Totally Frenched Out

Dear Dad

2012-01-25T11:37:00.000+01:00

I can't believe it's been twelve years. Twelve long years. Sometimes it still seems like just yesterday. Sometimes not. But I still remember. I often wonder how many others do.

2011 was a good year for me. I got a big promotion at work. Despite the male dominance, The Company has been good to me. Looking back on it now, I realize I spent almost three months in the US last year. Three months - how about that? I am certainly lucky to have found a company that flies me back "home" so often. And also lucky that C was able to spend two of those months there with me.

Then in March we got engaged. It's funny because right before each of these big life steps, I feel a bit of trepidation....but once we actually do it, it's like "Well, what were you waiting for silly? This is wonderful".

And of course the engagement led to the wedding. It was a great day - hopefully you were watching us? You were certainly on my mind. I always said I could never do a church wedding without you there to walk me down the aisle, so the mairie ended up being the perfect compromise. Either way, I sure hope you approve.

Thanksgiving weekend found us back in our old town. I haven't been there for a few years since mom moved away. We celebrated our marriage with family and friends, and then I showed Chris all the traces of my childhood. Where I went to school, where I worked, the ice arena where I practically lived from the age of 4 through 18. Our old house. Your farm. I also took him down to the cemetery to see your grave, but maybe you saw that? It makes me sad that I can't visit you as often as I used to.

And now we are back in France. I am thinking 2012 will be a good year too. We have a lot of "maybe" projects in the works, and the wait is just about killing me. Remember when I was little and mom used to get after me for being so impatient? Well apparently I haven't changed that much since then - I have to keep stopping to remind myself to breath and not taken my frustrations out on others. But I suppose that's a (slight) improvement from stamping my feet and throwing a fit, right?

It doesn't help though that so many of the (French) people around us are negative about these projects and are trying to discourage them. Why can't they just be happy for us, and encourage us? I have to remind myself that it's just a cultural difference, that the French are often resistant to risk and change, but it's not always easy. Anyway, I know everything will work out as its should in the end, and that is what I try keep reminding myself. In the mean time, I think of you often, and I hope you are still connected to us somehow.

Love you Dad. xoxo

Villers sur Mer

2012-01-20T13:47:00.000+01:00

New Year's weekend, C & I spent a wonderful few days in Normandy chez Jenny & Milkjam - but eventually it was time to make our way back to Paris. It was quite a drive however, and given his tendency to drive ever-so-slowly, I decided that rather than having me turn into a crazy person when our 4 hour trip turned into a 6 or 7 hour trip, it would be better to break it up into two legs and stay overnight somewhere.

I wanted to be near the coast yet not too far from the autoroute. And the bigger cities like Deauville and Trouville were out for their prices - but thanks to the Internets, I discovered that just a few kilometers away, there are tons of other smaller and equally cute towns with fewer people and much more reasonable tariffs.

Empty city streets

Which is who we found ourselves staying overnight in Villers Sur Mer.

Their beautifully-decorated City Hall

It turned out to be a great choice - we had the beach to ourselves and watched the sunset over the water:

And then went back to our super cute hotel:

The next morning, we drove along the coast and passed a whole bunch of other cute buildings, with plans to hop back on the autoroute straight after....

I absolutely love how much the architecture varies from region to region.

Until we saw a sign for "Calvados tasting". Sign me up please!

So we took a little detour into this place. The owner offered us a free tour of the establishment, and it was a lot of fun learning about the different things one can do with an apple. I personally am a big fan of pommeau.

I really liked these oak barrels, with a giant spigot in the front to show how much was left:

Some of them were really old and had some amazing details:

Others contained some really nice vintages of Calva:

It's always interesting to me how they are able to keep so many different years on hand for so long. This particular place had a promotion going on for those who wanted to buy a bottle from the year they were born/married/etc which I thought was kind of fun.

At the end, they offered us a tasting of two types of cider (apple & pear), the pommeau and a younger calvados. By that time I was feeling particularly "happy" so we bought a few bottles and then continued on our way back to Paris. It was a great way to ring in the New Year, and I can only hope that 2012 will continue along the same vein!

Post office

2012-01-17T15:31:00.000+01:00

While we were back in the US, I tasked myself with getting all of our thank-you cards done. It was a huge amount of work, but we finally finished and then headed over to the post office to mail them out. The mail lady weighed all of our envelopes, including several that were set to go abroad, and told us our total. I could not believe it how little it had come to, and asked her to double check.

We started talking about the prices of stamps to various destinations, and it turned out it was cheaper for me to mail letters from Minnesota to the UK than from France to the UK. It was also cheaper for me to mail letters from the US to France, than from France to France! France is the size of Texas people - how is that even possible?

Oh wait, that's right, it's because La Poste has to fund all of the benefits their employees get. And conversely, the United States Postal Service is not allowed to make a profit.

It just so happens that the day of our visit was also the day the USPS announced that they were going to close hundreds of post offices nation-wide, eliminate Saturday deliveries and get rid of next-day shipping. They "can't" raise prices because of the effect it would have nation-wide on deliveries and thus increased costs to the consumer (a big no-no during difficult economic times), so they are forced to cut services instead.

Apparently several people had come in to complain, so they had put up a sign talking about how first-class postal rates vary around the world:

And there's the US down at the bottom. But holy cow Norway - $1.22 for a first class letter?!

The weights allowed for a first class letter also differed. I wanted to include some pictures in some of the envelopes, and in the US ones, we could add in several photos and not go over the weight. However in France, if we put more than the card + one picture, it required an additional stamp. So my advice to all the complainers in the US is to sit down & stop your whingeing - compared to the rest of the world, we've got it quite good. It's still reasonable to mail a letter cross-country, you rarely have to worry about letters getting lost in the mail (*ahem* La Poste!!) and most postmen still make an effort to deliver your packages.

What we did

2012-01-11T21:08:00.000+01:00

Basically the only things not included were the extras, like the excursions. Thanks to the great suggestions here, we had decided to use Honeyfund as a registry for our wedding gifts, and the excursions were part of these. Thank you to all of our great family and friends who made them possible, we had a blast!

Now C is a "relax on the beach" kind of guy and I am a "can't sit down" kind of girl, so we compromised by having one day of relaxing and then a day or half-day of activities.

Our first excursion was a trip out to the coast to the whales and dolphins. It was a beautiful day and we saw all kinds of beautiful scenery as we floated along the coastline.

Just as I was starting to get worried that the whole trip was a scam - ie did they really have an 85% success rate or was that just a gimmick to get our money?? - we saw a whole bunch of these little guys swim under our boat:

The dolphins were so awesome and playful, jumping around and racing our boat. I've never really understood the appeal of dolphins before, but after this trip and seeing how intelligent they are, I would definitely do a "swim with the dolphins" kind of thing next time.

Flying dolphins!

We had lunch at the beautiful Marigot Bay and visited the resort where the original Dr Doolittle was filmed. This particular bay is known as a haven on the island because it's a double bay, ie on a windy day as you can see above, the waves are spectacular but they break on the first bay, leaving the second bay calm as can be. Which is why during hurricane season many boats come to dock there.

See that rope? I'm trying to shake the tree and pull down a coconut!

As a side note, Marigot Bay was also a favorite hideout of the Brits during their many battles with the French because the masts of their boats were hidden by the palm trees on the first bay, so they could just hang out there unseen until the French boats passed.

Marigot bay seen from above

Next up, was a volcano and rain forest tour for me. C wasn't that interested in seeing a volcano (it was the world's only drive-in volcano, come on!), and we have a policy of not forcing one another to participate in activities we're not interested, so I went alone.

I cannot even tell you the number of people who found this bizarre. So much so that our tour guide actually turned the bus around because she was sure that we'd forgotten him. I tried to explain that he didn't want to come and why should we pay extra for him to sit and be miserable all day instead of doing something he wanted to do, but she couldn't understand it and eventually ended up calling us "modern". And another couple made jokes about us being in a fight. We may be newly married, but we don't have to be attached at the hip 24/7. At least this way, we both did what we wanted to do and at the end of the day, we reunited and had a great time sharing our day.

Even though this excursion was to see the volcano, since it was on the other end of the island from our resort, we also saw a ton of other stuff along the way. We saw the beautiful Marigot Bay above, we stopped to get fresh coconut milk from a street vendor and we saw a guy with an 8-foot boa constrictor. And all along the way, our guide was telling us about the history of the island and each little town we passed.

We finally got to the volcano and sure enough, we could drive right into it since it had imploded. After a while, we got out and had a guided tour of the rest. The volcano hasn't exploded for 300 years or so, and is overdue for another.

Next up was a "Sugar and Rum Adventure". (Thanks Jpack and Milkjam!). Again, we had a really interesting time learning about the history of the island, and how it was prized for its sugar cane and tropical fruits. The above picture was of some of the local fruits, and we also got to try a cocoa nut - so different than what I was expecting (and slimy).

Cocoa tree

We also drove through a banana plantation - did you know that banana trees only produced one time and then they die? I had no idea. It turns out it's a great crop for the St Lucians because that means they have trees at different stages of the growth cycle all year-round and thus have a continuous source of income. Plus if ever there's a disease, they don't loose all of their crop.

The banana plantations came to be rather quickly, after the Brits realized they could grow and harvest sugar beets at a much cheaper rate than importing sugar cane from St Lucia. However this essentially wiped out their major industry and caused a stressful few years. They rebounded though with the bananas, export of fruit juices and oils, and of course rum!

Sugar cane processing à l'ancienne

And after that, we were on to the good stuff, ie the rum tasting! As you can see on the table below, there were 19 different kinds of rum to be tried. I tried all of them except for the last one on the right. Hey, that's a lot of rum, and it was 180 proof!

Afterwards, we all needed some fresh air, so they took us out to the rain forest to look at some of the beautiful tropical plants:

We also had several resort activities planned. Like I mentioned, my brother got us a candle-light dinner on the beach. It was a ton of fun, and very romantic - here they are setting up the table:

We also got a couple's massage, and it was FANTASTIC! C was a little nervous since it was his first time - and his eyes just about popped out of his head when his masseuse said "I hear you're a virgin", but I think he's a convert.

On top of that (and the relaxing), we also did a lot of swimming, both in the water and in the pool, we went to the gym a few times to work off all those calories we were consuming and we did a few water activities. They actually had quite a list of them: canoeing, sailing, windsurfing, water tricycle, snorkeling, water skiing & knee boarding. We tried the water bike and canoeing, and C went windsurfing the day I visited the volcano.

So not too bad for eight days and seven nights, huh? I really enjoyed myself in St Lucia - I didn't want to just be one of those tourists who goes to an island and then never leaves the resort, and I feel like the different trips we took really gave us a feel for the place and allowed us to learn so much about its history. The St Lucians were so friendly every where we went and many were just willing to talk and share - it wasn't at all like in Egypt or Tunisia where they are constantly harassing you. Sure everyone has something to sell here, but if you're not interested, you just say no politely and then you can just keep chatting with them no big deal.

There were also people at the edge of the resorts hawking other excursions and jet skiing, but we didn't try any of those. But again they weren't pushy at all, and I did see a lot of people recommending using them on TripAdvisor.

Hopefully this series has been useful for those considering a holiday in the Caribbean and/or an all-inclusive resort. We had a great time, I would definitely recommend Saint Lucia as a vacation destination if you're looking for a tropical island getaway!

The Good Stuff

2012-01-08T03:45:00.000+01:00

Before we left, I had a lot of people ask what all-inclusive meant - and in this case, it meant free food and free drinks 24/7. I'm not sure if this is the same for all room categories, but our butler asked us what we wanted in our liquor cabinet and we had a full bottle each of gin, vodka, whiskey and; rum. Plus champagne, various juices and water in the fridge.

Felt like we were on a movie set

There were also various bars around the resort with different opening hours making all kinds of mixed and blended drinks. My favorite was what they called the "BBC", a blended drink made with ice, Baileys, a banana, coconut liqueur and rum. Delish!

The British Pub

As far the food went, one of my concerns with doing an all-inclusive place was that we'd be eating the same food all the time - so another reason we chose this resort is because there were 3 different options for breakfast (plus room service) and six different options at night (plus the Pier restaurant and the candle-light beach dinner we'd been gifted by my brother).

On top of that, we also had the right to go spend a day and/or eat at the resort's two sister establishments elsewhere on the island. There were shuttle buses that left every 2hrs and did a loop between the three. We wanted to see what at least one of the other ones looked like and try out a well-reputed Japanese restaurant, so one of the evenings we made our way over to the golf one. We ended up having a fabulous tepanyaki dinner there, cooked by a very entertaining chef.

Beachfront resto

The other restaurants at our resort besides the Pier included a very nice Italian restaurant, a French brasserie, a pizzeria, a barefoot beach-front restaurant, a British pub and a semi-formal sit down restaurant. And besides that, the other resorts also offered various cuisines, such as a Caribbean restaurant or a formal French restaurant.

Romantic Italian dessert

All of this meant that we never had to eat the same thing twice, and I actually enjoyed the whole all-inclusive thing more than I thought I would. I'd always poo-pooed cruises for that same reason, but I would now consider going on one if they had as much variety as this placed did.

The resort

2012-01-05T20:28:00.000+01:00

When we arrived, we were led into a super comfy open-air lobby:

I had to laugh at the Christmas tree - growing up in Minnesota, 85°F and Christmas decorations don't really go together...but I guess that's not the case for most of the rest of the world:

This was the view walking from the resort to our room - the people on the first floor (US) had rooms that opened right onto the pool:

Now onto our room - this was the view upon entering:

Just to the right of the door was a big closet and just to the left, the first bathroom. Across from the couch was a gigantic flat screen TV, and the dining area also had a fridge hidden in the big hutch.

If you go through the open doors on the left, you come across my favorite part of the room, ie this lovely king-sizer four poster bed:

The second bathroom had a jacuzzi tub, a shower and a double marble sink. There was also a walk-in closet and a nice desk area. And running all along the length of the room was a balcony:

Then it was on down to the beach - I sure do love me a good white sand beach:

"Here, why don't you guys sit down and enjoy the view, while I go get you the drink of your choice":

Don't mind if I do....

Then it was on to visit the six different pools - though this one was my favorite because of its swim-up bar:

The boardwalk:

Lunch, les pieds dans l'eau:

We saw beautiful sunsets over the water almost every night:

It really was a good-size resort for a week-long vacation. Even if you didn't go on any excursions, you could still visit a different pool each day and not get bored. And because things are so spread out, we actually didn't even realize how many people were at the resort until the night they had a BBQ barbecue and all the other restaurants closed down. It was actually quite surprising how calm the resort was given the number of people - I guess because there were so many great options, people didn't all congregate in one place and it never got crowded.

And it's true that was one of the things we were looking for - we really wanted a couple's resort, not a party resort. Despite all of the free alcohol, we never saw anyone who was drunk the whole week. The large majority of guests were just there as a couple, so it remained a fairly tranquil destination.

The excursions we did were all great too - before leaving, I was a little worried we'd be crowded into a coach bus and herded around, but in reality, there were always been 6-8 people in a passenger van. This meant that we could always hear and interact with the guide, and that we could make random stops if we saw something interesting.

As a side note, another thing we liked was that tips were also included for the week for everything except the excursions (since they were a private company). We also tipped our butlers at the end of the trip, but that wasn't necessary.

To Butler or Not to Butler - that is the question

2012-01-02T20:10:00.000+01:00

Once we'd picked our resort, it was a matter of choosing which room category to go with. I saw they had a "Butler" category and that intrigued me. Like really, what would a butler actually do for you? As someone pointed out, it's not like they would have to open the doors for anyone. So I did a little bit of googling and read some reviews and we decided to go for it. After all, (hopefully) there will only be one honeymoon so why not treat ourselves?

For those of you who were wondering what the butler actually did, here's a list (as a side note, we actually had two butlers - Bailey & Gisele- who worked shifts):

With the butler room, we got private car transfer to and from the airport. Regular transfer was in a shuttle bus and from what we heard from the others, almost everyone got carsick in it because they were packed in and the island was so hilly. It also took most people 2-3 hours to get to the resort, while we were there in under 1h30min.
Upon arrival, the butler sat us down with a cold drink and then took our bags to the room to unpack them. They also offered to iron two items free of charge.
Once that was done, he came back to give us a private tour of the resort.
He had also set up a chilled bottle of champagne for us in our room. It was a combined wedding gift from the lovely Lisa and Jpack, and it was a gift that kept in giving - we ended up getting a bottle of champagne every day! Thanks guys!

Yay! Champagne!

The following morning, he ordered us breakfast in bed, which was a nice treat after a day of travel.
And then after breakfast, he brought us down to the beach where he had reserved us an excellent spot. This actually continued daily - every night, they would ask us if we wanted to sit by the beach or by the pool and then they would reserve us great seating. Which meant we could take our time waking up and getting breakfast, whereas everyone else had to either get up early and lay down a towel or else just pick and choose between what was left.
They would also bring us down a little cooler stocked with our favorite drinks or order us the cocktail of the day from the bar and have it sent over.

The butler phone and the daily cocktail

And any time we had a question, we could give them a call on the "butler phone" they'd left with us - this phone could also be used in case you needed anything, ie you forgot your book or your sunscreen in your room and they'd go get it, but we never asked them to do anything like that for us. We mostly just asked questions about the island or times of certain things like the water sports or the gym.
The butlers also had three beach cabanas at their disposition, so we were able to reserve one of those for free instead of paying the $90 per day fee - this actually ended up being one of my favorite days!

What could be better than a bed on the beach??

They also took care of all of our restaurant reservations and basically just said "Be ready at X time and we'll come and get you to escort you to the restaurant"
At the restaurants, the butlers had the best tables reserved for their guests, so we always got the ones with the nicest views or that were the most secluded.
We also had the right to eat at the fancy four-star, white-glove service restaurant on the pier, which was payant for all the other guests.

