lazy sunday

hung out most of day. jj went to meet our friends again, to help oversee the kids. i joined them for a drink at a brasserie. afterwards, jj watched the kids at a playground. she will go and babysit for them tomorrow.

friends visiting

some friends of ours have come to town and we met them at “paris plage”. (just to repeat myself : this is a one month summer event in which the city of paris closes a section of the highway along the river and constructs a “beach” with sand, lawn chairs, games, mist spraying out and even a pool. there are concession stands with crepes, ice cream etc. ) since it was a sunny weekend day, it was totally packed. uncomfortably crowded. it was a relief to leave. afterwards, we cooked dinner for them at our house (salmon teriyaki; chicken teriyaki). this worked better than going out, since they have 2 small children.

french camp experience

this evening i went to pick up jj at the train station. it was the end of her 2 week summer camp.

the first difference in this paris sponsored summer camp compared to past upscale american camps, was that no one said anything about giving up the cell phones. none of this “off-grid, non-electronic, old-fashioned camp experience”. we were able to get minute by minute updates. it was raining and windy. the town was cute. the food was horrid. no one was able to eat the food. it was EVEN worse than the food at school. she was going to lose a lot of weight. they went to town but were forbidden to buy food. they were travelling by bus on windy mountain passes and she was afraid for her life. the kids would cheat at games. it wasn’t fair. other kids pushed ahead in line and got the few spaces for camping. someone threw down her bag and her cell phone screen cracked. (our poor protected child, finally exposed to the rabble!) one kid was even sent home for having drugs.

p. told his colleagues at work that he was concerned about jj having a good time and that the camp was “tres populaire”. the word “populaire” here not meaning “popular” as in “lots of people like it”, but rather “of the people – of ALL the people” as in the term “popular uprising”. when he further explained that it was a “city of paris camp”, they could only say “oh la la”.

p was worried about his poor daughter not having a good time. he proposed that if she were really unhappy, that i should go down and save her. what, and leave her friends there? no, he proposed that i save all of them and get a hotel and hang out there along the french riviera. but “no”, i insisted. “this is good for her.” it DIDN’T seem that she was having a TERRIBLE time.

having a cell phone was not the only difference between this camp and her US camps. this is france and many of the kids smoke from an early age. there was a designated smoking area. before bedtime they would announce, “smoke recess – last smoke of the evening – those kids who want to smoke, go to the smoking area”, where they would smoke with the counselors. the youngest smoker was 12.

the other kids in turn had not been exposed to the bigger world. they were awed that a. and gg. lived in the 16th arrondissement – “where rich people live”. not all people living in the 16th are rich, but there is some relative truth to it. most of the other kids live in the more ethnic 18th, 19th and 20th. that said, just living in “paris proper” meant that these kids were probably more middle class. even jj living in the 15th was considered rich. the kids couldn’t understand how the girls could speak english so well. they couldn’t fathom that perhaps these were english speaking kids who had learned french.

jj. and her 2 friends decided that the french sense of humor was lame. they had to put on skits and were given the theme “impressions”. the 3 girls were a team. the basic story of their skit was that a french girl meets 2 american girls. the french girl says “what is your name?” one american girl says her name with an american accent, the french girl says the same name with a french accent. the american girl says “no” and says it again with an american accent. the audience was on the floor. jj said that all week kids would come up to her and say “oh, you’re jj!” (with an american accent), and laugh and laugh.

overall, i think it was a good experience, but i don’t think she’ll want to do it next year.

french sitcoms; end restaurant exhibit

i had hoped that these 2 weeks, i would be able to throw myself into painting 10 hours a day. i did not succeed in that, but i DID make some progress and get a sort of rhythm going. i was able to focus more and pull some things together. after painting for a few hours in the morning, i would take a break and make myself lunch. i started turning on the tv to watch while i ate. i normally don’t watch tv, but it was so quiet in the house! in fact, i told myself that it would help me with my french. sounds like an excuse, but i do think it’s true. i became a regular watcher of a few french sitcoms. they were all in a new and interesting format which was a series of short sketches of about a minute, one after another. sort of like a group of one line jokes.

