decadent living

we are staying tonight too, at the chateau. we had a delicious breakfast and walked in the park across the street. the “jean jacques rousseau” park, was created by the marquise who owned this chateau. he was revolutionary in his approach because he created a park that felt “natural” and not formal. rousseau liked it so much he decided to stay and eventually was buried in it. unfortunately, at some point the french govt decided that he should be in the pantheon, so they moved his remains there, next to his arch enemy, voltaire! i think that was very rude of the govt. anyway, the dog LOVED the park. there was only 4 other people in the park and there were a lot of yummy smells for him. he sniffed excitedly in frenzied circles which got bigger and bigger and finally he disappeared into the distance ignoring our calls. it was funny to see how excited he was. we finally had to put him on the leash. we investigated a few other mellow tourist attractions around. there is a “mer de sable” (sea of sand) amusement park, that was closed. didn’t really look interesting. run down rides and a really big field of sand... we went across the street to the abbaye with church ruins and a beautiful chapel. there was also a museum in a mansion. they run workshops here where you can learn about and make your own perfume! jj would like that. we went back to the chateau and hung out a bit. we then went for an aperitif of champagne, in the lounge. this chateau is not as upscale as our honeymoon spot (abbay de cernay). it was at one point a retirement home and sort of has a run down feeling in spots, but all the same it is a nice spot and has a very impressive marble staircase in the entryway. we discovered that there is a veggie menu available (at a very much more reasonable price to the other menus) if ordered in advance. so we put in our orders. we had the same first amuse bouche with our champagne. then there was a layered appetizer of smoked eel and herring. then the same watercress/tomato amuse bouche. our main dishes were a vegetable tempura french style. light and delicious. followed by the cheese course, with some new cheeses mixed in: mont d'or (vacherin du haut-doubs),reblochon and munster. then we had another dessert appetizer – passionfruit with whip cream thing. our dessert was again impressive. it was a 4 inch diameter hollow chocolate sphere filled with creamy crumbly mush of peeled citrus sections inside, skewered with a gold leaf covered chocolate stick, and cup of sesame flavored whip cream on the side. and of course, there was the coffee, macaroons and fruit gelees. but tonight everything was a little bit lighter. we both went for a last walk with the dog.

chateau d'ermenonville

we are up at the chateau d’ermenonville, which is another landmark building renovated and made into a luxury hotel. it's about 70 km from paris.  i have found a great deal – 2 nights, breakfasts and one dinner included for a very reasonable price. well, it IS february – good time for deals. this is our “valentines/early anniversary/no child/try to forget that there’s no child” weekend. just had quite the meal at the chateau. started with amuse bouche (the tiny in between courses course)– a couple of little canapes, one served on a flat silver spoon, to shovel into the mouth.

then my appetizer was “l’ile flottante de queue de boeuf en vinaigrette, foie gras poele et son consomme de pot au feu” which was beef tail meat with fried fois gras on top, beef consomme poured over it with little floating islands of chewy sweet eggwhite balls. it was really good. interesting flavors, varied textures and subtle, soft beefiness. p had raw oysters on top of leek and truffle cream soup. then we had another amuse bouche in between – creme of rocquette greens, mozzarella, cream o f tomato puree on top. for main course – i had duckling breast on top of a bed of a caramelized navette turnip, and fried spaghetti stuck in it, forming strange curling sculpture. the duckling was a little tough, but the fried spaghetti was fun and overall, tasted good. then we had a cheese course. the little cart came around and i chose THREE goat cheeses one covered in ashy green mold(just looked it up, could be an “ash pyramid” valencay), one a long rectangle with outside like camembert and a tall white bell shaped one, livarot (our new favorite) and the maroilles.

p had roquefort, maroilles,calvados coated one, and st. marcelin. the green chevre was very good, the camemberty one was a bit boring but the decapitated triangle was great. it had garlic and peppers inside and a nice soft peppery flavor. need to find out name of that one. especially went well with the peppery red wine we had. we started with a givry and then had some bordeaux. then, because we hadn’t yet had enough courses, they brought us a “dessert appetizer”. a PRE dessert amuse bouche. it was a pistachio flavored creme over raspberry sauce. then dessert was really special. we ordered the “poire belle helen”, which i assumed would be some poached pear on a cake with some chocolate or something along those lines. instead we got a wonderful science experiment. a pear shaped glass with pear balls and other mushy and crunchy, crumbly stuff inside. in the opening sat a chocolate funnel shaped cup filled with whip cream. on top of this was a thin wafer of a slice of dried pear – the top down slice through the center, so it was a perfect representation of the pear. the waiter then asked if i wanted hot chocolate poured in. how could one refuse? he poured it into the chocolate cup, it sat for a moment, and then the chocolate cup sprang a leak and the hot chocolate poured into the goop in the bottom of the glass. the whole lumpy mass with crunchy, chewy, mushy textures and chocolate and pear flavors. it was a constantly changing set of flavors and textures. but wait! we’re not done yet. we then had coffee (well, p. did) with a plate of macaroons and pate de fruit (fruit jelly) of lime and cassis – very tart and delicious! we are very, very full. p. had to take the dog for his last walk of the day. he said that it was beautifully clear out with the stars shining and a lovely mist hanging on the moat and island. (i forgot to mention there is a moat and island.  and the moat is filled with water.  i love moats.  they should always be filled.  i've seen chateaus with dry moats.  it seems like a missed opportunity!)

hints of spring & small steps forward for my paintings

jj is going away today, flying to evian, france, with the "girl gang of 4". one of her good friends has an apartment there. they will ski for the week in the alps. tough life. jj and i are both a little nervous about it. just normal, you know.

p and i are going to a stay at a luxury hotel - a renovated chateau, about 70 km from paris  (got a great deal!)  we are bringing the dog. lots of parks and forests nearby for walking. it will be our valentine's and anniversary weekend (anniversary is actually feb 29th, only every 4 years).

meanwhile, the weather has warmed up and spring is in the air. i know it's trying to trick us into feeling good, before winter comes back... but anyway, it is around 55 degrees, the sun is shining and in the park by the eiffel tower, i can smell flowers. i can't see them, but i can smell them.  it might be the trees.

i have been meaning to go to talk to the owner of this particular restaurant to see if they would be interested in putting my paintings on the wall. i have been meaning to go for months, but was getting up my courage... i have had lunch there and then p and i went there a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed it. i left them a postcard of mine, with a note thanking them for such a delicious meal (a strategic ploy). so i was walking by this morning around 11, with maynard and they were preparing for lunch. i decided it was time to plunge in, so i attached maynard outside, knocked on the door and went in. i told him we had had dinner there and that i was an artist and would he be interested in showing my work. he pulled out my postcard and asked if that was me! he said he was very interested and only had one other artist that was meant to show in february. he had to contact that artist and then i can show after that! i am so excited. i told him i'd love to have an opening event that was a wine tasting at the same time (they are a wine focused restaurant). he said that would be great, that they do wine tastings all the time and that he could cook some little tasty treats! yayyy!!

later: finished the onion painting.  put jj on a plane to the alps with her friends to go skiing.  was sad.  for a moment had an inkling of wanting to cry.  that thought of “in only 3 years she will leave the nest...”  met p for light dinner at “le suffren” a brasserie at the corner of the champs de mars.  it has a bright and cheerful ambiance.  famous for its seafood.