They also confirmed all of our tours for us and notified us of any time changes.
They had our rooms cleaned twice per day (though this was a bit unnecessary and wasteful IMO)

Our beach-side cooler

The butler room also meant we could order room service 24/7, so we'd often order salmon plates or little petits fours to drink with our champagne.
They'd also decorate our room while we were out, with those crazy towel animals you usually see on cruise ships.

Most days too the butler would leave us a little snack plate in our room, either fresh fruit or cheese cubes or mini-sandwiches.
They would also bring us lunch on the beach or poolside if we requested.
And every once in a while, they would send the chef over with a sweet treat for us while outside - here he was with chocolate mousse-covered strawberries!

They also asked us what our favorite alcohols were and then stocked our fridge with them on a daily basis.
They would turn down our bed every night while we were at dinner.
And the night we had a candlelight dinner on the beach, we had a hot bath with rose petals waiting for us - oh la la!

Lastly, I stupidly forgot all of my chargers in MN, and my camera ran out of battery two days in. I was really upset, thinking I was either going to have to pay mega bucks to buy one in the gift shop or not have pictures of most of our honeymoon. But I decided to ask the butler just in case, and they actually had chargers on hand and were able to charge it for me. It was a HUGE lifesaver. She was also able to provide me with an iPhone radio docking station, so I was able to charge that as well. These two things alone almost made having a butler worthwhile.

Hmm, that's about all I can think of for now. But to sum it up, having a butler made our honeymoon 100% relaxing. We basically had nothing to think or worry about - they took care of it all and we just had to show up, which is exactly what we were looking for. Plus all of the extras we got probably added up to more than the extra we paid for the butler room. All in all, I would definitely do it again for a big anniversary or some other major event.

Go Butlers!

Where to go?

2011-12-31T19:18:00.000+01:00

Now on to the honeymoon itself. We went back and forth on where to go for a little while, and ended up choosing St Lucia based on the following criteria.

We wanted:

an all-inclusive place (more on that later)
no kids
not a huge party destination
a great beach/warm weather
interesting excursions
someplace within our budget that had decent accomodation
and that would leave enough money to fly first class
little to no French people (at C's request)
not your typical American destination (at my request)

So that ruled out all the French islands plus all the more popular Caribbean destinations. And anyways, I was sort of against going to the Caribbean because it seemed like everyone and their dog had gone there on their honeymoon as of late.

C suggested Thailand, which we researched but couldn't find any all-inclusive places. We'd decided on an all-inclusive resort because neither of us had ever tried on before and because we wanted to have a good handle on our budget. Ie I didn't want to be sitting thinking the whole time"Omg, that cocktail costs HOW MUCH?"

I really wanted to go to Bora Bora, or more specifically to Vahiné Island, but everyone kept telling us you had to go for a minimum of three weeks because it was so far away, and that ruled it out budget-wise.

Our last idea was the Maldives, which fit all of our criteria except the all-inclusive one.

And so we started reconsidering the Caribbean, thinking that its proximity to the US would make it a shorter trip and thus doable during our already-planned trip to the US.

So the Caribbean it was and then it was just a matter of narrowing it down. Jamaica, Barbados, etc where out because of their popularity, but then we came across Saint Lucia, and like I said in my previous post, its Anglo-French history appealed to me. On top of that, it had been voted the World's Best Honeymoon destination eight times, and the resort we chose was listed as the most Romantic resort in the Caribbean. So Saint Lucia it was!

2011-12-29T19:04:00.003+01:00

C & I are finally back in France after 32 days in the US. For some reason, we got an upgrade on our flight back to Paris and ended up in Air France's new "premium voyageur" class. It was a nice surprise and the perfect end to a great trip. Plus the larger seat size meant we were able to actually recline back and get a decent amount of sleep. Between that and flying first class to our honeymoon destination, we have gotten spoiled and going back to the cattle class next time is going to be hard!

Speaking of our honeymoon, I can't remember if I mentioned it, but we went to Saint Lucia. Saint Lucia is an island in the Caribbean, and we picked it because of its Anglo-French history. It was first settled by the French in 1643 and between then and 1814, it changed hands 14 times between the British and the French! The Brits won the last battle though and it is now an English-speaking Island.

An old fort on the hill

Traces of the French rule remain, mostly in the city names (almost entirely French), as well as in the last names of the locals. But other than that, no one really spoke French at all, which was surprising given its proximity to Martinique, just 20 miles north.

Martinique in the distance

The people do speak a sort of Creole, though minus a few French words here and there, it sounds nothing like French. I asked one of our guides about it, and she said it was a mix of English, French, Spanish and African languages. Up until a few years ago, it was a 100% oral language, but they have recently made attempts to establish an alphabet for it in order to preserve the language.

Here's a list of a few of their Creole words with French or English origins:

quart d'heure becomes qadé
pain d'épices becomes pannépis
lumière is limyé
torche is toch
à l'écoute is annékout

boy become bwoy
computer becomes konpyouta
health center is helsenta
teacher is titja
cheeky is tjiki

As a side note, one of the tours we went on used a boat from Martinique and it had a sticker in the Martinique Creole - it's the green one in the middle. I'm assuming it says "Protéger notre pays":

Interesting stuff, huh?

Tropical Island Paradise

2011-12-21T02:47:00.002+01:00

We're back from our fantastic honeymoon....I've got lots to say (including much-requested info about our Butler!), but I'm also back at work now through Christmas, so it's likely going to have to wait until we're back in France.

Stay tuned!

Religion + popular media = disaster

2011-12-07T01:41:00.000+01:00

Thank you to everyone for your comments & emails - so far, C seems to be on the mend. And on a lighter note, while holed up in the hotel room this weekend, C & I came across a new show on TLC called "The Virgin Diaries".

The whole show was strange, but especially these two who, in addition to being virgins, were getting married without ever having kissed anyone before. Take a look for yourself:

Isn't that awful? It's almost painful to watch - neither of them know what to do, so they are doing their best imitation of what they've seen on TV and the result is they look like they are eating each other's face off. And the whole time I'm sure they are both thinking "Is this what I've been waiting for all these years??"

On top of it, all throughout the show, they interviewed these two and they talked about how much they were waiting for there first night together and how perfect it was going to be. But as the viewer, you could just see they were just setting themselves up for disaster.

And of course, they interviewed them the day after the wedding, and you could see how let down they both were, talking about how it wasn't at all like in the movies, that it was a lot more complicated and painful. I don't know...it just makes me sad that these kids hold out for so long based on religious reasons and the whole idea is so built up for them that they expect it to be magical and perfect from the get-go, and no one ever warns them of the contrary...

All Shook Up

2011-12-04T14:23:00.000+01:00

And not in a good way.

C woke up yesterday feeling a little under the weather, and as the day went on, his symptoms worsened. Our hotel room has a gigantic bathtub, so he took bath and felt a little bit better. The yucky feeling came back later on though, and so we decided to go sit in the hotel's hot tub. After a few minutes, he mentioned he wasn't feeling well and so we got out.

As we were exiting the pool area, he sort of stumbled and caught himself on the door. I asked him if everything was alright and he wouldn't answer. I kept insisting and then he said "I can't see anything" in French. And then he passed out and fell on the floor. Have you ever seen a 6'4" man go down? It's pretty frickin' scary.

Luckily a bunch of military personnel had just arrived at the hotel and an EMT came racing over straight away. He was out cold and we both sat there doing our best to wake him up. I heard someone shout out "Call 9-1-1!"

Those few seconds? Minutes? that C wasn't responding - It was like a lifetime passing before my eyes. I imagined the most horrible of things, and felt my heart starting to break all over again. But then he finally came around. I started to feel hopeful, but he had a really glassy look and couldn't speak for a few seconds and I got even more scared. You could see he was looking at us and was very confused and disorientated.

But then all of a sudden he was back and awake and able to sit up, which was when the paramedics arrived, racing in with a stretcher. C tried to refuse their assistance (as he refused my suggestion of getting travel insurance), but they said they were required by law to check him out. So out came the oxygen and the heart monitors.

After running several different tests, he was deemed okay, though he did have slightly low oxygen levels and slightly high blood sugar. The paramedics got the okay from the doctor they worked with and went on their merry way. Funnily enough, one of them was the husband of The Company's vet - which means that everyone and their dog will be au courant by the time I go into work on Monday. But oh well, that's small town Minnesota for ya.

We went back to our room, and I just sat there, on the couch, with so much adrenalin running through my veins. So relieved he was okay. But also scared. Scared of loving someone that much and scared at the thought something could ever happen to him. Scared at the idea of having to live without him. Scared of another broken heart.

I think that for a long time, I sort of kept C at arm's length because I was worried about getting hurt again. And now I have let him in, and it's suddenly hit me that this means it could happen all over again. Not on purpose, but a freak accident, a disease, whatever. Of course it's highly possible that we could both live happily ever after until the ripe old age of 90. But thinking about the idea of "What If" scares the frickin' bejeezus out of me....

2011-12-01T16:02:00.000+01:00

So as you may have surmised from my last post, C & I are in the US. We arrived here after a whirlwind week which involved me waking up extremely early for work all week long, arriving back home at 9pm Thursday night and then leaving for the airport at 5am Friday. 20 long hours later, we touched down in Northern Minnesota. Minus C's suitcase - I seemed to have passed my baggage curse on to him.

Oh, and did I mention our US wedding reception was the next day? Good thing I had him pack his suit in his carry-on. Seriously, why I thought this insane week was a good idea is beyond me. Though I guess to be honest, I was never that hot on it in the first place, but we were talked in to a Thanksgiving Saturday reception so that friends and family wouldn't have to trek back to MN two weekends in a row.

But no matter, it ended up being an absolutely lovely day** and I felt very blessed to finally have been able to introduce C to my dad's family. He was a big hit with the ladies, and I got so many compliments on how handsome and kind he is. It is oh-so-true and I hope it is something I never take for granted.

So no Thanksgiving for us, but we sure do have so many things to be thankful for this year.

**The day was made even more lovely by the fact that I was at the last minute able to convince my mother that a Taco bar was not a good idea for a wedding reception. I was highly perplexed by the idea - why on Earth would any one think tacos and wedding dresses go together?! Not to mention that C hates eating with his hands... But apparently Taco bars are all the rage in MN - my aunt told me the last three weddings she'd been to had them. Go figure. Instead, we had the good ol' MN standbys of mini-ham & turkey sandwiches, potato salad, cut up fruit & veggies and wedding cake. Which C has taken to like a mo-fo. I swear he has eaten at least 20 pieces in the past few days. Good thing the man is a bottomless pit.

Wine-oh!

2011-11-29T15:34:00.002+01:00

A few weeks ago, Anne posted about some of the crazy wine names popping up in the US. After a trip to the local liquor store last night, I saw all of those and more. I don't know about you guys, but these names almost turn me off. Who wants to drink Fat Bastard wine??

Can you imagine bringing this one to a dinner party? You'd leave the hostess wondering about your post-party intentions....

And don't even get me started on these bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau that were selling for a whopping $16.49 per bottle!

Lastly, this one isn't wine-related, but we went out to eat the other night, and I was sad to see that my favorite childhood drink now contains 0% juice. That is crazy! And so sad.

Girls Gone Wild??

2011-11-11T15:46:00.000+01:00

In honor of such a lucky day (11/11/11) and in my attempt to win Keith's weekly Girls Gone Wild Award, I bring to you my meeting with Gwan last week.

Now we all know What Happens in Tours Stays in Tours, so unfortunately the only photographic evidence I can show you of the night is this picture, taken on my way back to the hotel:Now if that doesn't look like something taken at the end of wild night, I don't know what does.

PS. Bonus points for anyone who can guess what exactly I was attempting to take a picture of....

2011-11-08T21:10:00.005+01:00

I've been gone quite a bit for work again these past few weeks, but one of the things that has helped make up for it is the beautiful scenery I've seen along the way. Coming from MN, where we have a fabulous fall season, I have mostly been unimpressed with what I've seen each autumn in France. This year however has been fantastic. I'm not sure if it's due to the Indian Summer we've been having or what, but I am loving it!These vines produce some of my favorite Loire Valley wines:Trees lining my customer's driveway:
This scene brought out my inner child and made me want to stop the car and run around kicking leaves:Keep it coming France!

2011-11-06T09:59:00.002+01:00

Another thing I really enjoyed about my trip were the Italians themselves. Everywhere I went, they were so smiley and friendly. No one looked down on me for being a foreigner and they were so encouraging when I tried to speak the little Italian I know. I'm sure this isn't the case everywhere in Italy, but I had the same experience last time I was there as well and it's always a much-appreciated contrast to France.

Anyways, here are a few more shots of my trip.

Flying in over the mountains:I had about an hour in Torino before my train took me back to France. I had a rather large suitcase with me, so I couldn't really stray too far from the station, but I did take a quick spin around the block and luckily stumbled across a Grom shop:I also peeked through several courtyards and came across cute little images like this:
Another thing I have always loved is the colors - Bretagne was full of varying shades of gray (houses and sky alike), and Paris is also a fairly neutral-toned city, so I absolutely love the jewel tones you can find in the south of France and around Italy:Another nice surprise were the random flowers blooming everywhere throughout the countryside. All this nice weather has the plants confused and many are going into a second bloom....though this also includes a lot of the fruit trees, so who knows what kind of season they'll have next year...I'll end here with a random thing I came across with:
I saw this out of the corner of my eye when going up the mountain and was so curious that I actually backed that damn semi-automatic car back down a ways so I could take a closer look. At first, I was like WTF?? And then I noticed the little tufts of hair stuck to the tree and the light bulb kicked on. Duh.

2011-11-04T15:06:00.002+01:00

So in my last post, we left off with me feeling relief at seeing lights up ahead. But that would make things too easy on me, right?? Once I got to the village, I was faced with this - a village of vacant, poorly-lit streets:
See, the hotel didn't actually have a street number - its address was just "Via Castello", or Castello Street. Meaning my hotel was one of those dark and sign-less buildings above. But which one??

The lone passer-by took pity on me. As he neared me, my first thoughts after so many years in France were "Sh*t, is he going to mug me? There will be no witnesses! Or is he just going to ask for a cigarette??". Instead he just spoke to me in some rapid-fire Italian, and between hand gestures and my pitiful Italian, I managed to convey that I was looking for a hotel. He brought me over to it, but it was closed (obviously) and there was a sign on the door with a phone number saying what I'm assuming was "Call when you arrive".

After some trouble dialing the phone number, I finally got a hold of them, and they came to let me in. As I was the only one staying in the hotel, it was fairly dark and slightly creepy. Here was the entrance into my hallway:Which we got to after crossing this beautiful but eerie salle de fête:And then the owner took me out to a small bar where I had what was quite possibly the most disgusting plate of pasta ever. Seriously. It was over-cooked spiral pasta with some tomato paste plopped on top.

Luckily it was made up for the following night, when I ate at the hotel and had this plate of perfectly-cooked gnocchi with fresh tomato sauce, basil-infused olive oil and parmesan shavings. It was heaven on a plate and I did not want the meal to end:Unfortunately it was about the only decent meal I had in Italy, which was a far cry from when I taught English there several years back and stayed in a horrible little hotel whose only saving grace was the master chef who went out of his way to produce five-star food for my three daily meals. That food was the only highlight of my trip - the job was terrible and I remember being depressed because there was no internet in the village, which severely limited my communications with Fab (no one spoke English, so every time he tried to call the hotel, they ended up hanging up on him). I'd always wanted to go back though....France and I have come to terms with one another, but something about Italy has always spoken to me. And now I'm more determined than ever to go back and do some more exploring. (But next time, with a true automatic car - I have never been as happy to give a car back as I was that day!!)

2011-11-02T14:29:00.001+01:00

Okay, enough of the wedding talk. Instead, I'll regale you all with tales of my harrowing work trip last week. Now you all now I travel a lot for work, but most of the time it's within France's borders. Every once in a while though, I get to travel to another country, and this time it was Italy.

I very quickly made all the travel arrangements and luckily managed to find an automatic car available at the Torino airport. Or at least what I thought was an automatic car....

Once my plane landed, I made my way over to the rental car counter and picked up my keys for my smart car. Yep, you read that right, I was to be rolling (literally) around Italy in a car the size of an Altoids tin. But the surprises didn't end there - once I got in the car, I discovered that it was a faux automatic. As in the only thing automatic about it was that there was no clutch. The rest of the car was 100% manual and required shifting. Now most of the cars I rent are what they call "semi-automatics", in that you can either have the car do the shifting or you can do it yourself. But not this one. I let a few swear words fly and then decided to get on with it - it was the only "automatic" car on site, and I was already running late.

So I haltingly make my way out of the parking lot and onto the freeway. Things were cruising on fairly nicely until I had to exit and just about killed the motor. Luckily it was late at night, so I didn't cause an accident or hurt anyone. And then the REAL adventure began.

See, I had been hoping that this customer would be in a nice, flat valley. But I hoped wrong. Instead they were located on top of one very large mountain. We (the car and I) kept creeping up the side of the mountain as fast as its little motor could go, with me making half-ass attempts to shift up and down as we went through all of those sharp turns.

At one point though, I missed a turn and I thought "Oh, no biggie - the GPS will just recalculate". Haha, famous last words!

The GPS did indeed recalculate, but it recalculated to a teeny, tiny dirt road that was practical vertical. I started off on it thinking "surely this can't be right, it must just be a shortcut." But then it continued. On and up we went, with that poor little car huffing and puffing the whole way, and me being jostled around like a rag doll.

I consider turning around at several points along the way, but how? It was pitch black (as mountain trails aren't exactly riddled with street lamps), and even though my car was small, I wasn't really comfortable attempting a 3-point turn when I couldn't really see how big the drop-off was...or even where it started!

This is what the road looked like in broad daylight:

So I decide to keep on going. And going. It was starting to feel like the beginning to a scary movie. Ie the dumb blond girl takes the wrong road and then breaks down in the middle of the woods.

Finally though, I see what looks like a real road ahead. I get to the lip of the road and I am at such a steep incline that the damn Smart car can't make it over and I am stuck revving the engine, right at the edge of safety!! The minute I let up on the gas, the car starts to slide backwards. So I sit there in limbo a bit, debating my options.

