March 9 - 15, 2009

Monday:  It’s a cloudy, but warm day.  We decided to go to back to the 13eme to buy some staples.  We seem to be going through a lot more food and staples in the house.  Probably because the apartment has a nice enough kitchen that I actually enjoy going to the markets and cooking dinner.  Whereas when we were in Montmarte, even though the kitchen was adequate, it just wasn’t fun cooking, so we went out to eat a lot.  We’re averaging eating out about once or twice a week, so that’s good for the old pocket book.

The 13eme has the largest Champion market in Paris.  Champion is owned by Carrefour so the prices are really good.  We did our shopping and lugged it back on the metro to our apartment.  Since it was a crappy day, we decided to have a quiet evening at home.


Tuesday:  It’s been switching between sun and rain.  Is Spring close by? Who knows?  We were invited over to Mehran and Christophe’s apartment for dinner tonight.  I wanted to buy a little gift.  I’m starting to understand the French concept of buying things at your favorite store or specialty shop versus one-stop shopping in the U.S.  Since we have metro passes we went back to the Monceau Florist, it’s out of the way, but well worth it. Bought a beautiful orchid and decided to head back home.  Wanted to stop by the Naturalia store, which is a health food chain and we have one around the corner from where we live.  Apparently, they sell high gluten flour.  So, went in and they didn’t have the gluten number on the packages, so I just made a guess based on the picture.  As soon as we step out of the store, what should happen, it’s raining pretty heavy.  So, we hauled ass.

After doing some chores around the house, we left to go to Mehran/Christophe’s apartment.  They are on the 13 metro line, and it is one of the busiest lines in Paris.  They technically do not live in Paris, but in a suburb called Saint Ouen.  Got to the metro and it was packed.  We were already running late, so we squished into the train.  So, what should happen after we got on the train, they had a mini-brown out in the metro.  No electricity, imagine that?  They left the metro doors open, and more people starting squeezing wherever they could find a place.  One woman was carrying her baby and just forced her way in.  I would never do that.  That poor baby could get suffocated to death, oh well.  I got pushed up against a young man so tight, that I could tell what religion he was.  That had to have been one my worst experiences on Paris metro I’ve ever had.  I’ve had a few of those instances in San Francisco, and the difference is that the French are more polite about trying to make room.

After what seemed an eternity, we took off.  The poor young man I was butt up against, literally, was feeling very uncomfortable with our new found intimacy.  So when we got to the next station, he squeezed his way out.  I took his place and a woman took my place.  She was pushed up against me so tight, you could ask me the question, are they real or fake? and I could answer pretty accurately.  Imagine that?

Finally we got to the Mairie de Saint Quen and it was such a relief to get out that Metro station.  We got to Mehran’s apartment and we were a good 45-minutes late.  He was the only there, Christophe was unexpectedly called into work and would not be back until around 10 pm.  It was sort of funny, Mehran had invited several other people, but we were the only ones who could make it.  And, he also told me that my new favorite florist is a chain, and they’re all over town, who knew? 

We first had apéros, and close to 10 we started dinner.  Christophe came just in time and we had a wonderful meal of grilled prawns for an entrée, and Choucroute (sauerkraut with various meats and sausages) for our plat, then a salad, cheese course and since it was after midnight and did not want to miss the train, we had our dessert to go.

Train was less crowded and getting home was uneventful.  Thank Buddha!

Wednesday:  Yveline our friend and Jack’s French tutor is coming over tonight to give Jack his French lesson and afterwards I will give Yveline a cooking lesson in Asian style cooking. Fair exchange, n’est pas?  In preparation for the cooking class we went out to do some shopping.  Went back to the “old Chinatown” around the corner, and I saw a wok for €12.80.  I didn’t check to see if it was a round bottom wok or a flat bottom until I got home.  As we checked out the woman punched in €9 for my wok, wow, even a better deal.

Got home unloaded the food and decided to start seasoning my wok.  Since it has a wooden handle, I couldn’t season it in the oven so had to depend on the cook top.  As I put the wok on the cook top I realized it’s a round bottom, and I’m trying to season it on a flat bottom electric stove top.  Talk about juggling.  None-the-less I was able to successfully season it, but I’ll need to buy a ring bottom.  There are some apartments in Paris that still have gas.  But there’s a big push to go all electric.  Less of a fire hazard.

Speaking of fire hazard, my guess would be Paris is ripe for a big fire.  It’s not common for people to have smoke alarms.  Also, apartments here do not have fire escapes.  And, even though the buildings aren’t tall, I still would not like to jump out of 6-story window.  So, that’s a consideration whenever we look at apartment.  Is it close enough to the ground that if I jump out the window, my fat will cushion the blow?  A few years ago there was a big fire, and it was a disaster.  People were trapped in the apartment.

Yveline came over at 6 pm and she and Jack were franchaying, while I played on the computer.  Afterwards, I taught Yveline to make fresh rolls and fried egg rolls (lumpia).  Then we ate what we made.  I was franchaying too, since Yveline speaks no English.

It was definitely a low key day.

Thursday:  Cloudy day.  We’re supposed to have apéros here with Carine and her new boyfriend Ludovic.  I’m a little anxious about this, since Carine is our good friend’s ex-wife and going through a very messy divorce and this is the first time we’ll be seeing her with a new beau, so we’ll see.

Didn’t do anything today, since it’s cloudy.  At 8 pm Carine and Ludovic came and initially it was strange, but afterwards it became easier.  I was ready to hate Ludovic, but he really is a nice man, who knew?

At about 9 pm we decided to head out to dinner.  Carine remembered a cous-cous restaurant she liked close by, so we decided to head out that way. When we got there, the restaurant was no longer there, and was replaced with some type of lounge bar.  So, I asked them if they were feeling adventurous and would they like to try a Russian restaurant.  There’s this Russian restaurant we walk by all the time by Rue Montorgueil.  Got there and it is really cute. Forgot my camera, wouldn’t you know it.  Really, really tiny restaurant.  Walls had original stone bricks and it was decorated like a cute little Russian doll house.  There was only one other couple in the Russian, Thank Buddha, ‘cause otherwise it would have been too noisy and too cramped.  Jack and I are somewhat familiar with Russian food since we have Russian and Ukrainian friends that have cooked for us.  So, we ordered food that we thought would be traditionally Russian.  Started with Borscht, Piroshkis, and beef stroganoff.  The maitre’d was a really nice friendly guy. Very talkative, in both English and French.  His Mom is the cook.  I wanted so badly to like this restaurant cause it really is cute and they’re so friendly.  The Borscht was really watery and thin.  We asked him where the beets were.  Apparently, Borscht just means a “stew or soup” and where he’s from it’s vegetable soup.  He also told us that Russians don’t eat cold soup.  I told him I don’t like cold borscht and have only had it warm, but with lots of beets, oh well.  The piroshkis were very rubbery, and the beef stroganoff, you could literally ask the question, “Where’s the beef?”  The food was just bland and dull.  Talk about bad home made meal by maman.   I felt really felt bad ‘cause maman came out to talk to us, oh well—I would have to be a food critic!

