Florence, visitors and a trip back to the US

Well to no surprise it’s been another few whirlwind weeks and of course I’m behind on writing all about them. After our great ski weekend in the French Alps, I headed to Florence for what has now become our traditional twice yearly girls shopping weekend. In the interest of not making it 100% about shopping (although I think we need to get back to more shopping) we headed to the Vespa museum. One of the girls in our group is a huge Vespa fan, owning one herself, so it was her idea. And I’m always up for checking out something new and different.

Saturday morning we hopped on a train and headed about 40 minutes outside of Florence to a small town with not much going on besides this Vespa museum. It was pretty interesting. It showed all different Vespas, old and new, and how they have changed throughout the times. We spent maybe an hour there, hit up the gift shop where Mirjam (our Vespa fan) almost bought out the store, had some lunch at a little restaurant we came across and then headed back to Florence. We didn’t end up back in Florence until closer to 4:00 or so, so our shopping time became very limited!!! But we did what we could and managed to find a few of those things that we just couldn’t live without. We hit up the market on Sunday for a little more shopping and before I knew it, I was saying goodbye to the girls and on a plane back to Paris.

Then just a few weeks later it was time for our next round of visitors. This time it was my cousin Gina and Aunt Karen. They were on their own European tour and we were lucky to have them stop in Paris for 4 nights in between their visits to Rome and London. We had a great time showing them our neighborhood, markets we love to go to, etc.

Then on Friday night we went to the Moulin Rouge show. Gina and Aunt Karen had it on their list of things to do and Nate and I decided to join them. Afterall, it’s such a well known place and I had never even walked by it or been in that neighborhood yet. So we grabbed some dinner and headed to the late show at 11pm. As for the show itself, in some ways it’s just what you’d expect and in some ways, it was actually more than I expected. I figured it would just be your normal cabaret type show....lots of topless women dancers in fancy outfits dancing for an hour and a half. And there certainly was this but they mixed it up with more acrobatic type performances, a ventriloquist and even a girl in a tank with a huge snake (this one was a bit odd). I thought it was entertaining and now we can say we’ve been. Do I ever need to go again? No, probably not. But all in all quite an experience.

Saturday morning we said goodbye to Gina and Aunt Karen and I headed to the airport to go back to the US and Gina and Aunt Karen headed to the train station to finish their European trip in London. We had a great time with them. So glad they came to visit! It’s always nice to see familiar faces and it’s fun to show people from home what our life is like over here.

So yes, then I’m off to the US for a week! I had a work conference in Las Vegas and since both my brother and sister live in the LA area, I decided to spend time both before and after the conference with them. And it just so happened to be Easter weekend as well which was a bonus. My parents came down to my sister’s and were at her house when I arrived into LA that Saturday. We had a great weekend celebrating the holiday. And before I knew it, I was headed to Las Vegas on Tuesday. I hadn’t been there in ages! I guess it was what you’d expect from a work trip to Vegas.....convention center, work people, drinking and more conference rooms. Although I didn’t manage to do any gambling. It was only two days so it went by quickly but I had a chance to see many of my old co-workers and friends from the US which was an added bonus.

Unfortunately Julie had to work on Easter Sunday

The conference ended and I headed to my brother’s house for 2 more nights where I got to hang out with him and his family. Lots of quality time which I haven’t had with them in a while so it was perfect! Saturday came before I knew it and I was back at LAX heading home to Paris. It was a whirlwind week but a super fun one and a nice break. Not to mention, I loved actually seeing the sun and having some warmer weather.

Spring, really, are you ever coming to Paris?????

A few more French weekends....

Ok, where were we?  Last check in we posted about snow and that was in January, now it's March and guess what - still snowing.  Had a solid 6 inches a few days ago and fun as that is, winter is really starting to get old. I'd post pictures of the snow, but you can pretty much go back to the previous post and get the idea.  It's now March 16 and bring on "printemps"!  I want some sun!

That said, while winter has gone on we have continued to get out and see more places in France and of course enjoyed the company of more visitors.  Beginning on le jour de la Saint Valentin my long time buddy from way back, none other than one Mr. Ronald G. Tycer and his wife Lindsay were next to pay us a visit here in Paris.  (I guess I should say that technically Louis and making her first guest appearance Keelin "Squeak" Marcoux were here a week earlier on their way to South Africa and did make the all night Super Bowl party with us, but I just don't want to relive that experience.  No offense Lewis!)

Our B&B

Arriving on St. Valentine's day meant just enough energy for a nice dinner before getting some much needed sleep, after all we had a big weekend planned starting on Friday morning.  The plan this time was to hit up another of the wine regions in France and go to Côtes du Rhône.  Taking the TGV train first thing in the morning got us to Vaison-la-Romaine by about lunch time.  This was a very quaint traditional French village with an old castle up on a hill and some ancient ruins in the middle of town.  Also being a French village there was a town square, a few boulangeries and a fabulous cheese shop.  Oh, some wine too of course.  Enjoyed a relaxing Friday evening before getting up to a nice breakfast at our B&B then getting picked up by the wine tour guide we had arranged.  