At that point, I was ready to get out and push the damn thing up the hill myself, but instead, I just let it slide back a bit more and then I gun it and just barely make it over on to the real road.

I have never been so happy to see a paved road in my life.

And then a bit further up the road, I see this and breath a sigh of relief.
Whew! I am almost there.....

Or am I? Stayed tuned to find out more! ;)

2011-10-31T10:27:00.002+01:00

C & I spent some time this weekend catching up on American TV (my contribution to English weekend LOL), which of course meant lots of Halloween-themed shows and ads. C finds the whole concept of Halloween funny, so when I got into bed last night, he jumped out from under the covers and said: "Treats and tricks!!"

Me: That's not what the kids say!!
C: Hmm.....Treats or tricks?
Me: Nope, try again.
C: Treat or trick?
Me: Nooo, it's trick or treat silly!
C: ?? But why would you start with the threat first??

Which is a good point - Why DO we start with the threat first?

Secondly, C also acts as an interpreter for other police stations on the side. Most of the time, it's a couple hours here, a couple hours there. But this past Saturday, he ended up getting called in during the middle of the night and then again from 10am to 10pm. Meaning the poor guy spent his entire day hanging around a police station for a couple hours of translation. He also unfortunately missed out on Karina's surprise birthday dinner.

When I came home that night, I asked him what ended up having for dinner since he's not really allowed to leave the station while he's there. He said that he'd eaten a few things from the vending machine and then once he got home, he made "some lenses and some corn and some peanuts". (My making C try new things now means he also eats some REALLY strange combinations of foods when left to his own devices).

Of course I knew what he meant, but I wanted to tease him a little bit, so I said "Lenses?" and he was like "Oh, is that not what you say?" While I was laughing, he thought for a bit and said "Hmm....maybe it's lee-tle beans? Which of course led to more laughter and saying "Noooo, it's lentils my dear."

There's never a dull day in this household, I tell ya.

2011-10-28T10:24:00.000+02:00

This post probably won't interested a lot of you, but I did want to talk about our prestataires - I had a hard time finding recommendations from people, so I'm going to put mine down here in case they might be useful to someone else out there.

I got my hair done by a French woman who worked for a fancy French salon in NYC for ten years, and I'm really happy with how my hair turned out. She doesn't have a website (and she wasn't necessarily the most reliable person in the world), but if anyone is interested in her contact info, just let me know.

The hair piece I had in came from Etsy shop called PetalnPearlBoutique. They make all kinds of hair clips, head bands, combs, shoe accessories etc that can be customized to match either your dress or your bridesmaids' dresses. They were so much fun to work with and I'm really happy with how mine turned out. Plus their prices are super reasonable, even with shipping to France.

The make-up lady came recommended by Heather, and I loved that she was Finnish. She doesn't have a website either, but she was very professional and absolutely lovely and I would recommend her in a heartbeat.

My flowers came from Au Nom de la Rose - they were very willing to customize the bouquet to match my dress and I found their prices very reasonable for wedding items.

I had my dress alterations done by Grain de Coton, again for very reasonable prices, especially for Paris. As a side note, this store also rents wedding dresses and wedding accessories, so you can either rent a dress there or rent out your wedding dress if it's just sitting in your closet collecting dust. I believe she also offers to sell them for you as well.

The pictures were taken by two photographers - the ceremony and the dinner/party were taken by L's husband B. As you can see from the pictures, he did a really nice job, so if anyone is looking for an English-speaking photographer, give him a holler!

The pictures that were taken around Paris were done by Isabelle Nery - she also caters to Anglophones and she does a lot of family and engagement pictures for American tourists. She was nice, but I did sort of feel like she didn't really take the time to get to know us as a couple, so she was trying to force us do things that were really our style. But one of her pluses compared to other photographers we'd met with was that she had a driver/assistant who drove us from site to site so I didn't need to trek around Paris in my wedding dress. And we did get some really beautiful shots from her too, so I can't complain too much.

The cake came from Cat at SugarDaze. She mostly does cupcakes, but she also bakes and decorates American-style cakes for weddings, birthday parties, baptisms, etc. Our cake was delicious and I really loved how it turned out - I'd recommend checking our her flickr page for more examples because she is one creative lady and I guarantee you will leave hungry!

Lastly, we had the wedding dinner at 138 parnasse. We've been eating there for a few years now, so we know the owners, and they did a great job for our wedding dinner. Their son recently took over though and upped their prices by a ton, so I'm not sure if we'll continue eating there on a regular basis or not. But even with the higher prices, it remains one of those restaurants where you can go and be assured of getting a good French meal with great service to boot.

The outakes

2011-10-26T11:58:00.001+02:00

I have no idea why the hair lady had to do this to my hair before combing it back, but it sure made for some funny photos:

My hair will likely never have this much volume again

Yo, listen to me, I am the Bride!

Karina also took a few pictures right before the ceremony starts that I found really funny - they make it look like I am really upset and yelling at C:

Hold up, what's going on here?Even Animesh is starting to look concerned...

Rawr!

What makes it even funnier is that I have no memory of what was going on in that moment that would make me look that way, and neither does C.

Thanks for citizenship Sarko! (No seriously, thanks - it made getting married a lot easier LOL)I call this my ANTM face - how that for some smize-ing Tyra??

I cannot tell you the number of people who were completely oblivious to us and who had no problem with being in the background of our pictures. It was hilarious - like here we are sharing a romantic kiss while the jogger behind us is complaining that the owner of this stand stepped out for a minute and how is she supposed to stay hydrated if she can't buy a bottle of water??Mutiply that by 20 other people walking on through in various get-ups, and it made for some pretty funny pictures!

2011-10-24T10:06:00.006+02:00

We also had pictures taken at various sites around Paris. We started off in the Jardins de Luxembourg, as a sort of hommage to my shoebox & C's favorite park:

And then moved on down by the Seine:

After that, we took a few pics on the various bridges:And down by the peniches:

In front of the Institut de France:

Then it was on over to the Eiffel Tower:

And finally a few more bridge shots:Whew! That's enough smiling for one day.

Le Best Of

2011-10-22T14:40:00.005+02:00

Heading into the Mairie - can you see the relief on my face that I wasn't too late??

Have children. Many children. And have them in the 15th. Salle de mariage ceiling

The ringsWe did it!'"Can you spare a dime lady?'' Do I look like I have a dime on me??The wedding car (ie. the reason I was almost late to my own wedding)
My favorite photoTrying to make C let me feed him some cake - can you see the hesitation in his face?Time to crash into bed, complete with the pillows my aunt sent us(after spending five minutes explaining the jeu-de-mot to C that is)

Scenes from the South of France, part IV

2011-10-21T10:27:00.001+02:00

Scenes from the South of France, part III

2011-10-19T22:11:00.002+02:00

Harcourt Studios

2011-10-14T12:22:00.004+02:00

A few weeks back, there was a bit in Heather's Secrets of Paris Newsletter that caught my eye. I've always heard about the Harcourt Studios, and how the stars & bourgeoisie of Paris loved getting their picture taken by them, and now it's finally accessible to us normal folk thanks to a few photo booths they have set up around Paris.

It took them over a year of research to develop a booth that could reproduce their infamous lighting techniques, and now you can get the same result for 10€ instead of paying 1000€+. The first booth was put in at the MK2 Bibliothèque and now they've installed a second one at the Franck et Fils boutique in the 16th.

C went to try it out the other day, and I really like the results, even if he wasn't too happy with the photo. He is a giant, so the seat in the booth was much too high for him, which meant the lighting was a bit off and he had to scrunch down in an awkward pose to take the picture. I however think he looks like a handsome 1930's police detective (though I admit I may be biased) :Speaking of photos, we finally got the links to our wedding pictures, and I can't wait to go through them this weekend! I'll post a few once we've had a chance to pick out our favorites.

2011-10-13T09:45:00.000+02:00

Since C & I won't be going on our real honeymoon until December, we decided to do a mini-honeymoon in a fancy hotel and at least spend one night away together. I really wanted to find a hotel with a view of Paris, and it was actually a lot harder than one would think. (Unless we wanted to spend 1000€ night - um, no thanks). We ended up booking a room at the Concorde Lafayette, and they very kindly upgraded us to one of their few rooms with a full-on view of the Eiffel Tower once they realized we'd just gotten married.It also had a lovely over the room tops of Paris:
And I liked the little extras, like a funny fruit bowl:and the flower petals in the bathroom:We had champagne while enjoying the view:
And then watched the sunset over the city:
By some miracle of God, I did not get any early morning phone calls for work and we were able to sleep in and recuperate from all of the wedding craziness. And then we went down to have what has to be THE best hotel breakfast I've ever had. It was delicious and amazing - they even had three different kinds of cheddar to choose from. Combine that with another nap and a late check-out and you've got one happy Ksam. So two thumbs up for the Concorde Lafeyette - and I'd definitely recommend checking out their newly redesigned top-floor bar once it reopens in a few months.

As a side note, does anyone know why the Eiffel Tower always shows up so small in pictures? It was as close as in the second picture up top, but it always ends up looking much farther away on the camera.

2011-10-11T09:06:00.000+02:00

A hungry bride is a cranky bride

2011-10-07T11:12:00.002+02:00

The day of the wedding, the hair & make-up "artists" arrived not long after I woke up, so I didn't really get a chance to eat. I also didn't realize that once my make-up was done, I wouldn't be allowed to eat or drink. It was early, and I'm telling you people, I needed caffeine. Note to future brides - either eat a lot beforehand or buy some straws!!

So to pick up from where we left off, after the wedding we headed over to the park to drink a glass of champagne and take some pictures. My dress had a long train and it kept getting stepped on, mainly by C, so I wanted to attach it up. I had a few friends attempt to do it, but it wasn't really working and since I couldn't see anything, I wasn't much help to them. I was starting to get a bit cranky on an empty stomach, so I just let it go and went to take pictures.

Once we got home though, I wanted that darn train pinned up. And we were still struggling to do so, and Bridezilla reared her ugly head again. I was about ready to take a pair of scissors and cut the damn thing off myself (especially since there were a few footprints on them & I didn't want them to show in the pictures). I may have said a swear word or two. But we finally got it figured out and I was able to sit down for a few minutes of peace and quiet (and grab a quick bite to eat) before we had to leave for our picture session.

We took pictures at three spots - Luxembourg gardens (in a hommage to my shoebox), down by the Seine (luckily you can't smell pee in pictures) and over by the Bir Hakeim bridge (note to tourists - if you see people taking wedding shots, get out of the background!).

We'll have to wait two-three weeks to get them back, but hopefully they turned out nice. L's husband also took pictures for us at the Mairie and in the park with his fancy new camera - the few he's sent so far have been beautiful, and I can't wait to see the rest. And Karina and MG posted a few to Facebook as well, which I know my family back home appreciated.

We went straight from the pictures to the dinner. It was a bit confusing since I'd forgotten the list containing everyone's dinner choices in the car, but everything worked itself out and hopefully everyone had a nice meal. A few of C's friends gave short speeches - including one about a husband went on a honeymoon without his wife because they didn't have enough money to pay for two tickets and another who said "Mariage ensoleillé, mariage éternité".

And then it was back home for cake and champagne. We had Cat over at Sugar Daze make the cake, and she did a lovely job. The bottom layer was chocolate and the top layer was red-velvet:
I also have to give a shout-out to Sophie for helping C's dad navigate Paris with the cake and for decorating while we were out taking pictures. Thank you that, and for pushing us to have a reception afterwards (even though organizing it was a pain in the ass lol).

Thank you as well to all the guests who came from both near and far to share our special day with us - we are so blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful friends!

The one in which I almost miss my own wedding

2011-10-06T10:15:00.005+02:00

Well here, I am, five days into married life. I haven't had much time to write since my family was here and they wanted to take advantage of their last few days in Paris.

But last weekend ended up being an absolutely lovely weekend and the weather - omg, the weather - who would've thunk it?! A rainy wedding wouldn't have stressed me out (after all, mariage pluvieux, mariage heureux right?), but I was hoping it would be nice for our picture session, so I jokingly told C I was going to do some positive visualization, ie that I was going to picture us walking out of the Mairie under a bright blue sky. It became kind of a joke between us - because really, what were the chances of it being uber nice on October 1st? But I still kept doing it - every day, for just a few seconds, I would imagine our wedding day being bright and sunny, with not a cloud in the sky. It's not that I really believe in that kind of stuff, but I always figure that throwing positives out to the universe can't hurt. And what do you know - we had a clear day with a high of almost 30°C!

Despite everything going on, I think I managed to stay relatively calm bride, minus two small Bridezilla incidents. The first being when we were on our way to the Mairie, but got held up because we couldn't get the gigantic mercedes out of the garage. I was sitting there, as we inched forward and reversed, inched forward and reversed, watching the clock tick by.

10:51am
10:53am
10:57am

Did I mention I was supposed to be getting married at 11am?

Um yeah.

We finally got the car out, and we raced over to the city hall. My mind was racing as well - like "How could I be late for my own wedding??". And then we get there, only to find the parking lot in front of the city hall was full! (As a side note, most Vinci parking lots will let you park for free on your wedding day and on your birthday). My poor brother - who has never been to Paris before, let alone driven in the city - was left to fend for himself and find a parking spot while I jumped out of the car and ran over. Luckily they were running behind and he found a spot easily enough, so I was able to breath for a few minutes and say hello to everyone before we were ushered inside.

The ceremony itself was short and sweet - though the Adjoint Maire did make a few too many references to having multiple children for my liking. Have children! Have many children! And have them in the 15th! It was one of the things he'd asked us last week, and now I'm curious to whether or not he would have married us had we said no. He also leaned in to give me a bisous afterward, and it lasted just a little bit too long....Those of you in the countryside will know what I'm talking about. Like when you show up at the village bar and you have to make the rounds to say hello to everyone, and all the greasy old men at the bar insist on leaning in for a kiss that is accidentally-on-purpose way too close to your mouth.

And then it was over and we had a piece of paper saying we were married. It's actually kind of funny when you think about it - that this tiny piece of paper can carry such weight and be a legally binding document. Like one second you're not married, and then *bam* you are.

How about that?

In the next episode: A hungry bride is a cranky bride....

The last chapter

2011-09-26T09:17:00.003+02:00

In what may be the ultimate sign that I have moved on, I completely forgot that Fab and Katell got married this past Saturday. Though if I'm honest, it does get my goat a little bit that they chose to get married exactly one week before C & I. I mean, what are the odds?? It's like they had to get one last little dig in. I have absolutely no clue what they were planning on doing for the wedding since communications have broken down to a fight over taxes (money gets ya every time), but I suppose I wish them well? If only because there is now a child involved...

2011-09-24T11:26:00.004+02:00

Friday afternoon, C & I went to meet with the official who will be marrying us next weekend (Yes, next weekend!). I had been hoping the woman we had originally met with would do it since she just seemed so upbeat and positive, but alas, she was unavailable.

As a side note, bigger cities have several people who marry couples and while they all have assigned weekends, you can request whomever you would like. We heard one story of a couple who loved sailing and one of the adjoint maire's was a semi-famous sailor, so they asked if he would do it.

Anyways, so we started explaining what we had in mind - a few people reading texts, etc - so that it would seem more like an American wedding for my family since we weren't doing the church wedding.

He stopped us there and said "Why aren't you doing a church wedding?" C replied "Well, because we're not the same religion." The official replied "That doesn't matter, some priests will marry you anyways. Where do you live? We'll find out what diocese you are in and we can call them".

We sat there stunned for a second - like "Dude, we're getting married in a week, I think it's a little late for that." I was rather incredulous actually - here our mairie is all for people doing civil ceremonies-only and yet this guy is trying to push a church wedding on us. Me thinks someone did not read the memo!

In the end, we were able to brush him off by saying we were doing a small thing here and then something for the rest of my family in the US. But still, so much for separation of church and state, right?

Photo of the Day

2011-09-20T19:08:00.004+02:00

Is anyone else wondering how this woman's tiny little twig legs are holding up the weight of that monstrous hat?

2011-09-16T09:04:00.004+02:00

The other day, I headed to Rennes for a tradeshow. It was the first time I'd been to such a big one, so I was just kind of walking around getting my bearings when I saw someone I knew across the room.

I was sitting there, thinking "Man, which one of my customers does that guy work for?"

Until I realized it was one of the farmers from "L'amour est dans le pré". And then I noticed there was another cast member standing nearby:It was Raphael, the jerky fonctionnaire rennais. It was actually pretty funny to see him there, because C & I had both speculated that he was just on the show to get his 15 minutes of fame, et le voila.

They were there to participate in a forum held by the radio station "France Bleu Armorique". I didn't get to listen to the session because I was there to schmooze with my customers after all, but here were some of the topics discussed:

Est-ce si difficile de rencontrer l'âme soeur chez nous en Bretagne?
Avez-vous réfléchi longtemps avant de tenter l'aventure?
Comment cette idée a t elle était perçue par votre entourage?
Cette aventure a t elle toujours été agréable à vivre, ou y a t il eu des moments difficiles?
Comment avez-vous réagi le jour où vous avez appris que vous aviez été sélectionné?
Aviez-vous fait d'autres tentatives, annonces, speed-dating, site de rencontres sur Internet?

Is it really that difficult to meet one's soul-mate in Bretagne?
Did you think about it a long time before deciding to sign up for the show?
How did your friends/family feel about it?
Was it a 100% positive experience, or where there also some difficult moments?
How did you react when you found out you had been selected?
What have you done in the past to find love (ads, speed-dating, dating websites)?

The interview can be found here (in French of course), if anyone would like to listen to it.

Silly sausage

2011-09-09T14:19:00.000+02:00

At the beginning of the summer, C, in a fit of excitement about using our balcony grill, bought what can only amount to a boatload of merguez sausages. But since summer never really made much of an appearance here in Paris, we haven't made much of a dent in it.

They are however predicting nice weather for tomorrow, so we decided to invite a few friends over for a BBQ. C was all excited and said "Yes! We can say it's a sausage party".