We had fun none-the-less.  Ludovic and Carine had to work the next day, so we called it a night at midnight. 

Friday:  Nice sunny day, who knew?  We’re not familiar with the 5eme so we decided to check out this area.  Part of the 5eme is known as the Latin quarters, and we do not particularly care for that area because it’s so touristy.  But we wanted to check the area around the Université de Paris, Sorbonne, which is also in the 5eme.  Got to the Sorbonne, and the university buildings are spread throughout that part of the city.  We apparently had just missed a big protest, thank Buddha, but there were still a lot of police all around the university.  The area is actually quite beautiful, with beautiful architecture.  As we were walking, we headed towards the Pantheon and around that area.  The area is beautiful, but I have some reservations about living in this area.  It is a university town, hence full of young people, so I’m thinking the week-ends are probably going to be party central and extremely noisy, oh well.

We continued our walk and found our way to the 14eme (Montparnasse) by accident.  Came across a fountain that was actually working, so we sat in the park to enjoy the fountain.  Paris has a few fountains, but not as many as they have in Italy.  Then I realized all that rustling water made me want to go to the bathroom, so we saw one of those porta potties, and what luck, it was out-of-order.  So, we decided to head back home on the bus.  On our way, we decided to drop by our friend Tracy’s office.  Got off close to the Seine and almost every block had flowers for sale.  So, after sneezing my way through the maize of flowers, we got to Tracy’s office, but she had already left.  We decided to head home, and was glad to see a bathroom.

Tracy called, and she just had an MRI to check why she’s having shoulder problems.  She asked if we wanted to go out to dinner, said sure, she came by about 7:30 pm.  Tracy got here and she and Jack are trying to translate her medical records, bonne chance!  Then they decided they didn’t want to go out and I should rustle up some food, so I did.  45-minutes later we had a Larb salad with turkey and lumpia, and a shrimp dish with rice, followed by a yummy dessert that Jack had bought earlier.

Had a fun evening with Tracy.

Saturday:  Tonight is our friend Vanya’s birthday party.  So, we went out to find a birthday gift for him.  I told Jack let’s go out and buy some cigars since that’s what he smokes.  Jack said, he hates cigars and I had to remind him it’s not for him.  So after lunch we strolled down to Rue St. Honoré.  Got to the store, and it’s actually very, very close to the Palais Royale where we have our summer picnics.  Got to the cigar store, and they had an incredible selection.  I guess they would since it is a cigar store.  The prices were unbelievable.  Imagine paying €40 for one Cuban cigar.  No, we did not buy that, but a lesser cigar from the Dominican Republic.  Satisfied that we were able to find a gift we now had to find a birthday card.  As I mentioned, Paris is not a one-stop shopping area, so we’re looking for a card shop.  So, we walked around the Palais Royale shopping area and I saw a mannequin with the most interesting wedding dress.  See picture below. Yes, those are pasties. Inquiring minds want to know, how do you lift and separate in that?  And, do they use super glue?

Afterwards we came across a Monoprix, and we were able to find a card.  To reward ourselves, we decided to go across the street and have a snack at the Galleries Lafayette.  I love their food court.

Got to the food court and I decided since I am on a diet and trying to cut down on pastries, why don’t I have a cheese plate instead.  Is that brilliant or what? So Jack got a Napoleon and I got a huge cheese plate, with lots of tiny baguettes, yum-yum.

We were beat from all the walking so decided to return to the apartment to rest a bit before going to Vanya’s birthday party.

At around 8 pm we headed out to the 15eme where Vanya and his girlfriend Laurence live.  We were the last one’s to arrive, imagine that.  Vanya introduced us to his friends, they were all really nice and very accomplished.  Their friend Victor and Vanya kept saying hold on and we’ll have the mageetous ready. I thought it was something French, so not to be impolite, I said OK.  So, we sat down and I decided to go to the kitchen where Victor was and he was mixing a concoction that looked familiar, and he kept saying mageetous, then it finally hit me, he meant to say “mojitos” J in French is pronounced G, and G is pronounced J, go figure?  So we started drinking the mojitos, they were good so I chugged them down like lemonade since it was so warm inside the apartment.  Then we started on the wine.  As we were drinking, and I’m listening to all the French around me, I remembered a really funny Steve Martin quote, “Boy, those French, they have a different word for everything!”

When the French have meals, they want to be comfortable.  So, buffets are NOT common here at all. It will always be a sit-down.   It is not uncommon if you run into a friend and s/he is having a dinner party and will say to you, “…I would love to have you over for dinner tonight, but I just don’t have the room…” and believe it or not it’s not considered rude to say that.

So, all of us were sat at a makeshift long table squeezed very tightly, but fun.  We started with foie gras and toast, and believe it or not followed by a large pot of Chili con carne, who knew? Then a cheese course followed by dessert.   The French will always offer you cheese after a meal.  So, this was definitely a low cholesterol dinner!

Had tons of fun.  Vanya and Vincent are both film directors.  So, I told them if they ever need to find a young leading romantic man, they need look no further than me, but I don’t do nudes… That got a few laughs, go figure?

We left at about 12:30 am in fear that we might miss our train.  It’s a Saturday night and the last trains are just before 2 am, and typically packed because everyone is trying to get home before it shuts down.  It’s actually a status symbol to go home after 2 am via cab.  My question is, who are they trying to impress, the cab driver?

The metro was packed as expected.  Got home and I fell fast asleep. Had a wonderful evening.

Sunday:  Jack has his French tutoring today in Maisons-Alfort with Yveline. It’s a sunny day today, so Yveline and Jack will be doing a walking a tour in French.  I woke up and felt like total crap.  Tracy called Jack to see if we want to do a picnic.  I could barely get out of bed so I stayed in.  I’m wondering if I’m coming down with the flu, or worse a hangover from one too many mageetous and wine?

Jack came home about 5 pm and was exhausted from all the walking.  I stayed in with the hmmm the flu?!? I’m feeling a little bit better.   So, we stayed in and had a quiet dinner.
 

