New Years Eve

With Kara and her family in Italy, I'm on my own for New Years this year. So I decided to start the day by going to an area of Paris I'd not yet explored: The Marais

I started out at the Bastille, which is where the French Revolution kickstarted. There's not anything left of the original building anymore, just a monument to it, but it was still pretty cool.  Walking along Rue de St Antoine (whom I was named after) there's the Paris apartment that Jim Morrison passed away at, and then Place des Vosges which is a really pretty square that Henry IV built. A few blocks away was the Carnavalet Museum which I didn't get to explore too much since it closed early for New Years, but explores the history of Paris.

I then walked by the mayor's office (Hôtel de ville) and then Pont Neuf (New Bridge, interestingly named since it's the oldest bridge in Paris) before stopping for dinner at a cafe around Odeon. I surprised myself by understanding when the old lady next to me wanted to borrow my salt and pepper, and the food was pretty darn good (except dessert, which was basically this yogurt dish, which is not what I was expecting). 

I went back out later to St Michel to check out the crowds and get a pepperoni crepe (hadn't ever seen that around before). It was quite a bit more crowded than a normal night, but apprently most of the crowds are along the Champs-Élysées. I didn't want to have to deal with the crazy metro stops to get there. But I enjoyed the walking around and watched some French TV at midnight to see how they cover New Years with their variety shows. 

Amazingly there are no fireworks for New Years in Paris, otherwise I would have gone to do that. It surprisingly is legal to shoot them off inside the city which some people do, but I have no idea where they buy the fireworks since I haven't seen any stands. 

Another surprising thing is that the metro is free on New Years Eve from 5pm onwards, and runs all night (to most stops). It's a nice way to combat drunk driving, so kudos to Paris for that.

Frogburger

I've got the next 9 days in Paris by myself as Kara is off to Italy with her Mom and sister. I'll be working during the week, but will try to hit all the things I've been meaning to try out but haven't yet. I knew this experience would go by fast, and so while I'm not surprised it's flown by, I am still sad that it's almost half over already!

So as part of adventure mode, I went and ate dinner at a burger place we've passed by a few times. I will say they have pretty good "American style" burgers, particularly compared to what's attempted to pass off as a burger in most French cafes. I also chatted with one of the workers who is Canadian and speaks about as much French as I do (aka hardly nothing at all), which was surprising since I would expect you'd have to know something to get by in the service industry here. On the other hand, it is a burger chain with the slogan "Genuinely Good Burgers" (and yes, that's right, $15 for a hamburger alone... welcome to Paris!) written in English on their windows, and most of the people there spoke English, so I suppose an English-only employee would work in that situation. She was in Paris on a year long temporary work visa after she graduated college. I do have to say I envy her a bit as once you start working, you don't get the opportunity for those kinds of adventures (unless you switch jobs) and while I had 2 months between graduation and starting at Freescale, I wish I'd had more. I always felt really bad for my classmates who started working the week after graduation.

Browsing Youtube today, there was an ad for Google's annual year-in-review, but in French. This made me curious, so I looked up the US/English version which is mostly the same, but somewhat different in various aspects which was interesting. More soccer and tennis, highlights of French deaths, and some highlights I have no idea why they're important in France. Gay marriage was big in both countries though (yay for love!) and space is a universal fascination. I'm always fascinated by things like this.

Postcards

After sending my in-laws to the Louvre and other museums, we slept in a bit and when I went to go get some more Christmas postcards from the Panthéon. I figured the most direct way to get to the gift shop without repaying an entrance fee was to just go up to the exit doors. After prying it open (as there's no handle on the outside) the workers in the gift shop either didn't care or didn't notice that I was coming in from the "out" door. But I was able to enter, grab some more cards, pay, and get out, with apparently no one the wiser.

I then got some Beaujolais wine so Kara could finish the last glass of the bottle and have good luck the rest of the year. Oddly it was actually hard to find considering it was all over the place at the end of November, but there were some older vintages still available. Hopefully it works! 

The evening wasn't too interesting other than getting to try some of the desserts from Agelina that my mother in law brought back (as they had already sold out when we went there a few days ago), which were quite tasty. I also worked up an itinerary for my parents who are coming in a few weeks. There's so much to see here!

Wandering around Paris

After the rainy weather of the last few days, and the whole week of rainy weather ahead of us, today was an absolutely gorgeous winter day for Paris. Clear skies most of the day, relatively warm (10C), and just a slight breeze. A perfect day for sight-seeing with the inlaws!

We started by walking to Luxembourg gardens which was pretty in the early morning light. Well it was like 9am, but since the sun doesn't get up until 8:43AM, it makes it easy to be up for the sunrise. I've never gotten up so early relative to the sun in my life!
After getting a bagel for breakfast (there actually weren't that many things open nor that many people out) we went to the Pantheon. The dome is under repair at the moment so it's not "quite" as spectacular looking as usual, but it's still impressive. It was originally built as a church but during the French revolution was re-purposed for secular purposes to be a mausoleum for the greatest Frenchmen. Inside you can find the burial places for Voltaire, Rousseau, Marie Curie, Louis Braille, Victor Hugo, and many more. It was pretty impressive and I'd recommend it.
Next we went to the Cluny Middle Ages museum which while it has a lot of really old impressive things, I'm kind of burnt out on yet more tapestries and stained glass and old crosses. It gets good reviews on Trip Advisor, but I wouldn't recommned it unless you're REALLY into the middle ages.

Afterwards we went to see Notre Dame during the day, and I wandered around Île de la Cité while my in-laws visited St Chapelle which I'd already been too. I stopped and got a glass of wine in a cafe, and just tried to feel Parisian. It was pretty nice actually! Afterwards we went to the Eiffel Tower, getting out at the Trocadéro metro stop and then walking down the hill to pass underneath the tower. The most surprising thing was how crowded it was, and that there were tons of tourists getting scammed by shell games along the bridge to the Eiffel Tower (guess where the ball is under the 3 cups I switch around). Do people not realize this is a centuries old scam?
We then went to a delicious bakery near the Eiffel tower (that has no web presence) and Popelini in the 3rd which has unique cream puffs.

Finally we made our way to the Marché des Enfants Rouges (Red Children Market, named after the uniforms of the orphans who lived here) which is an international food market. It was only half open due to the holidays, but had a lot of interesting food choices. If you're in the area it's worth going, but probably not worth it for a short Paris stay.

Other great discoveries today were some really pretty Parisian Christmas postcards in the gift shop of the Pantheon. I'd been looking for the last few weeks for something Christmasy to send friends, and the fancy postcards fit the bill. They're actually in French too, which always annoys me when you have t-shirts/postcards in English when the words are totally different for the local language. I want to send a Joyeux Noël card, not a Merry Christmas card!

We also finally found cinnamon, baking powder, and brown sugar! This is what makes everyday things such an adventure when living in France, since these common items are somewhat difficult to find and under very different names. Brown sugar has a completely different name than the literal translation, and baking powder has the same name as "yeast" (levure) except that baking power is "levure chimique" once you Google search it. And cinnamon (cannelle) is just hard to find for some reason...

There was one bad part of the day though, when I looked on our local bakery's door and saw they had left a note saying they'd be closed until December 30th. A whole week without fresh bread a minute from our flat? What kind of torture is this!?!?

Christmas in Paris!

Joyeux Noël!! Our Christmas in Paris started out with hearing all the church bells ringing at midnight as we laid in bed. We had thought about going to a midnight mass, but were too exhausted, but what a unique way to bring in Christmas!

Once we got up later in the morning (I've found that all our guests, and us, sleep WAY later in France than usual), I turned on the TV to see what, if anything, was playing Christmas morning. We did stumble across a made-for-TV Hallmark movie called Du Memories de Père Noël dubbed in French which was amusing.
After opening gifts under our sapin de Noël (surprisingly still fairly alive after 4 weeks of not watering it) we went to Notre Dame and happened to arrive as a mass was starting. It was very crowded just to get in (though there were quite a few seats still available for the 6:30pm mass). Also for some reason the Christmas tree in front of Notre Dame wasn't lit. Not sure why since it was lit up all the other nights.

We wandered around for a while until eating dinner and I got my turkey finally! It was one of the specials of the day, and while it was covered in cream and came with rice, it was stuffed roast turkey!! I had to have escargots for my appetizer though. It was a special occasion and all.

For those visiting over Christmas, most things are closed, but there are a good number of cafe's open (especially around tourist sites) so you'll have no trouble finding something to eat.

Unfortunately during dinner it started to pour rain so it was a wet walk to the metro station home, but all in all it was a great and very unique Christmas. Joyeux Noël!

Christmas Eve in Paris

After having their flight cancelled, my in-laws arrived at our flat around noon. We decided the best plan of action was to throw them into Paris and visit the Paris Opera House, which was really impressive. Out of all the palaces and castles we'd been too, I honestly have to say the Opera house was one of the most ornate. I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Paris.

