Day Five!

There are so many things I want to talk about, but have not had the time. I will though.
Last night was the first night I slept through. Actually all of us slept through the night. What a relief!
Things I have noticed.....
The whole stainless steel (or nalgene) bottle has not hit here. I wonder if everyone is thirsty all the time.
Women wear perfume. A lot.
Consumption of everything is just lower here than the states
Most women have an amazing sense of style (due to not shopping at malls)
Americans all look the same. Especially women my age. The whole "I bought my outfit at the mall" kinda look
My clogs are helping me look less American. Tres bien!
The metro here makes public transportation in the US seem inefficient and slow. Trains come every two minutes it seems
There are tourists EVERYWHERE. If I were french, I would be annoyed about this.
My favorite skincare line (Caudalie) is sold in the drug stores here. Sephora had me convinced it was the top of the line; although I still absolutely love it!
People do not eat dinner here until after 8pm. We have been the first people in the restaurants we have eaten at (tonight at 7:45)
Bringing a little "prize" for M. each night we eat dinner out has turned out to be a very good investment
No one is on their blackberrys or cell phones like the US. Love that! In fact I have seen almost no blackberrys. (take note dear husband!)
There is more dog poo on the sidewalks in SF than here.
Everything has perfume in it. I guess this is like the US too; but I am really excited to get back to my eco detergents. I miss my BioKleen!!
There seems to be no such thing as organic here. Bummer.
You would be very hard pressed living here if you had a dairy allergy (I do...but am eating it anyway) because the whole milk alternative thing is nonexistant here
Everyone really is thin here.

We went to the famous Gourmet Supermarket yesterday. It was pretty far out. I still did not find my silk soy creamer, but I did go a little crazy picking up knick knacks to bring back.
Oh, and I went to the pharmacy yesterday to get some Motrin, which does not exsist here. It is on a shelf that only the pharmacist can reach, and there is just one box that says "Ibuprofin" on it. And it was only one euro for the box! It was very awkward trying to get the pharmacist to understand the word "motrin" and "ibuprofin". He finally said "Pain killer" and I nodded yes.
M. fell in the shower when I was washing her hair, and I pulled a muscle in my back preventing us both from slipping and falling in the tub. So, yesterday I had a very hard time moving around. Today is much better.
We did go to the eifel tower yesterday. Holy long lines. 3 hours to get through them. We took a few minutes to look around, and noticed that there was a very short line to get a ticket to walk up the stairs to the first level. 20 minutes later we were climbing the stairs. I really love it when I feel like I beat the system somehow. Of course M. had to go to the bathroom and the eifel tower bathrooms are just beyond my level of comfort. In fact we talked about that while inside the bathroom stall. We talked about how much we love our friend Nikiya's bathroom, because hers are always so sparkly clean. That we wished at that moment we were at Nikiya's house because my daughter who seems to never care what state a bathroom stall is in (even an airplane bathroom) said "Mommy this must be really hard for you in here, because it is even hard for me". We had a good laugh about it. I have just gotten over the whole germ thing here because I either am miserable the whole time or I just make believe I have a plastic bubble around me. I chose the bubble, and have really let go. Except I am still using hand sanitizer and washing my hands whenever possible. I have not seen one single soul in this whole city use hand sanitizer. Not a one. Just us.
tomorrow morning I will put up some photos...I am missing everyone!

Photos!

Museum Pompidou


View from the top of museum


Almost there! A long wait in line to the exhibit


Writing notes to pass the time in line



A home store in the Marais. It was my kind of style. Photos down below of the store too.....



My fixation on animal heads!


Loved it!!!!!!!

middle of the night

Jet lag is kicking our butt. We go to sleep fine, but then wake up. Last night I was up from 2am to 5am. Then finally fell asleep until 10am. Tonight I just got out of bed to write a blog entry. It is 2am. Plus I have indigestion, so go figure. I will post pictures in the morning. M. has been taking some and I need to get them up. Mostly they are wildlife. Ducks, pigeons and skylines. Although she did get my dinner last night and I am interested to see if that came out.
Today we went to the Pompidou Museum of Modern Art. We did not leave our apt. until 2pm so got a late start. Went for the Calder exhibit, which ends today. It was his famous circus. Alexander Calder lived very close to my grandparents house in Connecticut for a period of time, and we have always had a connection to him. He was famous for his mobiles and modern sculptures. My father has told stories about being at their house and Calder putting on his famous circus for him and my aunt. There have been Calder pieces in our family given as family gifts, but most are gone now, sold at auction. This has been a bit sad for my sister and I, that they are gone. Nevertheless, it has been a highlight of the trip for me to go to the exhibit, and after waiting over 2 hours to get into the exhibit, it ended up worth the wait. M especially seemed to enjoy looking at his many wire sculptures guessing what they were.
Dinner tonight was at Cafe De Musee, a 15 minute walk from our apartment. A bistro that was quaint, and perfect. The waitor spoke english (hurray!) and I would say atleast half the diners seem to be english speakers. Gotta tell you, Americans stick out. Seriously stick out. I told my sister waiting in the Calder line how refeshing it is that the whole teenage boys looking like the Jonas Brothers trend has not hit here. And teenage girls don't all look like little clones here. Ok, back to dinner. We got the price fixe menu, and it was gazpacho, and duck confit with an eggplant ragout and cranberry beans. Dessert was pot de creme with a piece of cake. It was solid. I would go back. I give it a B+.
More in the morning! Oh, and today was my Anniversary! Missing my husband. Six years married (9 years together). Lots of good hard work, fun and love; along with a fabulous therapist. A wonderful, brillant, hard working partner I feel very thankful for. We have a special bottle of wine given to us when we got married we are going to drink when we get back home. That, and a big plate of vegetables. I am going to be carbohydrated out by the end of the week!