2 potlucks in one day

today i went to TWO potluck parties. the first was lunch in one of jj’s friend’s apartment. it was another parent organized event. the apt was lovely and grand. high ceilings, all the haussmann era details and beautifully decorated. i particularly loved the mint colored silk curtains and the placement of flowers all around. excellent food and wine.

then, that evening there was a college club pot luck at the club president’s apartment. she has a parisian “artist’s studio” . these were built in the 19th century specifically for artists and typically have one open room which is 2 stories high. it was like a big cube, with huge 2 story windows, in one of the liveliest parts of paris (near boulevard montparnasse). there were exposed wooden beams and she had opened up the kitchen to the livingroom. large paintings hung on the high walls. quite an amazing apartment. she is a very interesting, accomplished and dynamic woman. i think she is a retired journalist. 

i made a big batch of chinese shrimp to cover both potlucks.

circus time

worked on the onion still life for an hour; then, it was circus time!

years ago, when jj was little, i took her to a circus when we were visiting paris. it turned out to be a little family run one where the grandma was the mistress of ceremonies, her husband was the clown, the son was the macho tiger tamer, one daughter was the trapeze artist and horse rider and another daughter was the poodle trainer. the young grandchildren were in the wings mostly, working hard leading the animals in and out. there were zebras which were totally wild, running around the ring, kicking up sand and there was an elephant. i was not as amazed with the acts themselves, as i was to how this family could possibly afford to feed the animals when the show was barely attended and the cheap tickets were around $15. it seemed like a hard life and like something you’d see in an old movie. i had NOT been a fan of the circus before, but i thought this was incredible. so real, so down and dirty, so tough... the new yorker in me, loved the glimpse of this scene from a different time.

exams week finished and there was a day off, so it was a perfect time to go to the circus again. jj’s 3 friends all decided to go too.

i was excited about the idea. i thought that over time, we could go to all of the 4 or 5 circuses in paris. to the slick and formal “cirque d’hiver” housed in an 19th century wood structure in the 11th arrondissement, to the horse focused circus in the bois de bolougne and to other family run ones around paris. it was hard to pick which one to go to. i wanted to go to the down and dirty, trashy circus, but jj decided we should go to the horse focused one.

we got cheap seats in the back, but when we arrived, we were seated in great seats, down very close to the ring. i think they moved everyone down close, because otherwise, it would look very empty. there were several school groups. at the intermission there were 5 little kids, probably 5 years old, all in a row, asleep.

this circus is run by a man whose family has been in the business for generations. they specialize in horses and train them to do their tricks with just a wave of the hand. they stand on their hind legs and turn in circles in unison. there was an elephant too, who did tricks. sadly, though, we could tell that the animals really weren’t happy doing this. the horses foamed at the mouth. they did things hesitantly. jj was sad to see it. i thought it was a clever showman trick that the man smiled through the whole thing, which made you think that the animals were all having a great time. the rest of the circus just wasn’t that special either. family members did their acrobatics, which were hard to do, but i felt, anyone could learn to do with a good amount of practice. they were very proud of their music abilities. the men all played several band instruments. it seemed that in olden days this would’ve been very impressive. they were able to play the instruments, but they certainly weren’t prodigies. after the circus, i told jj about the elephant rampage video on youtube. quite frightening – an elephant in a circus just gets fed up. google “elephant rampage honolulu” to see it. anyway, so much for circuses. i don’t think we’ll be going to many more.

champagne shipment

went to conversation group at a nearby cafe. it was fun and we laughed a lot. one woman said that the french term for a single person, “celebataire”, had an opposite meaning in english.

then worked on my onion still life for 3 hours and it’s looking good.

also received my shipment of champagne. i have been trying to organize a champagne tasting. our friend, tove, the norwegian journalist who wrote a book on champagne, gave me a list of what she would recommend. it wasn’t easy to find a lot of these names, so i ended up mail ordering them. i tried to organize the tasting on my own, but could never get enough people at any one time. finally i went through the parent organization and we have it scheduled for the first friday in march. tove will be visiting, and so will lead us in our degustation. we will have 12 people, each will pay 15 euros which will hopefully just cover the cost. they will also each bring a little light snack to go with champagne so we don’t have empty stomachs. one of the organizer mom’s will host it in her beautiful apartment .

aaro luncheon

started work on still life of onions. 

then went to a luncheon organized by the” aaro” – “association of americans resident overseas”. i thought it would be some good contacts for me. hoping they’d know people to help with american and french taxes. mostly were retired people, but they were interesting enough. i met one woman who’s children also went to jj’s school and she had some good advice. again, she said that it was a great education and kids were able to get into good american colleges. i realized that my big question on this issue was, “but would it damage my child in the process?” she said, no, it wouldn’t. you just have to be supportive at home.

orchestra concert

jj had an orchestra concert today. there were 6 different orchestras playing and it lasted all afternoon. she had to arrive at 12:30 for a rehearsal and the concert started at 3:30. her orchestra was fourth to play. she had been warning us that they sounded terrible. in fact, it was perfectly fine. they were not fabulous, but they were quite good and even got a long applause for one particular piece from an opera, with a beautiful trumpet playing the vocal part. however, this was all sort of tough on her schedule, since she needed to study for her exams. it was after 6 when she finished playing and so we didn’t stay to hear the rest of the orchestras.

ski trip planning

went to lunch with the 3 other moms of the “girl gang of 4” to discuss preparations for the upcoming alps ski trip. we bought plane tickets, there and then, since they ended up being cheaper than the train and it is getting late.

exam week

jj’s exam week starts today. each subject gives one or two midterm exams, known as “compos”. she has one or two each day, and then is out of school the rest of the time, theoretically studying. so she is home a lot and stressed. meanwhile, a workman is going to be in and out this week doing work to the bathroom to resolve our “mildew” problem.

decisions, decisions

we will soon have to decide on whether or not we stay in paris. we love the lifestyle and p has a good job for now. we are in the health system. the two factors against staying are feeling far from family and whether we believe in this school or not. i am constantly thinking about this school and asking information of anyone i meet who has had contact with it. there seem to be many. they all seem to agree that the school gives a good education and makes it easier to get into a good u.s. college.