Afterwards we went to Galeries Lafayette next to the Opera House to see the giant Christmas tree, and then rode the escalators to the top to see Paris. My in-laws are scared of heights, but could stay far back enoug (and it wasn't THAT high) to feel comfortable, but still see the monuments.

Then we went to Angelina for hot chocolate (best in Paris) and a late lunch/early dinner. Then we hit the Champs-Élysées Christmas market which was surprising uncrowded for Christmas Eve. Probably due to the sporadic rain showers though.

For anyone visiting Paris over Christmas, most stores and museums do close several hours earlier than usual for Christmas, and are closed for Christmas Day. This being the case, we ended up going to bed fairly early, eager for Christmas Day to begin!

Wrapping Paper in France

My mother-in-law and sister-in-law were supposed to arrive this evening, but due to really high winds in London, their flight to Paris was cancelled and they ended up staying the night in the Heathrow hotel. British Airways paid for it all, but still was a bit of a hassle and they were glad they had brought stuff in their carry-ons since they weren't able to pick up their checked baggage.

I also got some last minute wrapper paper from the local grocery store, which had an interesting metallic feel and not at all like normal wrapping paper. Maybe that's why it was so much for so little area. Or just maybe normal high Paris prices. Wrapping paper was also not that common in the grocery stores, I've only seen it in one particular store (the Franprix) which was a bit surprising.

Disneyland Paris Christmas

Kara wanted to see Disney at Christmas, and based on my experiences at Walt Disney World in Orlando, I thought it'd be quite spectacular. We got to a late start and after paying the very hefty prices, we got in on a fairly rainy afternoon. The first thing we did was stick around Main Street (deocrated and setup exactly like Main Street in the US parks) to watch the Christmas parade. Santa came by on the first float, and Mickey and Minnie were the last ones. It was a pretty good parade and the decorations around Main Street pretty nice. However the rest of the park wasn't decorated for Christmas at all. So overall it was quite disappointing. Thanks to the rain the crowds weren't too bad considering it was the Sunday before Christmas, but this really was my least favorite Disney experience. There were far too many chain smokers in lines and walking around the park (even though technically the park is non-smoking) and the food is even more expensive and FAR worse. I got a hamburger meal and I got one tiny tomato and 3 tiny shread of lettuce on a hockey puck like beef patty. It was just depressing. If you have any ability to visit the US parks, it's really not worth visiting unless you're a die-hard amusement park fan who just wants to experience the unique rides (like Space Mountain and Indiana Jones) and the Pirates of the Caribbean was quite a bit longer. But it's a very disappointing Disney experience.

If you do visit though, don't worry about taking the train after leaving. Most people seem to drive (which is cheaper if you have multiple people since the train fare is fairly expensive) and so leaving about 45 minutes afer the park closed (to take photos and explore some shops) the train was practically empty.

Crepe Friend

Buying our usual crepes from the usual crepe marker from our usual crepe stand near us, he decided to make some small talk between my terrible French and his limited English. It was actually quite interesting since I explained how we're here for 6 months and that I was from Texas, which he just knew from movies to mean that I was a Cowboy and made a galloping horse impression and sound. I tried to explain I was "très libérale" and "no Bush" but when I said my wife was from California, he seemed far more excited about that, and started asking how the beach was and how chic it was.

I then explained that's why Kara always says to strangers we're from California when she's overseas, since it gets a far more positive reaction than saying we're from Texas. And based on his (and many other interactions) it's been very true!

Frozen

Today was our office Christmas party. We went to a crepe resturant, and most everyone in the office showed up which is pretty unique since as it's a sales office, a lot of them are travelling and out of the office very frequently. We took up the entire resturant, and in true France fashion, we only had a single waiter for the 45 of us. It actually worked out fairly well though since we just passed the bottles of water between us and stacked up our own plates. The food didn't all come out at the same time, but close enough I suppose.

I also found out there's an office photography contest, so I'm trying to figure out which of my photos to enter. There's Christmas, Winter, and Action categories. And speaking of photography, I bought myself a new Canon 70D to replace my 8 year old 20D. I'm most excited about the higher ISO quality, and the video capabilities since there's been many a time I wish I could take a good video of what I'm seeing since sometimes videos just aren't enough.

After getting home, we went to go see Frozen (aka La Reine des neiges - The Snow Queen - as it's called in France) since we're planning on visiting Disneyland again this weekend. It was a bit difficult to find a theater that only subtitled it, since most of them dubbed it over, I assume to make it easier for French children to follow along. It was really good, and I'd recommend it! 

Though once again I found it very interesting to see how words are translated into French and all the nuance lost. For instance, "Look out!", "Watch out!", "Whoa!", "Check this out!", "Look at that!" are just translated to a single word in French: "Attention!". I'm not sure if it's the lack of nuance in French translations, or just English has a much more verbose vocabulary, but it makes me wonder about all the French films I love that I only know via subtitles (aka Amelie).

Normal Day

Today was only remarkable because nothing remarkable happened. Living in France has made even the mundane things quite an adventure since just getting dinner can lead to all kinds of complications and unexpected surprises. It's both really exciting and really stressful! 

Paris Christmas Tree Still Alive!

My friends left today, after doing a lunch at some fancy restaurant their friend booked. Kara and I got some quiche's for lunch, though we still haven't found very good ones. All the ones so far have been way too salty, ruining the taste. It's been one our big disappointments in France since we thought they would be delicious here, but so far that's not been the case.

For dinner though we got some crepes from our new favorite crepe stand near Montparnasse. This one not only has chicken, but also tomatoes and mushrooms, so I can get a chicken, cheese, mushroom, and tomatoe crepe. Very good and cheaper than a sit-down crepe restaurant.

Our Christmas tree is losing some needles when I accidentally hit it, but isn't dropping them by itself. Quite impressive considering we haven't watered it in almost 4 weeks since watering a Christmas tree in Paris is considered bizarre. I consider it bizarre since every real Christmas tree in the US is watered regularly.

Water in Paris

After a bit of a late start, we grabbed some sandwichs and ate lunch in Luxembourg gardens before heading to the Rodin museum to see The Thinker. We were running short on time so ran by Invalides (Veterns) to see Napolean's Tomb, and stumbled across some sort of military ceremony going in in the main courtyard of the Invalides. Napoleon's Tomb was neat, but I wouldn't put it on the don't-miss list of Paris. My friends went to meet up with another friend, so Kara and I went up the Arc de Triomphe since she'd missed it the other day. We then went through this crazy pscyodelic 70's fun house on the Champs-Élysées (and kept the glasses!) and then rode the giant Ferris Wheel that was put up in Place de la Concorde, which gave some great views of Paris since it was a clear night.

We finished the day after meeting up with our friends again for dinner, at Les Editeurs. The food was quite good, but as typical of French service, we were chronically short of water. Unlike the US where it's a major faux pas to let anyone's glass run dry, you have to beg to get them to refill your water. They'll never do it on their own, you always have to ask, and to do that, you have to get their attention which is no small feat. I do miss American service quite a bit.

We ended the night watching French music videos on Youtube and finishing a bottle of Beaujolais so our friends would have good luck. The time flew by!

All Over Paris

We started the day with crepes near Notre Dame before exploring inside and joining a tour. I learned quite a bit about the outside architecture, and how in a world where most people were illiterate, the statutes and architecutre of the church's were used to explain the biblical teachings. One of the most interesting things I learned was that during the French Revolution, they tore down the statues of the saints (since they were upset at the religious kings that opressed them) and what you see today are actually re-creations. But they actually found some of the heads in someone's basement in the 1970's, so they're on display in the Middle Ages museum now.

We then headed a few streets over to St Chapelle, which is famous for its stained glass windows. Even in the fading sunlight it was a spectacular sight and I was surprised I'd hadn't heard of it before reading through my Rick Steve's Paris guidebook.

Next up was the Eiffel Tower, which we climbed up the stairs (all 650 of them) as dusk was settling in. It's much more enjoyable now having been to all the famous monuments now, so I can pinpoint more clearly what I'm actually looking at. And I was surprised to see that St. Sulpice is so easy to spot, which is near our flat so it makes for an easy landmark to figure out where we live. It was an absolutely gorgeous night with a full moon and clear skies.

After a quick dinner of some panni's, we went up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe to see a great view of the Champs-Élysées and all the crazy traffic around the arc. It's the only traffic circle in Paris where cars have to yield to incoming traffic, and due to the mass confusion (as there are no lanes around it) if you get in a traffic accident there, it's automatically split 50/50. You couldn't pay me enough money to try to navigate that clustermess.