Paris Day Two

the green door is the entrance to our apt. building



playground at Luxembourg Gardens




old school carousel


catching the rings!



Luxembourg Gardens


riding the pedal bike






fresh saturday market one block from our apt. Everything was fresh!




M. people watching from our window



Our living room



The stairs in our building. M says they are full of ghosts...




Yesterday we went to the Luxembourg Gardens. It was like a magical Renaissance childrens playground. Everything was manicured and beautiful. I was surprised it was not overly crowded. The Parisians were jogging and people watching while sitting in the famous green chairs in the gardens. Tourists were walking around taking in the beauty. M. rode an ancient merry go round, rode a pedal powered car and played in the coolest kid playground. We took the Metro to get there. It was a bit hairy figuring it out, but once we were on, it got easy. Everyone here seems to be somewhat content with their job. Not like in the states where certain jobs have disdain. It must be because here no matter what kind of job you have you still can make a living and be taken care of with health care and medical. Wow what a concept! There was a young man in the Metro that was just there to help people figure out the system. He approached us while we were looking at the map, and showed us the right way to go. Can you imagine being approached my someone in the US? In Chicago? New York? For help? No way.
In my effort to find soy creamer (or soy milk even) we found a french version of a health food store. It was less health food store and more food boutique. Everything is in small quantities. There were super-tiny shelves at the bottom of a shelf dedicated to milk alternatives. I did see hazelnut milk and almost tried it. We tried in vain to get D her half and half for coffee, but I think is just not available here.
Last night was Ze Kitchen Gallerie for dinner. We got there at 7:30pm and were the very first in the restaurant. It was $150 Euros for dinner! Yikes! The website had a price fixe menu listed that turned out was not available when we got there. First course was the most amazing lobster ravioli in a lemongrass and coconut broth. Perfectly seasoned. Every bite was an expolsion of perfectly balanced flavors. My entree was seared duck breast and duck confit with a cherry sauce. I could not taste the cherries in the sauce however. The duck was over thinly sliced daikon with mini-mushrooms. Maybe crimini? The entree was good, but not off the charts. Although M. ate almost half of my duck dinner, trying to convince me it was not duck, but steak. My sister had shrimp tempura with grilled squid and daikon radish as well. We both thought it was very over priced for the food. I calculated it was almost $40 for just the lobster ravioli appetizer after converting from euros.
We talked about this during dinner. In the land of the US where the overall food quality is poor, this would be a standout dinner. Especially since so many US restaurants are about big portions and just really miss the mark for good or dare I say passable? food. For us, however having SF being our dining playground, it was just another fine dinner. The prices ended up being more than Gary Danko in SF, and I thought you get quite a bit more bang for you buck at Gary Danko. Bonus however; the waitor spoke perfect english and no one seemed to mind a bit that we had a five year old playing with her polly pockets while we ate. To note; both table on each side of us at Ze Kitchen Gallerie were speaking english. Seems that word has gotten out to the Americans that this is a destination.
Today:
Calder exihibit at Pompido Museum
Taking Batobus boat to Eifel Tower

Day One France

10 min. walk from our apt. Notre Dame



M. happily eating bread the waiter she charmed gave her


view from our apartment



a local park we found




Hopefully we will be back to normal today. We went to bed at 7pm last night after we just could not take it another minute. Neither my sister or me slept on the plane ride over and Mae got in just a couple of hours.
So, some thoughts so far.
We found that we both have some fears about speaking the small bit of french we know. I think it is stage fright. So I resorted to making M. talk for us a couple of times yesterday, which was hilarious. Yesterday afternoon we needed to eat, and we could not decide which creperie to eat at. They all seemed very crowded and very intimidating. No matter how we dress, we are a tourist and that reality along with our inept foreign language skills was affecting our confidence.
I took the lead, and walked into a creperie with the girls. I managed to get out a "bonjour" and "trois". We sat down and the waitor honed in on M. with a smile and she said "bonjour". My sister and I sighed a big sigh of relief when he instantly became friendly with us just by my five year old daughter smiling and saying hello to him. She had a basket of bread in front of her 60 seconds later. This anxiety will pass. My sister is currently choking on her coffee laughing at our insistence on having M. be our language leader here.
I started yesterday with flipflops, but after stepping in two puddles and calculating what funk my toes touched I insisted in heading back to the apartment to 1. wash my feet 2. wash my flip flops and 3. put on my trusty clogs.

Today we are going to:
1. Go to the local outdoor market to stock up on fruit
2. Go to Luxembourg Gardens so M. can sail the mini sailboats
3. Attempt to find Soy Creamer for me
4. Translate Half and Half for my sister so we can buy it at the store
5. Go eat at Ze Kitchen Gallerie for dinner.
6. Get on the Metro to get to dinner

We are here!

We made it! It is very surreal and I feel as though we have gone to a vacation heaven. Our flights were fine and my sister even got me upgraded to economy plus for the long haul. I got my computer hooked up right away. I am sitting her writing this feeling the cool breeze flow into our living room while hearing scooters and conversation from the street down below. The click clack of high heels on the sidewalk. The aroma from the cafe down below. Big thank you to the vacation Gods. Heaven already!

Packing part 2

I am packing the clogs. I told my sister if the plane goes down I think it is important to have closed-toed shoes.