carte de sejour progress

finally, the follow up appointment at the police station for my official residence card, the “carte de sejour”. this is my third appointment and luckily i had everything i needed including p, who should have accompanied me the last time and had to skip out of work this morning. each time i show up missing something, i need to wait another 2 months for an appointment. when i asked how long a wait it would be today, the lady was very nice and said “40 minutes, oh, but you are a special case because you are married to a european, and there’s a special agent for you, so it might be a shorter wait”. in fact, it was a MUCH longer wait and everybody else passed us by. it was an hour and 40 mins. but happily, everything was in order and in 2 months i can come by and pick up my card which is valid for TEN years! yay! (many others have to go through this process every year). afterwards, i was meeting the conversation group at my favorite chinese restaurant, “mirama”. i had made the reservations and was hoping i wouldn’t be delayed at my carte de sejour meeting. everything worked out perfectly and we had a nice chinese new years lunch. “mirama” is a typical chinese luncheonette with ducks hanging in the window. excellent shrimp wonton and noodle soup, and duck and roast pork. (17 rue st jacques, latin quarter, 5th arr)

teacher's side

this week, i worked on redoing my art website, which took up a lot of time.

today, i went to “writing” workshop again. i was talking to another student during class and ended up on the topic of jj’s school. the teacher joined in and we continued the conversation during break. she said that the problem in most of the public schools now, was that the kids were out of control. i have heard this from other sources too, that there is a serious discipline problem in the public schools. she blamed the lax parents. it seems universal that middle school is particularly difficult. kids are dealing with changing bodies and hormones and experimenting with more independence. i told her that our school was semi private. she landed directly on one point that was of concern to me. there is plenty of old fashioned snobbery in paris and there seems to be a population in the school of very rich, entitled, families. i’m sure it’s similar to some manhattan private schools. of course, this doesn’t mean jj will be influenced by these attitudes, especially since she is not part of that demographic. anyway, the teacher

is coming from the teacher side of things so she had some stories of bad parents.

story 1: the long established method for communication between teachers and parent is the carnet, a special notebook for each student with records of test grades etc. one page is specifically for the teacher to make comments and the parent must sign after it to acknowledge that they have seen it. one parent had signed all of the spaces in the right column before there were any comments.

story 2: one teacher arranged to meet a parent and the student to discuss a problem. as they sat down together, the parent said something like “this better be worth it, because my time is valuable. i earn 3 times what you earn”. the teacher said, “end of discussion, get out.” so the parent went to complain to the principal that the teacher had called him in, but then refused to talk to him. the principal was surprised and said, “she is a very good and reasonable teacher. what did you say to her?” he repeated his statement at which point the principal told him to get out. of course, the teachers’ complaints have to do with the lack of respect for their profession.

jj told me about one kid in her grade who lives in his own apartment. it is upstairs from his parents apt. he is a very particular sort of kid too. he comes to school in a suit and with a briefcase. he has all kinds of fancy movie making equipment. while all the other kids are reprimanded for the smallest infraction, this kid can just stand up in class and start setting up and using his equipment. jj said that she saw a film he had made and it was really good and really professional.

i know a dog-dad (he has a beagle, i met him in the champs de mars), an american, retired editor at intl herald tribune. he has 2 sons who went to the school. he said that when they were there, they weren’t very happy, but they got an excellent education and got into very good american colleges. he asked them for me, how they felt about the school and the teachers. they said it wasn’t the teachers they had a problem with as much as the french kids. they said they were very spoiled and entitled. however, they said that the kids in the international program were much nicer.

mildew man

the mildew man came to look at the crazy mildew problem we have in our bathroom. part of the problem might be that the bathroom has 3 exposed exterior walls and the ceiling, so gets very cold, but strange how damp it is in there all the time. towels don’t dry... anyway.

jj meltdown

went to alliance francaise “writing workshop”. did more talking in this class than in the “oral” workshop. the teacher is young and energetic. she is much less formal about things and during the breaks hung out and chatted with us.

this afternoon, jj had a melt down about school. we were warned by the veteran parents of the program to expect several of these... she says that her math teacher talks to fast and can’t explain things very well, and jumps around several topics at the same time. she is so busy trying to copy down what is being written on the board that she doesn’t have a chance to listen and understand what is being said. certainly the language is the problem here. the teacher’s attitude doesn’t sound very good. after being asked a question, the teacher said “figure it out yourself”. i really wonder about these teachers. (though, since i wasn’t there, i can’t say that that was rude or improper. sometimes, i want to say the same thing to jj when she’s working on her math and her question is almost “what is the answer?”. the proper response would be “figure it out”). she wants to have a math tutor to help her. anyway, jj has never complained like this in the many schools she has gone to. maybe part of the problem is that she’s “tasted the good stuff”. jj being sad makes us all sad. plus, for p, his work is pretty stressful. i was awake early again and being tired makes me sad. but at a certain point, i got tired of being sad and had something to eat which perked me up. i think part of this is the february blues. the weather has been grey, but just listening to the east coast u.s. weather, reminds me how GREAT it is here! this beats 5 feet of snow!

another interesting apt

for conversation group, i went to an apt in a slightly funkier part of town. when i entered the building, a man had just finished sweeping and there was big pile of dirt with a lot of some sort of rodent poop. this made me think that maybe the building was more on the rough side, but when i entered the apartment, it was gorgeous. it had high ceilings throughout. the large entryway had stained glass windows and led to another large hall with a burgundy paint that looked like it had big crackles all over. it turned out to be the light thrown through a funky lightshade that made the texture. the best thing was the large kitchen that opened to the large dining room which opened to huge living room. it felt like a loft, but with all the hausmann era details. it was really beautiful. this would be my ideal space.

emergency room

p and i had breakfast while jj slept. when she did get up, we went to the swimming pool across the street. it’s a facility with a few indoor pools and slide and jacuzzi etc, and an outdoor pool which you swim to from the indoor pool. so you never have to be out of the pool in the cold. it was heated, but it was still a little chilly. had a good lunch and headed home. i ended up going to the emergency room for one of those medical things that wouldn’t be a big deal if it was a weekday and you could call your dr. i had gone into a pharmacy and asked about this condition and they told me to go to the emergency room. i was lucky because it was a quiet night and was treated relatively quickly. lucky also, that we are now in the health system and apparently would not have to pay too much for this. even more luck that we had the rental car and were able to drive around paris to find one of the only pharmacies open late to get my prescription. i was fine and we got home around midnite .

dieppe

bank meeting – took an hour to update our information, move our home account and get a bank card for me. the bank card is a credit card too, and has a microchip. it is my key to life in france. you need this sort of card to use any of the machines that take cards – to buy metro tickets, train tickets, anything online. it costs much more than i would normally pay for a credit card, but it’s just part of the expense of being in the french system.

afterwards, we took off for p’s birthday weekend. he had wanted to go to the coast and so, he made all the arrangements for a trip to dieppe. it was a typical january day, rainy and grey, with temperatures in the 30’s. we got to rouen around 2:00. the cathedral that monet painted at different times of the day is here. it is quite gothic and even has a lacy feeling with all the little details on the facade.

got to dieppe in late afternoon. the hotel was right on the beach. it’s quite nice, even though it is a chain. the price was quite reasonable too. it was cold but beautiful on the beach. it’s always great to be at the sea. we had a mediocre dinner in one of the touristy seafood places at the harbor. i had whelks and winkles for the first time. whelks are a shellfish about ½ the size of a fist. nice chewy meat inside. winkles are tiny little sea snails – about the size of a toe – not too much flavor in these; these were just the appetizer. for the main course i had moules frites – mussels and fries. unfortunately the mussels were pretty tasteless. this is a really easy meal to make, normally and really delicious, so i suspect there was a big vat of mussels in the kitchen that had been sitting for a while.