After exploring the Christmas market along the Champs-Élysées, we headed towards Notre Dame to meet up with Catherine's friend again, and got some drinks at a cafe near Notre Dame. The surprise though was it included a sparkler in the drink, which I suppose made up for the ridiculously high cost. All in all a very good night, and they had live music (piano and singer... all in English) which made it quite entertaining.

Art Museums

We started off today visiting the farmer's market on Raspail, and then taking the metro to the Musée d'Orsay. The museum is housed in a re-purposed train station, and is absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately they don't allow photos inside (one of the only Parisian museums to ban photography) but it has some spectacular views of the Parisian skyline and a lot of really influential and famous impressionist paintings. It's probably my favorite art museum in Paris so far.

Afterwards we walked across the Siene to visit Musée de l'Orangerie which was creasted specifically to showcase Monet's water lily paintings. It's a quick stop (especially since you can skip the line via the Museum Pass) but well worth the stop. There was also a special exhibition showcasing Frida Kahlo's artwork, which was really neat too.

Then we stopped to get hot chocolate at Angelina's, and then went to meet my friend's Parisian lab-mate to get dinner. We had some typical French food (fois gras (duck liver) is incredibly common here, and escargot of course) and then finished the night with drinks near St Germain. The most interesting part of that was the soundtrack, which was a wide range of English music from the Beatles to the Grease soundtrack. Quite literally about 90% of the music you hear in stores and restaurants is in English.

Louvre

After getting some fresh croissants and pain au chocolate from the bakery near us, our friends showed up and we headed out to the Louvre. It was my first time inside the famous museum, and it's hard to appreciate just how incredibly gigantic it is. After some confusion on where to head first, we saw the signs for the Mona Lisa and followed them until we finally came face to face to the famous painting. Since everyone says it's so much smaller than they expected, it was actually quite a lot larger than I expected. It's a "normal" sized painting, and due to the timing of our visit in the middle of December, the room was very sparsly populated so it was very easy to get up as close as possible to it. Kara was amazed how empty the room was. The perks of touring off-season!

The rest of the Louvre was interesting with the mummies (I'd never seen a real-life mummy before) and sculptures. And while you could spend days in there if you really wanted to see and study everything, honestly I thought 3 hours was enough to get the highlights. Oh, and the Museum Pass paid off in divideds as it let us enter through the "Group Tour" entrance which had no security line.

After the Louvre we got dinner at a random cafe in the 1st which was tasty, and then headed home.

Calm before the Storm

It's the calm before the storm as we have 3 sets of visitors back to back to back coming up over the next month. The first set is a friend I met way back in 2005 while interning at Intel, and she's coming along with her twin sister who I hung out with while she did an internship in Austin back in 2007. I'm really excited about them coming to visit since it'll be the first really good chance I have to be a "tourist" in Paris and actually get to know the city more. I'm taking the first few days of work off next week to go sightseeing, and already have a tentative schedule to hit the highlights.

In the meantime, I had to head to the BHV to try and find an ice scrapper for my car. It's been so chilly in the morning that a thick layer of frost forms on the windshield which I have to scrap off with a credit card currently. Unsurprisingly auto part stores are pretty non-existant in central Paris, so the BHV seems the best place to find something like an ice scrapper. That place really does have everything, even it if is ridiculously expensive and crowded.

On the way home I pass by Hotel de Ville (City Hall) which was lit up for Christmas and had a pretty Christmas tree lit up in front. There's a skating rink too that we'll have to check out.

Paris Cooking

I got to learn the secrets to French cooking today when our team dinner turned out to be a make-your-own dinner near Versailles. We made some chicken with asparagus and cream sauce, and then she had some some pre-prepared macrons with whipped cream for dessert. It was delicious and a great experience!

My first experience with the infamous Paris train strikes was today. Luckily its only lasting the one day, but it particularly affected the RER B line I use to get to work, so only 1 out of the normal 4 trains ran, meaning you had to wait a lot longer to catch one. I also noticed they didn't announce the stations at all, which is kind of odd since it's all automated, so apparently the ones that still stayed on were striking against pushing the button to turn on the announcer voice. In the meantime it meant I spent 30 minutes waiting out in the cold for the train to come.

Ile Saint Louis

Today we visited the lesser known of the two islands on the Siene which divides Paris, Ile Saint Louis. It's very close to Île de la Cité which is where Notre Dame is, but this island is mostly residential with no major tourist attractions nor metro stops on it, and apparently is where all Parisians wish they could live.

We started by having yet another delicious meal at Cafe Cassette, which while a bit pricy by Austin standards, we have yet to have anything that wasn't phenomenal there. I got the roasted chicken and Kara got the risotto and both were fantastic. It's also huître (oyster) season here so I'll need to try some before they disappear.

We then took the metro to Saint Michel to see the Christmas Tree in front of Notre Dame. I have to admit, while the tree was fairly large, the lights seemed strewn almost haphazardly on it, especially compared to previous years. But Notre Dame is so pretty at night it didn't matter. From there it's a quick walk down the bank to the small Saint Louis island, where we had some of the famous Berthillon ice cream for dessert and walked down the pretty streets. We found a really cute stationery store on the island called Marie Tournelle where Kara got some pens and paper, but they had all kinds of neat stuff.

I took a bunch of photos, and then we finished watching the 3rd Harry Potter movie. Thanks again Unotelly for letting us have Amazon and Netflix in France!

Christmas Time in Paris

Today we decided to check out the other side of the Champs de Elysees Christmas Market since we'd only done the one side. But first we stopped off at the Vavin metro stop to try and found the crêpe stand where I had my very first authentic French crêpe 5 years ago. And we found it! It was every bit as good as I remembered, and had some poulet (chicken) crêpes.

Afterwards we went into Église Notre Dame des Champs which is one of those many European church's which are FAR more beautiful than anything you would ever find in the US, but aren't in any guide book because there are ones even more impressive (such as the famous Notre Dame). There were some really pretty murals inside though, and was definitely worth the 5 minute stop to peek inside. 

Then we took the metro to Concorde to go up the Champs de Elysees. Though as we exited the metro station, we saw that looked like millions of ants swarming all around the traffic circle and up and down the avenue as the entire place was completely packed with people. I was quite a bit worried about being pick-pocketed since I had my SLR camera on me which typically screams "tourist" (though to be fair, quite a few Parisians also carry SLRs since there ARE a lot of very pretty things to take photos of) so I was mindful to keep my hands around my front pockets as much as possible. We got about a quarter of the way up the Christmas Market before admitting defeat since it was just way too crowded. And I love crowds! But this was just insane and you were just shimmying your way through. So Saturday early evening in December is not a good time to go.

Though we did pass a skating rink that would be fun to try out. When I read in a guidebook that you could go ice skating on the Eiffel tower I got really excited, until I then read somewhere else that it was closed this year (2013) because of improvements they're making on the 1st observation deck, which is where the rink usually is.

We then fought the crowds to get on the metro to check out (what I believe to be) Paris's biggest Christmas tree at the Galeries Lafayette Paris near the Opéra metro station. My Google-fu worked since there are two shopping areas with that name, but it's the one near Opéra that has the giant tree. It was really pretty, and as a bonus I got to finally see the Paris opera house. They also had some really intridcate mechanical store-front scenes, but again it was insanely crowded on the sidewalk in front of them, so we only saw it from a distance. We plan on coming back during a weeknight to see them better.

Speaking of Christmas trees, when I asked at work about mounting the tree in a log and not watering it, they all seemed confused why I would ask. "It's already dead, it doesn't need water" they reply. So I guess that's just not a thing here. Maybe the trees are a different species so they last? In the meantime the tree's been holding up so far, so we'll see if it can make it another 3 weeks. We also got Christmas lights for it finally. Well we got Christmas lights the first time, but they were the flashing kind so that's no good. Then the second one we got were very bright white LED lights which kind of hurt your eyes after a while, so that was no good either. Luckily Monoprix took the returns without an issue, and so this time we got some multicolored LED lights that work well, except they were really really short strands (about 10 feet each). And they don't piggy-back on each other like US Christmas lights, so we had to find two plugs, and then do some creative arranging to get the tree to look decorated. But all in all it worked out and now we have our very pretty lit up super-flocked Paris Christmas Bush.

Mexican Wrestling... in France!

A few days ago my co-workers sent out an email on the internal Paris office mailing list asking if anyone would like to join them in "catch Mexican". As a person with Mexican background, I was a bit concerned when trying to read this in French, until Google Translate told me that "catch" is French for wrestling.