March 2 -8, 2009

Monday:  A cloudy day, oh well. We decided since we’re definitely going to be roaming around Paris to look for a new apartment, we may as well update the passes for a month. There are 5-zones in Paris.  Zones 1 and 2 covers Paris central, whereas zones 3-5 covers outside of the Paris areas and into the suburbs. We typically get the zones 1 and 2 passes.  This will cost you €55 or about $71. It’s quite costly, but the passes are extremely convenient.  Those of you coming to Paris this summer, just buy the Carnet, a package of 10 and will cost you €11.60. One ticket equals one ride, and you should hold onto them, since the Metro police spot checks for valid tickets.  They typically don’t hassle tourist, but just to be on the safe side, since some of them can be a**holes.  I know some of you will be staying in the town center, so you can actually walk to many of the sites.  Enough of my tourism spiel.

So, we got the passes and Randy had an inkling to go to Bon Marché.  As I mentioned, Bon Marché means “inexpensive store.”  How contrary to the name.  Bon Marché is one of the most expensive department stores in Paris.  We decided to check out the department store, too expensive so we headed over to the Food store, which is actually across the street from the regular department store.  I started taking pictures, and this man rudely told me to stop it.  So, I was only able to take 2-pictures for fear that he’d have the Fish Monger attack me with his machetes.  Most of the people shopping at Bon Marché are wealthy French people, ex-pats who don’t know any better like moi or rich tourists.  Surprisingly, I did buy a few things.  My only extravagance is food.  And, from the recent looks of me, I’ve been very generous, go figure. 

The French have this incredible collection of salts or sels.  I found a package of Sel de Mer fumé, smoked sea salt, who knew?  Plus I bought some fond.  Fond is the scrapings from the pan of sautéed meat or chicken and is used to make sauce, or as we know in the States “gravy.”  I’ve never seen this in the States, so I plan on bringing a suitcase full when I return to the U.S. I’ll tell you later how customs will react to that.

After an exciting couple of hours at Bon Marché we headed out to La Defénse.  I did notice on the metro a lot of skinny tall girls. I had heard that France is going through a “fat” problem where teenage girls are becoming obese.  Then I realized later, it’s Fashion Week, so there are hoards of skinny models roaming around the city, who knew?  

We had to buy some other basics at Auchan, the large grocery store in La Défense.  All this shopping made us so tired, so we decided to stop and have some pastries to regain our strength. Like I said, I don’t skimp when it comes to food.  Plus I hate to go shopping on an empty stomach, you tend to over buy.

Went to Auchan, did our shopping then rushed home because of the perishables we bought.  We figured this week would be a bad week to go out for dinner since it is Fashion week.  Plus I have nothing to wear…  Had a quiet evening in.

Tuesday:  We’re supposed to have dinner with our friend Léandre’s ex-wife Carine tonight, how weird is that? so we wanted to make sure we return home by 6 pm.  But it was a nice day, so we decided to check out the other sections of the 12eme to possibly live.  Got to the San Mandé area just outside of the 12eme, what a lovely area.  Really wide streets, cute stores and restaurants.  But I heard this area’s a bit pricey.  You’d think we’d be jaded at this point of having lived in Paris, but even though the neighborhoods basically look alike, there’s a “feel” to certain areas.  Let me give you an example: some places feel dangerous like they want to rob and pillage you and other’s feel like they don’t want you in their neighborhoods, and others are quaint and nice.  This was quaint and nice.  We roamed around a bit and decided to take the bus to “Nation”, another area we wanted to check.  Nation is in the 12eme, but borders the 17eme, 11eme and the 20eme, who knew?  It’s a large arrondissement (district) with busy streets, lots of shops and also large department stores. It’s a lively working class arrondissement.  It’s a potential place to live, but my only dislike is that it’s too busy and crowded.  We had to go to the bathroom and I didn’t feel like spending another €20 to go to a café so we went into Au Printemps, a large department store like Macys.  Afterwards, we decided to window shop in case we need to buy some things for our apartment. 

Normally, I don’t like taking the buses because they take so long and are always so crowded, but in the winter, they’re not so bad, who knew?  So, we decided to head towards the Républic and took the bus there.  It was getting close to 6, so we needed to return to meet Carine.

Got home, and we were both beat from all the walking.  We had walked quite a bit, so we took a quick nap.  Got up at 8:30 pm and still hadn’t heard from Carine.  We later got a call that she was stuck at work and we would have to reschedule, oh well.  So we stayed in and had another quiet evening at home. 

Wednesday:  It rained last night, and was quite wet outside.  We decided we weren’t going to let the rain deter us from going out, so we went to Carrefour, it’s like a very large Super Target, out at one of the suburbs, Montrueil.   It is really cold today, plus no sun, so it made it feel even colder.  Got to Porte Montrueil, and Carrefour was amazing.  The prices are wonderful.  And, the food section is great.  They package their food so well and in such an eye appealing way.

Jack and I never shop for the same things, so we agreed that we’d meet up in an hour.  I started roaming around and went to the Seafood section.  The Fish Monger was originally from the Philippines, but lived in Paris the past 17-years.  I think he must’ve moved here when he was in his early teens, because his French is excellent.  He was so nice and helpful, how un-French, but then again he isn’t.  He was the only employee joking around with his customers and just having fun.  I’m sure the French thought he was fou (crazy).  I asked him if he liked living in Paris, and surprisingly he said, no, he preferred the States, go figure?  People were constantly trying to interrupt us, how rude, he just didn’t acknowledge them, so in some ways, he acted very French.  He gave me some free samples of prawns and advised me on what fish to buy.  So, I told him I would only buy fish from him in the future.  So we became buddies.

After chatting with him longer than I should’ve, I met up with Jack and we finished shopping.  We had bought too much and we would have to carry the food home.  I may have mentioned this already, but a lot of French people lug around little roller luggages.  At first you think, wow they sure travel a lot, but then you learn that many use them to schlep things around.  In fact, I saw a man open up his luggage and stick his groceries in it.  Now why didn’t I think of that?  Jack and I probably have the strongest arms and shoulders from all the carrying we’ve been doing.  Wouldn’t you know it, as we’re leaving Carrefour it starts to rain/snow, so we hauled ass to the Metro station.  Today is Wednesday, and on Wednesdays there is no school.  They split their school week, and I had forgotten about that, so the Metro was PACKED.  Here’s Jack and I carrying huge grocery bags on the metro.  It was not pretty.  I forced myself to a seat and didn’t care how I got there, I must’ve banged my shopping bag across some heads, but I didn’t care.