one series is about 3 married couples. one older couple is in their 60’s. another couple is middle aged in their 40’s. then, there is young couple in their 30’s. the colors of the show are all very intentionally saturated. one sketch might have a background of predominantly green with the woman would be wearing 2 orange tones and the man wearing 2 purple tones. then there would be a new sketch with one of the other couples, with an intense blue background, the man wearing pink and the woman wearing yellow. every sketch would have a new color combination. each couple is in a different stage of a long term relationship. the older couple are loving but slightly bickering. the middle aged couple yell and nag at each other. the younger couple are still trying to learn to live together. interesting to me is that this young couple is a mixed couple – a blond woman of “european origin” and a man of “african origin” (as they say here). they are a modern couple and there is no mention of race. still not a normal thing on american tv, i think, though i haven’t watched american tv for a while.

there was another series which is about a young couple, but makes the camera take the view of one of the guest characters. in one episode, they are sitting facing the camera who is their psychologist. they are talking about their upcoming marriage. the whole show is a series of short sketches in which you hear the psychologist speak and only see his hands. in one, for example, the man has gone off to the bathroom and the waiter asks what she would like to drink. the woman says “i always have a glass of white wine”. the psychologist says, “oh, that’s good. that shows that you are faithful.” she says, “yes, i am”. her drink is delivered and the man comes back to the table. the waiter asks what his order is. ( you see where this is going don’t you?). he says, “oh, i’ll have a glass of red wine, as always”. the young woman smiles. he says, “no, wait, maybe i’ll try rose today, no maybe i’ll have a mixed drink”. she is aghast and throws her drink in his face. “what did i do!?” he says. anyway, i thought the “camera as a character” was an interesting approach.

so far, my favorite french tv sketch was on another sitcom about a teenage boy and his family, his friends, his life. it’s a sketch that i also don’t think you’ll see on american tv. the teenage boy and his 2 guy friends are sitting around his room. they are fully dressed, but one boy is wearing a bra over his t-shirt and another boy is sitting behind him fiddling with it, while the main teenage boy watches on. the dad walks in the room and stops and looks over the scene. the main character says, “dad, it’s not what it looks like.” dad, trying to be cool, says “ok. whatever.” pause. “so, what is it?” the boy says, “well dad, we’re practicing taking off a bra, because we need to know how to do it when we’re on dates. and we’re timing each other”. dad says, “ok, i’ll leave you to it”. he opens the door of the room and is about to walk out the room when he stops, backs up and closes the door again. he says, “what’s the fastest time?”. teenage boy says “3 minutes”. the dad pauses and then says, “let me show you how. start the timer”. he sits down next to the boy with the bra on, uses his left hand, reaches over and flicks it open. “wooooaah!” yell all the boys. teenager says “3 seconds, woah dad, you’re so cool!”.

today, i also needed to go pick up my paintings at the restaurant that has displayed them since march. they are closing for renovations for the summer. in fact, i had gotten an email from the chef announcing that he had sold the restaurant. it was the new owner, who is renovating. he told me that he plans to create a new restaurant that should open in january. i didn’t sell any more paintings, but the waitress said that the customers had loved them. i had left free postcards of my work, and they were all gone. this was a good landmark for me as a painter. i did a pastel still life this morning to give the chef to thank him for his support. later, i did a pastel of a friend’s dog. i was quite pleased with it. i had been meaning to try some pet pastels for a while. it worked out really well and i am excited.

paris plage

went out for an early morning run – smelled the baking bread at the next door bakery. ahh, the aroma of france.

we went up to the marais for dinner. the marais is a very old part of town and very hip and animated. we started with drinks at a wine bar that i read about. they serve dinner too, but we decided to explore a bit. it was getting into prime dinner time and it was summer, so there were a lot of tourists. finally we chose a restaurant which had a fire grill. their main focus was meat on the grill, but they also had things for p. the vegetarian to eat. it was ok, but not fab, so i won’t even mention its name here. it was a bit touristy. afterwards, we took bikes to go towards home. this was fun, riding in the empty streets of the marais and down to the seine where “paris plage” has been installed. this is a one month summer event in which the city of paris closes a section of the highway along the river and constructs a “beach” with sand, lawn chairs, games, mist spraying out and even a pool. there are concession stands with crepes, ice cream etc. during the weekend days it is packed, but tonight a drizzly evening, it was nicely empty. we rode the length of “paris plage” and all the way home.

the "christine" diet

we got up, took the bus to the airport and got back to paris. it was so easy and such a lovely weekend.

now back to normal life (as much as living in paris is normal).