tiger mother

i went to my second alliance francaise “oral workshop” french lesson. it was slightly better, but i still didn’t like it. i was able to switch it for next week to the “written workshop”.

p had sent me the article about the chinese mom, making waves right now in the u.s. i’m sure you’ve heard of this book “battle hymn of the tiger mother” and the wall st journal article “why chinese moms are superior”

i have to laugh at some of the things she says. i haven’t read the book, just the article, but it’s laughable that someone could make such firm statements with the confidence that they have the answers and theirs is the only way to successful parenting. each child is different and reacts differently to situations. i have heard of parents who have been convinced they are doing it the right way because their child is so perfect, until their second child is born and is an absolute terror. then they admit that perhaps it’s not just parenting that makes the difference. of course, i agree with some of what the tiger mom says about discipline and taking academics as a priority over sports and hobbies, just not to the extremes that she takes it. i loved reading some of the wonderful and wise responses. then, because the sleepover topic had been a recent topic of discussion, i HAD to read to jj the list of what the author’s daughters were never allowed to do 

“attend a sleepover, have a playdate, be in a school play, complain about not being in a school play, watch TV or play computer games, choose their own extracurricular activities, get any grade less than an A, not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama, play any instrument other than the piano or violin, not play the piano or violin.”

and the other best paragraph:

“All the same, even when Western parents think they're being strict, they usually don't come close to being Chinese mothers. For example, my Western friends who consider themselves strict make their children practice their instruments 30 minutes every day. An hour at most. For a Chinese mother, the first hour is the easy part. It's hours two and three that get tough.”

(part of me thinks she is just saying some of these things to be so extreme that she causes a controversy which is good for book sales). anyway, jj’s response was “she’s crazy, she should tell her kids you can only go to sleepovers if you get straight A’s and practice an hour a day.” i looked at her and said, “SOOOO... , jj, speaking of which... ” pause. jj’s eyes opened very wide in horror at what she had just said. her mouth puckered to form a little O as she issued a quick “oooh” and then ran to her room and closed the door. i laughed very hard. i am one of the “failed” chinese moms.

to add to the chinese theme - the parent group organized a dim sum lunch in chinatown (in the 13th arrondissement).  it was in a restaurant called "la chine massena".  it was good, but not great dim sum.   but it was good to get into chinatown and look around again.  "tang freres" is a giant chinese market there too.  the lunch went on so long, i didn't have time to stay and tour it with the rest of the moms.

p's birthday

today is p’s birthday. we went out to a cafe in the morning. we brought maynard. it’s so nice that you can bring dogs along to cafes and restaurants. it is starting to get a little warmer, so we sat in the semi outside area that has a heater. then p went to work. then in the evening, he wanted to have a french dinner, so we went to “la galoise”, a local old fashioned french restaurant where we like the ambiance. we both had the giant shrimp. i enjoyed the dinner, but p wasn’t so enthralled with his.

p has been working very hard and long days, and feels that he is not experiencing enough of being in paris. we have resolved to try to go out to eat once a week on a weeknight – if he can get back in time.

for his present, he got a "kindle"!

french lessons

i signed up for french lessons at alliance francais. i decided to try the “oral workshop” since i really need help with speaking more fluently. it was not very good. there were about 7 people in the class and we hardly did any talking. the teacher did most of the talking. the subject was the printed media – newspapers, magazines, and the vocabulary associated with them. it was really boring. it felt so much like old fashioned school and it really was not anything that i was interested in or that would help me. oh well. i signed up for 2 weeks so i will go to the second class on friday and see if it gets better. if not, i will try to change into the “writing” workshop. i need help in that too.

school meeting

every few months, there is a school meeting, in which the administration gives news and updates to the parents. today, the principal of the school (who i had never seen before) came and talked about the murder. (see jan 4/5) she said that the student had left the school last year, but was extremely well liked. she said that this event is particularly upsetting because he was one of those very special people who had a big personality and had lots of friends in the school. it was very hard for all the students to hear about this news and she had brought in a psychiatrist to help talk to them about it. meanwhile, of course, it was terrible for the math teacher who was part of the family. she had taken some time off and was back now. many of the parents didn’t know anything about this story.

rollerblading along seine

decided it was time to go rollerblading. the weather was beautiful, sunny and near 50 degrees. i haven’t done much rollerblading since we got the dog. i try to take him with me when i go exercising and rollerblading with him doesn’t work. the highway along the seine is closed on sundays to cars so people can walk/bike/rollerblade on it. it’s really wonderful and one of my favorite things in paris. (a few weeks ago, i was telling jj about going to this highway to rollerblade or bike. she said “i definitely don’t want to do that” i was surprised and kept telling her how beautiful it was. then i mentioned how they had started closing the highway on sundays when we were first living in paris many years ago. and she said “oh, it’s CLOSED to cars!” i laughed at how she imagined her mother was totally insane rollerblading on a LIVE highway!) i have learned over the last few outings, that it’s better to take the metro to get close to the start of the closed highway, because it’s a pain to deal with traffic getting there and it’s not my favorite touring path. p suggested getting off the metro at invalides and he picked up a bike there. i put on my rollerblades. this was a mistake. i was definitely rusty PLUS there’s lots of bumps and dirt and COBBLESTONE on the way to the entrance. next time i will get off much closer to the entrance and NOT put on my blades until we are ON the highway. i did feel like time had passed and here i was, an OLD lady rollerblading... but, mick jagger is still playing concerts, so why not? (i just have to avoid cobblestone).

jj came back from her weekend exhausted. apparently, they rehearsed from the time i dropped them off at 3:00 till 6:00, had dinner and then rehearsed from 8:00 till 10:00. then some of the kids partied till 1am, this being their wild weekend away from parents. then, today, they rehearsed all day and didn’t leave until 6pm. she still has to do homework.

jj away

jj’s first rehearsal with the new orchestra happened to be a weekend rehearsal out in the suburbs. i accompanied her and her friend by the RER (suburban metro) and walked up to an interesting facility dedicated to music retreats. it was a large piece of land with a few classroom and dorm buildings on it. when we found the others, jj didn’t want me to stay and watch at all. she’s at the age of being embarrassed if her mom is anywhere nearby when there are peers around. so i left. it’s always weird when jj is not with us. at first i feel lost, but then i adapt pretty quickly. jj who? 

we went out to eat. walked around trying to decide where to eat. ended up at “le veraison”, nearby. i have gone there for lunch and liked it. wanted to bring p since they have a good selection of wines by the glass. we got there at 8:00 and it was empty. by 8:30 it was full. this is a good trick to remember with popular restaurants. the french don’t go out to eat before 8:00, so if you get there by 8:00 you are ahead of everyone. the dinner was very good. p especially enjoyed his.