Got home and was too exhausted from all of today’s excitement, so we stayed home and had some fish and shrimp that I bought from the Fish Monger.

Thursday:  Got up unusually late. Jack had to do some errands, go to the Post office etc.  I stayed in.  Jack came back and said he dropped by the Healthcare Department to check to see if his card works.  It worked, but they still had me in their system as Diaz (first name) and Randy (last name).  The counselor did tell us earlier that it would take a long time to correct and for me to get my own card, but how hard can it be to update my name? go figure?  As I mentioned, the healthcare system is incredible here.  Their philosophy is preventive medicine is good medicine, and a healthy country is a successful country.  What a concept. I still haven’t found a primary doctor. As some of you know I am very “descriptive” about my ailments.  And, some of you have even called me a hypochondriac, well maybe I am a little bit.  So, I would like to find a doctor who speaks relatively good English.  Jack’s doctor’s English isn’t that great, and with my French, my fear is If I go in for a hang nail and find out later I’m asking for a hysterectomy, that’s not good, even for a hypochondriac.  So, rather than looking in the yellow pages, I’ve decided to check around with friends a bit more.

While I was waiting for Jack I noticed it was particularly busy today.  As with most streets in Paris, the streets are narrow and only allow one car to drive through.  It is not unusual for a loading truck to park, do his business and have a line of cars waiting behind him.  And, surprisingly the people waiting are very patient.  But sometimes, when the driver decides to take a coffee break in the middle of the street, this pisses off the people behind him, so they start honking, totally understandable.  And, that’s exactly what happened behind the apartment.  People were honking like crazy, what a surprise?

The weather was weird, so I took a quick nap, and when I woke up realized it was late, so we stayed in without even knowing it.  Oh well.

Friday:   We decided to go to the Château Vincennes today.  Been to the park (Bois) in the summer, but never in the Chateau.  So, we decide to walk to the Hôtel de Ville metro stop since it was a beautiful sunny day.  As we got closer to the Hôtel de Ville, we noticed a huge line for 2 blocks.  I told Jack, wow look at the line to go see the “MILK” premiere, which was on that line, but as we got to the movie theater, we noticed the line wrapped around by the department store BHV.  Apparently there was a casting call for models.  Well in my fantasy, I decided I wanted to try out since I use to be a fashionista.  Got in line and they kept saying, “suivant, suivant” I’m hearing svelt, svelt, I have lost a little weight lately from all the walking, but suivant means next, oh well.  I guess I won’t be gracing their magazine with my presence, and if they ask me in the future I will have to say non merci, you had your chance!

Cattle call in front of BHV 


Took the metro to Château de Vincennes and you could see all the thin men and women walking all “dolled” up for fashion week.  Some of them were truly beautiful and handsome young adults, hate them!

Got to the Château de Vincennes, and the sun was out and it was just beautiful.  We wandered around the grounds and I decided if I can’t be a model for a day, I would do my own posing for the pictures…


 In order of Fashion week, our take on striking that pose

Afterwards, we went back into the town center at Les Halles and I decided we should sit at the café and watch all the models promenading.  Got to the café and we were fortunate enough to get a table in the glass enclosed room looking into the square, great spot to people watch.  Well it was sunny today, and the effects of that room was like a “green-house” I swear after sitting for 15-minutes I’m sure I grew something on my body.  So we ordered some refreshments, a quarter carafe of wine for me and pastis (Licorice liquor) for Jack and of course since I’m on a diet I decided against pastries and had a plate of French fries.  We decided rather than cook tonight we’d go out to dinner.  So we sat and really enjoyed people watching.  It’s one of the busiest pedestrian streets around in the Le Halles area.

Afterwards we left and went home.  I was a bit tipsy from the wine, so I decided to take a short take.  Well it was a lot longer than I anticipated, so we missed out on going out to dinner… oh well.


Saturday:  We decided to go to the Chinese Museum (Cernuschi) in the 8eme right next to Parc Monceau, one of my favorite parks in Paris.  Got to the museum and saw the most incredible flower shop.  It was huge and they have everything. It amazes me that even in the winter they have the most beautiful flowers at the stores and also in the parks, how do they do this?  I told Jack we’d have to come back and maybe find a gift for Sarindra.  We’re having dinner with some friend’s at Sarindra’s apartment and she’s making a special “Malagasy” dinner.  Sarindra is originally from Madagascar.

Got to the museum, and we did the whole museum (the free part) in what seems like half an hour.  It was very small.  So, we decided to take a stroll through one my favorite parks, Parc Monceau.  There was a wedding party in the Parc, the bride had really neat wedding dress, it had lots of layers and it looked like she was a swan floating.  The park was beautiful, lots of flowers in spite of the cold weather, go figure?

Beautiful bride and gown

We decided to head back to the flower shop, Monceau Fleur, what an incredible shop.  We bought a potted plant for the apartment and a orchid for Sarindra.  Headed home afterwards and walked by the Jean Claude Gautiér studio.  There were ropes all around his building and security guards up the wazoo.  Since I gave up my “model card” I didn’t dare try to go in.

Got home, took a quick nap and then we headed out to the burbs, which is the end of the 4 line.  Sarindra’s apartment, like many apartments in Paris is really tiny, but she was able to fit 6-people.   First course was a tea smoked duck, followed by a dish of tomato prawns and a dish of pork with chopped manioc leafs.  The pork reminded me a lot of lau-lau in Hawaii, which is cooked in tarot leaves.  Even had the same flavors.

Had a great time, then we headed home around midnight.  Didn’t want to chance missing the metro.  Got on the metro and it was packed.  A couple of models got on the train and they were drinking champagne out of the bottle.  How classy is that… well at least they were drinking Veuve Cliquot.  One thing I notice about the youth in Paris, they can be noisy and rowdy, but they’re always polite.  If they accidentally bang in to you they always say, pardon.  Maybe it’s just me and having seen so many wild teenagers in SF and Las Vegas, American kids are more violent. Here, their bark is louder than their bite.  If you visit Paris, let me know your thoughts about the youth.

Got home at about 1:30 am. Was pooped, so went straight to bed.

Sunday:  It’s raining.  Oh well.  Jack has his French tutoring class today, so I decided to make some scones.  Flour in Paris is very different.  They don’t have the high gluten we have in our flour in the US, so it’s trial and error for me.  FYI…, the lower the number on the package, e.g. 45, the less gluten.  Typically number 65 on the flour is equivalent to our “all purpose flour”.    I had the #45 and it came out OK, but not as dense as the scones I normally make, but it was OK, not my best.  So, next time I’ll try a higher gluten content.

