boat taxis. the boat buses cost 6.50. the gondolier ride cost 80 euros (for 1-6 people). now it is relegated to be more of an amusement park ride, than transportation. it is very strictly regulated. our gondolier said he is only allowed to work 3 days out of 5. he is a third generation gondolier and his son is studying now to be one too. they have to go to school for 2 years. aside from learning to row the boat, they need to learn enough of 4 other languages – english, german, dutch and french. it takes 5 years to pay off your gondola, but the gondola will last 20 years. the canals are 6 feet deep.

we have really enjoyed our stay here. i wanted to start our last dinner in venice at a recommended bar. we followed the directions of the book and went down a tiny little alley – about 4 feet wide, thinking, this couldn’t be right. it turned right and then left and then suddenly opened onto a cute little plaza right on the grand canal. the bar had slightly expensive drinks, but piles of free food. help yourself. good value, though the food was just ok. afterwards, we went to another recommended place for dinner. jj had a plate of pasta and p and i, having eaten a lot at the previous bar, just shared an antipasti plate. too bad we were full, since the food looked quite good.

venice

we packed up, and left at 11:30 to go to venice.

the first time i went to venice, it was in summer. i was on a solo whirlwind 3 week tour of europe. it was towards the end of my trip. i was tired and venice was hot, humid and stinky. the canals do get stinky. i wasn’t impressed (though, i do have a fond memory of being woken by the garbage man going by at 5 in morning singing opera)

the second time i went to venice, it was in winter, many things were closed and i couldn’t find any restaurants. so i wasn’t too impressed then, either, and had no interest in going back. apparently jj had been talking about venice and has been wanting to go for years. i must have blocked it out of my ears since i had no desire to go back. but, luckily, p was booking the flights and included venice in our itinerary. as we approached time to depart, i got more and more excited. i opened up my mind again to the idea of venice. spring is a very good time of year to be there.

following the direction of the owner of the b&b, we drove over the bridge to the island, parked the car in the giant parking garage and took the boat bus.

as the boat pulled away, the scenery was quite industrial. i pulled out the book that a friend had lent me on venice restaurants. when i looked up from it, i was struck by the scene in front of me. we were on the grand canal lined with the houses of islamic influenced style. it was beautiful. we actually took the boat-bus in the wrong direction, the long way around, but we didn’t mind, as we got a lovely tour. we got off at our stop and walked through the little alleys and along canals. i thought the address was for a little street that wasn’t visible on the map, but we discovered that the addresses were merely a number and a district. each house has a unique number in that district. the addresses do not include the street name. you have to know the district to know where the house might be. it’s not a great system (but not as bad as tokyo, which apparently has houses numbered in ascending order based on when they were built). we called the owner again and he told us the name of the road. it was a nice b&b in a very old building, on a little road that led to the lagoon. we had a decent triple. the first thing we did was to plug in our computers. we had been without internet for 5 days and i had this feeling that the agent helping us to rent out our house, might be trying to reach us. i was a little nervous about being out of touch. (p said he thought i was addicted to the internet. i said, “yes, i think i am addicted to the internet too”. he said “the first step to recovery is to admit there is a problem”. i replied “i didn’t say it was a problem”). in fact, our agent was frantic, trying to reach us. someone DID want to rent our house in boston and she couldn’t get hold of us. we made contact and then we went out into venice. we walked through the silent narrow streets.

the striking thing about venice is, how quiet it is. (if you are away from the touristy areas). there are NO cars, NO mopeds, NO motorbikes. in fact, it is not a town friendly to any kind of wheels, motorized or not. the many foot bridges crossing canals, made of stone with a few steps up and a few steps down would make using a bike a pain. the cobblestones and the risk of falling into canals would make skateboarding or rollerblading dangerous. unfortunately, it is certainly not wheelchair friendly.

the only motorized vehicles were boats on the canals. along the smaller canals, the gondolas slowly make their way, so there were no noisy speeding boats there either. because of all these things, it is very peaceful, and i felt a sense of calm.

much of the city is made of narrow alleys and canal-side walkways. it is a remarkable feeling, knowing that the easiest way to get anywhere in this town, in this age of motorized everything, is to walk. everybody walks. we would be walking along a path and suddenly a wave of walkers would flock by at a brisk pace.

