Au revoir Paris

Sooo... I meant for there to be a final blog post before I left France. There were just too many things left to do and so little time to do it in.

I've been back in Canada for a week. And my time in Paris already feels so far away. I've been frequently asked if I miss it. I do, coming back to freezing temperatures and 5 days of falling snow certainly didn't help! I miss the bread, the butter, the views, the walking, the endless list of things to do and see (and eat and buy). But the truth is that there were a lot of things (and especially people!) I missed at home, so coming back has been really nice.

I wanted to thank you for following me along on my journey. It was an incredible almost-year. I look forward to seeing you all in person soon!

Jen

My dernière week in Paris

It's my last week in Paris.

I have but a few more days to go, see, do, walk, bike, eat and buy my way through Paris, making sure to revisit all my favourite spots (no, they aren't all shops), finish up working, and spend the last evenings (and subsidized restaurant vouchers) at all the restaurants I've become a regular patron at (I'll miss you Bar à soupes!)

The weather has been beautiful, so Tuesday a thousand Parisians and I went to the Jardin du Luxembourg to sit in the sun and read. I'm trying to get through Paris: The Biography of a City and I can't imagine a better place to try work through the 500+ pages...though I'm not sure that at at rate I'm going I'll still be on the continent before I finish.

So expect a last post or two before I say au revoir!

Belgium

I've just returned from a mother-daughter trip to Belgium. We spent a few lovely days with family and strolled around beautiful Bruges. Eating chocolates and waffles and fries.

View from the top

My mother has arrived for a visit and it's very nice having her here. We've been walking our way across Paris day after day, no doubt wearing our shoes out - good thing you can find nice new ones here!

We spent part of this afternoon atop the Arc de Triomphe. What's at the top? Nothing. Except the view, which was great.

BABY ELEPHANTS!!!

Because what's the point of having a blog if you can't devote a post to something this cute?

Now - this has got to be the poorest job filming ever - my bad. And I don't know how to edit film to make it shorter. But if you can make it (or ffwd) to 0:51 in the video, you'll hear a lot of cooing ladies and see a day old elephant calf.

The Big Five

Last week we returned from an amazing trip to South Africa to tour the country and visit my brother.

We spent two days in Johannesburg, the first at the Apartheid Museum and the second on a tour of the city including at stop at Constitution Hill.

We then left for a 5 day tour of Kruger National Park, one of the largest game reserves in Africa with Drifters tour company. The first two nights we spent camping (!) in Balule, a private game reserve adjacent to Kruger. Yes, we stayed in tents and there were huge bugs! Huge horrible bugs. I swaddled myself in a mosquito net at night and had my lovely fiancé conduct tent/sleeping bag inspections so I managed. Each day began with a 5:30 am wakeup call (yuck), although trying to sleep through the cacophony of animal noises at sunrise might have been a lost cause anyway. On our second day, we went on an early morning game walk, on which we saw a rhino, the first of the “Big 5” (originally coined to describe the five animals deemed the most difficult to hunt: rhinoceroses, elephants, buffalos, lions and leopards). It was pretty intimidating to be stared down by a rhino, thank goodness they have poor eyesight, because our guides carried no weapons and I am bad at tree climbing. We also managed to see several giraffes (including a young calf) and had an impala poo spitting competition. Yeah, you just read that.

That afternoon we went on a game drive and saw more giraffe, buffalo, wildebeest, zebra, jackals, kudu, impalas and a baby elephant! I desperately wanted to see a baby elephant. The night before we left on the tour we had a meeting with the guide. Towards the end, he asked if anyone had any special requests regarding animal sightings. It was dead quiet. N took one for the team and asked if we might see any babies – specifically elephant calves. Everyone saw right through it and I earned a reputation for being baby animal crazy. Which I'm not, but it meant that everyone on the tour had my back and were on the lookout for me.

The last few days of the tour were spent in Kruger looking for the rest of the Big 5. We were very lucky, it took a couple of days and a very good guide but we were able to see them all- a rarety! We also saw hippos, crocodile, monkeys, baboons, and a newborn elephant!

Our last four days were spent in beautiful Cape Town. How lucky A is to live there! It has a picturesque waterfront, incredible weather, beaches and very friendly and optimistic people. Also, good shopping and food. We learnt a lot about the country’s history on a fascinating trip to Robben Island, where Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years during Apartheid. A former political prisoner took us on the tour – a very powerful experience.

We made it back to France without incident, freezing, slightly tan and without any critters stowing away in our luggage.