Yveline came, and Jack had his lessons.  I’m listening in, and he really is doing well.  Well I guess I now have my own personal interpreter.  After his lesson, I joined in on the conversation.  Yveline loves to gossip, and being the kindred spirit, I listened.  Imagine me understanding gossip in French, how funny.

We invited Yveline out to dinner, but she had plans.  So, Jack and I went to a neighborhood Japanese restaurant for sushi.  It is unbelievable how many Japanese restaurants there are in Paris.  In the culinary world, we went through a Japanese phase a couple of years ago in SF, so I guess now it’s Paris’ turn.  Oddly enough, I had the proverbial sushi, and nori maki, but I also had yakatori (skewered meats/chicken/fish), and they gave me one with beef rolled around brie, how odd was that?  I ate it, I have to say it is a bit strange.  I think Asians cuisine should stay away from “fromage” n’est pas?

Came home, just exhausted from all the eating… 

February 23 - March 1, 2009

Monday:  Got a late start since we had a late evening last night.  Jack decided to check the mail, and what should he receive, but his “carte vitale.”  It’s official, we’re legitimately in the French healthcare system.  So we decided to go celebrate and go to the pharmacy to get his 3-month supply of blood pressure medication. How exciting.   Imagine this, in the states he would have paid 3 times what we pay in France, such a good deal.

As some of you may know, we’re trying to live in different parts of Paris to get a feel of where we eventually want to settle for the long haul.  Talk about the wandering Jew and Filipino?  We decided to update our metro passes for the week, since we want to check various neighborhoods.  We haven’t been using the metro since everything is pretty much in walking distance of where we are currently living.  So we decided to check out suburb on a metro line called “Villejuif” which literally means “Jewish Village.”  Jack would definitely feel comfortable in this neighborhood we thought.  So, we took the metro to Saint Lazare to transfer to another metro.  I guess I had too much coffee this morning and so I had to go to the bathroom.  Got to the bathroom, and believe it or not, you pay for what you’re going to do, so it’s 50-centimes to do #1 and €1 to go #2, how weird is that?  Well it least it beats paying €22 for drinks at a café.  Afterwards, we got on the Metro 7 to the end of the line.  What a disappointment, it was like a really bad ugly looking Portland, Oregon in the winter.  There was nothing quaint about it, so we left.  Then Jack wanted me to see the 14eme where he was the other day.  What a difference.  It was such a beautiful area.  Large streets, wide sidewalks and quite quaint.  This is my favorite new neighborhood.  Our Parisien friends told us that to save money, Paris has decided to only clean the sidewalks daily in tourist areas, e.g., Le Marais (where we live), Montmarte etc.  The less tourist areas would only be washed down  once a week, guess which neighborhood I was in where I got my second French souvenir (dog sh*t), if you guessed the 14eme you’d be right.  Ah Merde!, literally.

Stopped at one of the local cafes and sat and watched people for a while, plus I had to go to the bathroom, always a good excuse to get some wine, n’est pas?  After another €20 plus to go to the bathroom, I gotta start finding a bush!  But it’s so much more fun going to cafés n’est pas?  FYI…, you’ll see a lot of those portable pottys like you see in SF; unfortunately, they never seem to work.  It’s a conspiracy, I tell you!

I had a craving for roast chicken, so we went to our local grocery store.  Do you think they have whole chicken, no.  So we went across the street to another grocery store, and fortunately they had chicken.  So we came home, had roast chicken and called it a night.

Tuesday:  Using an apartment listing, we decided to check out apartments in other parts of Paris.  First on our list was Port de Clichy.  We were told it’s an up and coming area and the rents are fairly cheap.  Got there, HATED it!  Nothing quaint or appealing about that area.  My friend Monika said something interesting the other day, she said, she’d rather live in a shoebox apartment but a nice area, then a mansion in a really ugly area.  I tend to agree.  Especially since Parisiens entertain outside the home, and not typically in the home, since homes are so small.

So, onto the next stop, we headed to Rue de Musset in the 16eme.  The 16eme is the “Beverly Hills” of Paris.  LOVED IT, what a surprise.  You know when you’re in the 16eme, ‘because the few panhandlers that panhandle will ask for a €1 rather than a centime.  It’s further out and is definitely residential, but they do have quaint streets and fancy shops.  We saw an apartment in an area we liked, but thought it might be too far from the city, but we kept this area on our short list.

Then we headed to the area around Rue de Passy.  LOVED IT.  It’s still in the 16eme, but a tad closer into downtown.  They had the most quaint shops, boutiques and unique grocery stores ever.  It’s a bit more upscale, so if we lived there, I’d have get a little more dressy, or the neighborhood might not let brown trash in.  So, this is area is on our list as well, assuming we can afford the rents.

Then we realized it was getting close to meeting a friend, an ex-pat who retired in Paris.  Ted lives in the 16eme, so it was fairly close.  Got there and he lives in a huge apartment complex.  Even though it was huge, it was really quiet.  He lived on the 5th floor.  Thank God he had an elevator.  Lots of apartments in Paris are walk-ups, and whenever I see an apartment for rent that looks beautiful, but a 6th floor walk-up, guess what my answer is?

Our ex-pat friend, Ted is a lovely older gentlemen. Shortly after we arrived our mutual friend Mehran joined us. Ted has one of the cutest well decorated apartments I’ve ever seen.  I just assumed he got some really nice French reproduction furniture, but they turned out to be real antiques.  Well whenever I hear this, I close up like a turtle afraid to touch anything, since I am known to be a klutz.  Thankfully, I didn’t break anything. 

We had some champagne and apéros.  Lovely evening.  Ted and Mehran had plans after the apéros, so Jack and I returned to our neighborhood.  We decided to go to a restaurant in Tiquetonne area of the 2eme called Au Clair de Lune, a Moroccan restaurant we’ve been wanting to try, since we walk by it all the time.

We found a gem.  The food was really, really good.  For our entrée, I had the mussels in a wine and garlic sauce, and Jack had a tomato mimosa salad.  It was excellent.  However, the serving sizes could have been a whole meal.  We sorta regretted that we had ordered tagines for our “plat” to follow.  Jack ordered a fish tagine, and I had the mutton tagine.  Looking back I wish we had split an entrée.  And, since there’s no such thing as a “doggy-bag” we forced ourselves to eat the tagines.  They were fabulous!  Way too much food though.  Oh well, we decided to forgo the dessert.