the main area of venice is divided into 2 by the grand canal which flows like a backwards S. the only bridge that attaches the 2 parts is the rialto bridge, a big stone bridge which is divided into 3 lanes and is made of stone stairs climbing to the center and descending down the other side. in the center lane are touristy shops facing inward. it leads down on one side to the fish market. the rialto bridge could be said to be the center of town.

we walked towards the center, but my first intended stop was a bar called “fiore”. venice has a tradition of little dishes served in bars, similar to tapas. one of the things people do here is to bar hop and eat little dishes along with drinks. fiore was quaint and small. we had a few nibbles and a drink and went out looking for a more substantial dinner. i had the book with me and we made our way to a recommended restaurant. unfortunately, it was now prime dinner time and there was a line out the door. this is one thing that really drives p crazy, because, unlike me, he can’t imagine that any meal is worth waiting on line. so i didn’t insist, and he humored me as we went looking for other recommended restaurants. the next one was closed and the one after that was really too much like a bar for jj to feel comfortable in. we tried 2 more, and then i gave in and said, ok, whatever place you pick is fine. we settled for a touristy joint in a plaza. it was not terrible, but it was mediocre. it’s sad to have a mediocre meal in italy where there is so much fabulous food, but, i had tried to find us a good place. i will prepare myself in advance for our next dinner.

we set off to find our way home through the alleys. it reminded me of the early computer game “adventure” which had an area of “twisty, turny, mazelike passageways”. the game must have been invented by someone who had been to venice. we let p get us home, knowing that he would enjoy this game. it wasn’t easy, even with the map. but it was lovely out, the temperature was perfect - a bit cool, but not cold. our b&b is right near peggy gugenheim’s house which is now a museum – so not too shabby a part of town.

last day in tuscany

our last full day in this area. we went to the office where we are staying, and the lady helped us book tickets for the uffizi museum. we were told that you have to book ahead otherwise you can be on line for hours. we arrived in florence around 12:30 and split up. p went to get tickets. he said later that the line to pick up tickets was just a little shorter than the line to buy tickets – but i was happy to avoid any risk that we’d have to wait on line for hours. he also said that the booking cost 4 euros in addition to the ticket, but this happened to be cultural week and so the tickets were free. jj and i went shopping looking for my old favorites shops. the jewelry store where they made replicas of jewelry seen in renaissance paintings didn’t seem to be there anymore. the. leather store was there, but didn’t find anything. we met p at museum. p had scouted around and found a lovely little restaurant on a quiet square. i had gnuddo, sort of like big dumplings made of fresh spinach mixed with ricotta and baked and white sauce poured on top. it was very good and fresh tasting. p and jj both had pizza. these are the times i love the best, sitting in the sun in a quiet italian cafe. very atmospheric.

we spent about 2 hours in the ufizzi, which has many of the best renaissance pieces including botticelli’s “birth of venus” and “spring”. it was fun to see the pieces again, even though we just did a quick run through. p said he wasn’t bowled over. to him, it was just a bunch of old paintings. i do prefer these paintings to those in the louvre, where i am very aware of how our tastes are different now. however, we were all quite taken this time, with the portraits by bronzino. really touching and beautiful.

the museum shop had jewelry replicas from the paintings – just like the shop i had been looking for. p bought me a beautiful pair of amethyst and pearl earrings from one of the bronzino portraits. they are my new favorites. there was a website written on the little bag – which was: www.tharros.com. so you can check it out, but i don’t see a way of ordering online.

afterwards headed to the famous gelato shop, vivoli, and this time we were successful. but to be honest, it didn’t blow me away like the first time i had it. we have an excellent gelato chain store in paris called amorino. plus, as p reminded us, the famous sorbet and ice cream by berthillon sold on ile st louis, is amazing. we headed home, and were going to try a restaurant recommended by the lady in the office, but it was a bit too pricey so we decided to go back to the “locanda di pietracupa”. this time, jj ordered the truffle zucchini pasta and tagliatelle of beef. i would have ordered the truffle pasta again, but since jj ordered it, i decided to try the risotto with asparagus and shared her beef. p had the onions again – it was the only vegetarian starter – and the spinach ravioli. it wasn’t the same experience as the first night. oh well, always the danger in going back.