We started out at 10:00 on our tour for the day visiting 3 different AOC's of the region on a slightly chilly and windy, but very sunny day.  This was probably the first time we had seen sun since…….  Anyway.  During the day our guide took us to both vineyards and wineries to learn about both the "terroir" and wine making techniques that are utilized in the area.  One big surprise to me was that in Côtes du Rhône they use very little oak to age their wine, mostly stainless steel and concrete vats are used.  Also that the soil is incredibly rocky and in many places doesn't look like anything but weeds would grow which is much different than many other areas.  Olivier was very good at providing not only a good tasting experience, but also a good education which made for an excellent outing.  And we saw the sun.

In Vacqueyras next to the rocky soil

Enjoying our cheese and wine happy hour!

After the weekend we made our way back to Paris where the Tycer's spent a few more nights with us enjoying cheese, baguettes, more wine and a few added sites in Paris.  So glad that they were able to make the trip and experience a bit of Parisian life with us!

A few weeks after that came our next French adventure, this time to celebrate my birthday, would be a ski weekend in the French Alps town of Les Arcs, this time joined again by our friends Alex and Stacey.  Having been incredibly spoiled living in Zurich last year where the proximity to skiing was a short train ride away, in Paris the trip is much longer and does require a weekend, so this would be the one and only ski trip this year.  Needless to say we made the most of it.  Taking Friday off work and getting the morning train, we arrived in Les Arcs by mid afternoon and quickly found a great outdoor patio with a beer and great view of Mont Blanc.  Enjoying again some much needed sunshine we had a few beers, then found this great little wine bar in the middle of the village.  Finishing off our first night with dinner, we got a good night of rest before a full day of skiing on Saturday.

Mont Blanc just behind us

Saturday weather was amazing!  Bright blue ski, sun all day, cold but not too cold and good snow conditions.  If we are only getting two days, this was about as good as you could ask for.  European ski resorts are massive in size if we haven't mentioned before.  Over the two days of skiing we hit about 1/3 of the available area but never got bored.  European ski areas also cater to all levels of skill off of every lift so you can ski together all day without having to split up which is nice.  After a great day of skiing, we all took in a nice French dinner and a few drinks to celebrate my birthday then off to bed.  Sunday we got a few hours of skiing in then had to make our way back to Paris in the evening.

The girls take a litte rest on the slopes

Birthday boy is ready to go!

Two great weekend trips with great friends and some more great pictures.  Wish we could have had a whole week to ski like most French people do, but lesson learned for next time I guess!  Bon temps!

Winter Wonderland in Paris

I’ve been hoping and looking forward to some snow in Paris and I finally got it!!! About a week ago it snowed in Paris....a lot! Enough that the snow stuck to the ground to create a bit of a winter wonderland here. And we absolutely loved it!!!

From talking to my colleagues, it sounds like it’s super rare to see the type of snow we saw (which lasted 3 days and of course has since melted). It started on a Friday evening and by Sunday, the city had a nice blanket of white.

Nate and I took a little walk around our neighborhood and down to Notre Dame and the river just to be out in it and enjoy Paris covered in snow. It was really quite beautiful!! I’m thinking that was probably our only snow for this season, at least to this degree, but I'll take it!! Paris est magnifique dans la neige!!!

First visitors of 2013

Happy 2013!  We were home for what always feels like a quick trip and had an amazing Christmas with family while also seeing a few friends.  Then we headed back to Paris to bring in the new year here with our new friends.  We celebrated at Robin and Dave’s place with a few other people and had a great time ringing in 2013.

We had just a quick week before my sister and her family came to visit.  And when I say her family I mean her husband and 1.5 (Michelle) and 4 (Cecilia) year old daughters.  It would definitely mean a house full but we were both excited to have all of them here!  We figured that we tested the waters a bit back in November when Kristine and Aaron brought Ethan so we were a bit more prepared to now have two little ones in our home.  

The family arrived on a Thursday and looked very excited to be off of a plane.  Everyone was a bit tired and after lunch, they all took a nap.  Well except for Cecilia who was wide awake and kept me company while I worked from home.  

We kept it simple that evening with dinner from our favorite handmade noodle place just a block from our apartment.  The next day John was off to London to visit a friend for the night and Nate and I were off to work.  So Julie had the two girls for a day in Paris.  From what I heard, it didn’t take them long to find the carousel set up near Hotel de Ville, just a 10 minute walk from our house, and which turned out to be a popular activity to return to throughout their stay.  They did a little more exploring near the house and then it was happy hour time.  As you’ve heard us say before, Nate and I love happy hour at our house.  I mean, who doesn’t love some wine, cheese and baguette?  