So of course I said I was interested. I'd never been to a wrestling show before, but come on, Mexican wrestling... in Paris... with French people, I had to check it out! It's held twice a month at La Lucha Libre in the 5th in a very crowded bar. You have to get there early (by 8:30) to pay the 5€ entry fee and get your hand stamped, and then the show starts around 10:15 in the basement. Kara got to meet some of my co-workers and their significant other's, and then we all packed the basement area where they had a small wrestling ring setup. There were 3 "matches" and it was every bit as cheesy and ridiculous and fun as you could imagine WWF-type wrestling to be. And it's all in French! Even though I couldn't understand much of anything, I still had a great time and my co-workers were able to tell me that the main "good" guy was French for "Drinks too much", which is why he has a drawing of a beer on his spandex onesy. It was definitely one of the most interesting Friday nights I'd ever experienced, and that's not even considering that it was in France! 

Afterwards we got our first McDonalds of our stay since I always crave McDonalds for some weird reason in foreign countries after a long night out, even though I never eat it when I'm in the States. It was très bon though!

French Socialized Medicine

Kara still wasn't feeling better this morning, so I got my first taste of 100% authentic socialized medicine (Kara already had lots of experiences with it during her travels in Spain/Italy/New Zealand, etc). According to some politicians in the US, this meant Kara would soon die, which always amused her and visiting foreigners.

Instead it meant we call SOS Medicins, an English speaking doctor arrived AT OUR APARTMENT within an hour, and the total cost was less than what a doctor's visit would cost in the US. Had we actually gone to the doctor's office instead, it would have been 23€. For anyone.

But of course we let asinine fear mongering keep the US from joining every single other 1st world country in the world in providing much cheaper, and better, healthcare for everyone. Unfortunately for us, we aren't eligible for socialized tax-payer supported medicine in the US until we turn 65 when the most popular (based on surveys) and cheapest (for the age group) socialized healthcare in the US kicks in: Medicare.

Mersay

Today I worked from home because of a serious accident on the RER B line I use to get to work. But there was never any further news coverage on what it was and why the trains were completely stopped for 2 hours. I've noticed this seems to be a trend where I can't seem to find any details on breaking news stories of the day. I don't get it. Luckily I was running late otherwise I might have been stuck on that train and/or involved in accident.

Also remember that plumber we were calling a few days ago? Well he didn't show up on Thursday. Nor on Friday. So on the 3rd reschedule, he finally came around 4pm today. It turned out it was just a hair clog, but the drain is very weirdly designed which is why we couldn't get it fixed on our own. But now we know the secret that there's a plug that you can pull out, and so hopefully we won't have to resort to this again.

I also seem to have forgotten everything I ever learned in French while ordering lunch today. It was one of those "This all feels hopeless" moments when I can't even say "Merci" right. Some how my brain decided to take the day off and think that the most basic word ever is "Mersay". ::le sigh::

Lazy Sunday

Today we didn't do much. I mostly tried to start sorting through all the photos that had been piling up since we had done back-to-back-to-back trips to Vienna, Champagne, and Copenhagen, and then was out and about in Paris this weekend. So I had several thousand photos to go through (I'm very much of the shoot first and sort later variety). I'm still finishing them all, but expect to see a massive photo update soon.

Kara's also not been feeling well, so we may get to try out the French medical system soon. Which is ranked #1 in the world (compared to the US at #38) while spending less than half per capita what we do. I obviously have some strong opinion about the ridiculous state of the US healthcare system compared to every single other 1st world nation who does it better and FAR cheaper while covering everyone, but that's another topic for another day.

Tour Eiffel

After another late start (what is it about Paris that makes us so tired??) we joined our friends for dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. Most of the Asian restaurants/people are Vietnamese, due to the close ties the countries had in the past. It was alright, though I'm still trying to find some good Asian food here. I'll need to Yelp it more.

Speaking of which, I really haven't done much research at all into the Paris touristy stuff until today, and realized just how much there is to do here. Given that I only have weekends (and those that we aren't traveling) I'm wondering how I'm going to get it all done in 4 months (and I can't believe it's already been almost 2 months)! So many museums to see!

So as part of that journey, we went to the Eiffel tower. Well not on it, but we did walk under it and for the first time saw it from the other side of the Siene (prounced "sin" which I always forget) which was pretty cool. I've only actually been on it during the day 5 years ago, so I'm looking forward to seeing the view from it at night sometime. 

How to be Parisian

I took the day off today to get some more time to explore. After a late start, I met Kara and her friends after Kara's class, to eat lunch in the Opera area. One of the interesting things about French work life is that most jobs provide a cheque déjeuner (lunch voucher) worth between 5€ and 8€ that can be spent on lunch at cafes in France. It seems to be regulated by law, but regardless it's an expected work perk. Since our office park has a cafeteria (canteen as they call it here) I don't get a voucher, but my lunch is still subsidized (so an entree, dessert, bread, and salad would be around 4€). 

Kara's friends had already been to Paris before, so after lunch we checked out one of the more off-the-beaten-path museums by going to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, which is basically a furniture museum for how rich people lived throughout the ages. It was somewhat interesting (though much more Kara's thing than mine) but what made it a truly memorable experience is that to liven things up, they put random modern art installations right next to the furniture. So for instance, you would have a 19th century bed, and have a mannequin chained to the wall around its neck. Yeah, that's a bit random right? Or a 17th century chair, with photos of some guy dressed in drag  in colorful robes above it. It was so bizarre! 

After the museum closed (and btw, museums are very strict on their closing times. They want everyone completely out of the building at 6, so they start chasing you out at 5:40) we then went to see this show we saw an ad for called How to Become Parisian in One Hour.  It's by a French guy who lived in the US for 5 years, and basically plays up the sterotypes of both sides of the Atlantic. It was really funny, and provided some useful tips on how to be Parisian in restaurants and the metro.

It's also interesting that it's ranked as the 9th most popular thing in Paris, beating out Notre Dame and the Arc de Triomphe. Oh crazy ranking algorithms...

We finished the night with some crepes while it was pouring rain, and then drinks at a local cafe I'd been meaning to try out that was quite nice. It was a good night!

Paris Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Kara's friend and her boyfriend came to visit today, which make them our very first visitors! As we haven't actually done too much in Paris yet, we're not really sure where to take them, but we'll be acting like tourists over the weekend so I'm excited.

Obviously the French don't celebrate Turkey Day, so it was just a normal workday here (our friends weren't here till late afternoon so I still went to work). Since I got off Nov 1st and Nov 11th for French holidays it all works out the same. I was hoping though that they'd at least have chicken and/or apple pie in the cafeteria, but nope. It is possible to get turkey in France, it's just not terribly common (honestly about as common as it is in the US if you went to any random restaurant and tried to find turkey on the menu) but there aren't rows of frozen turkeys for sale like in the US. You have to get them at a butcher's shop, and it's pricey then.

There are a few American restaurants that serve Thanksgiving dinners, but they had already all filled up with reservations. So we went out in search of somewhere to eat and I got some chicken. I also had my first escargot of our adventure (I first tried it a few years back and discovered I quite like the little guys) which a great appetizer for Thanksgiving! And we made sure they had apple pie on the dessert menu.

Then we wandered around Concorde and discovered that Paris has a Christmas market too! They setup booths along the Champs de Elysees, and there's a big ferris wheel at the end by Tuileries, and lots of Christmas lights! We got some vin chaud and walked around, and then rode down a slide on mats which was fun. All in all good times, and we only covered the booths on one side of the street, so we'll be going back to check out the other side.

Christmas Tree!

Today we bought our Paris Christmas Tree (sapin de Noël). Stands starting showing up yesterday, and so we figured we should jump on it, as well as get it before American Thanksgiving. I'd never had a real tree, and while they do have artificial ones here, it just made sense to get a real one for this one off event.

Most of the trees here are flocked, and not a light coating either, so it looks like the tree went through a blizzard. We went with the closest shop near our apartment, so after lugging the tree home a few blocks we got it setup. Also after unwrapping it, we found that it's more a Christmas Shrub than a Christmas Tree, but Kara loves it anyways.

Another thing we weren't sure about is how to water it. All the Christmas trees in Paris come mounted in a chopped in half log. Which apparently is exactly what you don't want to have. But we didn't see any of the typical tree stands which let it stand in water, and were trying to come up with ideas of how to keep it in water. Our Google-fu wasn't coming up with anything (other than that mounting it in wood is a terrible idea) until we searched in French, and on one of the French websites it seemed to imply you just need a little bit of water in a saucer to put the log in. So we figured a cookie sheet would do and we'll try to keep it moist as best we can. When Kara asked about it the next day in her French class, her teacher seemed very confused that we were worrying about watering it. Apparently it just stays hydrated with this magic log ("you have a log, why do you need water"). So I guess we'll see how long this tree actually lasts, maybe they make trees differently in France. I hope it can make it to Christmas!

(Update: Even with just the log to put it in, our Paris Christmas tree lasted all the way through Christmas. Either they use different types of trees here that stand up to lack of watering, or the logs really are magical)

We then went off to find lights and some ornaments for it. And in the process learned the word for "flashing" (clignotantes) after we got the lights home and discovered they were flashing lights, which drive both of us insane (who actually likes flashing Christmas lights???). So that will be an adventure in returning merchandise then.