siena

had tummy problems last night. couldn’t figure out what might have given it to me. the only thing i had different from the others was the big plate of beans. anyway, i decided to take it slow and just hang out in the beautiful tuscan countryside. p and jj went to town and i did a drawing from our apt doorway, looking out on the fields and distant farmhouses and cyprus trees. then at 3:00 decided it was ok to venture out and we went to siena. took some medicine first. jj and p climbed to the top of the bell tower and i went to civic museum which had some famous frescos, then sat in the famous town plaza. jj and p saw me sitting there, from above. afterwards, we went to the duomo (cathedral), wandered up and down main shopping street, then back to the car. it’s really a beautiful town, but one day was enough to get the idea. seems to be a place to just to hang out.

we were back near home for dinner, and we went to a local pasta place in the village. their specialty was homemade pasta. it was good. i had a delicious minestrone soup, which was different in that part of it was pureed. then i had spinach ricotta ravioli. jj had a pici pasta, which was thick long pasta, with slightly spicy tomato sauce. it too was very good. she also had a chicken parmigiana, which was not too interesting. p got onion soup which was also pureed and delicious. i preferred my soup, he preferred his. he also got some bruschetta (toast with various veggies on it) and pasta with mushrooms. it has gotten a little chillier, more like sweater weather. we were hoping for/expecting warmer weather, since paris was so warm, but no complaints. we don’t have internet at the apartment so i have been dying, because i really wanted to write to all our friends who had come down to tuscany the first time.

florence

the last time we stayed here, we were in the newly renovated stables. this time we are staying in another newly renovated building. i went for a run and went up to the old stables. it’s so beautiful here. i got back and p had gone to the small nearby village to get some breakfast for us.

we had pastries and coffee sitting on our little patio, looking at the olive trees and the distant town on the hill. we hung out for a long time and eventually decided it was time to go into florence. it took us 45 mins and we parked in the train station garage – these are all things we remembered from our last stay here. we grabbed some lunch at a place on a smaller road behind the station. it was ok. not great, but we were very hungry. then we wandered down along the river to the ponte vecchio – the old covered bridge – covered with high end jewelry stores. then over to the uffizi gallery which was closed (monday) and into the palazzo vecchio. they had an exhibit of damien hirsch and i thought it would be interesting. it turned out to be just this one piece that he had spent 18 months working on – except that he had jewelers actually doing it. it was a human skull totally covered with real diamonds. it looked like sequins. we had to buy special tickets. there was no line, but they made us wait. when we walked through the door, it was a very small dark room with just this diamond covered skull sitting under a glass cover, lit brightly. 2 security guards stood by the exit. and then we left. we realized that they only let one group in at a time. it was a bit absurd – but that’s the low-art artist in me talking. tshirts of the skull cost 48 euros. i guess he has to pay for those diamonds somehow... we walked through the rest of the palace – incredibly ornate, walls and ceilings covered in renaissance paintings/frescoes. very beautiful, but we sped through it. afterwards, we made our way in search of the famous gelato store. i remembered it was near the church st croce – and we found it, but it was closed on mondays too. so we went and found another gelato stand instead. we wandered over to the duomo and walked around it and the baptistry. we were too late to go in. i led us on a search for some previously favorite florence shopping spots. then it was time to look for another old favorite. as we were preparing to come to italy, i could visualize the restaurant where we had had the bowtie pasta with fresh peas. it was so delicious, that, over the years, we have tried to replicate it over and over, without success. i suddenly could see the place and remembered that the name started with “coco” something. with the miracle of the internet, p picked up his ipad and typed in a couple of things and voila! he found the name of the restaurant. so we made our way over to “coco lezzone”. i had failed to write down the exact address, but p remembered from the google, that it was in a certain neighborhood near the river. there, we asked a few people, some of whom did not speak english, but understood my bad italian and knew the name of the restaurant. (it is amazing that we can figure out what people are saying, not knowing italian). we found the restaurant and it was just as we remembered. the first dining area looked sort of like a bathroom with its white and yellow tile. we were seated in the interior dining room. amazingly, the bowtie pasta with peas was on the menu! farfalle a la pissole. we all ordered a plate. p also ordered soup – he couldn’t decide between 2 different soups so the man said he could have half half. the soup was so thick, that it came in its bowl half/half and didn’t mix. one was tomato bread soup and the other ribolito – meaning re-boiled soup – made of cabbage and vegetables. i was glad he ordered it because i had wanted to try ribolito. it wasn’t my favorite, but the tomato bread soup was great. meanwhile, the farfalle with peas was amazing. i will try again to make it. i think i needed many more peas and some are pureed and act as a sauce. jj ordered roast chicken that we shared. i had an order of beans which the florentines are famous for –even being called the “bean eaters”. these were pretty expensive beans, being that a plate of them cost the same as the pasta. later when we calculated the exchange rate, we realized that this is NOT as cheap as we thought. each small pasta plate and bean plate cost 12Euros which is equivalent to $18. anyway, the waiter then asked if we wanted dessert, but jj was so enamored of the farfalle (which has always been her favorite pasta shape) that she ordered another plate of it instead of dessert. i think she is growing. the best was the response of the waiter, who said “mama mia!” or something like that. the only thing we didn’t like was that at the end, when the waiter gave us the bill, he told us that the service charge was not included, so we dutifully left a percentage tip. typically in france and italy, it is included and we realized later, that he just told us that because we were not italian. he would never tell an italian that, because it was a normal menu. maybe we were being too typically american by not ordering 3 or 4 dishes each, and he felt he had to subsidize things, even though the total wasn’t cheap.