sick dog

maynard came in the door from his evening walk last night and promptly barfed twice in great quantities. this morning, waiting to see how things went, he did it again twice. i spent a lot of time cleaning rugs. anyway, i called the vet and she said he had to come in. later she told me that there was something very contagious going around all the dogs and she had been bombarded with calls. she gave him 2 shots and he has to take a course of antibiotics.

meanwhile, started a new painting of a close up of chimneys.

more school discussions;banking

went to have tea with a friend who is an american working in a progressive bilingual school in paris. her kids had gone to our school for a while, though they left early on. i wanted to hear what she had to say about it. i knew that she did not like the school at all so i knew her opinions would be very negative, but i wanted to hear both sides. she said that the administration does not care about the well being of your child and it is all about money. she had both professional and personal conflicts with them. in general, she was very critical of the french school culture. the kids are under high pressure, and there are plenty of dramatic stories. anyway, i won’t go into the gory details here. meanwhile, we had a tea and pastry at her lovely club, which is run by a countess and is located in one of the ritziest parts of town. the club is theoretically for the “arts”, but the members are more of the art buyers rather than the art makers.

another thing i did today was to make an appointment with the bank to try to move our account. because i knew that both p and i would need to be present, i needed an appointment on a saturday. of course, no appts were available until the next saturday. can you imagine? all this just to shift the account’s home? i mentioned already, that the bank offices are like duchies. our home office is in the 12th arrondissement, so if we want to do anything like transfer money we have to go there. we already tried to transfer our account, but because it is a joint account and i did not have the official french papers at the time, we couldn’t do it!

lebanese lunch

our conversation group was hosted by our lebanese organizer, who cooked us a special lebanese lunch. the table was laid with hummus, a feta and tomato salad, an okra and tomato cold stew, flat bread, salad, eggplant babaganoush and more. it was delicious and i had seconds and was happily full. then, our hostess said she was bringing out the main course! i had thought that the salads were the whole lunch! she made a chicken and rice casserole and then a goopy cinnamony dessert. lastly, we finished with the champagne from a previous meeting.

meanwhile, i’m not doing enough painting and i still need to loosen up.

teacher conference

this evening was our teacher conferences. jj was to set up an appointment with each of her teachers, using a “dance card”. each meeting was to be 5 minutes. it is fondly referred to as “speed dating” (in reference to some new social practices that you may or may not have heard about!) unfortunately, the card got lost, and jj tried to contact the teachers to get the appointment times. in the end, i only had the times for 2 out of 3 meetings, so i went early and had to push in front of a line to find out the time for the 3rd meeting. of course, it doesn’t really take 5 minutes, so everyone was running late and there were lines of parents waiting for particular teachers. i went in at 6:00 and didn’t get back until 8:00. however, i must say, it was much more interesting than i had thought it would be. i thought i would merely get to see the face of the teachers that jj was complaining about. in fact, it was really good. they seemed very nice. (jj acknowledged later that yes, they were mostly nice. they just couldn’t teach very well). they really like jj and were very encouraging. i had seen these terrible marks and figured she was just limping along. they all said that she was wonderful in class and was one of their best students! i was thrilled that i could go back and let jj know this! she was surprised the hear it.

sleepovers

had good sleep! went to cafe for breakfast, jj went to an all day party coming home briefly in the afternoon to practice violin and do some homework. then went to sleepover –

the whole question of sleepovers is an on-going discussion. my mother never let us go on sleepovers. she said that the kids would stay up very late and it would take a week to make up the sleep and meanwhile we would get sick. well, in fact, that is my thinking too. jj needs a lot of sleep and the times she gets sick is when she is sleep deprived, which is usually because of a sleepover. the current rule is that if she does go on a sleepover, she needs to take a nap. that usually works ok. she thinks that i am religiously opposed to sleepovers. the first invitation this year was turned down because we had just arrived and felt we needed a little time to settle in. the next 2 or 3 invitations were not accepted for various valid reasons – such as she had some obligation the next morning or we were away. 

i had met the parents and the friend hosting this particular sleepover, briefly, but didn’t know much about them. i asked jj to get me the mom’s phone/email and their address. “why? why do you need these things?” i told her i wanted to make contact with the mom.

but as we talked about it over a few days, she got more and more upset.  she was embarrassed that her mom had to call the host’s mom.  i told her that when dad went away on business, he left me the name and number of the hotel he was staying in. it was just logistics to know where she was.  i thought that it would only be proper. i need to ask her myself, if an adult would be home. she said, the apartment is just down the street next to the church. but i told her, that that was not a very precise address. in the end, because i did have contact before with the parents and because jj promised to text me the address, and her friend, (who i did trust) replied that both parents would be home, i let it go. though the rule from now on, is that i need to make contact with a parent beforehand.

a warm day

painted and then went to lunch again at the restaurant called “le timbre”. (“le timbre” means postage stamp, and it is a tiny restaurant). 

afterwards, i went home to give the dog a bath. the temperature had been in the 50’s and maynard had come back pretty smelly from his vacation. was pretty tired. i have occasional sleep problems. my question is: “does aging cause sleep problems or do sleep problems cause aging?”. i sort of think it’s both. i used to be an excellent sleeper. in fact, when jj was born, we were living in paris, and my mother came over to help. she told me later that she came because she had been worried that i wouldn’t wake up when the baby cried. but i did wake up. having the baby changed everything with my sleep.

made myself do an “art date” today. one of the books i have to help me in art, recommends scheduling an art date for yourself. i went to visit a cool area of town around the rue vielle de temple, which has galleries and designy shops. i went to a specific gallery which was recommended to me by the art critic i had met (at a parent pot luck). it was hidden away behind a big parisian door with a very subtle sign for the gallery. they were showing , robert irwin, an american artist who has been around for many decades. this show was “high art”. it had about 8 pieces, all of which were a series of vertical neon lights of different colors. i didn’t even bother to look at their prices. nice work if you can get it. i think i will be doing medium low art for my life. which is ok. anyway, i did pop into another few galleries, one of which had an asian theme. pretty interesting, i thought. there was one particular artist who took ancient asian calligraphy and made beautiful abstract watercolors from it. the range of prices were between 400-600 euros. actually a reasonable price...  (doesn't make me mad or shock me)

more about murder

getting better at painting every weekday.
looked up the story about the murder, and the latest says that the family denies any drug involvement of the student. the police say that the son has deep psychological problems and has admitted that he “hated his father and his ideas on bourgeouis education.” i guess he means our school...

more about grades; a murder

went to conversation group today and asked them about the grade question. most of these moms have been here for a few years and some have gone through this program. they said that the teachers all get together and meet about each student. a big part of the overall grade is in “comportement” which is a combination of attitude, trying hard, being polite in class, and everything else, rolled into one. jj got good comments, so perhaps that weighed very strongly.