We decided to venture out for the evening and found a little brasserie in the Marais for dinner.  It was perfect.  Michelle was sleeping the entire time and Cecilia was so good!  We only took a quick walk after dinner and then it was time to get the girls home so they could actually be mobile and warm.  That’s right, did I mention that Julie and family are from the LA area and that it was probably no warmer than 45 degrees (and only getting colder) while they were here?  They were not used to this cold weather, that’s for sure.

On Saturday Julie and I and the girls ventured to the Jardin des Plantes.  I had never been here before and had read that it was a cool park with lots to do.  This was also the first metro ride for both Michelle and Cecilia which they absolutely loved!  Michelle loves trains and says “choo choo” when she sees one.  It’s so adorable.  So we grabbed some sandwiches and went to the park where we found a little playground.  It became quite cold though and we were ready for an indoor activity.  This jardin also has a children’s natural history museum which was perfect at the time.  They have lots of real looking animals on display and we were able to kill a couple of hours here before heading home.

By this time John had returned and it was happy hour again at our house.  We went out that night to a favorite little bistro in our neighborhood for dinner and then Julie and I and the girls came home while the boys had their night out.  It happened to be during playoffs so they could catch the first game at a bar.  

Sunday we decided was the day to go to the Eiffel Tower.  John had never been to Paris before so we thought it would be good for him to check it out.  Unfortunately we of course pick the one day to go to the Eiffel Tower that 340,000 people had gathered around it in protest of gay marriage.  So our trip there was quick, we got our pictures, Cecilia had a carousel ride and we headed off to see the Arc de Triomphe and then back to Notre Dame for mass.  

Monday Nate was back to work and I had both that day and Tuesday off to explore Paris with the Tannaci’s.  This time we checked out the Jardin d’Acclimatation in the Bois de Boulogne park.  It’s like a mini little amusement park and was so charming!!!  And since it’s the middle of winter it kind of felt like a ghost town.  I think we were one of maybe 5 families there.  It was a bit strange but kind of nice too.  They have a section with carnival rides but it’s so much more than that.  They have a little zoo, playgrounds, house of mirrors and more that we didn’t even get to explore.  When we walked in we didn’t make it much further past the rides as Cecilia wanted to check out all of them.  And did I mention it’s cold here?  Since we were all starting to get numb fingers and toes we headed to an Angelina’s cafe they had in the jardin for some of the best hot chocolate I’ve ever tasted.  Seriously!  Like pure melted chocolate.  It was the perfect way to warm up.  Before we knew it, they were closing up and it was time to meet Nate out at a cute French restaurant in the 6th for dinner.  And then it was mine and Julie’s turn to have girls night out while the boys took the little ones home.  

We were already at the last day of their trip which was going by way too quickly.  It was a mellow one with a little bit of shopping and of course one more carousel ride for Cecilia.  I think this was probably the coldest day of their trip and therefore it was hard to be outside too much.

We thoroughly enjoyed their visit and the house feels quite empty and quiet.  Now we are enjoying some snow on the ground and some winter soldes (sales).  It’s definitely winter time in Paris!

Champagne Please!

As you may recall, I went to Champagne back in March with my friend Lee and had a fabulous time.  Ever since then I’ve wanted to take Nate back so he could see it as well.  And now that we’re in Paris and it’s only 45 minutes on the train from here to Champagne, we have a great opportunity to go.  So two Saturdays ago, Nate and I planned a day trip to Champagne.  We went back to Rachel, our informative tour guide who now feels more like a friend.  She took us back to Wafflart-Briet where Nate learned all the details around making champagne while of course drinking their delicious champagne.  We got a little tour around the champagne house, which sits in a cute little village of no more than 400 people called Sacy.  After a nice light lunch there and purchasing a case of their champagne (would have purchased more too but a case was probably the most reasonable to take back on the train with us) we were off to Casanove.  

Casanove is a slightly larger champagne house where you’re able to take a tour and see their production area.  This was also interesting as of course it’s on a much larger scale than Wafflart-Briet.  After our tour and of course tasting there, we were off to Pommery to see a well known large champagne house.  After arriving there and stepping inside, you could definitely feel that it was basically all about marketing.  The tour takes you down into the caves, which is kind of cool but you don’t see anything that has to do with how they actually produce their champagne.  Of course at the end of the tour you get what starts to feel like your reward in the form of a glass of champagne.  

To be honest I actually liked the small champagne house much better than the larger ones like Pommery.  But I felt like we had to go check it out just to see what it’s all about.  I must say though, they did have a lovely champagne bubble Christmas tree outside which was quite fun!