back to facing my cholesterol. i need to eat vegetables, juices and fiber. after a nice hot summer weekend in parma, i am ready for a strict diet of gazpacho and tabouli. it will be the “christine” diet. i made enough to last for several days.

bologna, italy

parma is a pretty small town. in 2 days, we had seen enough and were ready for something else. we decided to take the train to bologna, 1 hour away. a train leaves every half hour or so. bologna was a real city compared to parma. we had been to bologna years earlier, and had loved it. all the buildings have large covered arcades. it makes so much sense. the arcades protect the pedestrians from the weather and allows the buildings to extend over the sidewalks. the cathedral here is very large. when it was being constructed, it was going to be the biggest church in christendom, even bigger than saint peters in rome. when the vatican got wind of it, they cut the funding. so the church is big, but unfinished and not decorated. quite a contrast from the meticulous decoration on every inch of the cathedral in parma. interestingly, it was constructed during the renaissance when new scientific thought was developing. in this church is a little pin hole in the roof which allows sunlight to fall on the floor. the moving light follows a line on the floor, that has a calendar marked on it. did some research and found and interesting write up on this. http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/science/sc0050.html

we found a cute little restaurant in a quiet little square. there was an outdoor patio, so we sat down for lunch. i had pappardelle with porcini mushrooms, and it was fantastic. p, who couldn’t get over his perfect food moment from yesterday, ordered the same dish again – spaghetti with tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil and again loved it.

after the quiet town of parma, bologna seemed too busy, so we decided to head back to parma for dinner. apparently there had been a fire in rome and all trains originating there were delayed. we were afraid we’d be stuck in bologna. we were able to jump on a different train at the last minute and got back to parma with only the inconvenience of having to stand up. we had a drink in a different bar and dinner in a restaurant in the main square. p had pizza and i had spaghetti in clam sauce. perfectly good meal.

spaghetti envy

we got up leisurely and went to visit the cathedral and baptistry in the late morning. parma is a small town, but it has a large beautiful cathedral. lots of detail. all surfaces were painted. it had amazing “trompe l’oeil”. this is a technique of painting things to look like they are 3 dimensional and real. it literally means in french “trick the eye”. the cathedral had architectural details painted in that looked like real molding. attention was paid to where the light was coming from and appropriately shaded. it was so good that sometimes, i had to move back and forth to verify that it was indeed painted and not really there. we were able to get into the baptistry before it closed too. much of italy still follows an old fashioned schedule in which things close for a few hours at lunch time. you have to be aware of this as a tourist. plus, the hours vary. sometimes they close from 12-3, sometimes from 1-4. i think it is to avoid working during the heat of the day. we were taking a leisurely schedule, so didn’t get up until late. anyway, we were able to get into the baptistry to take a look. it too was covered in painted detail. many of these cathedrals have baptistries – a small building on the side - and it finally clicked in my head that they were where babies were baptized, hence the name “baptistry”. duh, silly me... the big marble tub in the middle gave it away...

we decided to go back to the same lunch restaurant. since p. had had intense “spaghetti envy” the day before, he knew exactly what to order. he had the spaghetti with tomato sauce and basil and mozzarella. he was very happy. it’s one of the few times i have seen p have a perfect food moment. he had an expression of deep satisfaction. usually it is me, the eater, who obsesses on good food, but i was so pleased to watch p. in his food bliss. i also did well. i had “spiral pasta with white truffles and salted almonds”. it was incredible. it was subtle, rich, smooth with little crunch texture. delicious! after lunch, we walked back to the cathedral in the hot afternoon. we sat on the steps and hung out. i did a little pastel drawing. there was an american musician sitting at the baptistry. he had a suitcase which he sat on while he played his cello. a bunch of young americans came over and were chatting with him. they requested a piece they had heard him play the day before. he sang a song and accompanied himself by plucking on the cello. it was quite beautiful. the cello more than replaced a guitar. we imagined that he was a cello teacher during the school year who travelled around europe in the summer paying his way by playing in ancient plazas like this one.

we continued our walk to a park on the edge of town. it was a hot lazy day. we made our way back to the apartment. p. noted that it was indeed a small town since he was already recognizing people. there was the slightly simple man who walked down the street yelling. there was the lady in the neck brace. there was the blond family from sweden.