anyway, one of the moms told us another bit of news in the school. over the holiday break, one of the students who was a senior, apparently was involved in the murder of his father! the father was a famous journalist in france who had just retired last year. the student was 17 and had some “friend” who was 25 go to his apartment. it is unclear as of yet what exactly happened, but the father was killed with a stabbed throat and hammered head. apparently the student was getting a 500 euro weekly allowance (approximately $650) and he wanted more money. drugs were rumored to be involved. shocking. but wait, there’s more. the sister of the murdered journalist is a math professor and head of 6th and 7th grade at the school. totally crazy.

back in paris; report card

the trip back from morocco was not too hard, but there was a lot of waiting in lines. the worst was going through passport control in paris orly airport. it was new years day, so maybe they were short staffed. there was a very long line and one lady passed out. the pompiers (firemen/medical aid) were called. she probably had eaten in the market stalls...

we got home and found jj’s report card in the mail. grading is one of those things that is a big issue in france. it is on a scale of 0-20 where 20 is clearly stated as unattainable. i think maybe you could get a 20 if you cured cancer. anyway, the report card confused us more about the school. we know that the new adaptation students have a hard time. half of their classes are taught in french which many are just starting to understanding. in the report card, was not only jj’s grade, but also the highest, average and bottom grades, so you could see where you stood in the class. she was graded on 8 different subjects and sub-topics. 1 of her grades was near the top, 3 were above avg, 3 were hovering around average and 1 was below avg. she was given one final overall letter grade. with these scores i would have guessed that she would get around a B or B- or even less. however, she got an A+. now, i shouldn’t complain about such a grade, and jj was thrilled, but it just didn’t make any sense to me. with all the talk of tough grading, how could this be? one theory i had was that her teachers actually confused her with her good friend, who is so similar to her, who seems to be doing very well in school!

new years in marrakech

new years eve in marrakech started off great. we were sitting on the roof deck having a mint tea and the staff were scurrying around getting ready for the party. you could tell they were excited. they were like kids before christmas. this was probably their first new years eve, as the hotel was only about a year old. the musicians started to arrive. 2 guys in african outfits started playing and they were fantastic. the type of music is called gnawa, which was brought up by the slaves from west africa. the main instrument was a three -string lute called a “hajhuj”. the musician played the strings and at the same time with the same hand, beat the instrument like a drum. the other musician played a cymbal like instrument. the music was beautiful and hypnotic, very similar to the music of “ali farka toure” which i think has the same roots. they were sitting on the ground and it was very cool. unfortunately, they then went into tourist mode and made the rounds to each group of people, putting their hats on guests and posing for photos. only later did i realize, they were looking for tips. then, there was another duet of musicians who played for most of the evening. there was a lute player and a drummer. they were a little more forthcoming in letting us know what they wanted at the end of the evening. they made the rounds and the lutist would open his hand holding the neck of the instrument, to flash the money he was holding. i was a bit resentful of the constant money grubbing we found in morrocco. we didn’t really want to have this expensive new years eve dinner, but were forced to if we wanted to stay at the hotel. all the other hotels that i called required the same. so the fact that these musicians were asking for more money sort of bothered me. we also had belly dancers, which are not at all morrocan. i imagined the marketing guy for morroco tourism saying, “i don’t care if they’re not morroccan, tourists want belly dancers!” in fact, wikipedia says that the belly dancing costume: “owes its creation to the Victorian painters of ‘Orientalism’ and the harem fantasy productions of vaudeville, burlesque, and Hollywood during the turn of the last century, rather than to authentic Middle Eastern dress.” and in the 20’s the costume was brought “to Egypt, because it was the image that Western tourists wanted.” it felt strange and very contrary to the conservative morrocan form of dress which covers everything including the head. i felt embarrassed. anyway, the dinner was drawn out for the whole evening. the food was better than the standard morrocan fair, but didn’t diverge too far from what we had everyday there. by the end of the evening, we were very ready to leave, especially since we had a flight early the next morning.

new years eve

slept a lot yesterday. then slept all night. woke up feeling fine. funny, that when you’re not feeling quite right, it’s hard to say exactly what is wrong and how much is wrong. but when you are feeling fine, it is definitive. i felt fine. we got up and went on our little excursion to the mountains. we made a couple of stops along the road, to “take pictures” but were met by many jewelry salesmen. “berber” was the buzz word. everything was berber. berber jewelry. berber carpets, berber villages. glad that they figured out the key sales words. we were driving along a river, through the valley up higher and higher. there were houses across the river that had little rope bridges for access. people herding goats wearing traditional garb. we got to the berber village and was guided up the path to the waterfalls. it was beautiful and the air was clear. our guide was very attentive, helping us up the rocks. he scampered up and down like a mountain goat. he grew up in the village so had been playing on the rocks his whole life. we bought a couple of souvenirs, but my family criticized my weak bargaining skills. i paid too much, but supported the local economy. anyway, a couple of euros too much is nothing to us and much to them. driving into marrakech, we could see the walls of the city surrounding palms of the large park on the south. it was quite impressive.

it is new years eve and we have a special dinner at the riad. we are all sitting on the roof deck having a mint tea and the staff seems all excited setting up for the party. the musicians are coming in and 2 have just started playing. it started off sounding like a bass and a drum, but are traditional instruments. they sound great! strains of ali farka toure.

real moroccan experience

we were planning on going out of town today to a nearby beautiful valley. even though it is not as intense here as i had expected, the very dense city, with pollution and throngs of people and traffic are making me feel a bit closed in. so our day trip seemed a nice change. unfortunately, i had a real moroccan experience last night. something in our deep fried seafood dinner did not agree with me and i will be staying close to the facilities today. normally my stomach is made of iron. luckily i was the only one affected and seem to be recovering. the manager here in the riad suggested an herbal tea for a remedy. for plain stomach ache – a tea made of cumin, thyme and verveine (lemon verbena) served hot or cold. wow – spicy and medicinal tasting. for sleeping – just cumin in hot water. these are the moroccan remedies. my theory is that the cumin just kills everything bad. that’s why they add it to so many foods too. my sister yelled at me over email for being so stupid as to eat from the market stands. she said that hepatitis was rife and there were lines of people in hospitals waiting for liver transplants. she’s a dr, so she sees those things. i actually had been hesitant at first to the idea of eating in the market stands, but the guide books said you should try it and there were legions of western tourists doing it.

