A Visit from the Parents and a Trip Down to Avignon

After all of the different visitors we’ve had here in Paris, it was finally my parents turn to come visit us. We actually welcomed both my parents and my Aunt Bobbie and Uncle Andy here around the first week of June.  They had just come off a 3 week cruise and were making a stop to visit us in Paris.  My aunt and uncle were only in Paris for a few nights while my parents had planned a longer stay.  

We enjoyed a few nights in Paris with all of them....taking them to some of our favorite markets so we could eat at home one night as well as taking them to a favorite Italian place of ours in our neighborhood...changing it up with some pizza for dinner. 

Before we knew it though, it was time for Aunt Bobbie and Uncle Andy to leave and we were supposed to be on our way to Portugal.  Unfortunately though, Portugal just wasn’t meant to be for us.  There was an air traffic controller’s strike in both France and Portugal among a few other countries which of course started the Wednesday we were supposed to leave.  We could have re-scheduled our flight for Friday morning which is when the strike was scheduled to end but the airline still couldn’t guarantee that our flight would leave as scheduled.  So instead of taking the risk and having to deal with all of the chaos that would no doubt exist at the airport, we cancelled our Portugal trip all together and decided to take a train on Friday morning to the South of France and visit Avignon.  

By the way, a little sidenote and fun fact about France.  A co-worker was telling me that apparently the unions have a certain number of strike days they are allowed to take each year and it all resets on July 1.  Therefore there are always a larger number of strikes during the month of June as they use up their unused strike days.  Gotta love France!

Exploring Avignon

Breakfast in the garden of our B&B

Pont d'Avignon

Avignon ended up working out perfectly.  We stayed in a wonderful little B&B right outside of the old city center which provided a great garden to enjoy delicious breakfasts in the morning and a little happy hour wine and cheese in the evening.  We explored Avignon while enjoying some sunny and hot weather (a very nice change from our weather in Paris).  One of the sights to see in Avignon is the Pont d’Avignon, which is the Avignon bridge.  A friend from work introduced me to what is essentially a French nursery rhyme that’s all about this bridge.  Apparently all French kids know this song by heart.  (Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8eLsHDaBY8)  It’s a catchy tune and don’t think I wasn’t singing it throughout our weekend there.  Well at least just the chorus....the other parts were harder for me to remember.  

Anyways, we saw the bridge, the Palais des Papes (the palace where the Popes lived and a UNESCO heritage site), the main cathedral in town as well as the garden nearby with a great view of the Cotes du Rhone valley.  It was a full day but we got a good feel for Avignon and saw the main sights.

Therefore on Sunday we took a day trip to the coast to a popular little town called Cassis.  After finally getting there with a bit of a detour and some parking issues, we had a nice lunch by the water and enjoyed a boat ride to visit the Calanques des Cassis (or little fingers of water in the coastline).  It was a perfect little day trip and the boat ride was a highlight for sure.  It was nice being out on the water and made me crave a beach vacation.  Greece, I’m talking about you in September!!!  As an extra bonus, I got to enjoy Father’s Day with my Dad....something we haven’t been able to do for a number of years now.  Very special!  

Happy Father's Day Dad!

We said au revoir to Avignon on Monday and Nate and I were back to work the next day while my parents leisurely explored Paris.  Nate and I both had quick overnight work trips that week....me to Madrid, him to Zurich, and came back in time to enjoy the weekend with my parents.  My parents also squeezed in a visit to the Google Paris office for breakfast that Friday morning.  They have visited me at Google Mountain View, San Francisco, Zurich and now it only seemed fitting that they made sure to come see the Paris office as well!

The weekend was a mellow end to their vacation of 5 weeks.  We enjoyed a few more great dinners, my mom and I made it out for some shopping and before we knew it, we were saying goodbye Monday morning.  It was sad to see them go but happy to know it’s only a few weeks now before we get to see them again, this time back in the US!

Uh, Uhhhhhhhhhh. Uh, uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

One observation about the French I have made is that outside of the occasional soccer riot and maybe Tony Parker, they really don’t care too much for "les sports." You don’t see a game on in many places and you don’t hear much talk about sports day to day in the office. Just not a big thing overall. That said, they do have two world class / famous events that take place each year, one of which we saw last year which was the Tour de France, and the other we got to experience recently which is the French Open.

Having seen on Sportscenter for years the famous red clay of Roland Garros, it seemed like a very Paris thing to do and oh by the way, also a good reason to take an afternoon off work during the week. Cleaver had the opportunity to get tickets through work for the Quarterfinal round so, porquoi pas?