A lesson in History

This post is a few weeks overdue, my bad people but it's a free blog so you'll just have to wait.  Now finally getting around to it, wanted to share one of our recent weekend adventures to Normandy.  As an American who has always had interest in World War II history and having been to a number of different sites and museums in Europe, I thought it important to visit the D-Day beaches and see this location in history.

As per usual, we of course planned our trip with Stacey and Alex who joined us for the weekend in Normandy.  The train trip from Paris to the town of Bayeux was about 2 hours or so getting us in to Bayeux around 8:00 that night.  Stacey and Alex didn't arrive until much later so Cleaver and I had a nice dinner at this little bistro near our hotel and pretty much called it a night.  After all it was a long week of work and we had a fairly early start in the morning.

Any morning at a French B&B will begin with a nice spread of croissants, coffee, and other pastries and our place in Bayeux did not disappoint.  After the 4 of us had a nice French breakfast, the tour guide we hired for the day picked us up and off we go.  We had hired a tour guide for the full day tour which was definitely the way to go.  On the itinerary, Sainte-mère-église, Utah beach, Omaha beach, Pointe du Hoc, the American cemetery and he also took us to this little church that had a part in D-Day as well as it had been set up as a makeshift first aid post.  While taking us to these various sites our guide offered lots of history, stories, and explanations about the invasion, all of it quite interesting.

With so much information and so much that we saw that day, it's difficult to share everything but I'll mention a few highlights.  First the beaches, both Utah and Omaha.  Having read so much over the years, seeing movies, and then finally standing there on the beach looking at the cliffs and the water, hard to imagine what actually occurred there.  Very surreal to stand there and consider how many people died and the significance of the event on so many levels.  Looking at for example Pointe du Hoc and seeing all of the holes in the ground caused by pre invasion bombing, seeing the German bunkers and fortification, and imagining what it must have been like for the soldiers there, all made for a fascinating experience to be standing in that same location.

Pointe du Hoc

Also of interest was Sainte-mère-église where many of the paratroopers that were first on the ground landed and as we found out then made famous by the book and movie "The Longest Day".  Most famously the square and church which had a few paratroopers get their parachute caught on the roof and today they memorialize this with a "dummy" stuck on the side of the church.

Last stop of the day was the American cemetery with 9,387 graves and a memorial at one end of the site.  Similar to the rest of the day, very interesting and very surreal to walk these grounds, a very worthwhile experience and highly recommended to be sure.  Not just the cemetery, but the entire day.

American Cemetery

A few other notes from the weekend, the town of Bayeux is a very cute small French town.  We had a wonderful dinner on Saturday night and on Sunday spent some time walking around.  Like most towns in Europe there is a giant church which was quite impressive and we also discovered they have a museum with a 70 meter long tapestry made in 1070 to tell the the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England which was kind of neat.

After walking around the town for a bit, we started to make our way back to the train station and back to Paris after a very interesting weekend of history.

Thanksgiving in Paris

With Jacalyn & Rio and Robin & Dave

Since we moved to Paris we’ve made friends with a few other American couples.  So this year for Thanksgiving we decided we should do a proper dinner and all get together to celebrate the holiday.  Our proper dinner would be on the Saturday after Thanksgiving though since well, we still have to work on Thursday and Friday here.  We decided that we would do dinner at our house and then move to Robin and Dave’s house for dessert.  We’re about 15-20 minutes from each other and we figured that a walk in between dinner and dessert would be good.  And our neighbors seem to be quite sensitive to noise coming from our place (we’ve had 2 knocks on the door since we’ve moved in...yikes!) so we figured it would be good to not keep the party at our house late into the night.  

We got our turkey from the Thanksgiving Store.  Yes, there is a store called the Thanksgiving Store here in Paris.  It’s tiny but it’s made for expats just like us that miss certain things from home, like cheddar cheese, ranch dressing, etc.  It’s good to know it exists for those emergency cravings.  

Anyways, we had Robin and Dave and Jacalyn and Rio, our American friends, and Haakon and Emily, Nate’s friend from work and his wife, over to our house for dinner.  Emily is French and Haakon is Norwegian so we introduced them to this awesome American holiday.  Everyone pitched in bringing a dish and we had a delicious meal!!!  It truly felt like the actual Thanksgiving holiday, just here in Paris, stuffed bellies and all.

We have so much to be thankful for, it would be hard to name it all.  But we are especially thankful to have found such great friends here in Paris.  

And now it’s already December and Christmas is just around the corner!  We are heading home for a traditional Christmas.....I can’t wait!  It will be nice to spend our time with family and see some friends.  It’ll be a quick trip (as they always seem to be) since we are heading back to bring in the new year here in Paris.  Again, just so much to be thankful for!!!