We Sell Your Stuff on Ebay

Remeber the "We Sell Your Stuff on Ebay" store from the The 40-Year-Old Virgin? This store actually exists in over here. They have 4 locations, in Paris alone! Shaking my head...

Another one of my favourite things...

I love this blog, especially looking at all of their amazing Parisian rental apartments that I like to pretend I'll live in some day. Oh, and they tell me where to shop. I've made a friend for life...

http://hipparis.com/

Normandy

N had a few days off so we decided to hop in the car on Wednesday night and drive to Normandy. We were quite surprised by the reaction a lot of people had to hearing this news (“It’s so far!”). A couple hours in the car are nothing to a Canadian.

We drove to Caen on Wednesday night. We hit the road around 7 then had to turn BACK because we forgot our passports. As it turns out we didn’t even need them. That being said, had we not brought them we would have been met with a shrug and a “ce n’est pas possible” (“it is not possible”) had we needed them to do something. That’s also pretty much the answer I’ve gotten every time I’ve tried to open a bank account here.

We arrived in Caen that night and the next day we went to the Caen Memorial Museum, which was quite interesting and really big (they sell 24 hours tickets so you can come back in the afternoon or the next day to finish seeing everything). We then drove to Juno beach and the Canadian museum there. We haven’t seen that many Canadians in one place anywhere outside of Canada!

That night, we drove to Ducey, a small town near the Mont St Michel. We went to visit the latter that night after sunset, it was really magnificent all lit up.

We returned the next day, don’t let the picture with the blue sky fool you, it poured rain. All in all, it was quite a nice trip, albeit a bit short.

Paris at sunset by bateau mouche

Yesterday we went on a bateau mouche ride down the Seine. Puttering down rivers on boat tours is one of my favourite things to do. Here are some of my favourite pictures.

Le pont des invalides

La conciergerie

Le pont neuf (look at all the faces)

This morning got off to a great start...Only in France would you see your mailman delivering mail while smoking a pipe.

I had a job interview in Paris yesterday. N dropped me off at a different train station than I usually take, and so obviously I missed my train while running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to find somewhere to buy a ticket and then a separate place to validate said ticket...le sigh (kudos to A for coming up with that one). La Canadienne can't catch a break.

Missing the train added to my sense of urgency and determined not to be late I spent a good portion of my morning running around Paris in high heels. Along with the after effects of the previous day's abs and thighs class at the gym, I wasn’t doing so well! I don’t know how the women here do it. Thankfully I had some flip flops to change into. I need to buy some loafers (to wear sockless, bien sûr).

When I finished up, I went to Le Bon Marché to check out their food hall, La Grande Epicerie Paris. It was awesome. It’s a good thing N wasn’t there...I spent a loooong time there and in the end bought myself a little lunch. Missing the train got the day off to a strange start. I spent all afternoon lost. I guess there are worse places to be lost (ie Mexico - which has happened) so it could have been worse.

I had my first birthday away from home. We celebrated with a tarte au chocolat, which I might start buying to celebrate more things, N doing well on assignments, dinners with friends, Tuesdays etc. It was very nice hearing from so many of you, thank you very much!

Giverny

N was quite busy this week, so we decided to postpone our visit to Normandy and went to Giverny, one of the final “Daytrips from Paris” listed in our guidebooks. Actually, the last one is EuroDisney...but.........meh.

First, we’ve finally wised up and started buying out tickets to attractions through FNAC. You can completely skip the line up for the very reasonal tradeoff of paying an extra Euro. We drove to Giverny (1.5 hours from Fonty, 40 min from Paris) to visit the home of Claude Monet. In my head, I was picturing it as quite quaint, based on the pictures I’ve seen. In reality, his home, the flower and the water gardens, were stunning (hyper-sympa). I like to take pictures as much as the next person, but while wandering through the gardens and hanging out on the bridge looking out at his famous lily pads, I was compelled to take almost 100. You almost feel like you are in some of his famous paintings. Although there were a lot of people there, it didn’t feel too crowded and we mostly managed to take pictures without other people’s heads in them.

The colour coordinated rows of flowers were magnificent, although, I didn’t touch them, because I think we’ve all learned that I am the kiss of death to flora. (Pleased to report, I have managed to keep all my herbs alive...not the basil of course, RIP. I cooked ahi tuna with my own rosemary on Friday!)

And look! Here’s The Last Supper sculpted out of sand! We happened upon it while wandering around the town before leaving. (I don’t think there was a dog there, I’m chalking that up to artistic liberty).

We headed into Paris to meet some Canadian friends for a delicious Mediterranean dinner. It’s great to see people from home..hint hint. We parted ways and while driving back, we noticed the Eiffel Tower all lit up. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it at night-time, so I suggested that N to dive up to Trocadero (which I had visited Wednesday morning) assuming we’d be treated to quite the view in a relatively quiet spot. You know who else had that same thought? Every tour company in Paris. There were about 25 busses parked in front of it, so when the lights on the tower started twinkling at 10pm, we missed most of it frantically trying to find a parking spot. We took a cue from Stuff French People Like, and parked in a totally inappropriate spot, ran out, took some photos and hopped back in the car. It was really magnificent.