I'm telling you people, if you did not just bust out laughing, you must be dead.

I just about rolled on the floor, while C said "What? What is so fun-nee??"

This second one I already posted on Twitter, but it still cracks me up. C has a tendency to pronounce "focus" as "f*ck-us". Apparently this is a common problem for French language speakers, and it never fails me to crack me up every time, especially since he can't seem to remember the proper pronunciation now.

Foo-coos?
Foo-cus?
Fo-cous?
Fu-cos?

And they say French is hard.

Vaux le Vicomte

2011-09-05T10:05:00.002+02:00

This is a Château I've been wanting to visit for a while now - and when I heard they had a candlelight visit AND also put on a fireworks show every other weekend during the summer, I knew we had to go.

Except the summer flew by in a flash and all of the sudden it was September. There were two last fireworks shows - one this past weekend and the other our wedding night, so off we went this past Saturday night.

We were lucky to have absolutely beautiful weather:

The château was also relatively empty, giving us ample time to look around:

This candle-holder cracked me up:

And these made me want to cancel the cake order and have a macaron tree for the wedding:

This guy however was creepy - he had a video screen as his face and was actually "talking":

Then it was back outside for a lovely picnic in the forest while the employees lit up all of the candles

And when we came back, it looked like this:

I was a bit disappointed though, because while it looked beautiful from the outside, the lights were still on inside, so the candles really didn't make much of a difference. So we went back outside after just a few minutes and found a good place to wait for the fireworks and finish the last of the champagne:

After the other fantastic fireworks shows we've seen this summer, theirs were a bit boring, but it was still a lovely way to finish the evening.

Practical info:

The château is about a 45 minute drive from Paris, otherwise if you don't have a car, you can take a train to Melun and they have a navette from there. There is also a company called Paris Vision that will bring you by bus from the center of Paris to Vaux le Vicomte for 49€ (entrance ticket and audio-guide included).

Ticket prices range from 14-16€ for the normal visits, or 17-19€ for the candle-light visits. (Student discounts are available).

2011-08-31T10:02:00.002+02:00

People keep asking us how the wedding planning is going and it's always hard to give an answer. We did a big push back in May to get the majority of things set up so we could have a stress-free summer - and by golly, we were actually pretty successful so we haven't really had anything to do these past few months except enjoy what passes for summer in Paris.

But now that the big day is rapidly approaching, we're trying to do the same again - ie take care of the last-minute things before September so the month leading up to the wedding is also as calm as it can possibly be. Which means that these past few days, we have been running around like crazy doing wedding stuff. Things like confirming the cake, the flowers, the dinner, etc.

And speaking of the dinner...C called the restaurant on Sunday to confirm the date and the time. When they answered, they said "What? There's no way we can have a wedding dinner - we are closed, the restaurant almost burned down this summer!"

I was on the phone with someone else, and when I heard the tone of C's voice, I immediately cut the call short so I could listen in. Apparently there was a big fire that started in the kitchen and they have been closed since June for repairs and renovations. I listened as the owner's son also told C that once they reopen, prices were going up and they were going to completely change the menu and so our choices would no longer be valid.

Now as a side note, when we talked to them in May, they asked us to pick a few menu options and then have all of our guests choose what they wanted so the chef could order ahead. So that's what we did....we had all of our lovely guests choose what they wanted to eat, and now he was telling us those options were no longer valid!

I was starting to feeling slightly panicky - like "How on Earth are we going to find another restaurant a month before the wedding??", when C asked if we could come down and talk to them in person.

So that's what we did yesterday morning. It's true that the restaurant is still heavily under travaux, but you can tell they are nearing the end. And the owner, whom we know much better than the son, reassured us by saying that they have other events scheduled far before our wedding, so they would definitely be reopened by October 1. He also said they would honor our menu options (and budget) too - whew!

One crisis averted.

Then it was time to call the photographer. Who immediately said " What? I can't do any wedding photos! I'm on maternity leave!" I started feeling the panic rise again until C got a little bit stern with her - after all, we had a signed contract and everything so the least she could've done was to call us. And besides, we talked to her in May, so she should have already been several months pregnant by then. At which point we all realized that it was just a misunderstanding, and that she had thought that C was a new client calling to reserve a date.

Crisis two averted.

Whew!

Luckily everything else has gone a lot smoother than that, and I am already imagining these turning into funny wedding stories. I'm also grateful that C has been so willing to help out and take on his fair share of tasks. I tell ya, he's a good man.

Now all that's left is the dress fitting & the hair/make-up trials before wedding....hopefully there will be no snafus there - I am just imagining the dress lady accidentally mis-altering my dress or the hair lady cutting off a big chunk of my hair or something!

A corn what??

2011-08-22T10:56:00.000+02:00

The other night, C & I were laying in bed, reading. I was flipping through a chick magazine and stopped on an article on guilty pleasures. There were various celebrity quotes, and when C took a break from his (boring, IMO) army book, and this quote by Teri Hatcher caught his eye:He was like "What?? A CORN dog?? What on Earth is a corn dog?" I was confused for a second because I'm a bad almost-wife** and sometimes I forget what I did with whom (ie. that I had been to the MN State Fair many-a-time with Fab but that C has never been).

So I explained what it was and how one eats a corn dog. A hot dog, on a stick, dipped in cornmeal batter (btw, do you have any idea how hard it is to explain 'cornmeal batter' in French??) and then fried - I swear, it just about blew C's mind. Why would one ever think to do that?

And really, why would one ever think to do that?

**C's new nickname for me. It's cute, non?

2011-08-20T13:09:00.001+02:00

My (belated) birthday present from C was a trip to Geneva last weekend to see their fantastic hour-long fireworks show.It ended up being a fantastic weekend full of sun and good food (and great fireworks).It was set to music - a nice mix of both modern and older songs.Le bouquet final :I definitely recommend it if you like fireworks - but bring a picnic and get there early in order to get a good seat. I had to laugh at the people next to us, who took the picnic idea to the extreme. Over the course of several hours, they cooked a full sack of potatoes, sausages and even chicken legs on this tiny little grill:And then there were these young Frenchies, who brought plates, silverware and real wine glasses to enjoy their meal:They sure do take their eating seriously here.

Thanks anyways dear

2011-08-18T13:04:00.001+02:00

What happens when you ask a colorblind man to fill a bowl with (frozen) red peppers:

2011-08-16T10:17:00.004+02:00

Since a lot of you out there are expats in mixed-nationality relationships, I thought I would post something I found out about recently that was extremely shocking - yet it has received surprisingly little publicity:

As of yesterday, August 15, 2011, the US Embassies in France can no longer issue immigrant visas for US employment, fiancé visas or family visas. Everything must now be processed through the US Citizen and Immigration Services in Chicago! Meaning one office is going to process immigrant visas for most of the countries in the world. How insane is that?!

Here are the new instructions according to the American Embassy website:

Filing Instructions beginning August 15, 2011:

Beginning August 15, 2011, petitioners residing overseas who wish to file a Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, may do so as follows:

If the petitioner resides in a country in which USCIS has a public counter presence, the Form I-130 may be filed directly with the USCIS field office (see instructions below) or through the USCIS Chicago Lockbox at one of the below addresses.
If the petitioner resides in a country where USCIS does not have a public counter presence, the Form I-130 must be filed with the USCIS Chicago Lockbox at one of the addresses below, unless the petitioner requests and is granted an exception based on one of the criteria described below:

USCIS Chicago Lockbox addresses for regular mail deliveries:

USCIS
P.O. Box 804625
Chicago, IL 60680-4107

USCIS Chicago Lockbox address for express mail and courier deliveries:

USCIS
Attn: I-130
131 South Dearborn-3rd Floor
Chicago, IL 60603-5517

For additional information about how to file a Form I-130 with the USCIS Chicago lockbox, please see the USCIS website at www.uscis.gov or contact USCIS by phone at 1-800-375-5283.

First of all, lockbox?? WTF? Couldn't they have come up with a more professional sounding word than that?

Secondly, I looked at the USCIS website, and apparently there are still some embassies in Europe who are allowed to issue these types of visas: Austria, Germany, Greece, Italy and the UK. So if you're in one of those countries, you're fine - but everyone else has to go through the US, unless you have a situation that "merits exception", in which case you can request one of the above countries to review your application (in France's case, it'd be Italy).

As a side note, I also came across this on the website regarding student visas: According to the US immigration law, foreign students are not allowed to attend public secondary school in F-1 student status unless they reimburse the school authority for an amount equal to the school's per capita cost of education.

If I'm reading that right, does that mean foreign students now have to pay full tuition? There are so many great exchange programs out there where schools just "swap" students and each pays their normal home country tuition, but the above makes it seems like this would be no longer possible?

I don't know...It just makes me angry that 1) our consular services have to suffer because of the budget crisis and 2) that we are making it harder & harder for qualified students & workers to come to our country. All of that talent is going elsewhere in the world, where it's easier to get in and receive funding. A lot of those people are researchers and scientists, and now all that knowledge is being shared with other countries. It's like people don't realize the long-term impact this insular thinking will have on the US and our prosperity...Not to mention that if C & I ever decide to go back to the US, it is going to be one big pain in the heinie!

2011-08-11T08:11:00.003+02:00

Last night some friends and I met up at Opéra to see Bridesmaids (or "My Best Friend", as it's known in French) for our weekly dinner-and-a-movie date.

We headed back to the métro and were doing some last-minute chatting when we noticed this in front of the Opéra building:There were a whole bunch of colorful 2CV's lined up in front of the steps, with drivers wearing striped shirts and funny hats. We moved in for a closer look and saw "4 roues sous 1 parapluie" printed on the door. That name sounded familiar, and a quick Google search turned up their website. We thought maybe they were there acting as taxis for a post-Opera show, but then we noticed a photographer was there, directing them on how to pose and position their cars.
It'd be kind of a fun way to tour Paris, non?

2011-08-06T11:27:00.002+02:00

Thanks to everyone who left comments and/or emailed on the wedding dilemma post!

Annie was the first to comment and suggested 1001listes. I thought that sounded like a good idea, so I checked it out - they do work with quite a few more stores (including Darty) and the prices were much more reasonable. So I started to look around and add items to our "panier". When C got home, I showed it to him, and he was immediately suspicious (as he often is of French websites - and maybe rightly so?). He figured there must be a catch somewhere, and after what Emily said, I started hunting around on the internet for reviews of the site. Some were very positive, but others claimed it was very difficult to actually use the money they'd received, especially for some of the bigger stores like Darty or Decathlon.

For those places, you had to find what you wanted to buy (FYI: discounted and sale prices don't apply!!), call up 1001listes, ask for a gift certificate for the exact amount and then wait for them to process it and mail it to you by registered letter (on your dime to boot). Then you could take your certificate to the store and cross your fingers that the price hadn't changed between now and then or it was back to the drawing board. There were also pretty big fees for using the money at non-partner stores (15%+) or if you didn't use it all up within a year.

Overall, it is still a good option because the site has been fairly-well translated into English and it does let people from all over the world contribute to it, but it sounded like just too much hassle and paperwork to me. (Also, C looked up their finances online and they have lost money for the past few years, so he was also worried about them going bankrupt and us losing our moola- same for Zankyou too btw). But funnily enough, while doing my research, I also learned that the site had first been bought by TF1 and then more recently by Galleries Lafeyette.

I did really like the Amazon.com idea that several of you suggested though. I didn't realize beforehand that Amazon.com could ship outside of the US, or that you could set it up automatically so that people could send the presents straight to you (at their cost). I also like that they have a really great selection of products at good prices - no 500€ pillows there!

So after much thought, I think we are going to use Emily and Meredith's idea of a honeymoon website, where people can purchase various items for the honeymoon, and then also have a small Amazon.com registry for the Americans who don't feel comfortable giving towards a honeymoon.

Now we just need to figure out how to inform people - I guess we have plenty of time still since the American reception won't be for several months after the wedding. But from what I'm seeing online, it's sort of gauche to include anything about presents in the invitations? Instead, you are supposed to include the address for your wedding website, and then on there have links to your registries. Who knew this was all so complicated?? (But then again, I'm definitely not the queen of etiquette...)

I always swore I wouldn't do a wedding website, but looks like I may end up having to do one after all...so much for trying to keep things simple, right?

A business lunch in Saint Gilles Croix de Vie

2011-08-03T13:04:00.001+02:00

2011-08-02T09:31:00.003+02:00

The countdown to the wedding has begun!

The original goal for C & I was to get most of the wedding planning done in May, so that we could "profite" of June and July before starting up again in August. Except the weather in June & July was crap so not much profite-ing was done, and of course now it's turned nice in August. Oh well.

One of the big things on our list was to sit down and figure out what to do for a wedding registry. This is complicated by the fact that we are having a small wedding in France, so most of the people who will want to send us gifts are in the US. But given the luggage weight limits, it would take us years to bring everything back. Not to mention that American appliances, etc wouldn't work in France.

So back to square one - what to do?

In France, it's quite common for people to give money, either towards a home purchase or the honeymoon. I started hunting around and found out there are some really nice sites out there that let you design a personalized wedding website so people can choose what the money goes towards - say "paint" for a house, or a "couples massage on the beach" for the honeymoon. So in an ideal world, that's what everyone would do - but from what I can glean from American etiquette sites, that's still sort of a faux-pas. I mean, it sounds like you can have one, but that you also need to have other options for people who are offended by just giving money.

Back to square-one again.

Then I came across the Printemps website. Printemps is one of the major department stores in Paris, and it turns out their wedding list can be in either French or English. The actual descriptions of the items themselves are in French, but the site is English and there are pictures there, so in theory, someone in the US could make a purchase and then we could go pick up the item at Printemps. We don't really need anything for our apartment, but at least it would give our guests another option. Sounds perfect right?

They had a selection of things you could add directly from their website, but it was very limited, so last Saturday, C & I headed down there to the actual store to take a look. I was really looking forward to getting one of those scanner guns and then going crazy, à la Bridezilla.

Except once we got there, we discovered they had no scanner guns. Instead, they give you a piece of paper and one of those tiny pencils, and then every time you find something you like, you have to go find a sales person and have them write the UPC plus some sort of secret code on the sheet. FOR EVERY SINGLE ITEM. Do y'all know how hard it is to find a sales person in France?

C was about ready to give up right then and there, but I persisted - we'd already come all the way down there, why not at least take a look? So we set off with our piece of paper and started walking around the store. We would both pick something up, look at the price tag, freak out, and then ever-so-gently set it back down. Like I saw a really nice wooden bowl - the kind that are as smooth as butter - but the price was almost 100€! I can't ask a guest to pay 100€ for a frickin' bowl! Same for the pots, pans, etc.

Okay, on to the linens section. Our table runner is getting stained due to C not being used to eating sauces, so why not add one of those? We found one we liked and walked over to a saleswoman to have her add it to our list. But she personally did not like that color (gray) -how about this lovely red? No thank you, I already have one like that and it's a little too Christmas-y for me. Well how about this pretty pattern? No thank you, we are really looking for something dark to hide stains.

And this is where the lady flipped out. Hide stains? What do you mean "hide the stains"? You do know you have to wash table runners every day right? Umm...sorry lady, but no. What do you mean no?? It is just what's done!

I looked to C for confirmation, but he looked just as confused as I did. We just sort backed away slowly while she gave us the evil eye and mumbled stuff about "kids these days" under her breath.

Alright, let's give bedding a try. We could use a new duvet cover and maybe a new pillow or two. We head over to the pillows and I pick up the softest pillow I have ever felt. I tell you, it was like laying on a cloud. There was no price on it (that should've been our clue right there), so after trying a few others, we flagged a saleswoman down and asked her. After giving us a ten minute spiel on the benefits of this pillow, I interrupted and asked "Excuse me, but what is the actual price of this lovely pillow?".

The damn thing cost 500€ people. 500 EUROS!!! For a pillow! My eyes just about bugged out of my head. I asked if she had an less expensive options and she brought us over to another stack. After going on for a while about the percentage of goose down vs duck down blah blah blah, she told us that this one only cost 350€. Sorry lady, still out of our price range. Okay, how about this one for 200€?

Upon seeing our faces, she finally brought us over to the discount pile, where there were two crappy little pillows for 90€ each. Now I'm telling you, these were the kinds of pillows you can buy in Carrefour for 5€. You know, all lumpy and uneven.

And that was C's breaking point. He very rarely rants, but this time it came out - Printemps was a huge rip-off, they jacked the prices up on everything, they made it extremely complicated to open a wedding list, etc. And I could only agree with him. After a few hours, we only had two things on the list - and one of them was an eye mask.

Printemps' selling point is that "It's your wedding! Go nuts!" but both of us are just too practical to do that. I cannot in good conscience ask my guests to pay out-the-nose for something they could buy in the US for a much more reasonable price. I just don't have it in me. Not to mention that the prices are in Euros, so there'd be an even bigger mark-up with the exchange rate.

So we're back to square one yet again.

Obviously I'm not the first or the last foreigner to get married in France, so I'm hoping someone out there in the blogosphere will have found THE perfect solution to this dilemma.... And if so, please leave me a comment here!

Chateau d'Angers

2011-07-31T12:42:00.001+02:00

I have a lot of customers in the Loire Valley, so I often take the train to Angers for work and then rent a car from there. Which means that I drive by this about once a month:
But it's usually early on a Monday morning, and I have places to go, so I never get a chance to stop. This time though, I arrived on a Sunday afternoon and had a co-worker with me, so we decided to stop by and take a look.

I discovered the castle is surrounded by a beautifully-decorated moat:And that it's actually quite the imposing building:Unfortunately the ticket office had already closed, so we couldn't visit it, but after taking a look in the courtyard, it is now definitely on my list of things to do!As a side note, one of the things I've always liked about the Château d'Angers is that it's so different from most of the other castles in the Loire Valley. As you can see from the pictures, instead of being an opulent palace like say Chenonceau or Chambord, it's more of a fortress.

According to the signage outside, the current structure was built in 1232 on a site that previously housed a smaller fortress built by the Romans many-a-year ago. The other interesting thing about this castle is that it houses the Apocalypse Tapestry, which was commissioned in 1373 by Louis I. I always confuse this one with the famous Tapestry in Bayeux.