Roland Garros is located on the the outer edge of Paris proper, easily reached by a Metro line from our house. There are two main stadiums and a handful of other smaller tennis courts in what I can best describe as a park among a neighborhood. The way the tickets work, they are bought way in advance so you don’t know what matches you will see, you just have tickets to one of the courts on a given day and you see who ever is playing that day at that court.

Serena on the right about to Serve

Lucky for us the first match for our tickets was Serena Williams who eventually won the tournament against Svetlana Kuznetsova who had won the tournament herself a few years back. The second match was two Spanish guys not named Rafael Nadal, so I was not familiar with them.

The Williams' match went all 3 sets, was really back and forth and quite exciting before Serena finally pulled away and won the third set. After that ended we walked around the grounds a bit before returning to our seats for the men’s match. We didn’t stay for the entire men’s match as we had been there several hours by this time and it was getting later in the day. It was also a very rare "sunny" day so a bit of the sun kiss started to set in, so having thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon of tennis we called it a day and made our way back home. Box checked on the second famous French sporting event we have now been able to attend.

More Familiar Faces

A couple of weekends ago, our friend Carissa and her sister Lara stopped in Paris for the last four nights of their European vacation.  Up until then they had been traveling all around Italy and lucky for us decided to add Paris in there to see us.  I’ve said it before but it really is good to see friends and family from home and to be able to share our life over here.  Nate and I still had to work on Friday so Carissa and Lara were off to explore Paris during the day.  That night we all went to dinner with Robin and Dave at this really fun restaurant that Carissa found in the 7th.  Carissa was actually Miss Matchmaker and the one that introduced us to Robin and Dave when we both moved to Paris last July.  Thanks again for that Carissa as Robin and Dave have become good friends of ours!  We had a fun and late dinner with lots of laughs.  

The next day Carissa and Lara were out to meet up with a second cousin of theirs that they had never met before.  We didn’t reconvene until later that evening where we enjoyed a bit of happy hour at home and then headed out to dinner at Spring, another one of Carissa’s recommendations.  Carissa works in PR for restaurants in SF so has all sorts of connections and insider tips when it comes to restaurants.  And Spring definitely did not disappoint.  It was a tasting menu with lots of fresh and creative foods for each course.  All around delicious and a memorable dinner.  Apparently the chef is American but trained in France as he enjoyed working here much more than his home of Chicago.  

It was late as we left but not too late where we couldn’t stop by this great little pub near our house for one last drink before calling it a night.

We decided that for Sunday evening we would actually take it easy and make dinner at home.  So that morning we were off to the markets to find something tasty to make.  I headed to our favorite boulangerie for baguettes and dessert while the others went over to Montorgueil for the rest.  They came back with a couple of chickens (apparently fresh enough, although still dead, to where they saw the lady cut the head off), veggies, cheese, wine and fruit.  

Carissa and Lara still wanted to check out Sacre Coeur and since that’s been on my list for a while and it was for once a beautiful sunny day in Paris, I headed over there with them.  We walked around Montmartre for a bit (this is now the second time I’ve been to this neighborhood and I really do love it….it’s charming with all of the little restaurants and boutiques), grabbed a bite to eat and then headed up to the church.  It was beautiful and the view from there is just amazing!  Being that it was such a nice day, it was also super crowded.  But we got to see it, walk around inside and take in the view.  Just lovely!

We soon headed home and enjoyed a relaxing evening with a home cooked meal.  A perfect way to end the weekend. Carissa and Lara were then off and headed back to SF the next afternoon.  À bientôt!  And thanks for visiting!  

21 Dutch Kilometers

The Dutch city of Leiden 

Hi!  I'm back, seems like it has been a while and thought it a good time to share one of our latest weekend trips.  This time to a small town in the Netherlands called Leiden which sits roughly 30 minutes south of Amsterdam.  Seems like a bit odd, out of the way location but that was kind of the point.  Also a place that I had read about a few years ago as a town that had a great marathon and seeing as how I was in need of a half-marathon to run, seemed like a great idea.  Turns out that it was!

It was a fairly short 2 and a half hour train ride from Paris on Friday evening to get us to Leiden.  We had been able to find an actual apartment to rent as opposed to a hotel which is a bit of a crap shoot since you don't always know what you are going to get, but in this case we could not have had a better place to stay.  Leiden itself was an extremely cute little Dutch town with canals and brick buildings, think Amsterdam but smaller and without the circus / party parts of town.  Our apartment was about a 5 minute walk from the main part of town which was also the location of the start / finish of the race and was very convenient.