Also we had to call the plumber today since our shower is clogged and our normal remedies aren't working. Kara was able to do it all in French, even after they started asking direction questions like which floor we were on, and got it booked for Thursday afternoon. So we'll see how that goes. 

Back to Paris

On our last day in Copenhagnen we visited the Church of Our Saviour and walked up to the very top of that spiral in the photo. It gives great views of Copenhagen, but it was really really cold and windy.

We then had our final danishs (which there's a reason breakfast pastries are called Danish's, it's because they're so incredibly good) and headed back to the airport to fly back home to Paris. It was kind of odd to think about flying home to a European city.

Unfortuantely after landing, we walked to the RER train line to go home, but it was all blocked off by security. We still don't know what the problem was, but after waiting 10 minutes with no sign of them opening up the train station, we decided to try for other forms of transportation. Taxi's are expensive, so we decided to try out the bus system. We hopped on the first one available (line 350) and was quite an adventure and took about an hour (mostly due to traffic) but we finally made it to a metro stop to make it the rest of the way home.

I have to say, using public transit to get to/from the airport kind of worries me, which is why I insist on leaving so much earlier to allow for random delays like this. 

Copenhagen Day 3

Today we visited the Denmark National History Museum. It was really windy and thus very cold today so it worked out quite nicely. It had a really interesting exhibit on Denmark's pre-history and had some skeletons and clothing of burials from 1300BC. It was really neat.

We then wandered around downtown in the evening, and came across a really fun store called Tiger which had all sorts of really unique and fun items (like a monster ice cream scooper, or a mustache for your bike) and was CHEAP! Or well normal US prices, which is super cheap in Denmark. It was really really fun.

We also had to try a Max burger since their ads looked so good and we hadn't had a good burger in a while. It was expensive (as everything else is in Denmark, a combo meal is like $8) but pretty darn good.

The day ended by us flipping through Danish TV channels randomly, and discovering that the Cowboys-Giants NFL game was on. But the most interesting part was there were Danish announcers for it! So watching it you would get "something something something Cowboys something something something two minute warning something something something something". I would have never imagined that the NFL was popular enough in Denmark to warrant hiring guys to do the play by play in the native language. 

Copenhagen Day 2

After waking up in our incredibly small hotel room (the bed is pushed against the wall and you get a small ketchup packet sized shampoo satchel) we explored the castle of Christian IV which was a Danish king in the 1500's who lived like you'd imagine a king would. It was one of the first castles where there was actually a throne. It wasn't tooo gigantic, though there's a moat and giant park around it, and it was far larger (and much much nicer) than anyone else was living back then.

Then we visited Nyhavn, which had its own Christmas market and is just generally a very pretty area of Copenhagen. I got a waffle on a stick covered with coconut which was delicious, and Kara got some authentic Æbleskiver. We actually have an Æbleskiver pan back in Austin, but these were much better. She also had a fun experience going into a bathroom as we didn't realize it was just the men's room. So we thought it was a quaint cultural thing where there was open urinals in the "common" bathroom. Nope, turns out the women's bathroom was on the other side of the canal, so she just walked right into the men's bathroom. It explains why the other men seemed distraught she was in there.

We finished the day by visiting the famous Tivoli Gardens amusement park. It's where Walt Disney got his inspiration for Disneyland, and was decorated gorgeously for Christmas. You pay for entrance to get into the park ($18), and then you can either pay for each ride separately, or get an unlimited pass. As I love amusement park rides I went for the unlimited pass, and we got to ride the 3rd oldest roller coaster in existence, which is almost 100 years old (and REALLY fun!) They actually have a guy in the middle who stands up during the ride to apply the brakes to ensure you don't fly off the track. It's really really cool.

They also have one of the most intense and scary rides I've ever been on called Vertigo. I love rollercoaster and thrill rides, and even this had me holding on for dear life as you fly upside down at 60MPH a 100 feet in the air. I loved it!!!

Copenhagen

Today we flew to Copenhagen for the weekend. Kara has a friend from Denmark and has always wanted to visit a Scandanavian country, and thanks to EasyJet it's very cheap to fly there.

Of course flying an ultra-low cost airline like EasyJet means every possible thing that they can cut out is cut out. So the seats are cramped, you can only carry on one piece of luggage (and that's very strict, a purse counts as a second piece of luggage and isn't allowed), you have to print out your tickets beforehand, checked luggage is $50 one-way, and to get water in flight is 2.50 euro. But the flight is $100 cheaper than the next closest airline so for the giant hassle you can get some good deals.

The Paris airport also has a really terrifying chime it plays before public announcements. It literally sounds like a ghost is about to scare you and is even worse because it starts with no warning.

Once we got to Copenhagen, we had our standard 24-hours of bad travel by getting lost and getting off at the wrong train station. But we figured it out after studying the metro map a while, and finally got to the correct one to walk to our hotel. After dropping off the luggage we went exploring and found our first European Christmas market in the center of Copenhagen!!

This is something I'm really surprised doesn't exist in the US as they're pretty awesome. They sell mulled wine, sausages, warm hats, and all sorts of cool things. It's really really pretty and Christmasy, and it was really fun to visit.

We also visited the interesting area known as Christiana, which is kind of an autonomous region of Copenhagen/Denmark that runs by its own rules. It started out as a squatter community at an abandonded military base in the 1970's, and is basically a giant hippy commune. There's also tons of stands selling weed openly even though it's illegal in Denmark, which is why they don't allow any photos inside the area. It's a very unique and odd place.

The one bad thing about Copenhagen is that it's on its own currency, and the exchange rate is really bad. A bottle of coke in 7-11 (yeah, those are everywhere there which was surprising) is $6, a cinnamon roll (while incredibly delicious) is $8, and street food sausage and beer is almost $18. It was by far the most expensive city I've ever visited, and I just tried to forget how much everything was costing me.

On the other hand Denmark is rated as the happiest countries in the world and while it may have been cold (highs around 38F) they have an amazing social system and I could see how it would be a nice relief to not worry about healthcare.

Cows in the Freeway

Yesterday I was warned that I should just work from home today because farmers were going to block the major freeways with cows today. I kid you not. It turns out they just used tractors, but they were upset over some new taxes and decided to disrupt Paris traffic today and (arguably) contributed to some fatal traffic accidents. Only in France....

 Also today I had to get some baking soda to try to clear a clogged drain, and in France that's located behind the counter in pharmacies. I have no idea why, but it's not the trivial kind of thing to buy like it is in the US.

I'm also thankful that because the Paris office is so small, I can actually see outside from my desk. Windows are pretty nice.

Music in France

I love music and concerts, and I was particularly happy to get this opportunity to live in France because other countries often get a lot of really great music that the US doesn't often get exposed to. It's partly why I was so happy that Psy's Gangum Style blew up so much, since a foreign song normally never gets played on US radio. Meanwhile US songs get played all the time in every country, even if English isn't the main language of that country (which is why I find it both depressing and hilarious that people are concerned about making English the official language of the US. Anyone who has ever been overseas understands how ridiculous this concern is)

Proof of this was the Gogol Bordello concert I went to on Tuesday.  It's an American "gypsy punk" band that I've liked ever since seeing them at ACL a few years back and I had them tied with Matt & Kim as my favorite act that year. They were touring with Man Man, and I was incredibly surprised at how crazy and into the music the Parisians were. Typically they're very reserved and introverted people from our experiences so far, but I'd never seen such an incredibly energetic crowd at any concert ever. It may have been because it was Gogol Bordello (which put on incredibly energetic fun concerts) but quite literally the entire place was jumping up and down, crowd surfing, moshing, and dancing their butts off. It was amazing!


But as far as French radio, even with my 10 minutes of drive time in the car everyday, some songs are played incredibly often, and they are quite catchy. And almost none of them are known in the US, so this post is dedicated to my new favorite songs:

Stromae is my favorite new artist. He's from Belgium and has several number 1 hits, including one about "just dancing" that Kayne West sampled for a US hit:


But this is probably my favorite one (about missing his father, the refrain is "Father where are you?"):


And this is his most popular song in Europe (about his girlfriend breaking up with him, the refrain is "Wonderful"):


From other artists, this is one of my favorite French pop songs (It's about how the guy isn't worthy (a "loser" which you can hear in English) to be with the girl):


And this is a UK rapper that has reached #1 in multiple European countries, but won't have any presence at all in the US until May 2014. So I guess around then, expect to hear this on the radio constantly:


Finally this is an older Mika song that hit #1 in France a few years back that was played in Kara's class. It's about all the advice he gets from different women in his life ("She tells me"):


I'm looking forward to exploring more European/French music and going to a lot more concerts!