touring around

our hotel room has one window with a shutter that can open a keyhole shape to make the room feel very moroccan. we look out over a very busy road, and though the window is pretty well sealed, we can hear some traffic. we hear the motorbikes, the cars and the donkeys clip clopping by. it adds to the atmosphere. unfortunately, the air is quite polluted, which adds a different sort atmosphere. yesterday we let jj sleep and we didn’t get out until 12:30. today we got her up at 9:30 to join us for breakfast on the roof terrace. we were trying to plan out the rest of our stay here and book some day trips. we were hoping to get a much earlier start to our day, but by the time we finished, it was 11:30. oh well. that’s just us. we went to the “saadian tombs” which is a sacred burial building and grounds that had been forgotten to the world behind its walls. it was very crowded. there was a line to see the most beautiful room, but after waiting for half an hour, we gave up. we then got a horse drawn buggy (much desired by jj) which took us to the “ville nouvelle” (new town). it had been written up as a sort of “haussmann” styled area of town, built by the colonial french. in reality, it seemed like it had been built in the 70’s. maybe the haussmann buildings had been recently replaced by these modern ones or maybe we weren’t in the right place. it was not very exciting. we had lunch and then went to the “majorelle gardens” which were touted as the crown jewel of marrakech’s gardens. it too was extremely crowded. created by an artist called majorelle, and then owned by yves st laurent, it had among other things a dense bamboo forest and a cactus garden. it also had a beautiful courtyard restaurant/cafe. but it wasn’t fabulous. a little boring. i felt that the town was just trying to find more things for tourists to do. afterwards we took a cab out to the “palmeraie” to have a camel ride. i hadn’t actually understood what the palmeraie was. in fact, it is a very large open area outside of town, covered with palm trees. they are not dense enough to be called a forest but they were spread out enough so farmers could plant crops between them (artichoke, coriander, parsley). it was not a tended “garden”. though, apparently, it used to be a very dense palm forest until some sort of blight thinned it out. we wandered around the remaining palms for an hour, on dromedaries (oops, not camels). the guide gave us peeks into the land of the rich who built houses and walled gardens here. it had been a wonderful temperature all day, and now the sun was setting and it was starting to get cool. we went back to town to the central square and had a mint tea. then we decided to go back to the market stands for an early dinner of fried fish and vegetables. it was very fried... i get images of my arteries hardening when i eat like this. i watched the cook pour all the oil from his big fry pot into a tub. it was very dark brown. i thought he was going to change the oil and was impressed. then i realized that that was probably not what was going to happen. in fact, he washed the pot (probably clearing out lots of fried bits) and then of course, poured the oil back in. then he threw a couple of whole sweet peppers into it. i realized that even the veggies we ate were deep fried. after dinner, jj also wanted an ice cream, so we went to a place on our way home. i saw a couple of boys pulling the sleeve of a tourist as he ordered his ice cream. they put on very long sad faces. i guess they were trying to get him to buy them and ice cream. it didn’t work. we had read about marrakech, that young boys would hassle tourists to offer themselves as guides. i just finished reading a book about some australians who bought and restored a riad in fez (“a house in fez”, suzanna clarke). they said that a new law had been instated that forbade “false guides”, to discourage this practice. it was strictly enforced and a person could be thrown in jail if there was any suspicion of them doing this, including just walking with a tourist. if this is the case, it has really worked. there are no boys bugging tourists to be their guides. except for shop owners trying to have you come into their shop, we have generally not been hassled. we notice it and are appreciative. the current king, mohammed VI is doing an amazing job of encouraging tourism.

marrakech,day1

wandered around marrakech. went to the artisan “mall” to check out the wares. nice because it was fixed prices – no bargaining – a benchmark for what things should really cost. bought a beautiful purple leather overnight bag. p. understands my obsession for bags. i try to control it, but this one was such a bargain too! then we went to the “cyber” park across the street – so called because of the computers and internet available in the center. was beautiful and calm. palm trees. temperatures around 50.

we stopped back at the hotel to drop our purchases and then went for lunch overlooking the center square. then went into the souks, wandering, but heading towards museum cluster. tourists became sparse and we figured out we were off the beaten track. headed back to find the museum. there were 3 sites – the museum(an old mansion), the old school and the remains of a 12th century mosque. the old school and museum were restored by one man. they were elaborate and beautiful, with intricately carved wooden walls. saw a beautiful sunset from the souk (market streets). went back to the hotel and had mint tea on the roof terrace. then we decided to try the dinner offered here too. there were set tables in the covered courtyard next to the lobby. when we told the front desk we would like to eat in, they seemed almost surprised, and it took them a little bit of time to get someone to come wait on us. we ended up sitting in a sort of living room nook, a square room opening onto the courtyard, with the other 3 walls having 3 long couches along them – creating a “U” shape, with a low table inside. it was very decadent and luxurious. we want to make something like that in our dream house, someday... dinner was good, but by the time we were done, it was 10:30, so we decided to stay in.

birthday

today is my birthday and we spent the afternoon and evening in marrakech, morroco. yes!
last night, we had stayed with p’s brother and family outside of london. we got up early, took the train to the airport and flew to marrakech without incident. with all the crazy weather happening around us in paris and london in the last week, we have been so lucky in all our travels without any major delays. the temperature was in the 60’s when we arrived. we are watching the news right now and seeing the crazy amount of snow on the u.s. east coast. we are thrilled to be here!

anyway, we arrived at our “riad” – traditional house with courtyard – but in our case, boutique hotel – with only a small adventure. there was supposed to be someone from the hotel meeting us at the airport, but no one was there. so we took a cab, but the driver had to ask another driver how to go. he dropped us near enough to the hotel and passed us off onto another man who wheeled our luggage in a little cart to the hotel. i was a little uptight about it, but p. handled it all well. luckily we had a map, our riad was on a main street and we knew where we were. we didn’t have any adventures like the ones i read about, where tourists are dropped off in the medina and get lost before they even get to their hotel.

our hotel is new and very beautifully done and we are pleased. there is a nice terrace on the roof where we had our welcome tea. we went out to the medina (old town) and walked to the main square and then into the souks (small market roads). we did not get lost and arrived back to the square. it is so exciting to be in such a different culture! the women mostly wear head scarves and long caftans, though there are many women dressed in western wear. there are also lots of men in caftans.

we decided to eat at one of the market stalls. some offer barbecued meats, some offer fried seafood, some offer just hard boiled eggs and some offer calf heads. we picked one that offered a variety of food and we had fried calamari, grilled aubergines(eggplants), green peppers, mixed meat skewers and french fries. it was very tasty and total cost was around 15 euros/$20 for the three of us. we noticed that the man serving us would just grab the food from a big plate, with his hands, and put it our serving plates. i also wondered how they actually washed the dishes, since these were stalls set up in the middle of the square without running water... oh well, hope for the best...

in the square we did briefly see one snake charmer and there were lots of musicians and storytellers. we went to have ice cream in a cafe that said it was a “glaciere” and which had a big menu of ice cream on its front wall. but they didn’t have any ice cream, so we just had a mint tea. we came back to the hotel and were hanging out watching tv when there was knock on the door. our host, saladin was there with a birthday cake for me! a delicious strawberry tart with a candle in the middle. they were so sweet! they knew because they had collected our passports for our information. so i just had to write my blog to tell you about it!

boxing day

the english celebrate “boxing day” on the day after christmas. it is so called because it is the day you give presents (in boxes) to the servants... we packed up our bags and brought them to nick and linda's house(p’s brother and sister-in-law). it was also linda’s birthday. we had a nice meal (delicious roast beef) and hung out. we even ALL played a video game together. it was a horse racing game where you get to place bets and then watch and cheer the horse race. it was quite fun.

christmas eve torches

p’s request was to do nothing but hang out today. we went for a walk through the fields. it has snowed so much in england that we will have a white christmas. this is not normal at all for them. 