I do have to say though that the area between Angers and Saumur is one of my favorites in all of France. There's a castle around every corner, lots of great wine (and other liquors like Cointreau), plus things to do for all ages and goûts. You can rent a bike and bike through the vineyards, canoe down the river, do a wine tasting, visit as many castles as your little heart desires, etc. Whether you're going en famille or en amoreux, I'd definitely recommend it for any of the long-weekends the French love so well (but you will need a car).

Hands on

2011-07-28T10:36:00.002+02:00

Because I'm gone a lot for work, C & I try to have date nights on a regular basis. Nights where we get gussied up, actually leave the house and go out just the two of us. Some nights we'll go to a movie, but more often than not, we'll try out a new restaurant in another neighborhood. Either ones that I've heard about from friends or Twitter or others thanks to Groupon deals.

Which is how we found ourselves last Friday night heading out to a café in the 5th that was offering a 2-for-1 fish & chips deal. The 5th was my home for three years and I have very fond memories of living there, so I never hesitate to go back.

We had a nice dinner - the fish was good and the chips were okay, but there was no vinegar nor mushy peas (or even tartar sauce). But no matter, we still had a nice time. And since it wasn't raining for once, we decided to stroll around the neighborhood for old times' sake.

When we got to the Place de la Contrascarpe, we came across a group of people milling around in the middle of it. At first, it looked like a sort of manifestation, but once we got closer, we saw signs offering free 10 minute massages from the "Décontraction à la française" association.
The signs all encouraged tips, but said there was no minimum price. And there were probably 10-15 different people sitting on chairs, getting massages. I wondered how much they were paying for them? And if anyone would dare leave without paying anything? Because of his job, C gets a little paranoid about pickpockets whenever there are groups of people milling around, so we didn't hang around any longer to find out.

But I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing...I'm not sure I would've wanted a random stranger touching me anyways...my Minnesota personal space bubble hasn't quite completely popped yet!

2011-07-24T22:24:00.004+02:00

I have to say, I live in a pretty nice neighborhood, which is what makes this sight even more bizarre:
Several times a week, I see people dressed in nice clothing - this lady had on a blazer and the guy a suit - digging through the garbages on my street. It's true that the majority of the residents are fairly well-to-do, so you see some pretty nice stuff sitting out there at times - TV, washing machines, etc. But it never stays for long - I can go to the gym and come back 45min later and things are already gone!

And then you have the people like in the photo above, who are hunting for food. I'm not sure if you can see from the picture, but they have 2 very full shopping carts, and are working on filling the third. We watched them pull out of there:
-several heads of lettuce
-5 leeks
-a bunch of bananas
-a few pears
-3 liters of milk
-2 yogurts
-a sack of potatoes
-and so on

I'm assuming these were the poubelles from the grocery store down the street, but still! I can't figure out for the life of me why two well-dressed people would go through them on a regular basis. At one point, the lady took off her blazer, tipped the garbage to the side and actually crawled into it to get at the bottom. She pulled out a bunch of grapes that were covered in some kind of white liquid, brushed them off a bit, and then stuck them in the cart.

But what for?? Are they dumpster diving? Working for a food shelter? It's a mystery!

2011-07-20T10:19:00.002+02:00

Well how about that? My little old blog made EasyJet's 2011 Ultimate Paris Travel Blogger List! I wouldn't have even known had someone not emailed me about it. Thanks Easyjet!

It reminds me of the time my previous blog was selected as one of the Best France Blogs...and I was described in the byline as a sassy gay (male) blogger. I found it pretty hilarious at the time - though I guess it was an easy assumption to make if you just skimmed my blog. I posted as Sam, was pacsed (back before the PACS was as popular as it is now) and I have to admit I was also fairly cantankerous.

Since moving to Paris though, I haven't really done much to publicize my writing. In many ways, this blog is still semi-private and for a long time I asked people not to link to it on their blogs. In part because in the beginning I didn't want Fab to find it, but also because what I was going through was so personal. So it's kind of an odd feeling to think that now random people are coming across what I write. But I guess I don't really have anything to "hide" anymore and maybe this is just the push I needed to take things more public and start building up my readership again. How about you guys? Do you actively promote your blog? Or does it just serve to chronicle your life for family and friends?

It's funny, I have never in my life been able to maintain a diary or a journal, but here I am going on six years of continuous blogging. Internets, you are a wonderful thing indeed!

2011-07-18T14:08:00.003+02:00

I just got back from the US yesterday (last minute work trip), and it's funny how I already feel like it was all a dream. Does that happen to you too? Like here I am, sitting at my desk, drinking my tea and checking my email like I do every morning. It's hard to imagine that yesterday I was taking one last spin through the mall and one last stop at Chipotle. Seems so far away now...

My trip went well, though with 12+ hour days at the office, I didn't do much besides work. My ticket cost an insane $1700 though, so at least they got their money's worth.

One of my tasks while there was to help interview the candidates for a new opening we have. And the more people I interviewed, the more I realized that I wanted this job. For as much as I enjoy my current role, I think I'm ready for more. And one of the good things about The Company is that they are definitely willing to promote internally and help people move up the ladder.

I talked to my boss about it, and he said my name was actually the first that had come up for the role. Which was nice to hear, but we both know it would never be possible as long as I live in France. Because of the nature of the work, the person we hire would have to be based out of the home office in Minnesota. Plus there would only be a few weeks of travel a year, instead of two weeks a month like I am doing now.

It's true that these past few trips, I have left my time at The Company feeling energized by the people I work with and the ideas they have. Once I'm back in France though, it is hard to stay connected with people and that energy always fades. I still enjoy my job, but I'm on my own over here and it's harder to see how all of the work I'm doing connects me to the bigger picture.

It actually really made me sit down and think - Could I live in Minnesota full-time? My family is there and I love my home state. So if The Company was in Minneapolis, I'd say definitely. But they're in a small town about two hours away and that changes everything for me. The homes are big and cheap, and it's an area that's great in the summer because there are tons of lakes nearby, but the rest of the year, there's not much going on. There's a small shopping mall and one movie theater and that's about it. Of course there are my co-workers, who spend several nights a week hanging out, but would that be enough for me? I really am a big city girl at heart.

And of course there's C to think about as well. He is open to moving to the US, and he's planning on leaving his current job sometime within the next year so the timing really isn't that bad, but he'd like to stay in his field and The Company's town has little to nothing to offer him. Which would mean he would likely have a minimum of an hour commute one-way to his job (doable in the summer, completely awful in the winter, especially considering his slow driving...) Plus, I quite like the life I've built up for myself here in Paris - we have a nice apartment, great friends, an active social life. En gros, we have a good thing going here.

On my way back to Minneapolis, I was on a shuttle with a woman who was a cashier at a small-town grocery store. She was very nosy and started asking me all sorts of questions about my life. It annoyed me as I'm not really used to that invasion of privacy anymore, but seeing my life through her eyes reminded me how glamorous it really sounds (and maybe is?). I live in Paris, I have a (gorgeous) fiancé and a flexible job that lets me travel all over the place.

I don't know....I suppose these really are first world problems. Having to decide whether we live in the France or the US. Or between continuing our current lifestyle or moving up the corporate ladder. Poor me, right?

Lucky or sucky?

2011-07-01T09:24:00.001+02:00

What do you guys think? Would you put up with being away from home two weeks per month and sometimes having to wake up at 3am in exchange for being able to travel all over France and see things like this?

2011-06-29T19:12:00.004+02:00

Last week, I drove by this sign, which was just in front of my client's place of business:I also passed a few others during the week.

That's right, it's Tour de France time of year again. I don't really follow the Tour at all, but I do think it's neat that it usually goes by several of my customers every year.
According to the map, this year it will be going by clients in Les Herbiers, Noirmoutier, Lorient, Mur de Bretagne and Le Mans in the North and then my customers near Pau and the Spanish boarder in the South. It's always a useful tidbit of info that will serve as small talk with my customers, who are usually very proud of where they live and even more proud that the Tour chose their town to pass through. Plus it's kind of fun to watch the news at night and see the recaps of them riding through places that I know so well.

2011-06-28T11:19:00.004+02:00

I believe the birthday curse may have been broken this year!

Ever since I moved to France, my birthdays have either been forgotten or had some kind of b-day drama. Last year my blackberry died, so I lost all of my contacts & couldn't get in touch with anyone, plus we had a flat tire and had to spend most of the day in a repair shop getting it fixed. And the year before that, a few people got into a kerfluffle early on in the night, which ended up making things awkward for everyone and the party died out before it had even started. And then of course when I was in Bretagne, Fab usually remembered my birthday, but "forgot" to get me a present. And even after seven years together, the MIL still refused to put my name on the family birthday calendar, so no one else ever remembered either, and it usually ended up being just another day.

Compare that to this year, where I got birthday emails and cards straightaway from C's mom, sister and brother. I asked C if he'd told them it was my birthday, and he said "No, I think they all just made a point to write it down last year". It was actually really touching. Not to mention that C himself made a big fuss of it being my birthday weekend. I came home from my work trip Friday night to a nice dinner and a bed covered in rose petals. Saturday, we had a nice leisurely breakfast with blueberry pancakes and then C did the large majority of cleaning for my b-day party Sunday. He also manned the BBQ outside in the heat, while the rest of us stayed (relatively) cool inside.

And we ended the night at the perfect place - at a pop-up bar down the street with an absolutely lovely view of Paris and the Eiffel Tower.
I couldn't have asked for a better birthday, and it was all thanks to C, who was willing to go the extra mile to make sure it all turned out well. Hopefully I'll be able to say the same in a few months for our wedding!

2011-06-24T13:01:00.001+02:00

Another really interesting thing about my new customer's location is the history. They are right smack dab in the middle of the Somme, which some of you might recognize from the famous "Battle of the Somme" in 1916. This battle was one of the mostly costly for the British Army, especially July 1, 1916, which remains the bloodiest day of battle for the British to this day, with over 57,000 casualties and almost 20,000 of those being deaths.

Reminders of those losses are still visible to this day, in the forms of cemetaries for all those who lost their lives in battle. The large majority of them are for the British forces, and are bright white, like this one for the Indian soldiers, that was just across from my hotel:There are also a few French ones, though they usually have less pomp and circumstance:And then there are the German ones, which are dark and austere, with a slightly menacing feel:All these reminders of war and sadness can be a bit depressing, so luckily there are some other, more uplifting things to see in the area. Like the château that is in the town where I normally stay (though it has now been turned into a military museum):Or the fact that on the way to my customer, I drive by a sign pointing to towns named "Brie" and "Ham" straight ahead. Like I joked on Facebook, the only one missing was "Bread"!Or these funny scarecrows:There would usually be one per gigantic field, which made me wonder how effective they really were, but they still make me smile. They're like the last-man standing in a world of bells and whistles and modern technology.

2011-06-22T12:11:00.001+02:00

95% of my customers are found in the "Grand Ouest", meaning the western half of France (Brittany, the Loire Valley, the Southwest). I have a few outliers though, including a new one in Picardy. Even though C is from the North, he's not a huge fan of it, so besides a few trips to his parents house, I don't really know the region at all. Thanks to this new customer though, I am getting to know the area a little better.

And one of the first things I always notice about a new area is the type of houses. France is a relatively small country, at least when compared to the US, and it always surprises me how much the home designs vary across the country. In Picardie, there are a lot of red brick homes:Compare that to a stone house in Brittany:
Or to the "tuile" covered roofs in the Loire Valley:
And those are only three different areas.

The next thing I usually notice is the food. And from what I can tell, these people seem to love their friteries. You'll find little caravans like this everywhere:
They usually offer various types of hot sandwiches, all stuffed with fries. I haven't quite dared to eat in one yet though....mobile kitchens often equal questionable hygiene in my experience!

2011-06-19T18:45:00.004+02:00

C was one of ten people chosen to welcome the foreign military delegations at this year's Salon de Bourget. It's a big honor, but also a big time commitment. Meaning he has to be at the Charles de Gaulle airport 24/7 for ten days straight. Unfortunately those ten days also fall between two of my work trips, so our plans to see each other and attend his brother's wedding reception in Normandy this weekend fell to the wayside.

This, however, did not sit well with his brother and his new bride. Which is how I found myself heading to the reception alone, via a complicated system of RERs and trains. It was being held in such a small town that the nearest train station was 30min away, and someone had to be sent to pick me up.

I have to admit, I was a little nervous. This would be the first time I would ever be alone with C's family, and as I am still a little bit more than traumatized by the family events and get-togethers in Bretagne, the butterflies were having a heyday in my stomach. Old habits die hard I guess. Luckily for me, time and time again C's family turns out to be way more open-minded than Fab's family & friends ever were, and I ended up having a lovely time. (Even though it made me realize that I am not a details-person and that we still have a lot of work left to do).

There were however a few funny moments. The bride is Chinese and her parents had made the trip over to France. They don't speak a word of French and not more than a few words of English, so communication was difficult. But I had to laugh when C's mom asked me how you said "copine" in English and I said "girlfriend". She said "No, no, that's not it. It's "love" something or other. Yes, there we go, "Love friend". And then she said in English "Zees ez zee love freend of C". Good thing they didn't speak English very well, or they'd probably end up thinking I was his mistress!!

Later on, after dinner was served, C's mom and other brother turned to me and started talking about the DSK affair. C absolutely hates when they talk politics at the dinner table, but since he wasn't there to stop them, off they went into an 30min interrogation about why the Americans are insisting he is guilty when everyone knows he is innocent. Some of their comments to me:

"It has to be a plot by the Americans. They are just jealous of DSK's popularity worldwide and didn't want him to become president of France." Um yeah...Except 99% of Americans didn't even know who he was before the whole affair.

"Why are the Americans all smack-talking him for being rich? You love rich people!" I watch a lot of American TV now that we have the slingbox and I've never once heard anyone criticize him for having money. French TV on the other hand is another matter -people have been all over him here for his wealth. So nice try.

"It has to be the cleaning lady just wanting to sue". I've thought a lot about this, and I think I disagree. Before getting nationality, I was always nervous about renewing my cds every year and I did everything I could to stay under the radar, as I think a lot of foreigners in unstable situations do. Here was this poor woman, just trying to make a life for herself in a new country. But what do you guys think?

After my foreigner-defense came the biggie. C's mom practically shouted at me "Okay Samantha, explain to me how you can force someone to give you a fellation". Time froze for a second as my brain caught up to the fact that my future MIL had just said the word "blowjob" to me. And then she said it again. And again. Louder and louder each time, until everyone around us was staring.

"And seriously. How could it start on the bed and then move to the bathroom? Why didn't she escape? How can you sequestrate someone in a hotel room? So Samantha, tell me how you can force someone to do it! She has teeth, non? Why wouldn't she just have bit him during the FELLATION??" (again with that word)

Nothing I was saying was good enough for her, so I finally just semi-shouted "How the heck would I know, I wasn't there!" And then luckily a few of my tablemates chipped in and agreed with me, and quickly changed the topic. C's mom is great, but man, sometimes she just has no filter....

2011-06-14T10:57:00.002+02:00

C & I attended the Yelp Open Party last week and since it was such a nice night (and many-a-calorie were consumed), we decided to walk back from Bastille to St Michel again.

You might remember my post a few weeks back about the Apple ad. Well, it seems the gigantic Ipad2 has been removed, and the sides have been replaced with a more appropriate covering:
The middle section is still blank however, so I'm not sure if they're just in the middle of recovering it, or if they're planning on putting another ad up in its place...

CAP Mariage, part 3

2011-06-12T13:10:00.002+02:00

Who knew this would turn into a three-part series?

The last part of the meeting talked about what we could actually do to personalize the civil ceremony and make it our own. According to one of animateurs, about half of French weddings take place only at the Mairie, ie they don't do a church wedding afterwards. And since the City Hall wedding is normally a wham, bam, thank you Mam kind of occasion, they encourage those who are only getting married at the Mairie to take the time to make it special.

So here is a list of things you can do to make the ceremony your own. I was actually pretty surprised about all the different options available - I never would have thought we'd have so much choice in the matter:

-You can have them play music when entering the salle des mariages
-You can ask the Mayor to say certain things during his welcome speech
-You can ask to decorate the room
-You can have the witness, a friend or a family member read a text (FYI: 140 = ~1 min)
-Both partners can say vows if they so choose
-You can have someone sing or play a song
-You can exchange rings (this is highly encouraged by CAP Mariage for its symbolism)
-You can have the witnesses, family members or friends make a speech
-You can have music played while you're exiting the salle des mariages

If you'd like to do any of these things, it is strongly advised to make an appointment with either the Mayor or whoever is going to be marrying you to talk about what time is available and how much your city hall lets couples personalize things.

And what's next for us? After the initial meeting, we can also do a follow-up meeting with one or more of the volunteer couples. I think we'll probably do it, especially since C couldn't make the first one. And as a side note, they are also available to help you decide which of the French marriage contracts you should choose (this is mandatory when filling out your wedding dossier). It is a fairly important choice because the type of marriage contract cannot be changed within the first two years of marriage, plus changing it is quite costly as it requires the help of a notaire.

CAP Mariage, part 2

2011-06-10T12:47:00.002+02:00

So the first part of the meeting went over the actual legal articles that would be read during the ceremony. They have to be read by law, and I think the majority of people probably just listen to the Mayor drone on without ever really thinking about what they are actually committing themselves to do. For examples, Article 212 of the civil code:

Spouses owe to each other (by law): respect, fidelity, help and assistance.

As a group, we defined what each of those meant and then each couple had to put them in order of priority for themselves. And it's true, each of those words has several meanings. Respect can be respect for one another, respect for the couple (by making time for each other, not working too much, etc), respect for the common goals you have.

Interestingly enough, some of the ideas that came up for fidelity were not only sexual fidelity but also emotional fidelity. Not telling more to a co-worker than you tell to your spouse for example. And again, fidelity to the couple, meaning prioritizing the relationship by not working til 10pm every night, not going out with friends all the time, etc. And later on, fidelity to the family unit, meaning doing your best to provide for your family, being an active parent, spending time with your children, and so on.