Stuff Parisians Like

The French version of Stuff White People Like. Must learn in order to assimilate! (As it so happens, French people have been stopping us in Paris to ask for directions. Yess! Granted, I can't actually give them directions and these people are probably not Parisian - but don't take away my moment...)

http://www.o-chateau.com/stuff-parisians-like/

PS: The author is French and runs a Wine Tasting Company. When my buddy comes (in just about 3 weeks, woot woot) we'll hopefully attend a tasting.

Busy busy

Hi friends.

Long time no blog. The time is going by exceptionally quickly! N is fully back into the swing of things at school. I’ve kept surprisingly busy as well. Doing what? Well...

Ladies and gentlemen...I am pleased to announce that I can now drive a standard! Lessons got off to an awful start (not N’s fault at all, it probably had something to do with my less than enthusiastic attitude and my angry proclamations that we were never buying another standard every time I stalled the car) but living in the country has afforded us many opportunities to drive along dirt roads that rarely see much traffic. I’ve graduated to driving to school and have taken my first solo trips to the grocery store in the next town over. Hurray! I think N is pleased too, my grocery trips tend to take a loooong time. There's just so much to see! Our grocery store is one of the largest ones in France.

Speaking of driving, N and I went to Champagne last weekend (I drove there, but for pretty obvious reasons didn’t want to drive back!). We stopped in Epernay and toured the Moët & Chandon champagne house. It was actually quite interesting, both the process and the history of the house (we set the bar quite low after touring a Port factory in Portugal). We took the French tour and our guide was a beautiful and totally charming young French woman. I generally recommend skipping the English tour whenever possible; although we did end up with "that guy" who considered himself a Champagne connoisseur and asked a million questions. Our tour was the first to begin and we were passed by both the Japanese and the English. I digress, Napoleon and Moët were good friends and Napoleon would stop in Epernay whenever he was in the Champagne region to stay with his buddy. We got to see a cask of Port Napoleon gave him. Containing 1,200 litters of Port. Whammy. The Champagne tasting was a highlight as well!

I’ve been meeting people, running/exercising and am working as a private English tutor twice a week. I go in to school with N almost everyday and am keeping myself out of trouble (and by trouble, I mean spending money!). I love visiting the Fontainebleau market (Tues/Fri/Sun) and have been cooking up a storm.

I’m trying to go to Paris once a week “pour flâner” (to wander/stroll) and had a great day there today. I appointed myself "official couple photographer" and spent part of my morning taking pictures of couples doing the one arm self portrait by the Eiffel tower and in Trocadero. It was quite enjoyable and I’m usually on the other end, trying to find someone to take our photo... I’m just so happy and thankful to have the opportunity to call this home for the next few months. Even in the pouring rain (like today). I’m glad a bought a raincoat.

La vie est plus belle avec des bonbons

I have never in my life met a man more passionate about his job than Georges. He owns le bonbon au palais on Rue Monge in Paris. I was utterly enchanted upon entering. I went with two partners; we all bought a few things and did some sharing. I bought orange blossom and raspberry marshmallows. They were simply amazing. N agreed (I brought him one back, aren't I a nice fiancée?). He could tell you about the ingredients, the history and production of all of the candies, which he sources from the best artisanal companies in all of France.

We spent our afternoon wandering around the St-Germain and the Jardins du Luxembourg eating our treats. It was a lovely day.

(life is better with candy)

C'est la rentrée

It’s back to school (la rentrée) in France and at home. The first one in 20 some years that I am not going back in one capacity or another. It’s odd, but I’m getting used to it. (Sidenote: all these little well dressed French children running around in their new school duds are ADORABLE).

We’ve gotten quite a bit busier since last week. Sunday we went to Chartres to see the Cathedral. It was beautiful and the stained glass was quite impressive. It was a Sunday, and this being France, almost everything was closed. An exception being a creperie that Rick Steves recommended conveniently located (by coincidence, not by design) quite close to where we parked. We were so excited to go have a crepe after visiting the cathedral and climbing the belfry (see the Belgium post on mixing carbs and stairs – we decided it would be a better as a post-climb activity). The creperie closed at 2 as we found out when we walked in at 2:30. No crepes for us. I am eventually going to have to get used to the shop/resto hours and culture here...but it is driving me a bit nuts at the moment.

N started class this week and I got to meet some partners. I’ve found a woman who is going to help me polish up my French in exchange for me helping her with her English. We’ve decided to conduct our lessons while out and about. Today we went for a 3 hour long walk in the Fontainebleau forest. Thursday we take our lessons to Paris! Which also means I get a Starbucks visit!

I’m also keeping busy cooking and planning meals. We’ve planned a few meals with neighbours and classmates of N and I’m thrilled to get to buy all kinds of great produce to cook with. I don’t normally have the luxury of an hour plus to make dinner each night, so the two of us have been eating well. Exhibit A: dinner tonight.

The herb garden on my balcony is inspiring me to be all fancy "expat living in France" in the kitchen-esque, but as the Belgian plant-tending genes have skipped a generation, some of them have died before I even got the chance to use them. Like the basil plant I bought on Saturday survived 48 hours. Although, I maintain that that one was defective. I’m not a great gardener but that was a little extreme. (Sidenote 2: The day I bought the plant I emailed a good friend pledging the commitment I was going to make to keep the basil alive and that it would thrive under my care. Fail).