Reims

Sunday then we visited a neat little tourist place called Pre en Bulles where they had humanoid-like robots explain the champagne making process. It was quite bizarre, but also interesting and as an engineer anything with a talking robot is cool.

Then on the way back to Paris we stopped in Reims to visit the Reims Cathedral which is where all the French kings had their coronation ceremonies. It was really beautiful inside, and well worth the stop.

Once back in Paris, we discovered that our local crepe stand has started selling mulled wine! And they put up Christmas lights on the streets (though they still aren't on yet for some reason). But Christmas is coming!

Also I learned after the fact that the "vin chaud" (literally "hot wine") is pronounced nothing at all like you would say it in English (in French it's something like "va show"), so it was little wonder the crepe guy had no idea what I was talking about. This French language thing... ::le sigh::

Finally I purchased tickets for my first concert in Paris, to see Gogol Bordello and Man Man. Tickets were about the same price as the states (converting for Euro) and so I'm curious to see what the Paris music scene is like.

Grocery Questing

Oh, the joys of French grocery shopping.

As you can't see me throw my head back to heavens in frustration as you read the first line of this entry, I'll have you know it was written in a facetious tone. Being the gastronomical capitol of the world, you would think grocery would be fabulous. And it can be, if you're looking for something such as prepared soups (endless flavors, all delicious) or risottos (I personally love the pumpkin-gorgonzola). However, it you're looking for something like floss, then grocery shopping, a typically banal chore, can in Paris prove to be difficult, fascinating, and hilarious.

After we first arrived at the apartment some five weeks ago, I asked Sophie, the agent showing us around our new temporary home, to point me in the direction of the nearest grocery store. She confidently directed me to the Monoprix on the Rue de Rennes. As it turns out, there are four other grocery stores that are far nearer than this particular Monoprix (a good 15 minutes' walk away) but it would take me nearly three weeks to discover this.

On our first day  here, as Anthony took off on the metro to find his new work office, I set off to find the necessities--toothpaste, laundry detergent, dish soap...and trash bags. Bin Liners. Garbage sacks. Whatever you want to call them, they're conspicuously absent from this subterranean, expensive, miniature Target-like grocery store they call Monoprix. Roughly translated, the name implies one-stop shopping, which it clearly is not as there is not a trash bag in sight.

They do, however, carry a dozen types of cat litter, about eighteen million flavors of yogurt (which I both understand and fully support, as French yogurt is supernaturally delicious---why can't American yogurt taste as magical?), men's underpants in assorted designs and colors, and an assortment of Monsieur Propre products---Monsieur Propre being, of course, the French brother to Mr. Clean. But, *le sigh*, no sacs poubelles. 

As yet undeterred, I headed to the Franprix that's just two blocks from our apartment. No trash bags there, either. But I did pick up some lactose-free milk. Accidentally. While I'm glad there are options for those poor, undoubtedly ostracized lactose intolerant Parisians, I was just looking for plain ol' low fat milk. I thought the label on the bottle ended at demi ecrimee, but I somehow missed the "easy to digest" part. Keeping an open mind, I tried said lactose free milk, but it tasted how I would imagine goat's milk mixed with infant formula would taste. The flavor might be appealing to some, but it's not my cup of tea. Actually, it makes my cup of tea taste like animal pee, so, not knowing any lactose intolerant Paris-dwellers, I ended up throwing it out.

If I lost you in the Great Grocery Saga, I still have no trash bags. It would be three long days before I found trash bags. Luckily, I randomly stuffed a few bags from home in the front pocket of my suitcase as we were leaving our apartment in Austin, so we were able to contain our garbage in the interim between our arrival and my trash bag discovery. Some angel must have been whispering in my ear as I packed. Archangel Poubelle.

I finally found trash bags (cue the "Hallelujah" chorus) at a Carrefour (meaning intersection) in the St. Germain de Pres neighborhood. This grocery store holds untold wonders, among them: floss (absent in the nearest FIVE grocery stores, which makes me question French dental hygiene), cotton balls, peanut butter (the primary staple in Anthony's diet), sweet potatoes (imported from the U.S. and listed alongside mangoes under "exotic produce" at the print-your-own-label scales), oatmeal, and even disinfectant wipes! But it's a mile away, which may seem close, but is actually quite far when  you're walking in the cold November rain (cue Axel) dragging a wheeled shopping tote behind you. But still--trash bags!!

And milk. Delicious 1.5% milk! By the way, if there are any chiennes maigres out there reading this who drink exclusively skim milk, you're out of luck in France. It simply does not exist. 1.5% is as low as it goes in France, which I think is just great! If you ask me, dairy products without fat are both suspicious and pointless. I believe diet butter is a contradiction in terms. Just read the ingredient list. No such nonsense in France, though!

No, the French don't mess around when it comes to the flavor of food. Only when it comes to finding it. Please allow me pause to say that I have quite happily lived in a small handful of European cities and never had so much trouble finding basic items, and thus don't believe I'm unreasonably fussy. I just believe the French have a talent for making la vie quotidienne unnecessarily complicated.

Anyhow, in the third week of our epic grocery journey, Anthony and I found that there is a non-crowded, well-stocked G20 grocery store just one block up the street from us. Although the aisles are as tightly packed as all the other markets in Paris, the pace inside is decidedly slower, and thus it is much easier to stand in the aisle and translate labels until you're sure Gerble is a brand of fortified cookies and not gerbil food. It's wonderful! And it has trash bags. But no floss, peanut butter, or regular milk.

The Monoprix just one block up from us has cotton balls, but no laundry detergent or peanut butter. The Carrefour Express on the corner has regular milk and sandwich bread, but, being a space-limited "express" store, little else. So now, five weeks in, I have mastered my grocery run. So when Anthony and I returned from Vienna to empty cabinets, I began at the G20 where I got cleaning supplies and cereal, moved on to the close Monoprix where I bought cotton balls and coffee, then to the Carrefour Express for four 1-liter bottles of milk (roughly a gallon, but a liter is as large as they come here, and I've since learned I about 2/3rds a liter a day!), then briefly back home to offload everything, then back out to the St. Germain de Pres Carrefour for floss and peanut butter. Whew!

By the end of the trip, I feel zero guilt about indulging in a few squares of incredible (store brand!) chocolate, international award-winning 4-euro wine, fresh-baked French bread, or aged artisinal cheese...all of which make the expatriated hero's journey of Parisian grocery shopping so, so worth it. And in case you were worried, we now are very happily flossing our teeth and putting our garbage in lined bins :)

Language School

Having still not found an occasion to use "My bitch is dirty" in conversation, I have enrolled in a language school in the hopes to learn more useful phrases. In the mornings I head to the closest metro stop--Saint Sulpice on the M4 line, a snaky magenta magenta ribbon on the metro map in my bag. I go wearing headphones so as to effect the casual aloofness of the regular commuters. I don't have any music on though--I want to hear all the French around me. I do my best to blend in, but I don't think I'm doing a very good job. For living in such a beautiful city famed for amazing food and wine, everyone on the morning train looks miserably bored, whereas I'm vibrating with excitement. I love school!!!

I make a quick change at Chatelet and emerge from underground at the Tuilerie stop. Right. In front of. The Louvre. Language Studies International (LSI) is just one block up and two blocks over from the most famous art museum in the world. I get to walk past it every single weekday. The very thought still baffles me.

The school is located in the Marais, a fancy arrondissement full of designer stores. On my short walk to class, I pass by Balenciaga, Stuart Weitzman, Miu Miu, and other impossibly expensive flagship designer boutiques. The beautiful shoes and clothes in the window displays just shout You're in Paris!

The LSI classrooms are housed in a small suite on the second floor of a mid-19th century building, just off the courtyard and past an immense archway, nestled between a Baldini boutique and a Kodak store. I don't know if the 52 stairs to the second story are old or just poorly engineered, but I hug the wall as I climb them every morning as they slant quite dramatically downwards towards the central support. No one else seems to be bothered by this structural irregularity, but I find it very hard to ignore. At any rate, it doesn't matter how tired I may be when I arrive for class as the frightening ascent makes me as jittery and alert as about 12 cups of coffee.

The first day, I am given a placement test to see what I already know. I know what you're thinking and no--there was no write-in portion where I could have used "My bitch is dirty." Unfortunately. I did, however, understand a surprising amount of the test, which was fortunate as I needed to place reasonably high to be able to start mid-October instead of having to wait for the new wave of beginners to arrive at the beginning of November.

I find French to be both easy and impossibly frustrating. As an English speaker who has previously studied two other Latin languages, written French is remarkably easy to understand; and, when spoken by a language teacher who is trying to speak as slowly and clearly as possible, spoken French is too. The reason it is so frustrating is that the vast disparity of ability between language comprehension and production causes what I call oral constipation. What I mean is, I understand a lot and I really want to produce an intelligible response to questions directed at me, but, as hard as I try, I just can't.