After the heavy meal, we literally rolled home…

Wednesday:  Decided to check some more apartments today. Went to La Chapelle area close to “Little India.”  HATED IT!  Jack had a tutoring lesson at 5 pm, and it was about 4 pm when we got to the area.  So, Jack headed out to the suburb, and I would join them later for dinner.

So, I continued on to Belleville to do some food shopping at a Chinese Market, then I went home and took a quick nap.  At about 6:30 I headed out to Maisons-Alforts, where Yveline and Léandre live.  Some of the metro lines actually go out to the suburbs, thankfully, Metro 8 went out to their suburb.  It took 45-minutes on the metro from the le Marais, so it was quite a schlep.

As I arrived at Maisons-Alforts, I noticed it was definitely residential.  Lots of single family homes and a few apartments, but mostly single family homes, what a surprise.  I had to walk a couple of blocks to Yveline’s apartment, but I managed to find it.  She lives in a very modern apartment on the 8th floor, and as luck would have it they have an elevator.  Thank you Buddha!.  Got up there, and Léandre was busy making a traditional French dinner, Pot-au-Feu (Pot on fire).  It’s like a beef stew, but with chunks of beef, and whole vegetables rather than chopped vegetables, minus the tomato and thickened broth.

We had some apéros, then had a fantastic paté that their father made of duck and foie gras, lucky me.  It was yum, yum good.  Then we had the Pot-au-feu with various mustards.  The French have such an incredible variety of mustards I can’t even begin to tell you. Then we had the proverbial different French cheeses before dessert.  For dessert, Yveline made a apricot tart.  The evening was loads of fun.  For my readers out there visiting France, it’s very rare that you get invited into French people’s home, so if you ever get a invitation while in France, you are very special indeed and I suggest you accept and cancel all any conflicting event.

Since the metro closes on week-days at about quarter to 1 am, and we had to connect we decided to leave at 11:30 pm.  Léandre walked us to the metro for the exercise, then we headed home.  It was a nice evening, “tout à fait”

Thursday:  Very, very cold today.  Methinks I want to stay in, but gotta go shopping since we have friends coming over for dinner tomorrow night.  But before we go shopping we decided to check out another apartment, this time along the Canal St. Martin.  So, we took the metro to the Gare de l’Est.  It’s a really nice area right along the canal.  I could see living there.  So, we put it on our short list.  We returned home to check on that particular apartment; unfortunately, it would not be available until July, and we need one starting May.  Oh well.

Jack and I went back out and went to the “old Chinatown”.  As I was ordering some pork ribs the guy behind the butcher counter kept asking me something, but I didn’t understand him, ‘cause of his heavy Chinese accent, but Jack did.  He was asking me if I wanted to whole slab or part of it.  So, I guess Jack’s tutoring is working.

Returned home and gotta call from our Malagasy friend Sarinda inviting us to her house next Saturday for Malagasy food.  Wow, I’m excited, we’ve been to Madagascar before, but all I recall having was fries and some type of grilled meat.  So, this will be an adventure for me.

It was really cold tonight so we just stayed in, had an early dinner, 8 pm and called it a day since I will be busy cooking tomorrow.

Friday:  A friend of ours has a new boyfriend and has decided she wants to move in with him.  She owns an apartment on the outskirts of Chinatown close to the Olympiad Metro station, and wants us to consider renting it long term.  I never really think of Chinatown as an area I’d want to live, I think of it more as a place to shop and eat.  But we decided to explore the area and I kept an open mind.  Got there and I was pleasantly surprised.  It’s a little more residential. Nice shops and stores and far enough away from the hustle and bustle of the center of Chinatown.  But close enough that if I need to go to the Asian market it’s 2 bus-stops away.  How cool is that….  So, this was a pleasant surprise.  She wasn’t home, she’s in Reunion Islands for a winter break, so we have to wait until she returns after the March 11 to see the interior.  It’s a very modern building, but nice and it also comes with a garage.  I doubt we’ll get a car, try driving in Paris and you’ll understand.

We’re having an ex-pat dinner tonight, so I needed to get a few more items from the Market and it was a good test to see how far the center of Chinatown is from our friend’s apartment.  It was a quick hop, skip, and a jump (2-bus stops) and we were there.  Went to my favorite store called, “The Big” store.  I find it amazing that a lot of the Asian markets have weird American names, oh well.  Now they say the French are mean and rude, try going into Chinatown in Paris, and I bet you’ll find a group even more rude and mean, they make the French seem down right friendly.  Got the stuff I needed and got into line.  A French woman in front of me got into an argument with the check out clerk.  She was questioning why she was charged higher than the actual price, legitimate, no?  Well this clerk was the rudest thing.  It finally got settled by a couple of centimes, was it worth the fight? Then it was my turn.  She gave me this nasty motion to put my stuff on the counter, didn’t say a word to me, and I refused to acknowledge her.  Two bitches at a stand still, let’s see who wins.  Got our stuff through, and Jack dealt with paying for it, because I refused to talk to her.  She just went on to the next customer and completely ignored us, how rude!  I call it a draw though, since I ignored her as well.  I’m debating if I want to go back to this store in the future, but I’ll probably get the same treatment at other Asian stores, and true to form I did.

Got home and I seem to always be forgetting something.  So, I went to the Chinatown 3-blocks from us, and what is today, Bitch day or what.  I’m going through the isles and no-one is moving so at first I was polite and saying “pardon” they just ignored me, tried to be polite once and I just gave up, so I just shoved my way through everything and every one, like every one else was doing.  And, it worked, go figure?  Like they always say, do as the Roman’s do, in my case it was do as the Chinese do, and I’m part Chinese, who knew?

Finally, got what I needed and went home and started cooking.  Mehran came a little early because he wanted me to teach him basic Asian cooking styles.  I made some of the dishes ahead (e.g., egg rolls) or otherwise dinner wouldn’t be ready til midnight.  So, He helped me make the rice paper wraps.  Aldo and Tracy arrived and what a nice surprise, she made a carrot cake for dessert. 

After cooking and having a few drinks, our friend Ted came.  Michelle was supposed to come with Beray her friend from Turkey, who helped us last year by giving us some tips when we were in Istanbul last September.  Unfortunately, Beray’s  baby sitter didn’t show up, so she came solo.

We had a great time, and unlike French dinners, ex-pats usually call it a night no later than midnight.

Saturday:  Our friend Tracy told us last night that today was forecasted to be sunny and warm, and it was.  We decided to check out yet another neighborhood Pont Charenton. 
We left the house literally with our winter apparel, scarf and all.  As we got out of the metro station, I was schvitzing, or for the goys out there spritzing, so I took off my scarf and unbuttoned my 50-lb jacket cause it was warm.  I thought it was way too suburban and quiet.  The suburb borders the 12eme, so we walked towards there.  The 12eme is actually a nice area.  A mix of residential and commercial, very nice blend.  Then we continued on to a suburb known as Saint Mandé, which Yveline told us was really nice, but pricey.  Got there and she was right.  What a nice place.