pisa and tuscan countryside

when i woke up this morning, i looked out a little low window in our room and saw a big garden. later found out it was a fancy public garden next door. while jj slept in, p and i went to breakfast across the way – orange juice, cappucino, italian croissant (less buttery but better for the diet) and the whole breakfast was 3 euros each. it was a special deal with the hotel. we had an extra cappucino for 1 euro!
it was empty out on the streets. it felt great. then we got jj up and got her breakfast. we waited for a free walking tour that was supposed to meet at our hotel, but after ½ an hour of waiting, we gave up. we went straight to the shops next door, where we had seen some good stuff. i bought 4 leather bags for presents and a handmade something for a christmas present. (so unlike us to be thinking so far in advance) it was made by the storekeeper and we had him sign it. i gave him a postcard of one of my paintings and he had me sign it. we put our things into the car and then went to the tower. by now, 11:00, it was– very, very crowded. they only let a certain number of people into the tower at a time. they recently stabilized it because it was leaning so far it was going to topple over and then they’d lose their biggest tourist attraction. so we had to wait to go up. so we went for a little walk around town. very nice little town.
the tower is a cylinder, and inside, the stairs spiral around the outer wall. they have been climbed for so many centuries that each stone step is worn down. the funny thing is that because the tower is leaning, the part of the step that is worn is the downhill part. as you walk up the stairs, you are walking in a circle and the worn part of each step shifts slowly from the left part of the step to the right part of the step, depending on which side of the tower you’re on. it’s a weird kind of animation. finally we emerged on the top of the tower which is a bit unnerving, being so high on something that is so obviously leaning.
afterwards, we visited the cathedral, which is huge and built of 2 different colored marble in stripes. it is quite beautiful with intricate carvings on the inside and outside.
meanwhile it was getting quite hot. there were lots of tourists. we wanted to get going to tuscany before it was too late. but before we could leave, we had to rent one of those bike cars, little carts that you peddle. we got the 3 person version. we biked around for a half hour and even let jj drive, though she wasn’t allowed to. we just peddled a block away and swapped seats. then before leaving, we all got a gelato. on our way, we took a shortcut off of the main highway, and of course, it took much longer. we went through lots of little towns and got lost when the main road disappeared and were blocked at a train crossing where the train took 10 minutes just getting there. finally we arrived at our tuscan apartment on an olive farm and vineyard.