Our bounty from the market

After a quiet Friday night and with the race on Sunday morning, Saturday morning we decided to head into town and found a great open air market along the main canal with all various stands be it fruits, vegetables, fish, cheese, and an extraordinary stand with mediterranean olives and dipping type sauces.  This one in particular was quite a treat.  

Picking up my packet in front of the church

Knowing that we would have a quiet evening in our apartment that night (the race was Sunday morning after all) we loaded up with snacks to take home in preparation of movie night.  Another stop that day of course was the race packet pick up.  Having done a number of races over the years the pick up is usually in a open air, tent type area but not here.  In this case being a European town the packet pick up was in of course the old church at the center of town, which made for a unique race experience.  Packet in hand, snacks at  home, we made our way to the apartment to get some rest and get ready for the big day.

Sunday morning weather wise looked rough, it had rained all night but had passed by 8 am fortunately.  Mostly cold and windy but not rainy which was good.  Start of the race again was about 5 minutes from our apartment.  The race course was a great, mostly flat layout winding through small neighborhoods, wide open fields with lots of cows, and lined in many spots with spectators and bands.  It was a really great route that eventually came back into the town of Leiden along the canals and bridges back to the center.  Having accomplished my first goal of simply finishing, I was also pleased to have a time of 1 hour 40 minutes as a new PR, though to be fair, on a flat course.  Upon arriving in the finishing chute you receive the usual water, then a fruit and banana station, then being very Dutch the last station was of course a nice pour of Amstel.

Celebration!

Having finished the race we celebrated with a few local Belgian beers we had found at this little beer store on Saturday before finding a little watering hole with a bunch of pool tables and dart boards which was a perfect end to the day.  I can't say enough good things about the weekend we had, wish the weather had been bit nicer but hey, you can't have it all.  I'll definitely look forward to running this event again in the future!

Sunset in Leiden

Gotta love working in Paris in May - Part 2

Alright so to pick up where I left off, Nate and I were headed to Venice early on a Wednesday morning.  If you recall, this was the start of our five day holiday weekend from work.  Yes, life is rough here.  We had talked before about wanting to check out Venice and when Catherine had said they would be there that Wednesday night, well we figured it would be perfect.  We arrived at the airport and then took a water shuttle over to Venice.  Since Venice is an island and no cars are on it, water shuttles, water taxis and water buses are their forms of transportation.  It was cool coming in by boat and seeing Venice from the water.  Once we arrived it was then like a scavenger hunt trying to find our hotel.  No joke the directions from the hotel website went something like this.  “From station, cross main bridge, go right and follow the canal.  Once you hit the foot of the bridge, cross that and go right.  Go past one bridge and then turn right at the next corner.”  It definitely felt like a game.  But we navigated our way and found the hotel.  We dropped off our stuff and proceeded to explore the maze that is Venice.  And boy is it a charming city!  We had a nice lunch near one of the smaller canals and thoroughly enjoyed a relaxing afternoon.  I think just wandering around and getting lost is one of the best ways to explore the city.  

That evening we met up with Catherine, Lisa and Aunt Cynthia to attend a symphony at the Teatro Malibran.  We met up for a drink beforehand and then headed in to watch the performance.  I don’t know that I’d ever been to a symphony performance before but I quite enjoyed it.  Although we did only stay for the first half as part of the group was tired and falling asleep....I’m not naming any names here.  But that was fine as we had reservations for dinner and it probably worked out better to leave a bit earlier anyways.  We finished the evening with a delicious Italian meal (seriously, I love Italy just for the food alone) and bid adieu to the girls who were off the next morning to Rome.

Nate and I still had two more nights left to enjoy Venice.  We actually took the water bus to the island of Lido the next morning to go for a run and explore the island.  It was great for running and is basically like a little beach resort town.  A much different feel from Venice.  We explored the main strip, had lunch, got our gelato (a must do every day of our trip) and then headed back.

The following day we did a 2 hour guided walking tour which gave us some of the history of Venice, showed us the piazza where Marco Polo was born, walked us by the Rialto Bridge and ended us at St. Mark’s Square and Basilica.  As I mentioned before, Venice is a maze of a city with narrow alleyways but St. Mark’s Square is the largest open area in Venice and quite a sight!  The Basilica was pretty amazing as well.  Our tour guide even showed us these platforms stacked up near the entrance and explained that these are put out when it floods so that people can walk into the church.  You can definitely see how pillars are leaning and things aren’t quite straight due to this city basically just sitting on the water.  Overall though a well worth it tour and perfect at just 2 hours.