So, looks like we have more options again.  Paris has so many interesting different neighborhoods, you could spend a lifetime exploring it.  Even our native Parisien friends have told us they’re not all that familiar with some of the “arrondissements”.  And, as I ponder that, I thought well when I lived in SF, I was not at all familiar with any of the outlining areas, so it’s “la meme chose” (same for Parisiens).

As I mentioned I always have to go to the bathroom, go figure? But it seems the portable toilets never seem to work in Paris.  They’re always out of order, so when I do find one, it’s like let me thank Buddha now.  And, as luck would have it I found one when I needed it so I had to take a picture of it.  Personally, I think it’s a conspiracy so that people are forced to go the cafés and order something so they can use the bathroom.  And, if you go as often as I do, I think that would average out to about €100 a day, just to go to the bathroom, imagine that?  And, you get fat in the process because you always have to have an obligatory pastry, n’est pas?    

We decided since Jack had a tutoring lesson at 6 pm and I had to start cooking for another little dinner we’d head home.  So, we took the RER into Nation.  I told Jack let’s stop at this arrondissement since I’ve never really walked around it.  I think I may have mentioned that the French love to protest.  That’s part of their culture.  So, as we got out at Nation to take a peak, true to their nature there was huge protest, protesting against evictions and the high cost of living in both the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique.  It was such a nice day that we sat in the plaza and listened to the protests and at the same time enjoyed the sun.

After basking in the sun, we headed home.  Jack had his lessons, and Léandre and Sarinda were to show up for dinner at 8:30, but they didn’t arrive until after 9.  So, after a few cocktails we had dinner.  I served dinner at about quarter to 10 and we finished at about 1 am.  This is typical for a week-end dinner in Paris.

Sunday:  Nothing to report today.  Stayed in the house to do house chores, how exciting is that?

February 16 -22, 2009

Monday:  Nothing exciting to report today.  Jack insisted that I stay home and do my taxes, since my taxes have to be completed before we can file our joint state tax together.  I had such a headache after the day ended, but happy to announce I did my taxes!

Tuesday:  We decided the night before that we would get up super early, 7:30 am to get ready and go to the “Assurance Maladie” which is basically the Health Insurance Office, no later than 9 am.  Jack got an earlier request to send in his photo to finalize his “”carte vitale” which is the insurance card.  It sorta looks like a drivers license where you can use it at any medical office or pharmacy.  And, for me, they need more proof that I am his concubine.  Concubine in French means more than a friend, which means basically I have to prove that I not only live with him, but I also do his laundry (from Jack- yah, like in my dreams).  We share the same French social security number, that’s how it works here.

Got to the office at 9:00 am and surprisingly it was quite empty.  We got called immediately to one of the counselors, and on the other side of her was one of the women who helped us last year.  Since the French loved to be acknowledged and basically having their butts kissed, I said, “Bonjour, rappelez-vous nous? Ça va bien, Mademoiselle? She acknowledged with a big smile and asked if we were OK, said oui.   The counselor helping us noticed that we were chit-chatting, I don’t know if it helped our case, but we were with her less than 2-minutes.  She just wanted our documents and my birth certificate, which is odd, how does a birth certificate prove you’re “concubined?”  Oh well, you gotta love the French, they love their dossiers.

Since we thought we’d be there much longer, we had all this time to kill.  So, we decided why not go to the 13eme, the largest Paris Chinatown.  We headed over there and walked around and explored the neighborhood.  It’s not as interesting as one might expect.  It doesn’t really feel like you’re in Paris.  It almost feels as if you could be in a Chinatown anywhere in the world.  The only difference is they speak French with a Chinese accent.  Most of the Chinese restaurateurs in the 13eme are Vietnamese of Chinese ancestry.  So, it is not uncommon to see Vietnamese and Chinese menus posted in the restaurant windows, which by the way is required by French law.   FYI, all restaurants must post their menu with prices visible to the public.  Interesting, n’est pa?

Commercial building in heart of Place de Italie.



It’s about 11:30 am at this point, and one gets hungry when one doesn’t eat breakfast.  We’re looking for a place to eat, and I didn’t want Pho, since we just had some last night.  We’re wandering around, and interestingly enough, most restaurants open their doors around noon.  Oh well.  So we wandered some more and I remembered this one restaurant was always so crowded, which to me is a good sign.  What else is it, but a noodle shop. Go figure? So we went ahead and went in and Jack had Cambodian soup and I had rice with duck, which wasn’t bad.  By the time we left at about 12:30, the restaurant was packed and lines of people were waiting behind us.  FYI…, typically you have to ask for the bill, “L’addition s'il vous plaît!” however, in Chinese restaurants you will get the bill even if you didn’t ask for it.  They want to turn tables quickly. 

Took the metro back to our neighborhood, walked around a bit, and Jack wanted to relax a bit before he has his first French tutoring class with Yveline, Léandre’s sister, who happens to be a teacher and school administrator.

She arrived at about 7 pm, and I disappeared upstairs.  Jack and I refuse to do things together where we are being taught.  He learns and interacts differently than I do.  It’s like a husband teaching a wife to drive, yikes!  It’s the same principal. 

They finished about 8:30 pm.  We wanted to take her out to dinner, but she already had plans, oh well.  She’d be back Sunday and we plan to go out to dinner then…

So we had leftovers and went to bed early, since Jack was exhausted from all the mental exercising, go figure?

Wednesday:  Got started late, what a surprise.  So we didn’t get out of the house until about 2 pm.  I wanted to go to the Drogérie, which is a yarn store in Les Halles.  Went in and they really didn’t have that much of a selection, so we went down to Montorgueil to our favorite vegetable store.  On our way to the Vegetable market, where should I stumble upon by accident?  At D.Hillerin.  It only happens to be one of the most famous kitchen store in the world.  Needless to say, I got on my hands and knees to pay homage.  C’est genial.  Excuse the expression, but it was orgasmic!  You have to be a foodie to understand my excitement, go figure?

 

After having my cigarette from that experience, yes it was good for me, we headed off to the vegetable market.  Vegetables and fruits are always displayed so beautifully in markets.  But you have to be careful not to go overboard.  Unlike the US, most vegetables are “organic”, which means you must use them within 1-2 days at the most, and 3-days is pushing it.  In the US vegetables and fruits are so chemically treated that their shelf life is good for almost a week.  A hard lesson learned from last year, when I opened the fridge and found all the vegetables I bought rotten, oh well.