Help and assistance both seemed very similar to me, but help was explained as aiding the person in times of need, for example during periods of unemployment or rough times at work. Whereas assistance was considered to be more of a moral support.

And then we did the same exercise for the rest of the articles of law that will be read during the ceremony. I actually think it was a good idea, because now those articles will actually have some sort of meaning for us.

After that, the two couples spoke about their own experiences and the struggles they've encountered during the almost 40 years of marriage they'd had. One of the women was particularly feisty and kept saying things like "les gosses peuvent foutre le bordel au mariage" (basically, kids can f*ck up a marriage) and that the four main topics that cause problems are "le fric, les mômes, la belle-famille et les vacances" (money, kids, in-laws and vacations). It was pretty funny to hear this little old bourgeois lady talking in slang - and I especially had to laugh at the last bit. Only in France would vacation be a source of disputes!

They also talked a lot about what happens when the honeymoon period is over and what comes after - which is apparently something called "la période de désenchantement" by French psychologists, and has you feeling depressed about the realization that you are now stuck with this imperfect person for the rest of your life. Not the way I would've put it, but it did lead to some interesting discussion about how you can't change your spouse, you can only change how you react to them.

Which is something I've been thinking a lot about lately, for example when it comes to C's driving. The man has so many other great qualities that outweigh this tiny negative one, and those are what I need to focus on when we're driving two miles an hour down the freeway. It's still a work in progress for me, but like they said, it's all part of accepting your partner for who he is, not who you want him to be. C doesn't get all annoyed with me when I have my cranky pants on (or at least he's really good at hiding it), and I would like to be able to do the same for him.

Whew, this is getting long....and is probably boring for a lot of you who don't give a damn about weddings, so I'll continue the rest in another post. Hopefully this information will be useful to someone out there though.

CAP Mariage, part 1

2011-06-09T12:09:00.005+02:00

When we went in to the city hall to choose our wedding date, they gave us a folder full of useful wedding information, including a little postcard for an association called "Cap Mariage". The card said that once a month, the city hall and this association held a free information session to help newly-engaged couples understand the laws relating to marriage, to help them personalize their civil ceremony and to help them plan for their new life together. One of the sessions was last night, so I decided to go check it out.

Let me just say, it was NOT what I was expecting.

I was thinking it would be more-so like an informational fair, with booths set up in a big room. Instead, it ended up being like a small, intimate, pre-marital counseling session. My eyes just about bugged out when I entered the room - which was the room where we'll be married btw - and I saw all of the fancy armchairs had been arranged in small circle, and that there were four other couples sitting there, waiting for C & I to show up. Except C wasn't going to show up because he was working late and I hadn't realized it was a formal affair.

Everyone was looking at me, so I quick made up a little white lie about him getting held up at work and hopefully he would join the group later. (or not)

The group was being led by two older couples - one who had been married for 37 years and the other for 40 years. I was a bit worried at first that it was a religious thing, but then they explained a little bit more about the association, saying that it was a non-political secular association started in 1998 by a notaire in Bordeaux.

This notaire had been working on a lot of long, complicated divorces and was feeling rather depressed by the whole thing. She wondered by so many marriages were ending in divorce and what could be done about it? So she started the first CAP mariage, with the goal being to encourage couples to think what marriage really means to them, and to help them think about what kind of marriage they would like to have and how they are going to go about making it happen.

So it's kind of like a "light" version of the pre-marital counseling that is often required in the US for couples wanting a church wedding. And it's actually a very timely topic for us because it's been something we've been talking about doing. We are both 100% dedicated to making our marriage a long and fulfilling one, and have spent a lot of time talking about how we can make that happen.

Because of what happened with Fab, I've come to realize that a relationship takes work. You need to nurture it and make time for it, and not take your partner as a given. I'll go more tomorrow into what the actual meeting was like, but one of the main topics was the importance of having common goals as a couple. So it's almost funny when I look back and Fab & I and see that we wanted such very different things, in all aspects of life. We had different work goals (country vs. city), different home life goals (wife does the cooking/cleaning/child-rearing vs. shared responsibilities), different spare-time goals (drinking w/friends vs traveling). It was almost doomed from the beginning and meant one of us was bound to be unhappy (me) - but my romantic idea of love conquering all meant we avoided ever talking about these topics.

So the session brought up some interesting points, and tomorrow I'll share a few of them, as well as talk about the different ways the civil ceremony can be personalized to match your style.

2011-05-31T09:55:00.005+02:00

Every once in a while, C and I will go out to the suburbs to do some major grocery shopping. Of course by the time we actually drive out there, the cheaper prices might actually be negated by the amount of gas used, but it's still nice to have a bit more choice and to go to a "real" store from time to time.

So off we went yesterday. Everything went fine, and we got our groceries and headed home. But C has this funny little quirk. He always thinks he can improve on everything. Be it a recipe, instructions, or the GPS - he always thinks there is a better way. 99% of the time, this leads to disaster.

As it did last night on the way back. At one point, there was a fork in the road. The left way was the normal route, the right, unknown. Both the GPS and I were saying "Go left! Go left!". But my dear C choose to go right.

Which meant that instead of driving back to Paris on the freeway, we drove back through every little suburb town along the way. On top of it, most of them were under construction for another tramway, bringing a four-lane road down to a two-lane road. In rush hour. But oh well, it was a chance to visit another part of IdF. Who cares about the frozen food in the trunk, right?

Eventually we came upon this, and I had to do a double-take:A Ronald Gym Club? Since when does MacDo do gyms?

I had a hard time finding any information about them, but finally found a small press clip on their EU site: A balanced, healthy lifestyle involves more than what you eat. It’s finding the right balance between calories you consume and physical activity. We encourage customers to build more movement in their lives, through both large-scale programs and grassroots endeavors, to support physical activity, especially among children. Ronald Gym Clubs are an example of this endeavor.

I'm curious if any of you out there have ever seen one, or been in one? Are they free? Or payant? I'm not the biggest fan of McDonald's, so I wonder if this is just a publicity stunt or a real attempt to encourage physical activity? (or both)....

Life is good

2011-05-29T09:34:00.005+02:00

Yesterday marked three years since I moved to Paris. In many ways, it seems like ages ago, yet I can still remember sitting there in my shoebox that first night, looking around at my life packed up in a few small boxes and wondering "What are you doing here? What's going to happen now??"

And now here I am planning a wedding, with a man who is both beautiful inside and out:

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

2011-05-23T19:04:00.003+02:00

C & I had dinner last Thursday night at a cute little Italian restaurant (thanks Groupon), and since it was a lovely night and there really wasn't any easy way for us to get back home via the metro, we decided to just start walking.

We strolled slowly through the Marais, past l'Hôtel de Ville and along the Seine. Which is where we came across this monstrosity:
The Conciergerie is one of my favorite buildings in Paris, and I was horrified to see it covered in advertising - and for Apple no less. Most of the time when they are redoing building facades here, they will put up scaffolding covered in a photo of the building, so you at least have an idea of what you're missing out on.

I understand that the French government is short on money for building renovations, but this is just atrocious. Not to mention that public buildings aren't supposed to show any external sign of religion or advertising - and you'd think that would be especially applicable in this case since the Concergerie is part of the Palais de Justice!!

2011-05-22T10:43:00.004+02:00

This ad has been playing during the previews at Gaumont movie theaters, and it always cracks me up because it's so true to life:

2011-05-19T09:43:00.005+02:00

Things are *finally* advancing with the wedding plans since miracle of all miracles, I am home for four whole days in a row (and C has the week off- no surprises there).

The biggest news is....drumroll please.....despite Fab doing his best to stop us, we finally have a date!Woohoo!!!

We have also booked the restaurant, the photographer, hair & make-up "artists" and the cake-maker. The invitations are done and ready to be ordered. And today I am off to meet with someone regarding dress alterations. So to my great relief, a lot of the big stuff has been checked off the list.

Leaving time for some of the more "fun" things - liking heading over to the family wine depot in the 16th to decide which wines we want to serve. We came home with quite the selection to try - so come on over! (PS. Teresa, if you read this, please send me an email, I am still extremely curious about your connection to them!!)Lastly, on our way back from the cake tasting, I looked down to see this between our feet:Now if that's not a sign, I don't know what is!

2011-05-18T18:32:00.004+02:00

What do you when you have a belle-famille that doesn't drink? Why you spend the weekend doing all kinds of wholesome family activities of course!

You go rollerblading by the sea:And then you introduce them all to bowling, air hockey (hair okay they will say) and pinball machines:
You fall into bed exhausted by all of that fresh air and then wake up the next day to take a walk in the forest:Until you come across a patch of wild asparagus and someone has the bright idea to run back home and get a knife so it can be eaten for lunch:And then while asparagus hunting, you will come across some crazy characters:And then it's back home for lunch, after which everyone will sit around working on an insanely hard puzzle:
Let's see how that used to compare to weekends with the ex-belle famille in Bretagne:

Eat. Drink. Smoke. Nap. Eat. Drink. Smoke. Lather, rinse and repeat.

I might miss the alcohol at times, but the rest is all definitely a breath of fresh air!

Foix

2011-05-16T09:51:00.007+02:00

Like I mentioned, before, while we were down South, we took a day to visit the city of Foix. You all know I love me some châteaux, and this one has been on my list for a while, especially after hearing L talk about it. So off we went, first to take a look at it at night:And then the next morning we returned (after spending about half an hour turning in circles in the center of Foix due to all of the one-way streets. Consider yourself warned). You'd also better be motivated, cuz it's quite the hike up to the castle on the hill.It's worth it though, because once you're finally up top, you will be treated to some really amazing views:The city down below:The surrounding grounds:Nearby mountains:The grounds of the château were filled with Irises, one of my favorite flowers:And the inside had all kinds of cool things, like old wooden doors:Ancient canopy beds:And views of one of the four tours:
What's not to love?

I'll leave you with a little rhyme that French kids learn in school to help them remember how to spell fois (time, as in one time), foie (liver), Foix (the city) and foi (faith):

Il était une fois, une marchande de foie qui vendait du foie dans la ville de
Foix. Elle m'a dit "ma foi, c'est la dernière fois que je vends du foie dans la
ville de Foix.

2011-05-13T22:14:00.006+02:00

Blogger is finally back up and running again!

At least long enough for me to say to encourage those of you in Bretagne (or elsewhere) to participate in the "Journée récréative au profit de Meningites en France". This is a group that is near and dear to me and a few fellow readers, and I would really like to do my part in promoting it: I also know that they are continuously looking for donations for fundraisers, so if you feel so inclined and have anything to donate (money, books, gîtes rentals, etc), please feel free to post it here.

Also, last week we went to eat at another Chinese restaurant with C's brother & his wife (they have an excellent Chinese ravioli buffet à volonté - check it out!!). While we were walking over there, I came across a small Latino market at 55 blvd Lefebvre 75015. Since they were still open, I took a few minutes to pop in and check it out. They had all the regular stuff you would at find at your local corner store, PLUS all kinds of highly-searched for Mexican ingredients. Like dried and canned black beans, all kinds of canned tomatoes with chilies, tomatillos, etc. It's pricey but it's something to keep in mind if you're desperate for certain ingredients...

2011-05-02T13:11:00.005+02:00

Last week, probably due to a month of non-stop working, I lost my voice. It was extremely frustrating, since I had to spend most of the week working with a new client and they were horribly un-understanding. I was finally able to get to a doctor on Friday though, and thankfully the meds have been helping. My voice is probably back to about 75% now.

It's been ages since I last had laryngitis, and I forgot how much of a handicap not having a voice is. It felt like such a throw-back to my early days in France, when I couldn't speak French. Or answer the phone. Buy a train ticket. Talk to the hotel receptionist. Order my meal at night. I was reduced to pointing and hand gestures. I'd forgotten how demeaning it could be.

With the early years still on my mind, C & I went grocery shopping out in the burbs this weekend. As I walked around the supermarket, I had to marvel at all the changes that have come about since I first moved to France 8 years ago. All the products that were not available then but yet are so readily available now. We picked up a small BBQ for our balcony and in the meat section, I found Johnsonville Beer Brats. There was a 2-for-1 offer on Philly cream cheese in the cheese aisle. I picked up a box of Bisquick for our Sunday morning pancakes, and some more Hershey's chocolate syrup for sundaes.

And then there's the whole frozen food phenomenon. When I first came to France back in 2001 to meet Fab's family, one of the things that surprised me the most was the lack of frozen foods. At least in Bretagne, most supermarkets had only a few stand-alone freezers back then. And now 10 years later, frozen food is everywhere. Picard's are popping up like weeds, and are the savior of the working Parisian woman (and single men everywhere).

I suppose it's sad in a way. The long-standing French cuisine and traditions are changing at a fast-moving pace. Makes one wonder what things will be like ten years from now....

2011-04-28T09:57:00.002+02:00

After a long day of work, I sometimes look through pictures of some of the mini-breaks C & I have taken (in an attempt to remind myself of some of the benefits of my job). Tonight, I went through our pictures from our trip to St Emilion last week-end. It was such a lovely day, full of sun, champagne and relaxation.
Earlier that day, C had sent an email to his mother to tell her where we were at. We were just heading out of town when his mom replied, saying that his grandfather's brother owned a vineyard not far from St Emilion, and included the address and the phone number.

C tried to call while I looked up the address - they were only a few kilometers away! No answered the phone, but I thought it was still worth a try, and after a few wrong turns, we pulled into the yard:
The people out front looked at us a bit suspiciously at first, but once C explained who we were, they invited us in and gave us a tour of the place. They had an absolutely beautiful home, filled with all kinds of antiques and artifacts that would be right at home in any self-respecting French château. All over-looking rolling fields of vines:There was also this beautiful, old covered patio. Apparently many-a-family member has gotten married here - too bad they're not closer to that side of the family, right?As it happens, they make a limited-quantity of wine per year, available to family and friends only. (They have a HUGE family). They sell at cost-value, making just enough to maintain the buildings and the land. We got this bottle from 2006 St Emilion for 7.50€ - how crazy is that? Plus the bottles have the family name on them, which I think is just so darn cool. I'm hoping we can buy a few more cases for the wedding!

PSA

2011-04-25T08:28:00.003+02:00

I posted this on Twitter last night (well, as much as you can post in 140 characters), but thought it might be worth posting it here too.

C says there has been a drastic jump lately in the number of foreigners getting robbed around the Abesses/Sacré Coeur area. There is one group of five young men who usually corner a foreign couple and make them empty their pockets and give them their ATM card pin code. The others just plain old pickpocket tourists. But the end result is that foreigners are now filing by the dozens into the police stations of the 18th arrondissement.

At least two of these stories have a happy ending though. Undercover policemen caught one of the offenders red-handed in front of Sacré Coeur and they found the wallet of an American woman (among others) in his pocket. She hadn't yet filed a report anywhere, so C tried calling the American Embassy to see if she was registered there. She wasn't, so he put the wallet aside just in case she decided to file a report in the next day or two (the other option is to send it off for evidence, but then you can't get it back).

He was telling me the story over dinner last night, and I said "Do you remember her name? We should look her up on Facebook". A few clicks later, and there she was! I sent her a message and she replied back a few minutes later saying that it was her, and that she had just been to a different police station to pick up her (empty) purse. Case closed!

The funny thing is that while hunting through the garbages of Sacré Coeur for her own purse, she came across the purse of someone else and also found and returned it yesterday through Facebook. Talk about good karma coming back around to help!

(Now if karma would only heal my sore throat in time for my next work trip....)

Labouiche

2011-04-22T22:47:00.003+02:00

Last week while we were in the South, we took a day trip to Foix. I'll post more about that later, but for now, I wanted to post about a really cool natural site we visited called "La rivière souterraine de Labouiche", or the Underground River of Labouiche.

It's the longest navigable underground river in Europe, and has been open to the public since 1938 (thanks to the adventurous men who spent 30 years exploring and mapping it). The tour takes you through 1.5km of the river, which is located about 60m underground. Since it had just opened for the season, we were the only ones there and ended up getting a private tour. The guides don't have paddles at all - they use the two steel cables you see on the left in the picture above to pull the boats along. The trip lasts about 75 minutes, and they take you past all sorts of waterfalls and rock formations. Our guide was very informative and shared a lot of information about the history of the area, and the geology of the site.
My favorite part though was all of the illuminated stalactites and stalagmites. There's a French mnemonic device that says "Les stalactites tombent et les stalagmites montent". Since the verb Tomber (to fall) starts with a T and the verb Monter (to climb or get up on) starts with an M, it's an easy way for French children to remember which is which. I'm not sure where I learned it, but it's always stuck with me. Funnily enough, C had never heard it before! If you're ever in the area, it's worth a visit, especially on a hot day. The cost is 9.10€ for adults and 7.10€ for children. According to our guide though, the afternoon visits are usually packed, so they recommend arriving first thing in the morning in order to avoid the crowds.

2011-04-17T10:13:00.001+02:00

The one bad thing about C's proposal was the timing, ie. It took place the day we left before the US. I was all "Dude! Couldn't you have proposed a few days earlier?? Now we are going to lose a month of planning!"

And then we got back to France, and found out that both of us had to be there to turn in the marriage dossier....which is fine, except the only two work days I am home in April, C works from 9-6.

*BAM*

Another month lost.

Which means that everything is basically on hold until May because we can't plan anything until we know the official date. And for someone who is a major planner like me, it is pure torture. Every time I come home, that damn wedding to-do list is staring at me, taunting me. Like "Ha ha, look at all this stuff there is to do and you can't do any of it!"

I'm telling you guys, getting married on a desert island is starting to sound like a pretty good idea right about now...

2011-04-12T10:53:00.001+02:00

As I'm sure you all have realized, I made it back from Tunisia safe and sound. The colleague who was with me was pretty worried about going, but I was feeling okay with it - and rightly so. Things may heat up again when they have their big vote in July, but for now, it was business as usual.