Quel est votre travail? the program director asks me. I know she's asking me about work. I know it! But what the heck do I say? Um...erm...j'etudie...les...languages? She looks at me quizzically and nods her head. Et pourquoi êtes-vous ici à Paris? Why am I in Paris? Um...let's see...I think DuoLingo at least taught me how to say 'husband.' Uhh...me...mari...job?

 Mercifully, she stops the interview part of the test early. I think I have done abysmally poorly, but it turns out I placed into a class that had already had 30 hours' worth of instruction. I'm not sure whether to be proud or terrified, but the director says that given my knowledge of other Latin-based languages that I'll be fine in the more intermediate class. And she's right. It's a perfect fit. 

I sit next to a friendly looking girl who I later discover is from Rio de Janeiro. Her name is Paloma, and she's here because her boyfriend whom she met in Rio six weeks ago has since returned to his home city of Paris, so she's quit her job to come live with him for three months and take French lessons. Ballsy. I like her already!

After class, she invites me to lunch with her friend Luciana (also from Rio), two students from Sweden, one from Finland, and another from the Philippines. We go to a bistro around the corner and set camp at a large, family-style table. The only common language among us is English and a little French, so that's how we converse. That's also how I discover that Paloma's English is very limited. There is an odd number of us, so she sits in the awkward spot across from an empty chair, her expressions vacillating between extreme concentration and polite boredom. I try to loop her into the conversation, but it's simply too loud in the restaurant.. 

So the following day when she invites me to come along with her to the Musee d'Orsay, I'm delighted for the opportunity to finally get to talk to her and know her better. It's much colder than it was forecasted to be today, with a cold rain and harsh wind. Only I brought an umbrella, so we're walk along huddled together underneath it, arm in arm like we're old friends. 

She tells me she would like to practice her English with me, only, in the interest of having enough words to have a good conversation, it's easier for her if I speak to her in Spanish. Spanish and Portuguese are extremely similar, so she understands what I say, and if she speaks slowly enough, I also usually get the gist of what she says in Portuguese when she's tired of trying in English or French. 

So that is how we manage to talk about ex-boyfriends, the traffic in Rio de Janeiro, and the weather in Paris. We get along like this splendidly for quite some time. Despite the cold and rain, there is a long line outside the Musee D'Orsay. We queue up with the throng and shuffle back and forth in the rope labyrinth the security staff has set up. After awhile, we notice that many people are starting to eavesdrop and stare at us curiously. It's only then that I realize I'm having a lot of difficulty keeping track of which language is which. 

Having just come from French class, being surrounded by French-speaking people, and Paloma and I being both at the same level in French and trying to use it as much as possible, we speak French whenever we can. I try to maintain talking to Paloma in Spanish, but sometimes I forget a word and only remember it in Italian, so then I'll subconsciously switch to a little Italian here and there. Paloma is still trying to speak to me in English--and sometimes I'll speak a little English back before I catch myself out--but sometimes she gets so frustrated that she can't express exactly what she's thinking that she'll switch to Portuguese. So no wonder people are eavesdropping! We're having a conversation simultaneously in English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese! By the end of the day, neither one of us can speak any language at all. 

We have a lovely time at the Museum. Neither one of us are particularly interested in the sculptures or religious paintings on the ground floor, and it's a relief not to have to feign interest. We both, however, love the building. The Musee d'Orsay is only a museum in its most recent incarnation. When it was originally built in 1898-1900, it was a railway station. It was used until 1939 when it's short platform design made it impractical for modern use. It sat empty for a number of years and was actually slated for demolition, which I can scarcely believe. The suggestion that the station be turned into a museum did not come along until the late 1970s, and it took quite some time to re-design the station's floor plan to be able to house large collections, but by the end of 1986, the Musee d'Orsay was home to the largest collection of impressionist works in the world. 

That exhibit, by the way, is impressive. It was actually too much to absorb. First, you walk into this building that is a work of art in and of itself. You pass through perfectly unassuming glass doors and are immediately swallowed up in the cavernous belly of the old railway station. The ceiling soars above you, adorned with incongruously delicate, ornate moldings. The face of an impossibly enormous clock stands sentry on the far wall, keeping watch over all the happenings in the main gallery. It's daunting, really. It's too much to absorb.

By the time I reach the impressionist gallery, my ability to appreciate beauty is significantly depleted. I've wanted to see Monet's "Haystacks" since I first saw it in an art book in sixth grade, and now that I'm in the same room with it, I practically gallop past it. It gets a little lost among the hordes of other equally famous works by Degas, Manet, and Sisley. I know that sounds terrible, but Paris will do that to you--wear you out with too much prettiness. 

Thankfully Paloma feels the same. We agree that we'll have to come back another day when our ability to appreciate the art is renewed. For the time being, we're content to look out at the Paris skyline from behind the glass face of the giant clock and ponder just how much life and beauty this building has been witness to, and how much life and beauty we too will see while we're here.

Épernay

Épernay is the eipicenter of champagne in the Champagne region. There are champagne houses everywhere, and has a street literally named "Avenue de Champagne". It's a cute little town. Unfortunately the middle of November isn't the most popular time to visit dead vineyards (I can only imagine how beautiful the countryside would look in the summer), so a large number of the champagne houses were closed, but we did get to visit Mercier which is the number one selling champagne in France. You go down into their cellars and ride a automated "train" that goes around showing some of the areas, since the actual complex is gigantic. We called it Champagne Disney. It also houses a gigantic barrel that was built in 1889 and holds over 200,000 bottles worth of champagne. Mercier was quite a showman back in his days.

We had also wanted to visit Moët et Chandon, which is the owners of the famous Dom Pérignon champagne, and who was actually a real person (a monk none-the-less) from a small village outside of Épernay. Though he is often given far more credit than due for the role of "discovering" champagne. But alas they were closed.

We did try to go to one of the other ones open, but had some miscommunication on the time for the English language tour and ended up missing it. But we wandered around the town and found a store which had cheap gloves and hats and a suitcase (to replace the one I broke) so it was a successful day none-the-less. Then we got some pizza to go, and on the menu found Tex-Mex!! Except well, what they think is Tex Mex is not what anyone would remotely consider Tex Mex in Texas since the menu items included chicken nuggets, onion rings, and calamari. I kid you not.

I took lots of photos, so I'll have to work on getting those uploaded.

It's also been REALLY cold now, with highs around 3C (37F). And it doesn't look like it'll get any warmer anytime soon, and it'll get below freezing in Paris on Tuesday. They did turn on the gas for the heat in our apartment on Friday so at least we'll stay warm inside.

Champagne!

After a few days in the office, we headed out Friday evening after work to drive to the Champagne region for our engagement anniversary. It would be our first France road trip! For a drink to be called champagne in EU law, it has to come from this region, so what better way to celebrate an anniversary!

Unfortunately we ran smack into the infamous Paris traffic as soon as I left work, even though we were just trying to skirt the outside of the city. So all in all it added about 45 extra minutes to get through that. Motorcycles are allowed to zip in the middle of the lanes, so they can fly through it just fine, but it does make changing lanes a bit of a nerve racking experience since you have to watch out for them.

But eventually we made our way to Bouzy to stay at a quaint bed and breakfast in the tiny (1000 person) village. Everything was closed already when we got there about 9pm, so our champagne adventures would have to wait until the morning.

One interesting side note is that I could actually understand some of the French the B&B owner was saying! Kara could understand most of it, but compared to Paris, it was like night and day. Apparently the Parisian accent likes to drop consonants which is party why I can't even make out individual words most of the time with my co-workers, but I could understand entire phrases with the B&B owner. Producing it is still very difficult though.

Oh and I finally got my Carte Blue. Apparently the bank didn't actually need any extra info (from my blog reading this is apparently a common thing where there are problems one day, and the next they all magically disappear), and the card was just sitting there waiting for me. So now I have a chip+pin card ready for any situations where that comes up.

Munich

Is it a German thing not to have ironing boards in the hotel rooms? I was staying at a normal discount business hotel (95% of the people there were guys in dress shirts in a Holiday Inn type hotel) and you'd think they'd need them ironed. But the room didn't come with an ironing board. You have to call down to the desk and they bring it like 10 minutes later. The other business hotel I stayed at in Munich did the same thing, but Googling doesn't bring it up as a cultural thing. Odd.

The taxi ride on the way back was quite interesting as well, as my co-worker's flight was earlier than mine and we were running a little late. But on the Autobahn highways (something I didn't really realize until semi-recently: the Autobahn is not a singular road. It's a type of road, and basically like saying "Interstate" in the US) there are the famous sections with no speed limit, so we were doing 110 MPH down the highway, getting us to the airport in no time.

And I do love European short-haul plane travel. Food, wine, and beer, all included in the cheap economy ticket.