we went to a wine bar with oak barrels out front, which were used as tables. there was a couple sitting next to us. for dinner, we decided to go to the second recommended restaurant, called trattoria corrieri. after ordering, i got up to go to the bathroom and noticed that sitting on the other side of the supporting column, was the same couple from the wine bar. when i got back to the table, i told p. and he said, “oh, that’s a relief”. he had been nervous that the man kept smiling and nodding at him and thought he was making advances, whereas it was only that he had recognized us from the wine bar.

for dinner i had “chicken salad” which was delicious. salad with pieces of chicken probably leftover from the day before, but with such deep chicken flavor. a really good, fresh, farm raised chicken roasted just right. i also had gnocchi with parmesan?? as we were leaving the restaurant, we stopped to look through the window from the lobby into the kitchen. i watched the cook throw piles of gnocchi into the vat of boiling water, pull them out 30 seconds later, put them in plates and then take a ladle and dip into a VAT of melted butter and pour it on top of the gnocchi. butter is always the secret ingredient.

parma, italy

my cousin’s daughter, libby, who came to visit us in paris last month, lives in parma, italy. she was going home to connecticut for the summer and offered us the use of her apartment. we weren’t going to go, but found out that ryanair offers very, very cheap flights. i booked a weekend at 16 Euros each way for each. funny that the bus to the airport cost 15 Euro, almost the same as the flight itself! we popped down on friday morning very, very early and by noon, were having lunch in an outdoor cafe surrounded by the tuscan colors. the summer in paris has been very overcast and cold, so arriving in italy and having lovely summer weather was wonderful and appreciated. parma is a lovely town in northern italy and is famous for its food, most notably parmesan cheese and parma ham also called prosciutto. for lunch i had pasta with zucchini and shrimp. p had lasagna and enjoyed his dish too, but kept looking over at our neighbor who had ordered plain spaghetti with tomato sauce, basil and mozzarella. he admitted to me that he had “spaghetti envy”. he wished he had ordered that dish. don’t know what the italians do differently, but always, the pasta is incredible.

the whole day was spent wandering the streets and just enjoying being there. that evening we went for drinks on the animated pedestrian shopping street. many of the bars will offer food to go along with their drinks. the food usually isn’t great and the drinks are more expensive, but it’s a fun format. the waitress brought some snacks. i tried to hold back from eating them, since i was expecting to have another great restaurant experience for dinner, but it’s hard for me not to eat something that is in front of me. there are 2 restaurants in parma that are the hot places to go. they actually have the same owner and as we learned later, have the same menu. we went to the first one called “gallo d’oro” [golden rooster].

i couldn’t decide what to order and in the end ordered an eggplant dish as a starter and lasagna as main course. the eggplant dish ended up being eggplant parmesan (surprise...) and the 2 dishes were a bit too similar and heavy. it was good, but no transporting experience tonight.

french cholesterol

a few years ago, i had had a very high cholesterol count but was able to lower it through diet and exercise. 2 days before i left for france, i had a cholesterol test. i told my doctor i was moving to paris and i was going to do a “before” and “after” test. i was so pleased that those “before” numbers were good. today, one year later almost to the day, i had another test. a year of trying to be moderate, cooking a lot for ourselves with fresh vegetables from the marche, of having just a corner of croissants from time to time, ordering fish in restaurants and trying to eat low fat, but giving in to occasional cheese courses, homemade quiches, dabs of fois gras, wine tastings, champagne tastings, pastries and desserts. also a year of daily dog runs through the champs de mars, sometimes two runs in a day and lots of walking. after taking the test today, went to indulge in a cholesterol catastrophe of an entire tasty almond croissant with coffee. it was delicious. then i went to see the wim wenders 3d film about the dancer pina bausch. it was a wonderful film. made me want to dance. got home and checked my email, and there were my cholesterol test results . the numbers were what i had feared, but should have expected after a year in paris. they were really bad. so now, i have to get back on the high fiber, maybe even veggie bandwagon. but not until after the weekend, since we are heading to parma, italy tomorrow.

empty nesters

had a great day of painting today... i started at 9 and went to 1. it was so easy. why couldn’t i do this before? 

after lunch i went shopping. having moved to a new apartment, we needed all kinds of household things. paris is very expensive and stupid, junky stuff can be ridiculous, like a plastic storage box $25. i love ikea for cheap nice design household things, but it is out of town and we don’t have a car. i finally went to the parisian version of ikea, a store called “conforama” which is in the center of paris. i hadn’t gone because i thought the stuff would be really badly made. in fact, the stuff is not any worse than ikea. it has lots of cute things very cheap. it’s my new favorite store. loaded with my shopping in a knapsack and big bag in each hand, i took the metro home. i will come back soon to buy some nice metal cafe chairs. (cheap!)