La visite

We enjoyed a weeklong visit with N’s mother. We logged a lot of museum and sightseeing hours, and crossed many items off our to-do list, eating far too many baguettes and patisseries along the way. (My pauvre pantalons!)

of course the photo is crooked

A highlight was our Bateau Parisiens dinner cruise, who knew boat food would be so tasty? Another was the Opéra Garnier (or Palais Garnier), suggested to us by my parents. I normally don’t get excited by the word opera (unless it is preceded by The Phantom of the) but it was/is really lovely and the architecture both inside and out are exceptional. The building inspired Gaston Leroux’s book which was later adapted into the best musical ever (madebyhumans. Approximately one person will get that joke).

Aren't these pretty?

We capped our morning off with another recommendation – lunch at the Cafe de la Paix, where we enjoyed incredibly delicious Onion Soup (not preceded by French when you are in France) at a staggering $25 (Canadian) per bowl.

This week we managed to discover the joy (sometimes panic, but mostly joy) of biking around Paris. The weather is really nice and mild (sorry Canada). We’ve contemplated the mind boggling reality that winter might be over here – the worst of it anyway. (But how can it be? It’s only February!?)

We’re off to South Africa to see my brother, enjoy some sunshine and hopefully see some amazing wildlife. The blog won’t be updated for two weeks while we’re away (is blog silence the new radio silence?). Have a great few weeks.

La vie est plus belle à vélo - Vélib’

Cycling home from the Orangerie on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

La dame de fer

Louis Vuittonless in Paris

The Carnavalet Museum

We finally managed to go see the Louis Vuitton and Paris exhibit at the Carnavalet Museum on one of my days off this week. (I’m now working about 3-4 days a week and taking French classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. My Canadian accent is a big hit with my teacher.) Our visit turned out to be surprisingly educational, and my other half was far more engrossed than we both had assumed he would be.

This looks suspiciously like a children’s brochure…because, it is.

The exhibit was a retrospective of the brand and its evolution over the last 150 years or so. (The first knock-offs appeared in the 1860s!) It turns out that the popularity of the beautiful, amazing old trunks (and the brand obviously) was largely attributed to Europeans’ travels to the colonies. There were wardrobes, toiletry kits, tool sets, doctor’s bags, picnic sets and even trunks that contained fold out beds, desks and shelves. Trunks for dolls, baby teeth, jewelry, hats, the Red Cross… the list goes on. Turns out that photos were interdit (whoops – cough). But it was quite something to see. “Don’t you think one of these would be practical for our trip to South Africa?” I turned and said to N, who laughed, and then walked to the opposite end of the exhibit space. I guess that’s a no.

Sunday Yumday

Macaron towers on the Fabourg Saint Honore.

C’est parti

Our Parisian life is in full swing. We’ve spent hours wandering the streets of our neighbourhood and discovering all the little gems. The best of which has been Le bar à soupes, a little restaurant that cooks up 6 amazing soups each day. We had supper there on Monday. One of the specials is a 3 soup sampler, which was excellent because it was too hard to make up our minds. I had: Pea and mint, Mushroom, and Apple, Tomato and Ricotta (amazing). I know we are going to become regulars.

That’s a lamb shoulder from the bistro across the street. The potatoes were the best part. That’s not a slight against the lamb, the potatoes were just fantastic.

We’ve begun taking French classes at the Alliance Française, we found this butter, we survived the first day of the winter sales and I’ve been back to work subbing. We also running several times a week. Not only because the gyms here aren't great (they really aren't) but because of the alarmingly rapid rate at which was are consuming the butter. We made it to the Notre Dame on Saturday (7.5 km)!

We’ve spent all of our evenings doing homework (the teacher does not like becoming the student!) trying to organize our wedding (still totally happening) and finalizing our trip to South Africa next month! It's the good kind of busy!

Snapshots

We’ve settled into our new little apartment and neighbourhood. It’s been great! We’ve gotten to know the area, have found the best boulangerie to buy baguettes and enjoy the biweekly market. Everything we could possibly need (and more) is within about 5 min walking distance. (We’ve sold our car). We go running along the Seine, which is really pretty, but you miss a lot of the scenery when you are looking down so you don't run in dog poo. After a bit of a cold snap (and it was cold!) it’s been really pleasant and I’ve loved walking around and discovering all the neat places hidden in the streets around us.



I downloaded a new app on my phone that lets me take photos with different filters and decided to test it out while grocery shopping. And you all get to indulge me. Grocery shopping in France means going to at least 3 or 4 places, one for bread, another for cheese (and we eat beaucoup of both), one for fruits and veggies... I wanted to play with my new toy so I took a bunch of photos along the way. The photo at the top is the Bastille monument. Above are photos of our bakery and the busy café on our street (one of the busy cafés) and below are a few other snaps from a block or two away.