The metro ride back though was quite an adventure as my bag fought the metro, and the metro won. I was transferring at Chatlet, and normally I push my bag in front of me before I enter the metro gate. But this time I was in a rush and just pulled it behind me. Well for this gate, it was two half-doors that slide open and close in the middle to let people through. It then closed on my bag, and got it completely stuck. I couldn't tug or pull it any which way, and in the process, broke the pull handle. Luckily someone saw what happened and offered to help, so by us pushing on each side of the door back into it's pocket, I could release the bag. Unfortunately then my bag was on the opposite side of the gate than I was on! But I then noticed there was a gate for situations like this, so I opened it from my side, got my bag, and went through the gate like I should have in the first place. Unfortunately I had to carry it the rest of the way home since the pull handle had by that point snapped off. Oh the fun of public transit!

We get to do this again in two weeks since we booked tickets to Copenhagen on Easy Jet, which is one of the infamous low-cost airlines (like Ryan Air). So on there I don't think we'll get free sandwiches, and they have a very strict one carry-on bag rule (no one-carry on bag and a "personal item" that fits under the seat. Just one physical carrying vessel per person). We've also discovered that Denmark is incredibly expensive (though I guess probably like Paris then) so we'll have to make the most of it. And I'll get to increase my currency collection since they aren't on the Euro, and instead use the Danish krone. One of Kara's friends lives there so he can help point us in the right direction too.

We also have plans to spend this weekend in the Champagne region to celebrate our 4th engagement anniversary. No better way to celebrate than drinking champagne from the region in France it comes from!

Vienna Airport

This morning we visited the graves of Beethoven, Mozart, and Strauss, which is located outside of Vienna in one of the largest cemeteries in Europe. It was a bit of a trip out there, but pretty cool to see so many famous graves just a few feet from each other.

I then flew to Munich in the evening to prepare for some business meetings tomorrow. The Vienna airport terminal is amazing. They have tons of these comfy seats with electrical plugs, free WiFi, and even some "couches" made out of hard plastic foam. Kind of like a normal airport seat, but where you could lay down in it. Also the security line was non-existent, there were tons of security lanes open, and they have an automatic system to bring trays from the exit point to the entry point, so you're never short of trays. Bravo Vienna airport! Though I find it interesting they never check your ID against your boarding pass (once you get it at the ticket counter), so anyone could actually fly if someone gave them their pass.

In Munich we had dinner at an American restaurant downtown. In fact the subtitle below the name was "California Kitchen". Which in Germany of course means under "BBQ" they list normal steaks and chicken dishes. But I took advantage of it, and had my first full on American meal in a long time: a burger and fries. It was actually quite good. The only downfall was that the ketchup was too sweet, but otherwise I was a happy camper with my German beer to go along with it.

The fact that I hadn't had anything like since we moved here is probably also why I've lost a lot of weight over the last month. That and all the walking around everywhere, everyday.

Hofburg Palace

Today we toured the Hofburg Palace, which is  the normal home for the Hapsburg's, which was also quite impressive. As part of the walk through, there was a museum on "Sissi", the wife of the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph who he married when she was 15. Being confined with all the royal trappings made her depressed, so she kind of just went on her own and traveled around a lot. One of the things they showed though is that she was 5'8", but had a 20" waist which on the dresses they showed was ridiculous looking.

We tried to go to the armory and treasury (where they keep all the jewels) but they were closed for what I presume was Veteran's Day. It's a national holiday in France which is why I had the day off to do this, and we saw a military formation in a square today in Vienna. The sign was all in German so I don't know exactly why they were closed, and they're closed tomorrow too, so we'll just have to come back sometime later. We really did enjoy the city, and definitely recommend a visit.

Schönbrunn Palace

Today we visited the Schönbrunn Palace, which is the "summer home" for the Hapsburgs. It's apparently like the Versailles of Vienna (which is some place we haven't been yet). The outer building is kind of boring, but the inside was definitely fit for a king, and very very large (some 1,441 rooms). There weren't any photos allowed inside unfortunately, but Kara and I danced in the main ballroom to some imaginary waltz. It was also the site where Kennedy met Khrushchev. Afterwards we wandered the grounds some, though as it was the middle of November most of the gardens were dead. I'm sure it looks much prettier in the summer.

We then explored the carriages the royal family used, which was neat. We both really like museums which is handy, and we typically read every sign so it takes a while, but I find it fascinating to learn about history with the historical objects all around you. There are all kind of museums, including one on art fakes that we unfortunately ran out of time to see.

Then we went to the Belvedere Palace. It's now converted into an art museum. I'm not a big fan of old paintings of landscapes and portraits (the one type of museum we both don't like), so we didn't spend a lot of time here, but the view of Vienna from the "party room" was spectacular.

Food Poisoning

Fun with food poisoning! We didn't get out of the apartment until late, and unfortunately the pizza I had then had (yeah, I had to get some more) must have been sitting out too long. Luckily it wasn't the "I think I'm going to die" kind, but it was bad enough to keep us from going back out for the rest of the day so I don't have to keep finding a bathroom. So today was pretty much shot unfortunately. Though for what it's worth, since you actually have to pay to use the toilets here (as is common in a lot of European countries) public bathrooms are generally pretty clean. There's literally a person at a little desk or kiosk that takes your .50 euro to go pee.

Also when I went to try to find some Pepto Bismo (or the European equivalent), the pharmacy gave us Carbo. Which is literally just little tablets of charcoal (ie Carbon). Digging into it more, it's a common remedy in Europe for stomach issues, since it's very absorbent. It did seem to work fairly well all in all actually, though it tastes pretty bad and left my mouth with black smudges if I didn't clean properly enough.

Vienna Street Food

Got to meet some more people today, and then went back to Vienna in the evening. It was the same driver as last time, with the same insane driving. After meeting Kara at the apartment we rented out (so much bigger and nicer than a hotel for half the cost!) we took the tram to the city center and walked around some. Unfortunately all the museums close around 6pm, and the stores shortly there after, so there wasn't a lot to see and do beyond that.

However I was finally able to get some "real" pizza. In Paris there are pizza places, but finding a simple pepperoni+cheese slice isn't trivial and it just tastes and looks kind of different. And most bizarrely at all isn't sliced, you eat it with a fork and knife. But here they have giant thin slices you eat with your hands from a take-away food place. It's marvellous. In fact, that there actually are plentiful and cheap (aka normal US priced) street food is pretty amazing after living in Paris the last month. That's been one of the more disappointing things about central Paris is how hard it is to find cheap-ish food, since there's lots of cafes where you can drop 20€ on a main course, but even the crepes are 5-7€. Here a slice of pizza is 3€, a kebab box is 3.50€. It's great!

Beer Spa

Today I learned a lot about of amazing motor control solutions, and also ate some more delicious Czceh food. Then after work went for dinner and a pub tour to sample a bunch of Czech beers.

One of the interesting things at the bar though was that they do beer spa baths too. Like you literally drink beer while soaking in a tub of beer. The health benefits of beer have been a common theme when Czech's discuss beer, as it's seen as almost a health food. Obviously bad in moderation, but almost necessary for good health to have some every day. They talk about all the vitamins and minerals in it. It's a complete opposite beer culture in the US.

Also breakfast at the hotel is terrible.

Vienna and Czech

Today we flew to Vienna! It's the closest major airport to our Czech offices (though it's still a 3 hour taxi ride away). Kara's staying there while I'm traveling so she can go to some of the museums. The security process at CDG was interesting as while you can keep on your shoes, they made me take out not only my laptop, but all my other electronics as well. And I carry a lot of electronics (laptop, kindle, tablet, DSLR, pocket camera, chargers, it adds up!). So that was a bit of a hassle.

The taxi ride was also interesting, as I got to enter/drive through a new country, Slovakia. The taxi driver was also kind of insane and incredibly fast, passing everything in sight on two lane roads. But I made it in one piece! The hotel was pretty straight forward, though the internet access was really really terrible. Constant timeouts and DNS names not resolving. I had planned on posting all this while there, but that didn't end up happening.

I also finally got to meet in person some of my fellow engineers I've worked with over the years. I'm a big believer in having face to face communication and meetings, since I've found it can make a really big difference in later interactions. And so I was glad to put some faces to names.

They also took me out to eat, and I have to say, I do really like Czech food. It's very hearty but not that healthy, so that's probably not that good of a thing, but when a meal is mostly meat, sauce, and bread dumplings, I'm happy. The beer is also very very good, and they introduced me to plum brandy. That is not so good, though they kept telling me that it's recommended by doctors to do a shot every morning for good health. Though you can't drive afterwards, as the drunk driving laws are extremely strict (nothing above 0.00 allowed) so there's no such thing as "just a beer" if you're going to drive. And people complain about the ones in the US.