years ago, p and i and our good friend joel, arranged a vacation at a vineyard/olive farm in tuscany called “fattoria casa sola” for 3 weeks. it is halfway between florence and siena. we each invited friends from europe and the US to share in the experience. it was an idea that was hatched after watching the film “enchanted april”. people came for a weekend or a week and most were single. my sister and mother also came for a week. p and i had only been going out for around 6 months at that point. that was one of the most fun times i’ve ever had.
anyway, we have returned to this same location 17 years later and it is just as lovely. we arrived around 7:00, just in time to watch the sunset and drink a glass of this vineyard’s wine. i cannot help sighing deeply at this beautiful countryside and at how happy i am. aware that one must be careful not to try to re-enact past experiences, i was open for a new wonderful experience. the people here are the same, mr and mrs gambaro, the owners, and tullio, the caretaker and his wife, maria, who was the cook. they have more help now too. i remembered there was a wonderful restaurant nearby – i even remembered what joel had eaten there that night, that was so delicious – a wide flat pasta with spinach and ricotta. i have tried to recreate that and have gotten close, but never had the same transportive experience.
i asked about that restaurant and they said, “yes, yes, just up the road and on the right.” but their directions didn’t sound like it was the same restaurant. we went anyway. it was not the same restaurant, but it was fantastic. it was called “ristorante la locanda di pietracupa” and had an outdoor patio. since it was warm enough to eat out, we did. i ordered a fabulous pasta with creamy sauce, truffles and squash flowers. it was subtle and rich and very delicious. jj ordered the pappardelle with duck sauce, which was ok. p ordered whole caramelized onions that were amazing. three entire onions – special extra sweet ones from the south – that were dipped in olive oil, and balsamic vinegar, sprinkled with salt and cooked in low heat for 7 hours. we all tasted them, but other than that, p ate 3 whole onions. i ordered the “tagliatelle of beef” which was thin slices of very good steak, cooked on one side only, so the other side was still rare, sprinkled with cracked pepper and laid onto a bed of arugula. delicious. the florentines are known for their beef. we also ordered 2 side dishes – a chard, chopped up finely and cooked was like a more textured version of shredded spinach and roast potatoes with rosemary cooked in olive oil which was amazing. perfectly done, tasty and crispy. lastly, jj ordered dessert - caramelized pear. the pear was the very pointy kind and was cooked in wine, sugar and cinnamon until it was caramelized, then served sitting in this caramelized sauce with cinnamon ice cream. p was over the moon for this one. i will try to recreate this too. i have access to an excellent cinnamon gelato back in paris.

trip to italy

heading out on our trip today. after taking the dog for his walk and having a coffee with p in the cafe (that i didn’t want to go to anymore because i decided that their coffee was too expensive for mediocre quality), i went to get the rental car. i had this idea that instead of one of us taking the train an hour out of town to take the dog and then back and then a bus for another hour out of town to get to the cheap airfare airport, that, for the same price, we could all go in a rental car, drop off the dog, stop nearby at monet’s garden for lunch and then drive another hour to the airport. it seemed like a good idea except that it was the beginning of the school vacation and traffic was horrible. it took 2 hours to get to the kennel and we didn’t have time for monet’s garden. we did get to sit along the seine up there and have a sandwich. that was nice anyway.

the flight from beauvais airport was very easy. quick check in, got on plane, 2 hour flight and we were in in pisa. we picked up a rental car quickly, but got lost in the dark small streets. we had a map, but the scale of things weren’t clear. when we hit the river, we figured out where we were and found the hotel. p is a good at figuring out those sorts of things. the lady was waiting for us and since they were overbooked, led us to a sister hotel, higher ranked for the same price. it was exciting to be in italy. we couldn’t wait for dinner. they recommended a few restaurants and we picked a nearby one called “i santi” –something about saints. it felt very “campy”(in a good way). the walls were decorated with large surreal touched up photos of “saints”. it sort of looked like it might have been someone’s art project. we had a wonderful dinner. just what we were hoping for. jj got gnocchi with tomato sauce and mozzarella which we all thought was the best dish of all. i got a very good octopus salad, mushroom tagliatelle, and also a fried chicken cutlet which i shared with jj, p got bruschetta, 4 cheese gnocchi (a bit rich and heavy) and smoked swordfish carpaccio and wine. the total was 80 E – so cheap compared to paris!– afterwards we walked the 3 blocks to the leaning tower, which is really so funny. “campy” too, in a way, without meaning to be. it was lit up, there was a festive spirit around it with all the late night tourists. then we had gelato to top off the night.