Since we finished up around 11am we decided to take the water bus out to the island of Burano.  There is Murano, which is famous for its glass and then Burano, which is famous for its lace.  I had asked our tour guide which one she recommended and she highly suggested Burano.  So Burano it was!  It’s much smaller than Murano but very cute.  The one thing that stood out is how each of the houses are painted a different, bright color.  It was really cool to see.  It almost gave it a Disneyland feel.  We had lunch there and walked around a bit....there’s not much more to see beyond the little part of the town with all of the restaurants and shops.

We then headed back over to Venice where we enjoyed our final night in town.  We found this amazing little restaurant not far from our hotel (which by the way was in the Dorsoduro neighborhood....an area I would highly recommend staying in as it’s a bit quieter and a little off the beaten path of all of the tourists).  Anyways, we enjoyed a delicious final Italian meal and before we knew it were off on a morning flight out of Venice on Saturday.  

Overall I would say the trip to Venice is well worth it and since rumor has it that it’s sinking, it may not be around forever!  I’m glad we got to see and explore it but look forward to visiting some of the many other Italian cities.

We were back in Paris by Saturday afternoon and a few hours later greeted Catherine, Aunt Cynthia and Lisa as well.  They had two more nights left in their trip before heading back home again.  It was a mellow couple of days though as everyone was tired.  But we had a great time hearing all about their adventures over the last week before having to say goodbye for good.  Until next time!!!  

Gotta love working in Paris in May - Part 1

You may ask, "Why is it so great to work in Paris during the month of May?".  Well, it’s because May has a ton of bank holidays which means you don’t actually have to work all that much and that leaves more time for playing!  Honestly, in May many French people take another 1 or 2 week vacation just to take advantage of all of the holidays.  If we had been better prepared for this, we absolutely would have done the same too.  It all started with a holiday May 1.  That was then followed a week later by a 5 day weekend (yes, you read that right) which was then followed by a 3 day weekend.  You can see how you could easily have a 1-2 week vacation without really taking that many vacation days.  Love it!

Let me back up here for a second though.  The beginning of May also greeted us with our next set of visitors.  This time it was my cousins Catherine and Lisa and my Aunt Cynthia.  They were on a 2 week European vacation which both started and ended in Paris.  They arrived on a Thursday afternoon and were ready to start exploring.  I think the theme of their trip was that they didn’t come here to rest.  That following day I took the day off of work and us ladies headed into Champagne to see who I now call my friend Rachel.  She’s the one I’ve now seen 3 times and just absolutely love!

Getting croissants before our Champagne day

She picked us up from the train station and we headed to the small champagne house Wafflart-Briet located in this cute little village called Sacy.  If you recall from previous posts, this champagne house is owned by her boyfriend’s family.  In any case, she gave everyone the complete overview of how champagne is made, while giving us a tour of their facility as well.  She prepared a quite delightful lunch of cheese (of course), bread, tomato tarte and a local specialty (I can’t remember the name but it’s basically this pork mixture inside a pastry).  All very delicious!!!  Oh and of course there was champagne tasting!!!  I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed the day!  We ended our time with Rachel around early afternoon which left us a couple of hours to explore the city of Reims.

Saturday was filled with seeing many of the main sights of Paris (Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees, etc.) which we gladly let them go off and do.  We met up in the afternoon for some shopping in the 6th and finished with dinner at a quaint little French bistro.  And then Sunday they were off to their next destination and Nate and I were headed back to work.  Oh but don’t worry, it was only a 2 day work week for us before we started our 5 day weekend.  Man I love May here!

Ok, part 2 to come in a bit.  Venice and back to Paris with the girls!

Finally a visit to the Palais Garnier

One of the things I’ve been wanting to check out since we moved here is the opera house (or as it is officially called, Palais Garnier).  I’ve seen it multiple times from the outside and it’s quite the grand building.  In talking with people at work, they absolutely recommended going inside to check it out as well.  However, instead of just buying a ticket to tour the building, they suggested actually going to see a performance.  So I kept an eye on what was playing there and came across Hansel & Gretel.  I figured that since it wouldn’t be in English that at least knowing the story might make it easier to follow.  I got tickets and we went last night.  My co-workers were right.....the opera house is indeed amazing.  Wow, just so beautiful inside.  

In the entry hall

Ceiling in the theater

View from our seats

The performance was good however eventhough we knew the story, it was still hard to follow at certain points.  The performance was done in German and they showed French subtitles.  I was somewhat surprised at how much following the French subtitles actually helped me in following what was going on.  I guess those French lessons are doing something afterall!

So all in all a great evening and well worth the visit!  I highly recommend for anyone coming to Paris.