Everyone we met said "Please, tell the tourists to come!" So Go, Tourists, Go! The flights are cheap and the hotels are empty. Our hotel was just across the road from the beach and cost 25€ per night for a room with a sea view - and that price also included breakfast and dinner!
And look, you can get all the citrus fruits your little heart desires:

My customers were also glad to hear of my pending nuptials. They've always thought it was bizarre that a single woman would travel with a married man to another country. They said "Can you cook? It is important for a wife to cook. We have a saying in Arabic that says The way to a man's heart is through his stomach. And of course now you must stop traveling after you are married, to take care of your husband."

That reminded me of an article I read in one of the big Tunisian newspapers. They have such a flowery, roundabout way of writing. It's interesting, but also tiring. Anyways, this article was part of a bigger series talking about honey. It talked about how tradition says that the newlywed couple should find a bowl of dried fruits soaked in honey hanging over their bed. They are then supposed to share these sweet fruits during the first weeks of their married life, with the hope that the honey will "sharpen their desire, stimulate their sensuality and sweeten their life together". And then the empty bowl was meant to show that everything had gone well and that they had been able to successfully "seduce" one another.

I wonder if this is where the term "honeymoon" comes from? It is called literally a "moon of honey" in French, as well as in several other languages, and given that this tradition is supposed to last several weeks, it could be a plausible explanation....

2011-04-09T11:50:00.002+02:00

These happy times have been twinged with bits of sadness. News of the passing of parents of fellow bloggers and co-workers alike. Miscarried babies. Children with incurable cancers. All of this has had my dad on my mind lately. He would've turned 60 a few weeks ago. Instead he is frozen in time at the age of 49.

I think he must have been on my brother's mind a lot lately too. My straight-laced brother just told me he was going to get a tattoo with the date of his passing. It surprised me, but somehow the idea of having a permanent trace of him just seems right. Maybe I will do it myself someday.

Sometimes I think of him not being at our wedding and my heart breaks all over again. I think it's part of the reason I've never seen myself having a traditional church wedding - I just can't imagine him not being there to walk me down the aisle.

While we were home, my mother pulled out their wedding rings. She said she'd meant to offer me hers, but it was too late since I had already purchased my own. But then there was my dad's ring, nestled in a little box. It'd been so long since I'd seen it that I'd almost forgotten what it looked like. I looked it at, and then I looked at C. Somehow we had the same idea at the same time, and I asked him "Elle te plaît ?". He said "Oui", and then tried it on.

I should mention that during the month we were there, we visited jewelry store after jewelry store, trying to find him a wedding band. Not only does he have a weird, in-between ring size, but he was being as picky about the ring as he is about most other things in life. We'd finally settled on one, and placed an order for it. Once it arrived, it, like all the other rings, was just a tad too big. We both liked it, but were disappointed it didn't fit right.

So you can imagine my surprise when he tried on my dad's ring and it fit him perfectly. It was like Goldilocks and the three bears - not too big, not too small, but just right. The only one out of all the rings we tried on. What are the odds?

He told me he loved it and that if it was okay with my mom and my brother, he'd like to wear it. Seeing it on his hand actually moved me to tears, and once again, I felt so incredibly grateful to be with a man who just plan understands me, and the importance my father held in my life. So now that ring is tucked away in a safe place with my wedding band, waiting for the big day.

But then there was the issue of what to do with the original band. I wanted to return it - but C wanted to keep it and start a new tradition. He likes the idea of the engagement ring showing just that - your engagement to someone. So he decided he was going to wear it until the wedding. I protested a bit at first, saying "ça se fait pas!!", but to be honest, he gets hit on so much at work that I don't mind all of those ladies thinking he's married. Which is how it ended up that both of us are now wearing rings.

Unconventional? Maybe. But it works for us.

My attempt at the "Rant of the Week"

2011-04-07T19:19:00.007+02:00

I took the puddle jumper from Paris to Bordeaux today. As it was a late morning flight, it was fairly empty, and with no one around me, I was looking forward to 50 minutes of peace and quiet. Until a mom carrying a small child plopped right down behind me just before they closed the plane doors.

Let me preface this by saying that I know a lot of you readers have children, so this isn't against kids in general. I know flying solo with one or more children is not an easy task by any means. But I still take issue with what happened on this flight. I was sitting in the window seat, and the mom was sitting in the seat directly behind me, with her child on her lap. Now you all know that there isn't much leg room for a normal adult on a national flight. Add a child in there and there's really no space left.

The kid started kicking my seat and causing a general ruckus as we were heading down the runway. After five straight minutes of kicking, and the mom doing absolutely nothing to stop it, I turned around and said "Excuse me, but your child is kicking my seat". She replied "So what?", to which I said "I'd like it to stop, it's really bothering me".

The kicking and pushing continued. None of this is the kid's fault - confined to such a tight space, he didn't really have anywhere else to go. And his mom had brought nothing with to occupy him, so he was finding his own amusement. Seeing as she had no one in the two seats next to her, I turned around again and asked if she could move one seat over. She said "No, you're the one that's bothered, you move". I said "I'm not the one causing the problem, so I shouldn't have to move. If you were sitting in the middle, you wouldn't be bothering anyone". That apparently didn't please her, because she called me a b*tch and said there was no way she was moving.

At that point, a flight attendant was walking by, so I stopped him and said "Excuse me sir, but I have a small problem. I keep getting kicked by the child behind me. " He looked at the woman, and then looked at me, and said "Why don't you just move to the middle seat?" I said again "Because 1) I paid for a window seat and 2) I'm not the one bothering someone". He said "Madame, surely you understand that we can't ask a mother and a child to move?" I replied "I'm not asking them to move rows, I'm just asking her to put her child in the seat next to her, and then he can kick all he wants". The flight attendant replied that he couldn't do that and told me I could either move myself or put up with it.

And you know what? That just really ticked me off. I'm just trying to be tranquil on my flight, and I'm the one that has to move? I understand that you can't control what small children do, or how they react - but you can control your own actions, and I thought that mom was being pretty b*tchy herself. If she had just apologized for her child, or made even the slightest attempt at stopping him from doing it again, I would have understood. But none of that happened. Instead she just told him to ignore the mean lady and keep on doing what he was doing.

The flight attendant eventually came back and told me there was another window seat up front, so I finally decided to move seats. Good thing I did too, because right after, the kid started crying and basically screamed for the remainder of the flight.

(And yes, I do realize that writing this has probably increased the likelihood of me being the lady with the screaming kid on the plane one day. But still. Other people's kids, right?)

Is she or isn't she?

2011-04-02T11:03:00.007+02:00

First of all, I have to say that you guys cracked me up with your comments yesterday, and I definitely needed that after a long work week. Secondly, I have to say that I was almost thinking about not doing a April Fool's Day prank this year. After what I wrote two years ago and then last year, I wasn't quite sure what there was left to write about. Now on to the post...

For those of you who were asking for photographic evidence, I give you the temporary ring C proposed with. I "forgot" to post a photo of it on purpose, just to throw you guys off. Cuz I'm sneaky like that.And here's the ring I designed for myself and had made in the US. It has a fourth band of diamonds that will go across the top after the wedding:And here's the two of us at the engagement party my co-workers threw for us on St Patrick's day (hence the festive headband):
And here's the champagne the flight crew gave to us:And lastly, here is a poor C in CDG, completely exhausted after lugging my dress (People, I have a dress!!) and the accessories that go with it across the Atlantic. I'm telling you guys, it was a b*tch to get that thing back here. Never again!Is that enough proof for y'all??

So yes, I am happy to announce that we really are engaged and C really did propose during my surprise boat trip. But it was the night before we went to the US, and then we had to come home and pack for our flight, so I didn't really have time to announce it to many people. Plus I wanted to tell my family first. And then once we were over there, things were so darn hectic that I didn't have time to write a proper post about it. And then I realized April Fool's Day was quickly approaching and that this would make a good story to double-cross y'all.

So voila, you have the truth! Now hopefully we really do live happily ever after... :)

And they lived happily ever after

2011-04-01T09:05:00.006+02:00

Even though I am mega uber busy, I still had time to eek out a post for y'all. You guys remember my Valentine's Day surprise? Well, I might have left a teensy, weensy part out:

So let's see, where were we? Oh, that's right, stopped at the bottom of the Eiffel tower so I could take a few pictures. As I was taking them, C started tugging on my coat. I was all "Dude, look at this view! I need to take a million pictures!", until C finally said "SAM!" with a note of urgency in his voice.
At which point I finally turned around and saw him down on bended knee. He did not waste any time, going straight to the point by saying "Veux-tu m'epouser?" After a moment of shock in which time seemed to stand still, I said a big fat OUI. How could I say Non to the man who went to extreme lengths to combine three of the things I love most? It was almost a surreal feeling - there I was, on a boat in the middle of the Seine, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, getting proposed to. That sh*t only happens in movies!

We sat there with ridiculous grins on our faces for a few minutes, but since you're not really supposed to stop moving on the Seine, it was soon time to fire up the boat again. But not before C busted out the bottle of Champagne and the macarons he had snuck onto the boat:
Looking back at my pictures now, I have to smile at this view - what a perfect image for our life to come:And then we really did make our way back to Bastille, all the while watching the sunset over Paris:

THE END

2011-03-29T19:23:00.004+02:00

Even though we only got back on Friday, our trip to Minnesota already seems ages ago - though I will admit to not missing the snow!This blog will likely be very quiet for most of April - work is busier than ever and I will be home a grand total of 4 days in the entire month (weekends included). But considering the never-ending construction is still going on next door, that might not be a bad thing...

This is something I constantly struggle with - the balance between my professional and personal life. How to juggle everything - keeping my employer and my customers happy yet still having enough "quality" time with C. Four days is just not enough. For now we are lucky that he is a fonctionnaire with oodles of vacation, so he is taking a week off in the middle of the month to accompany me on a trip down South. But it probably won't always be that way. It's a work in progress I guess. :/

Life with a colorblind man

2011-03-21T16:51:00.005+01:00

Me: Do you know where the GPS is?
C: I think it's in my brown bag in the back.
Me: ?? Your brown bag (thinking he was talking about his backpack) is at your feet...
C: No, I'm talking about my army bag.
Me: Your army bag is green.
C: No it's not, it's brown.
Me: Um, sorry dear, it's green.
C: How did I not know that??

(ten minutes later)

C: Wait, what color is my backpack then???
Me: Brown
C: What?? But I've had it for like five years now.
Me: What color did you think it was?
C: Black
Me: Black??
C: You know, like a "light" black.
Me: Lolllllll
C: Wait, are you lying to me?
Me: Lolllll
C: Seriously, what color is it??

What's wrong with this picture?

2011-03-16T03:10:00.003+01:00

I had to laugh tonight when C got his (oh-so-delicious, I might add) cheeseburger and immediately started eating it with a knife and a fork. Along with everything else on the plate, including the lettuce and tomato. (and of course sans sauce)

He also very gingerly held up the pickle and said "What's this??". I answered "It's a pickle. You eat it." To which he replied "Even the stick??". Lolllllll

I then told him he was in the US, so he should eat it with his hands. He tried, but after about two bites, it was deemed too messy and the knife and the fork came right back out.

Apparently you can take the Frenchman out of France....

--------------------------
Sent using BlackBerry

2011-03-14T09:50:00.001+01:00

So remember when I mentioned a Valentine's surprise? And then I promptly forgot to write about it?

C told me he'd planned my surprise for the day before we were leaving for the US. I was so busy running around like a chicken with my head cut off in the days beforehand that I barely had time to think about what it was until the day of. All I knew is that it was near Bastille, so I wasn't surprised when late that afternoon, we took the subway over there and then started walking along the quay. Just as I started wondering why we were walking into a homeless camp, we came upon a small dock. At the end of a dock was a boat. As a little background - every time we see any sort of large body of water, I go on and on about how I miss having a boat. Lakes play such a large part of life in Minnesota (they don't call it the Land of 10,000 Lakes for nothing!), and it is one of the things I miss most about the state.

I also love the Seine. It's the closest I can get to the water, and there's something about the light down there that makes it an extraordinarily magical place. So C managed to convince the Seine Authorities to lend him a boat and give me a private boat ride down the river. How awesome is that? After years of being with someone who rarely bought me gifts, I feel so lucky to be with someone who puts so much thought into what he gets me.

So off we went in our little boat - cruising down the Seine. We had the river almost completely to ourselves. How may people can say that??We drove past l'Hôtel de Ville:The Conciergerie:Until we finally reached my favorite Parisian monument, the good ol' Eiffel Tower. I've always had a special penchant for the Eiffel Tower - the Iron Lady kept me company many a night, sparkling outside of my shoebox window. Whenever I was feeling down or wondering what I was still doing in France, I'd only have to look outside and remember how many people would kill to be in my shoes.

We sat there admiring her for a while, but it was getting chilly and technically you're not supposed to stop your boat on the Seine, so we finally turned around and headed back down the other side of the Seine.

Going past all the lovers on Ile de la Cité:
Notre Dame:And arriving back at Bastille just after the sunset:Le Sigh. How did I end up with such an amazing man??

More C-isms

2011-03-09T13:45:00.004+01:00

Sorry for the lack of posts - work was insane for the past few weeks, and now C and I have been in the US since last Friday. We have agreed to try to speak only in English while we are here, making it "English Sunday" every day. And hilarity ensues....

Me to C: Mmm, you smell nice.
C: Thank you, it's my natural flavor.

While watching HIYM the other night:
Robyn: Oh come on, you know "Baking cookies" is really a synonym for a booty call.
C: Attends....C'est quoi un "booby call??".

Upon coming home from work:
C: It was so hot today that I was bare-bellied.
Me: lollll
C: Naked bellied??
Me: Bare-chested!!!

While driving around town:
C: What are you eating?
Me: A tootsie roll.
C: You're eating candy??
Me: So what?
C: But candy is for kids!!
Me: Not here it isn't.
C: Do other adults eat candy?
Me: Of course.
C: Do your co-workers eat candy?
Me: I'm sure they do.
C: Does your mom eat candy?
Me: Um, probably.
C: That's so strange!!

And lastly, at the Green Mill for supper:
C: Why would they serve ice cream with the bread??

State Fair à la française

2011-02-27T12:51:00.005+01:00

I had a co-worker in town last week, so in an attempt to make him feel more at home, we went to check out the Salon de l'Agriculture. I'd never been before, but I spent many-a-summer at the Minnesota State Fair, so I was sort of curious to check it out, especially after seeing online that we could get in for free due to the nature of our work.

As expected, there were some monster cows (or bulls in this case). You only need to look at the people standing around them to see just how big they were - 1000+ kilos:
There was also this weird, hairless, pink species - if you cover up their heads, they almost look like pigs:
We had lots of chickens growing up, so then it was off to check out the poultry area:Where there was a surprising number of "prize pigeons", including a bunch with these abnormal growths:I'd been trying to convince C to come with, but he refused, saying it would be overcrowded with people. I thought "No....who would spend their Friday night at the Salon de L'Agriculture??"

I thought wrong:This is one of my favorite French sayings:Which may be why this little guy looks a bit worried:And then there was this poor lass, caught with her pants down:All in all, it was a fun night - we ate a lot of cheese, had a bit of booze* and came home smelling like a farm, as you would after any good State Fair.

*I was a bit disappointed though that the large majority of wine vendors here wouldn't give out free samples - you had to pay to try their wines, especially the champagnes. And they'd also jacked up the prices - most bottles were selling for 20+ euros. So I was very excited when I came across a stand run by my favorite Cave (located near Saumur) . As usual, they were very friendly & generous with their wine. I am always amazed by the quality of their product and by the low prices - we both walked away with two bottles for 10€. So if you're every in the area, I highly recommend stopping by...

Reims Mini-break

2011-02-22T10:26:00.003+01:00

Last week, we spent two days in Reims, and while it was fun, it wasn't quite as champagne-filled as I was expecting it to be. We did however, have very beautiful weather:We visited two of the big Champagne houses: Tattinger and Pommery (many of the others close during the winter months). I think I'd like to go back again one day, but with a car, so we could visit some of the smaller producers outside of Reims. A lot of the big ones are pricey and seem to be much ado about nothing. They were skimpy with their champagne tastings, often only offering one glass of their cheapest bottle, and on top of that, they were selling them for more at the houses than they were in the city center!
Another thing that surprised me was the lack of champagne shops in the city center - I'd planned on visiting a few houses and then just doing a bunch of tastings in town. But we walked all over that city and only found two, right by the church. And neither of them offered tastings, or at least not during the winter months.

It was interesting to see the caves though, and to hear about the history that went with them. And I had to laugh when I saw these adorable school children coming out of the Pommery cave - can you imagine your elementary school taking you to learn about champagne?Now that the TGV can whisk you to Reims in a mere 45 minutes, it is possible to do a day trip from Paris. We paid 32€ RT for first class tickets from the Gare de l'Est. There are a few houses within walking distance of the station, but you will need to take a bus or a taxi out to the bigger ones as they are on the edge of town. (FYI: it cost us 8€ for a taxi from the train station to Tattinger). If you go, make sure to check each house's website for tour times & availability - and note that some of them require you to book in advance.

My Parisian Valentine

2011-02-15T10:02:00.007+01:00

Yesterday was hands down the best Valentine's Day I've ever had (though maybe that's not saying much since Fab always forgot??). I had to work a little bit in the morning, but once noon rolled around, C came home with flowers and then we I headed out for a tasty lunch here. Living where we are now, it's often easy to forget we are in Paris, so I sometimes feel a bit nostalgic for my shoebox (or more so, the prime location of said shoebox in the 5th). So C thoughtfully planned out an oh-so-Parisian agenda for us.