in the evening, we went to a town event. it was a torch parade, bonfire, and carols. they have been selling torches in the town hardware store for weeks in anticipation of this event. everyone met at the top of the town with their lit torches and walked down the main street, across the river and to a field. it was amazing. the street was quite long and it was packed full as far as you could see, with lit torches. it was also bizarre. i kept thinking of all the old monster movies when all the townspeople have torches and pitchforks to kill the monster. i was aware of the lack of pitchforks. also, as a good neurotic new yorker, it seemed extremely dangerous for all these people to be walking around with a big flame in their hands. it was bad enough with the little kids waving them around , but even the adults would be looking one way, and their flame would be leaning down the other way. this is in a very crowded street. in spite of these fears and being on high alert, it was really beautiful and felt very traditional. we finally arrived at the field without having gone up in flames, and there was a big bon fire which helped warm us, and a brass band accompanying our carols. we were handed a sheet with the words for the carols. it really was cold, and we left before it was all finished.

london

we had breakfast with a friend of p’s from school, katie, who has a 2 year old and a 6 month old. katie is a very fun, interesting and dynamic person. she is a beautiful, english woman who grew up in saudi arabia (her father being there for work). my favorite katie story is when, years ago, in london, her car was hit from behind. she got out and it was an arab guy who said there was no damage and he didn’t need to give her his number. she said, she wanted it anyway, in case there was some damage they could not see. he refused, but she insisted. finally, he started yelling and cursing at her in arabic, so she started yelling and cursing back at him in arabic. he was stunned. and then he not only wanted to give her his phone number, but he wanted HER number too. it was great to see her.

afterwards, we headed to see a play called “warhorse”. the tickets were a christmas present from p’s parents. it is a big hit in london apparently stephen spielberg has bought the rights and is going to make a movie of it. it is the story of a boy and horse that get pulled into world war 1. the amazing thing is that the horses in the play are life size puppets. they are minimal and you can see the puppeteers working them – two on the inside, one on the outside. they succeeded in giving the puppets perfect horse like movements and are totally convincing as characters. the story was a classic story in some ways, a child bonding with an animal, and their love carrying on through travails over time. it was really the presentation with the horses that made it beautiful and a marvel to watch, which makes me wonder how spielberg will translate it to film. after the play, we went up to p’s parent’s home outside of london.

eurostar to london

there’s been a lot of snow – much more than is normal and much of france has been stopped up because of it. since we don’t drive around and everything is within walking distance, we just haven’t been affected. as we approached the holidays though, there were all kinds of predictions of terrible weather to come. we heard that the eurostar to london had terrible delays. we were scheduled to take the eurostar to london on wed the 22nd and braced for delays. we lucked out again. by the time our day came, things were almost back to normal and our train was only an hour late all together. we laughed though, because we were sitting waiting to board. we were told that the 1:00 train would be late and board at 1:20 to leave at 1:35. at 1:10 there was an announcement, “eurostar is boarding NOW”. we barely got down to the platform from the waiting room, when another announcement said “the eurostar is closing its doors” and a whistle blew. EEEK! everyone hustled to get themselves aboard. we got to our seats and the train started moving. it was 1:15. it turned out that there were lots of empty seats – i said that it was the seats of all the people left back at the platform! if anyone had gone off to the bathroom they would’ve been left behind! it was a relatively quick trip. it really is amazing how fast we can get to london. it was noticeably uglier in london. the areas outside of london were grey and sad looking – piles of dirt in empty spaces. very grey and industrial looking. i had found a very reasonably priced hotel near “queensbury” and “bayswater” tube stop – called “the london house hotel”. we got a triple for L85 for the night. the hotel was very clean and modern. it was a good find. after checking in, we went out to a bookstore, and then to get dinner at a pub. the prices seemed more reasonable than i had remembered. perhaps we are getting used to the european prices. afterwards we went to get dessert. we wandered into a nearby mall and found a great gelato place. london has an amazingly diverse population. it seemed that we hardly saw any “traditional” english people. we barely heard any english spoken. the pub was quite mixed, but the mall seemed to be mostly people who wouldn’t be hanging out in the pub drinking, because of their religion.

doggy farm

got up and did not feel well. i had to take the dog up to the doggy farm/kennel, out in the countryside. we had decided to try this farm that was recommended to us. we are just doting doggy parents, and we thought he might like a vacation in the country while we had a vacation out of the country. each dog gets his own room with a little nook for his bed, with a radiator, and a private yard. jj was going to stay home but since i wasn’t sure how well i was, she came with me to help. we had to take the metro to the train station and the train out about 45 mins. the lady came to pick us up at the station, but was surprised to see jj. she said she only had room for one passenger. she showed us her car, which had the back seat set up for a dog – with a wire mesh dividing the car. i said jj could ride in back with maynard. she said ok, but she’d have to duck down if we saw a policeman. it had snowed a lot, and it was beautiful. it was a bit warmer today, so there was fog lifting off the snow. it was very WHITE. we could barely see the farm house from the road. we checked out the lodgings and then were driven back to the train station. i was indeed a bit ill and went home and slept and slept. meanwhile, jj had been working very hard on her christmas presents. her door was closed with a sign saying to “please knock and wait for permission to enter”. she also had decided to make use of her cooking course and make macaroons to bring over to her grandparents and aunt/uncle/cousins. i was a bit skeptical, since she had tried once unsuccessfully, and the recipe was quite vague and error filled.

we started making them together around 7pm, and ultimately, they did not work. we will go back to the cooking store to get corrections to the recipe and will try again in the future. meanwhile, i will go across the street to the new macaroon/chocolates store, and bring them instead.

les deux magots

slightly sleep deprived. french lesson this morning and then went to lunch with julia’s girl gang and their moms. we went to cafe “les deux magots”, in st. germain de pres area of town. the cafe “les deux magots” and cafe “flore”, next door are famous for being where artists like picasso and writers like sartre and simone de beauvoir hung out. they are also very touristy and expensive. normal coffee in paris is expensive to begin with – starting around 3 euros for a cafe creme. a cafe creme in cafe “les deux magots” was 12 euros. but the food is reasonably priced. a quiche and salad was 14 euros. the french mom said the food is better at les deux magots. anyway, i guess they adjust the price to make up for the tourists who just order coffee and hang out for hours. the french mom said you have to come and feel the spirits of the dead existentialists. i could only feel the spirits of the thousands of tourists. in fact, i was not feeling quite right at all – hope i’m not getting sick – we’re about to go away on a big travel holiday.

monet

lots of snow outside.

went to see the monet exhibit in the grand palais. huge exhibit. had to buy tickets far in advance and could only get them for this evening at 7:30. even with that, had to wait on line. was so extensive, that it was almost overwhelming. i actually liked much of his earlier work. his later work, that was explained that he did whenever he needed some money, felt a bit cheapened. still, his water lilies are really beautiful. the musee marmotan which has its own extensive monet collection, is doing a competing exhibit. want to go see that too.

for dinner, we went to the neighborhood, recommended indian restaurant. was good.