so, p. and i are empty nesters for 2 weeks. i was determined to make the most of the time. unfortunately, p. continued to work quite late. i have a list of cafes, restaurants and bars i want to try. the first evening, we went to “l’academie de la biere” (the academy of beer), which was a belgian beer house with a long long list of beers. they serve mussels in about 6 different styles as well as other food. it was a beautiful summers eve and it was very enjoyable. great place to bring friends for an informal and reasonably priced evening.

tuesday eve we tried out our new local cafe for a drink. it is called “le roi du cafe” (the king of coffee??) we liked it so much that we went there tonight, wednesday for dinner. it’s a cute bistro with old fashioned decor – which feels very authentic. for france, nothing really special. it had good prices and charm. we realized that with its decor, if it were back in boston, it would be the fancy french restaurant and very expensive. it had a reasonably priced menu and was packed with people. p and i ordered tuna steak with vegetables which were a kind of thick gazpacho or cold ratatouille which cost 12Euros – about $16. perfect.

temporary art studio

today is the first morning without child or dog and i was able to sleep quite late. it was delicious but i warned myself that it was a slippery slope and not to let myself slide into losing the mornings. i have a lot i want to get done. i want to focus on the painting. i set up jj’s room as my studio and even though it’s a bit dark, it’s great to have a dedicated space for now. i’m currently working on a commission of someone’s horse.

off to french camp

jj went off to camp this morning. one of the mom’s in conversation group had told us all about the summer camp sponsored by city of paris. it is a whole range of camps all over the country priced on a sliding scale depending on official income. the most expensive price was half the normal price of a sleep-away camp. i spoke with several other people who all said the camps were good. jj will spend 12 days on the coast in the south of france with her close friend a. and a’s little sister gg. (their mom is also in my conversation group). she needed to be at the train station across town at 6:15 in the morning. i had spent the last week in paris gathering the things she would need. there were pages of information about camp and at one point i had read something about a doctors note, but then when i checked for it again i found a “required” list that said nothing about that. turns out there were around 3 different lists of required items. sunday night jj found the first list again that said the doctors note was required. there are NO doctors working on sundays except for the emergency room and i didn’t think they’d be interested in writing her a note of health in between treating gunshot wounds (though i don’t really think there are that many gunshot injuries in central paris – more likely injuries sustained by being hit by a car reversing the wrong way down a one way street). i was worried that she’d arrive at the train station and they would refuse her and then we’d have to pay to get her down there ourselves. then i had an idea. i have a relative who is a doctor in the US. the instructions didn’t say anything about the doctor being an official french doctor. i copied the wording from her friend’s dr statement, translated it into english and emailed it to the relative who very kindly signed it and emailed it back.

when we arrived at the train station at 6:15, it was a predictable mayhem as they signed in the 50 or so kids, collected papers from each parent, organized the baggage and herded the kids to the proper train. i needn’t have worried that they would inspect the papers then and there and refuse my child because the dr’s note didn’t come from a french dr. i was admittedly a bit disorganized, but when i saw some of the ragged piles of papers that some parents handed in, i felt better. still to be seen if they accept it and allow her to participate in all the sports.

the group that assembled in the train station was extremely “diverse”. the fancy private schools that jj has gone to always talk about diversity. standing there, jj noted the actual lack of diversity in her school. she looked forward to the experience. the kids ranged in age from 8 to 17, and as usual, there were a couple of kids who looked like they were 25. 2 young women were about 6 feet tall and the way they had “done themselves up” looked more appropriate for a disco rather than 2 weeks in the woods.

quick england trip

we had a nice few days relaxing in england. one day we took a long walk to arrive at the pub called “the perch and the pike”. it’s a nice classic pub. there are fewer and fewer of them around. for a while, all the pubs were turning into restaurants with high priced menus. don’t know if this trend has changed since the economy problems. i love the old fashioned pubs with good simple food and reasonable prices. we had fish and chips. delicious. the next day we went to oxford to toodle around. we went to the covered market and found a place that made different lunch pies.