After lunch, we walked down to Printemps and had a post-meal coffee while taking in the views of Paris, including my beloved Eiffel Tower:And then it was off to the Pont Neuf to take a ride on a bateau mouche. The sun came out, so we decided to walk along the Seine down to l'Hôtel de Ville to check out the ice skating rink.And then it was back home for champagne and a nice dinner, with C's famous sablé cookies for dessert:
The best part of the day though came afterward - the gift exchanging. C had already seen part of mine - the message d'amour*. I'd showed him a hard copy of it in the morning and he was literally speechless when he saw it. At first I thought he didn't like it because he's a fairly private person (which is why I didn't use any names), but then he said "Wait, how am I going to top this??". We'd been stopping all day long to look at different panneaux, and I was getting disappointed because mine hadn't come up yet.... My last hope was the one just across the street from our métro and by some stroke of luck, it ended up coming up just as we were exiting the station. Whew! I also got him a few books, including Dessine-moi un Parisien.

And then it was my turn - and I got one of the best gifts I've ever received. I love that C is so thoughtful with his gift-giving. What he got me is something that combines so many of the things I love. I don't mean to leave you guys hanging, but I don't think I'm going to say what it is yet - but I'll definitely write about it when the time comes. :)

*Sorry guys, for whatever reason, I'm feeling really shy about posting my message. A select few of you did guess it though!!

Squee!

2011-02-13T09:32:00.007+01:00

Nous avons le plaisir de vous annoncer que votre message d'amour de St Valentin a été choisi. Il sera diffusé sur les 170 panneaux lumineux de la capitale, le 14 février, entre 6h et minuit. Chaque message est diffusé 20 secondes. Un total de 150 messages alterne tout au long de la journée.

Every Valentine's Day, the city of Paris offers up their electronic bulletin boards for all the amoureux. You apply online and then they choose 150 of their favorites to be run - so I was really excited yesterday when I got an email saying mine had been chosen out of over 2000 entries! C has the day off and says he has something special planned, so I wanted to do something unique for him too.

Y'all will just have to check them out and see if you can figure out which one is mine!! (Hint: It's all in French). For those not in Paris, you will be able to see them online here on the 14th.

LOLLLLL

2011-02-12T15:33:00.003+01:00

I just said "For Pete's Sake, (blah blah blah)"*, to which C replied "Wait, who's Pete?".

*English Sunday has become "English Weekend" in an attempt to prepare C for our trip to the US.

Today's French word: S'imposer

2011-02-10T17:10:00.006+01:00

Argh, I am so frustrated right now. The CEO of one of our French customers met with The Company last month at the big international show in Atlanta, and totally bad-mouthed me to my bosses. As a little background - I started working for the company five years ago as an interpreter. Meaning they would send someone over from the US and I would translate for them. As time went on, I took on more and more responsibility until I got where I am today.

But it was an uphill battle the whole way - I work almost exclusively with men, and as a young woman, it's often a struggle to get them to take me seriously. (So much for the glass ceiling being broken, right??). But I've made a lot of progress over the years, and after having proved myself, I feel fairly respected by both by my co-workers and my customers. Except for this one guy...

See, back when I started, this one company was having some big problems. But for whatever reason, both sides just kind of dropped the project and let it fall to the wayside for several months. When the big CEO found this out, he flipped his lid. He fired some people on his end (no small deal in France) and then he came after The Company. And as The Company's French link, that meant me. But at the time, I wasn't even an employee of The Company - I was just a contract interpreter, working a few hours here and there for them in between teaching. But he decided that it was my fault and that I had dropped the ball and that there was hell to pay.

A few of the higher-ups were flown in to deal with the situation and we all met up with him for lunch -the entire time during which he sat and reemed me out for not doing my job. Now everyone else is scared of this guy, but I'm not easily intimidated, so I stood up for myself and said "Look, my job is to interpret between the customer and the client. And that's what I did". But this guy kept insisting (in English, so that the Americans would understand) that he knew my job better than I did and that my job was to follow-up with the clients and make sure everything was okay. And since I didn't do that, I sucked. We went back and forth like that for a while, while everyone else at the table remained silent. (I was pretty ticked no one at The Company stepped in to stand up for my, btw). And then lunch ended and I haven't really seen him since, though that exchange has always really bothered me. I've been to their site several times to translate for my co-worker, but he's never been there.

But now he's decided he wants to triple his use of our product, so he met up with us again to renegotiate the contract. And he made a point of specifically saying he did not want to deal with me at all because I didn't do my job. WTF?? I've been busting my a** for The Company for the past 2 years and I've totally turned around the French market. I have twice as many customers as my co-workers, yet I spend significantly less money. And the dude has the nerve to say I don't do my job. But because he's a big customer of ours with sites all over the world, no one contradicted him. Not one person stood up for me. Nor did they say that they have never even actually been my customer - every time I've been there, it's always been to interpret for another co-worker. Instead, they said that they'd just hired another French person - at which point the dude interrupted to say "Good. Samantha's just a foreigner, she's not even French anyways" - and then they said it was a man, and he said "Even better".

So now The Company is going to assign my new employee to them. On one hand, I'm glad to get rid of them, but on the other, to the rude dude, it now looks like they agree with him about me not doing my job well. The kicker is, this new guy doesn't even know anything yet, so he won't even be of any use to them. But yet they still prefer him because he's a man and he's French. And that just gets my goat. No matter what I do, no matter how hard I try, there will still be people who will refuse to accept me because I'm young, foreign and female.

On top of it, they're probably going to bad-mouth me to my new employee - which is already a delicate situation because he's a 50+ year old man being managed by someone who's much younger than him, so it's already been somewhat of a power struggle.

On the positive side, I will be going back to the US for most of March, which means I can lay down the law a little bit and sort this all out. But still, it's frustrating - I shouldn't even have to do this. Just when I think I'm finally on an equal level with my colleagues, something like this has to happen to remind that no matter what I do, I will never fully be "one of the boys".

Happy Birthday Groupon

2011-02-07T20:15:00.004+01:00

Some of you might remember me mentioning Groupon a while back - they're a website offering special deals for cities across France (and the world). I've got all kinds of great offers from them, including a few that will make for a very lovely Valetine's Day next week. :)

I'm a big fan, which is why I thought I'd spread the word about their one-year anniversary contest offering "One Year of Groupon Deals". And if you sign up through my link here, we both have a chance of winning!

How do I love thee Crock Pot? Let me count the ways...

2011-02-06T13:00:00.003+01:00

My family & co-workers often refer to me as the gadget geek since I love technology, and that spreads over into the kitchen as well. C got a pasta machine for Christmas and I got a food processor, so I've been using most of my new-found time to try them out. And to add to the mix, about a month ago, I decided to go ahead and get a crock pot.

I've been wanting one for several years now - because of the time difference with The Company, I often find myself working the most between 3 & 7pm, which doesn't make it very easy to prepare dinner. I've spent many a night chopping carrots with one hand while holding the phone to my ear with the other, ie not exactly the safest thing. But with the crock pot, I can prepare everything earlier in the day when I have time, and then just leave it to cook until we're ready to eat.

The problem was that up until recently, they weren't readily available in France. You could get them from Germany or other neighboring countries, but they usually charged a fortune in shipping. But for whatever reason, now they're everywhere, and for fairly decent prices too. When I was looking for mine, I wasn't sure if I'd end up using it a ton or not, so I didn't want to spend a fortune, which is why I purchased this one for 35€ from 3Suisses:
I love it, and have been using it several times a week ever since. It's hard to tell from the picture, but it is HUGE. The picture shows it filled to the brim, and I'm telling you, that is enough food to feed an army.

Now most of my regular recipes usually make enough to last for two meals...until you throw C into the equation. He eats enough for three. He's got abs (and buns!) of steel, so I don't know where he puts it, but I'm telling ya, that man can eat. It's almost frustrating to me - I like having leftovers for lunch the next day, but it hasn't really been possible since we moved in together.

Until the Crock Pot. I don't know what it is about these crock pot recipes, but they produce massive amounts of food. One of my favorite sites is the CrockPot365 blog - it's written by a woman who decided to use a slow cooker every day for a year (and of course she got a cookbook deal out of it). But she's got lots of good recipes - and one thing I especially like is that a lot of them are from scratch.

See, I brought a crock pot cookbook back from the US, and I actually haven't been able to use it that much since most of the recipes consist of "Add 1 can of Campbells soup, 1 big hunk of Velveeta and some random meat into the crock pot and cook for 8hrs". Or call for other things like "1 jar of BBQ sauce" or "1 packet of ranch seasoning"- things that are not readily available here, or at least not for decent prices. So I really appreciate that she uses a lot of things I have around the house. Like her BBQ Pulled Pork recipe, which instructs you how to make the BBQ sauce from scratch. And let me tell you, it was so tasty that even C (Mr. No Sauce) gobbled it up.

So two thumbs up for the Crock Pot - it makes loads of food and gets C to eat sauce.

2011-02-06T11:35:00.004+01:00

Several friends of mine have gone through breakups lately, and all of that has gotten me thinking about relationships. It's funny, because a few months after C & I started dating, I remember talking to a friend about my reservations about C. She told me that it took her a full year to really be sure she wanted to be with the man who is now her husband. At the time, I remember thinking "Wow, a whole year? How do you stay with someone for that long if you're not sure? Can I do that?"

When I look back on that time now, I see that I was focusing on the small annoying things C did because I was scared. Scared of getting involved with someone again, scared of investing myself and scared of getting hurt. I was using any little excuse as a reason not to get close to C. I would avoid talking about any kind of event more than month or two in advance.

I know that a lot of my issues are left-over from what happened with Fab. I also know that C is a different person, and I've done my best not to project those onto my relationship with him. But those subconscious fears still manifest themselves at times, usually after we have an especially wonderful day together. It's pretty much a given that that night, I will have a nightmare in which he cheats on me and I wake up with tears in my eyes, feeling like my heart is breaking all over again. Like my brain is telling me "Watch out, don't get too close". And I feel bad for C, because I don't want him to think that I don't trust him. I do. And I believe him when he says he won't cheat on me. But Fab also said that, and I believe 100% that he meant what he was saying.

Until the day he didn't mean it anymore. And that's what scares me.

But as time goes on, I still had a little twinge of "FLEE" when C mentioned an event that would be happening in October, but mostly it's reassuring that he is able to project us that far in the future.

And for the first time, I feel I have a real partnership with someone. Our relationship is so equal, something that still surprises me after all those years of living in Bretagne and watching those poor Bretonnes do all the cooking, cleaning & child-rearing. It was one of the main issues I had with living there and also one of the reasons I never wanted kids - that was just not the kind of life I wanted. I fully support women who choose to do that, but it riles me up when that choice is imposed.

I don't know where this post is going, but I'm just trying to put down on paper what I've been trying to sort through these past few weeks. What I do know is that when I try to picture my life without C, it's hard. When I travel for work, I feel like part of me is missing. And when I think of myself back in my little shoebox, it seems like eons ago.

2011-01-28T11:14:00.007+01:00

Things have been pretty quiet over at Chez Ksam lately. Not too much to blog about. And my work trips keep getting pushed back, which has meant for a lot of twiddling of thumbs around here. Luckily I have my new slingbox to keep me busy.

The slingbox has had us living in a mini-US bubble. I watch the Today Show while waking up in the morning. I have seen the horrors of "Toddlers and Tiaras" first-hand (see below). We can watch Jay Leno before going to bed at night. C can recite the current specials at Red Lobster by heart. Which is his favorite restaurant by the way. "You can get a seafood platter for two for only $29.99. And they give you unlimited rolls! Cheddar & garlic rolls! It's the best thing ever! (Except for you)." Gee, thanks dear.

Because my mom lives in the middle of nowhere & has a fairly slow internet connection, the quality isn't perfect, but it's good enough for me. So thanks to everyone who gave me advice during the purchase/set-up of the slingbox. It's been well worth it, especially since we also added a DVR that lets us record shows and then watch them later.

In case anyone is wondering about the costs - we purchased the Slingbox Solo off of Amazon for about $150. In addition, we also bought two Slinglink Tubos for $70 (in order to allow my mom's internet to go through her electrical system). Those are the fixed costs - on top of that, my mom's cable plan will charge us about $15/mo for the DVR rental & service. So it's not cheap, but it's been really nice to not have to download TV shows and have them take up space on my laptop (or worry about viruses), plus it's also good for C's English.

And as promised above, here is everything that's wrong with America:

And then there is this.....there are just no words to describe this:

Methinks someone needs a little visit from Super Nanny.

2011-01-21T12:15:00.003+01:00

C went to our new dentist the other day (she's great btw, thanks to Sophie for the recommendation), and she suggested that he pick up a special toothpaste from the pharmacy. It has sort of a funny smell, and I had to laugh when I saw the back of the tube:

Apparently the taste must not be so great either if you need 15+ days to get used to it! It just strikes me as funny, and I laugh every time I see that tube lying on the counter.
--------------------------
Sent using BlackBerry

2011-01-18T23:00:00.004+01:00

This past Sunday, I popped by the American library to pick up some books for my upcoming work trip. There was an ambulance and a bunch of policemen out front, but I just figured it was for something else going on in the neighborhood - Until I got the following email today:

A message to Library patrons

On Sunday afternoon (January 16) a resident of the apartment building above the Library fell from an upper-story window onto the glass roof of the research center. She did not survive the fall.

Five Library patrons working in that space were shaken but thankfully unhurt. Holly Tisseyre of our staff and Sunday volunteers handled the disruption of pompiers and medical personnel with calm professionalism.

As a consequence of this tragic incident, the recently-renovated research center space will be closed for several days while the roof is provisionally repaired. The installation of new glass panels will occur in three or four weeks and will necessitate the closing of the research center once again for a few days. All of the staff of the Library and I appreciate your understanding.

In the meantime our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the deceased.

Charles Trueheart, Director

How sad is that? I had actually tried to go back into the research center and was surprised to see it all blocked off, especially since it has just reopened. Hopefully it was an accident. It's just yet another reminder as to how much goes on around us completely unnoticed.

It makes me think of the day I found out my father had died, and how I just wandered around in a haze, looking at all the people going about their lives, so oblivious to how much my life had just changed. Sometimes I wonder how many people in similar situations I pass every day. I guess it's a good reminder for me to be more patient with those who seem rushed or unnecessarily rude - you never know what they've got going on behind the scenes.

Happy happy Joy joy

2011-01-16T13:42:00.007+01:00

It's a Birthday Miracle! I am so, so excited - just as I was about to lose all hope, Air France called to say they'd found my bag and they'll be delivering it today. And on C's birthday to boot - now he will finally be able to open his Christmas & birthday presents. It's going to be cadeaux galore Chez Ksam tonight.

And it's almost like Christmas for me too - I packed that suitcase almost a month ago now, so I've forgotten half of what is in there. But I am waiting for my oh-so-soft new bedsheets...and my new silky-soft pajamas (thank you after-Christmas sales). And now I can use my chocolate cake mix to make C a yummy birthday cake. Not to mention that I'll be getting my brand-new fancypants suitcase back.

Thank you Universe. After a week filled with gray skies and cranky people, it's nice to have a bit of good news.

All the single ladies

2011-01-14T13:51:00.004+01:00

The other day, as I was running around my neighborhood desperately trying to find a place to fax the list of what was in my lost suitcase to Air France (side note - La Poste wanted 17€ to fax my document. That is scandalous I tell you. Scandalous!!), I came across a random little church squished between two buildings. The doors were open, and I figured a few minutes in a religious building couldn't hurt my suitcase quest, so I stepped on in.

The sign outside had said it was a Catholic church, but once inside, I wasn't so sure. The sanctuary was filled with all kinds of weird little statues - including this one, with a pile of papers overflowing at its feet:
I was curious as to what it could be so I moved closer and saw this sign:
Ahh...That explains the abundance of paper. If you're looking for a husband, you just need to go pin a note to the foot of this statue, and Saint Bonaventure will help you find a husband. (Single women, take note).

I took a peak at a few of the letters - most of them were actually kind of sad or desperate sounding:
Especially this one, who was asking Saint B to help her (estranged) husband see clearly and come back to the family fold, instead of continually trying to divorce her.
Here was another statue near the altar. (The more you "honor" me, the more I'll bless you). My dad was Catholic and that was always one of the things I really disliked about the Catholic church - this whole underlying idea that you need to "pay" in order to be in God's favor.

And then randomly, on the way out, there was this:A homage to Michael Jackson. WTF? What on Earth is that doing in a church?? I showed the pics to C once I got home and he said "That's not a church, that's a cult". I'm thinking he might be right.

2011-01-11T12:43:00.001+01:00

Today I want to share a little tip for those in the Paris area - if you're ever looking for batteries, phone, camera or computer chargers, don't hesitate to head on down to Pile Expert on rue Delambre near Montparnasse. It's a tiny little shop, but the owner is so friendly & helpful that you won't regret the trip.

We stopped by there this weekend and we had a bit of a wait, but the owner helped pass the time by joking with everyone in the store - from telling one customer that he was open from 10h pile to 18h pile or to telling another client with a wink that he hoped he and his wife would think of him when they used the batteries they'd just bought for his wife's new vibrator (the client was an over-sharer). His prices are also good too - for example, he changes watch batteries for 6€. The woman ahead of me couldn't believe it since last time BHV had charged her 26€!

The first time I'd gone in was, ironically enough, because my bags had been lost (thanks again Delta - btw, still waiting for my 2nd bag to be delivered!!) and I was looking for a charger for my computer since mine was in my suitcase. I knew it was going to be expensive, but I wasn't expecting it to be 90€. So when I explained the situation and that I couldn't really spend that much for a back-up charger, he thought about it and then said "How about if I rent it to you for 10€ a week?". And before I even had a chance to reply, he'd taken a pair of scissors and started cutting the package open. Now how often does that happen in France? So I wasn't really surprised this visit when he said he mostly works by word-of-mouth - and true to form, it was a friend who first told me about him. While we were in there, there were even a few people who'd said that FNAC employees had sent them his way since they didn't have what they needed in stock.

So I'm just trying to do my part to spread the word - it's not that often that you come across a store owner willing to go the extra mile here, and this guy definitely deserves a bit of free publicity.

2011-01-10T13:02:00.004+01:00

If you've got a minute, check out this great post by Vingt Paris on a new Parisian website called Super Marmite. It seems like it could be a great way to try new food and meet new people all at once!