metro, office visit for internship

jj and i entered the subway through an entrance for people who already have metro tickets, because it has no ticket office. when we got there, the doors were open so you could just walk in, but that’s not a free ride. people jump the turnstiles all the time. there are “controllers” who are in the subway checking your metro tickets to make sure they have been stamped. we haven’t seen many of them recently, but jj’s friend got caught the other day without her ticket. she had stamped it but foolishly threw it away. they never believe it when people say that, so she got a ticket for 40 euros. the kids were scandalized. they think they are immune. jj said, “but she’s a kid! and she had used a ticket, but threw it away”. that’s why i’m always telling her to keep her ticket. so when jj was faced with the open door, i told her she had to have a stamped ticket in case she got “controlled”. we had to transfer between subway lines, and lo and behold, around a blind corner, were the controllers. jj was very glad (as was i) that she had her stamped ticket.

we were on our way to visit an architect’s office where jj has been offered an internship through our friend marie. shigiro ban, is the japanese architect, who is quite well known. he co-designed the new centre pompidou in metz, france (with marie’s brother, jean de gastine). marie is office manager for the paris office, which is near the beaubourg museum. since it is jj’s half day today, we went to have lunch first. there is a fountain there, with sculptures by nikki st phalle and i remembered that next to it, used to be a cafe called “dame tartine”. (a tartine is an open faced sandwich). the cafe was still there with tables outside. it was a beautiful day and we had a nice lunch. meanwhile, there was a man wading in the fountain picking up coins. we were talking about the controllers and the metro and the youth i once watched jump the turnstile and proceed to beat a vending machine with no one stopping him. we were talking about getting arrested for stupid things and she said “going to prison is REALLY bad for your resume”. glad she’s on track...

marie came to pick us up at the cafe to bring us to the office. it’s in a fabulous part of town, right in the middle of the marais on a little street, in an old building on the top floor with lovely views of chimneys. ( i took lots of reference shots.) shigero ban has done really inventive work. he built shelters for the japanese made homeless by the kobe earthquake. the task was to make something strong, weather proof but recyclable and cheap. he used cardboard shipping tubes attached together to make walls. he did several projects using those. his latest theme is lattice work and the metz beaubourg uses this theme. jj is SOOO lucky. what an opportunity! to have an internship with such a creative architect. she is focused on making models and they have a master model maker in the office. the japanese in the office speak japanese and english. the french in the office speak french and english. so jj will probably not be practicing her french, but that’s ok, since the rest of the internship will be such a great experience.

after our visit jj went home on her own, and i went to BHV (dept store with extensive hardware store in basement). the challenge in living in a foreign country includes figuring out what things are called, and where to find them. i wanted to buy a can of compressed air to clean my old laptop. i had asked the computer stores around my neighborhood and the appliance store, but they didn’t have it and had no idea where to get it. they understood what i was looking for, even though i didn’t know the words to describe it. i put some french words together that i thought meant “can of compressed air” (“boite d’air compresse”). finally i looked on the internet (where i should’ve looked to start with) and found the term “bombe d’air comprime”. anyway, i figured out that BHV had them.

it reminded me of the time (forgive me if i already wrote about this) when i was looking for parsnips in the marche. i could only ask for “the vegetable that is the same shape as a carrot, but white”. the first vendor said, “yes, i know what you’re talking about, but i can’t remember the word for it, and i don’t have any.” the second vendor said EXACTLY the same thing. finally, i learned the word which is “un panais”. someone told me that the french ate ALOT of parsnips during the war and so people got very sick of them, associated it with that time and didn’t want to eat them for decades.

vernissage (opening) - un grande reussi! (a great success!)

this was really a landmark day for me - the opening of the “exposition” of my paintings at the restaurant. this was the first time i have shown my work in a public space. well, there were things in the past, like one painting at a juried show, or one painting in a gallery or paintings hung in a music school. but this felt really more legitimate. the excitement really came when i got the ok to do it. i hung the paintings 2 weeks ago. but all the same, it really was important to me. i invited everyone i knew in paris – which came out to about 100 emails. the chef was going to make cafe and fresh orange juice and some pastries, and then offer brunch at a fixed price afterwards. sounded like a good formula for a party. in the end, there were not enough reservations for him for brunch, so we just did the first part. we had around 30 people come and i felt that it was a great success, personally. i did sell one small painting and got the possibility of 4 commissions. now i have to get to work!!