all the while, we are letting maynard get used to the grandparents. we were going off and coming back. the last day we went to see p’s sister. when we came back, p and i walked to the local pub for a beer. very nice. p’s mom made lamb curry and it was really good. i don’t normally like curry, but this one was delicious, a nice combination of gentle flavors. it was sweet. she said the secret was apples.

sunday we flew back to paris, leaving maynard. i think he is thrilled to be out of the city apartment and back into the country. he will stay with them for the summer.

long way to england

we got up early to catch the 9:00am train to honfleur to catch the 2:15pm hydrofoil fast ferry to england. i double and triple checked that i had the pet passport. p had booked 2 adults, one child and a dog. however, when we got to the ferry station we found that they expected us in a car and that a dog was not allowed uncontained on the hydrofoil. we were told that the next slow ferry at 8 would be able to take him. we still imagined that he would be with us on the deck watching the waves and scenery. however, when we did board, maynard was put into a cage at the front of the area which held all the cars. p. had called his dad to inform him that we would be arriving at midnight. his dad was picking us up. we were delayed further when we arrived. we had to wait for all the other people to leave and finally a special car came to pick up “the people with the dog”. we finally met p’s dad. on the drive back the signs were confusing, there was construction and we made a wrong turn. we got stuck on the wrong highway heading the wrong direction with no exit for 20 minutes. it was unfortunate and i felt bad that p’s dad had to be driving us so late. we finally got to the parents home around 1:30am. maynard went into the garden and was obviously very excited by all the new smells. we are sure he could smell bunnies. we were relieved to have arrived.

pet passport

took maynard to the vet to have the last procedure done to get his pet passport stamped for his trip to england. the UK has always been very careful about preventing rabies from coming to the island. dogs used to have to be quarantined away from their owners for 1 year to enter. they have eased restrictions slightly so now, you need a microchip installed, a rabies shot given and a rabies test taken 6 months after. we had started doing this before we left for france, but the vet had made a typo on the chip number, writing a 5 instead of an S and a 1 instead of an I. or something like that. and the UK said “no” the process had to start over again. so in october we started again and by april he was ok to go. the grandparents in england love maynard and have volunteered to take him for the summer. they are hoping that he will chase the rabbits from their garden. little peter rabbits. so maynard is going to summer camp. he will be in heaven if gets to chase bunnies. when we were living in boston, jj also had a bunny called eddie. p had made a bunny house and jj and i had painted it to look like our house. there was a little fenced in bunny garden for him too. then maynard came to us and he was much too excited whenever he’d see eddie. we had to teach him to NOT pay attention to eddie. he was as obedient as one can expect a hunting dog to be in the sight of prey. when little wild bunnies would come into the garden we would also say “NO!”. he would just sit and watch them and tremble with his repressed energy. so this summer he will be encouraged to chase them and he will be very happy and fulfilled.

birthday; dog territory

jj and a. got up very late. then they went to tuileries garden to the carnival that has installed itself there. they went to a few rides and bought overpriced candy. she came back around 2:30. she chose thai food as her desired birthday dinner. it was sunday so many restaurants were closed. we finally found a thai restaurant within walking distance, towards montparnasse. when we came back jj found wetness on her floor shelving and thought that one of her bottles of beauty products was leaking. as she cleaned up, she said it smelled badly, like pee. i realized that it was probably dog pee. maynard has only peed in the house twice before. it seems that he does it if he is upset. we thought about it and realized that he was probably upset with the previous night. he normally sleeps next to jj and last night the girls were up very late giggling and watching a movie, invading his space and impeding his sleep. he peed on the place where a. had been sleeping, to claim it back as his own.

birthday cake mush

we had our first dinner party. we had marie m. who i knew from new york days and daniel who i know from computer graphics days. daniel’s wife, valerie came as well as daphne, his 20 year old daughter. daniel and daphne had come out to tuscany 17 years ago when valerie was pregnant with ariel, their son. so i know daphne more as a 3 year old, than a 20 year old. also present was jj’s friend, a. it was sort of jj’s birthday dinner in that her birthday is on the 10th and that she spent 3 days working on a cake that she found in a book. it was an ice cream meringue layered cake and she decided that she wanted to make the caramel ice cream too. i can’t help being skeptical. i have tried many times to make ice cream and think it is impossible without a special machine. sorbet is possible but generally, i feel ice cream is not worth the effort. p scolds me rightfully, for being so discouraging. she actually succeeded with the ice cream. she made the meringue and fancy chocolate laces for decorations. it was a very ambitious project and i was impressed with her resolve and focus. unfortunately, she overwhipped the cream/marscapone mix which went from being liquid, to firm to liquid again. at that point, she was getting upset, so i told her to just put it all together anyway. the ice cream melted quickly and it came to the table as a big pile of mush. we had to eat it fast. it tasted good all the same.

2 maries, 2 meals

before we moved in, the apartment was renovated and then had a 3 month tenant. it is really a brand new apartment in an old building – the best kind, in my opinion. we have all the details of a building constructed in 1906 in the hausmann style plus all the modern conveniences. that said, no one actually did a big clean after the renovation, so there is a fine layer of sawdust anywhere that was not used day to day by the other tenant.

this week was all about cleaning the apartment and unpacking. monday i went to finish painting calligraphy on some plastic chairs for the smith college club. jj and i went out for a korean lunch and ran errands on our old street. i am spending time running around finding things we need for the apartment – like a microwave and other various basics that are missing from the furnished flat. i spent an afternoon waiting for the gas man who never came, and then found out that my bad french had caused me to miss the info that he would not be coming. jj had her last violin lesson for the year. we did some shopping in preparation for jj going off to camp. thursday jj and i went to lunch at “leo le lion” (the place with the 12.50 good lunch), with marie k. who lives in berlin now. and that evening we all went out to take marie d. to dinner at “l’ebauchoir” (our wedding lunch spot).

new apt

the new apartment is so beautiful. i was a little embarrassed with our old apartment’s slight shabbiness, especially compared with the luxurious mansions of apartments i had visited, but now i’m a little embarrassed by our riches. the violin teacher came to give jj a lesson and i felt a little embarrassed with how luxurious the apartment looks. she too just found a 2 bedroom apartment but WITH a balcony for HALF the price (though half the space).

moving day; cocktail

today was moving day. we have been looking forward to our new apartment. bob, the beagle dad offered to help us move, which was so nice and so appreciated. he has a station wagon and i was hoping we could move in 2 carloads. i helped p move some of the big suitcases downstairs and i went to the new apt to get the key. then they came with a load and i moved things up. after the 3rd and final load in which the fish came over in his bowl on p’s lap, jj walked maynard over. p and i went back to do the last cleaning.

the landlord came to pick up the keys and do the final inspection. the only thing that was not approved was that the sheets were not ironed. p and i don’t care about having ironed sheets. my mother would always iron her sheets. she liked the feeling of them. i always felt that it was a waste of time. anyway, i really have a problem understanding the landlord’s french. i think he is just so mellow, that he mumbles. i thought our choice was either i come back to iron them, or i go find someone to iron them. for that choice, it was easier for me to come and iron them. but i have to tell you the symbolism of ironing in my life. my parents began having marital problems when my mother stopped being a good chinese wife. she had done all the housework and made all the meals. she ironed my father’s shirts and made him lunch every day to bring to work. when she started working and having some satisfaction and success as the head of a non-profit music school, he had problems with it. the last straw was when my mother stopped ironing his shirts and told him to iron them himself. for me, as a woman coming of age in the late 70’s and going to a women’s college, ironing represented the subjugation of women and especially my mother. p is very sweet to me about this. he not only irons his own shirts, but he irons mine. anyway, i was willing to spend my afternoon ironing, but luckily on our way out p explained to me that we could just pay 30 euros to have him find someone to do it. that was a much better choice for me.
p has been working a lot. pretty much 12 hour days every day. he is on contract and so is paid by the day. his project is making progress, but constantly behind schedule and needy. he took today off to move, but at noon his boss called to ask him to come in when he was done. she also asked him to come in tomorrow, saturday. he’s a bit disappointed to go in, but he’ll work 2 short days and get paid for full ones.
after unpacking a bit, i went to a school mom’s home for a cocktail party. she is an art critic and i enjoy chatting with her about art in my search to understand the art universe. though i am less concerned these days of the existence of “bs” art, because, i have decided that it exists to fill a need. one of my art self help books says that the more you make your own art, the less angry you get at seeing bad successful art. (i guess “bs art” could mean both “bull shit” as well as “bad successful” art). she likes very cerebral and conceptual art, performance art, symbolic art. she seems to be ok hanging out with me, even though my art is on the other side of the spectrum – fairly concrete art. anyway, it was a nice little cocktail, but i didn’t stay long because i wanted to get back and unpack.