afterwards, we went with virginie and family into st germain de pres. she wanted to go to this little restaurant that was in a drug store! imagine, pharmacy on this side and restaurant on that. too funny. unfortunately, it was closed. we’ll have to try another time. instead we went to the little provencal restaurant that p and i have gone to in the past “la bastide d’opio”. very reasonably priced bistrot. we all had the same thing – linguini with sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts and shrimp. very good.

forum des metiers;orchestra

the french all have to choose their profession early in their life. the 9th graders, each have to pick an internship for the last week of school, in something they might like to do; meanwhile, the school organized a morning to present different types of work to them. the parents were asked to volunteer to come in and talk about their professions. i felt obliged to go in to talk about computer graphics and animation. i followed their formula and talked about how i got there, different jobs i held and then described the process and the different departments of animation and games. my favorite line: “and the job that almost every 14 year old american boy would die to have – game tester – which happens to be the lowest job in games, but entails sitting and playing the game all day and trying to break it”. afterwards, i showed some of “for the birds”. jj had been at a sleepover the night before and didn’t even want to tell me how many hours of sleep she had. she said she couldn’t even listen to the last of the 3 sessions she went to – which happened to be art, which i would’ve liked to hear myself. she took a nap to try to catch up on sleep, but i’m afraid the one hour of sleep is not going to bring her up to normal.

anyway, i just brought jj to her orchestra rehearsal and now i am sitting in the parc monceau waiting for her. it’s a gorgeous day – 70 degrees – all the trees are blooming. sitting here by the lake and the park is FULL. there are 2 black swans and a mama duck with 12 ducklings following her. i just looked up and there is a little boy of around 5 years old, that was just pulled out of the water by his dad, wet from the waist down. apparently, he was playing with his boat which is now floating away. meanwhile the dad, tried to wring his shirt dry and then was looking intently into the water, then put his hand back into the lake and after a moment, pulled out the remote control for the boat. it doesn’t work anymore. (jj said later: you’d think they’d make those things water-proof)

later:

after orchestra, jj wanted to go have dinner with her friends. one of them is going back to boston tomorrow, a week before vacation actually starts, to take a second look at boarding schools that she has been accepted into. so p and i went out to dinner. it was so beautiful out, so we went to a nice “american” style pizza restaurant which has outdoor seating. it was lovely.

school rock n roll; jadis restaurant

it was a gorgeous day. it’s getting warmer around here and you can tell everyone is happy because of it. we didn’t get enough reservations for brunch for the opening, so i had to send out 100 emails canceling that part of the opening.

jj’s french tutor came today. then jj went to a concert at the school, of a rock and roll band, which included students and some teachers. she said they were really good. the head of the program that jj will go to next year, was in the band. she is a middle-aged woman. i have seen her walking around the neighborhood in her black leather and i could totally imagine her as a rocker. afterwards, jj went to a sleepover. p and i found a cute bar/cafe for a drink. it was south of us, heading more towards the outskirts of town. it was interesting how much CHEAPER the drinks were there. it is on the other side of a main road, which must be some sort of borderline for rent prices. then we went to a well recommended restaurant in the neighborhood called “jadis”. it was very difficult to make reservations. i had tried for a couple of weeks, and finally made it a few days ahead on wed – but could only get late it for 9:30. they have a menu at 25 and 34 euros. i had a shellfish stew – which tasted like a finer version of bouillabaisse. p had carpaccio of daurade – which is very thin slices of raw fish. then i had the “blanquette de veau” which is veal in a white sauce – i think it was the cheeks. having had a recent interesting veal experience, i wanted to try more new foods. this ended up being just pieces of meat. it wasn’t fabulous. p had a fish, which was ok. we shared an interesting dessert made up of meringue boats filled with passionfruit ice cream. tasty. it was good overall, but not memorable.