After we dropped off the fruit and vegetables, we went back out ‘cause I wanted to go to BHV Department store to check out their yarn.  Again, nothing interesting, so we went into the “Hommes” (mens) section.  I’ve been eyeing this scarf which is 2-toned light brown and dark brown.  When in France, do as the French do and get into scarves.  I’m much better at not being an impulse buyer, so I decided I wanted to walk around some more and check to see what else is out there.  At almost €15, it pays to compare.  No luck, Jack was hungry so I suggested we go to our favorite Falafel place on Rue de Rosier called L’As.  Got there at 3:30 and I’m thinking it’s going to be empty, WRONG!  It was packed, who knew?  So we had falafel with fries.  And, as a tribute to our friend John in Belgium, I ate my fries with mayonnaise, go figure?

Afterwards, we decided to walk around a little bit more, but it started getting chilly, so went home.  We didn’t have dinner tonight, but we had dessert instead, since we’re so much more calorie conscious then last year, yeah right?

Thursday:  Woke up and it’s a gorgeous day.  Sunny and warm.  It feels like April in Paris, or Spring time, who knew?  Paris is not known for its weather! Quelle surprise! I’m totally understanding the French mentality, when there’s just a little bit of sun out or it’s warm, they all go out in droves to take walks or sit in the parks, and we were no different. Hence, all the open cafés.   I felt like singing, which you definitely don’t want me to do. As most of you know, I’m not an outdoorsy kind of guy.  I can’t go out and explore flowers and tree trunk roots and have an enlightening experience or an epiphany. My idea of an enlightening experience is going to Nordstrom’s year-end sale, or to the Galéries Lafayette during “soldes” days, imagine that.  However, in France I actually enjoy sitting at parks and having a picnic.  I think it has a lot to do that apartments are so small here, and plus the weather plays a big factor.

Today, I decided I was going to be in control where we would take our walks.  So, we headed towards the Bastille, but first I wanted to stop at Place des Vosges, just to sit and enjoy the sun for a little bit.  As we got to the Place des Vosges, there were tons of people enjoying the sun.  And, some were even picknicking, how charming.  As we continued our walk, we saw a really fantastic antique store focusing on old instruments.  We immediately thought of our musician friends Don and Liz and had to take a picture of it.  Really fascinating interesting stuff. 

Afterwards we went to the 11eme and walked across the Pont Sully.  The furthest bridge after the Ile St. Louis.  And, what should we discover a wonderful little park that juts out into the Seine.  So, we sat there for awhile enjoying the sun.  Afterwards we walked on the Seine close to the water.  It was amazing, for winter there were quite a number of tourists in Paris.  So, I guess Paris is also a popular winter destination.

As we were walking along the Seine, I saw a gentleman feeding all the pigeons.  He had pigeons eating from his mouth, hair, and if he had any other orifice exposed, thank God he didn’t, I’m sure the pigeons would be eating from there as well.  He was a very interesting character that makes Paris what it is…, in some ways eccentric, n’est pas?

As we got closer to the Notre Dame, I told Jack I deserve a snack for all the walking we did.  We found a little café across the street from the Prefecture that had a glass enclosed area where it felt like you were outside, but were actually inside.  Surprisingly it advertised they serve American coffee?  How weird.  But we went in anyway.  Jack had a beer and a pear tart, and I had the lemon tart with coffee for €22, imagine that.  We took advantage of just people watching and then headed out towards our neighborhood.  Walked back to the BHV and I broke down and bought the scarf that I’ve been eyeing (from Jack- quelle surprise!).  Came home and had a quiet evening.

Friday:   The goddesses giveth sun and taketh away sun.  So, today it’s pretty cloudy.  Got a call from our friend Sue Nally and she was in the “hood” so we told her to come over and I would do a little lunch for us.  She was inviting us to see an exhibit about a French poet at the Hôtel de Ville.  Sue came over and we had a wonderful lunch, and I had a change of heart and decided I did not want to go to a exhibit.  So, I stayed home to catch up on my napping, and Jack and Sue went out to the Hôtel de Ville.

In actuality, Jack and Sue never made it.  There was some confusion.  Sue was supposed to meet other friends at 1:30, but she thought it would be at 2 pm.  Her friends were already at the front of the line and Sue and Jack didn’t want to cut in, ‘cause that would’ve been an ugly scene.  So, they went for a walk and later joined a discussion group at the St Germain des Pres.

In Paris they have several groups for foreigners who want to practice their French, not that they have enough chances to do that, go figure?  So Jack and Sue went to one of the discussion groups.

I caught up with my sleep, and he came home around dinner time.  He also wanted to go to bed early since he, Xavier and Sue were planning to get up super early to try and get to the Grand Palais for the public exhibition of Yves St. Laurent’s collection.  Apparently, Yves and his life partner of 50-years collected a huge amount of art in their life time.  And, knowing he has taste, it would have been impressive. Since I don’t do mornings, I begged out.

Saturday:   Another semi-cloudy day.  Got a late start, quelle surprise.  Called our friend Tracy and we made arrangements to go have drinks later that afternoon.  In the meantime, I wanted to go to the 9eme to a cute little yarn store I went into last year, but was embarrassed and walked out.  If you recall, in France you must acknowledge people by saying bonjour, ‘cause you’re entering their store which it is like entering their house.  I didn’t say bonjour, and she took offense and was kinda snippy.  Thankfully, it was a different woman and didn’t remember me.  She was extremely helpful.

As we were walking towards the 9eme, we noticed that the street called, “Rue Bonne Nouvelle” had a flea along the streets.  Flea markets are very common in Paris.  Some were junk, but some were also incredible buys.  But since I’m downsizing, I’m not buying anything….

February 9 - 15, 2009

Monday:  It’s cold and rainy.  My cold seems to be getting worse, oh well.  My American ex-pat friends are coming over for apéros around 6 pm.  Apéros are like a cocktail party with different tidbits or as we say in Hawaii pupus to eat, or like serving tapas with lots of wine before dinner.  Of course, I went overboard and made a lot of food.    As most of you know, that would not be unusual for me.  I was definitely not feeling well, but my cold was breaking, which is good news.  So I pretty much stayed in bed and slept all day while Jack went out to do a few errands like get a dessert for tonight. 

At about 4 pm I finally got out of bed and starting making some of the pupus. I was going to make a light dinner afterwards, but I made so much food, I decided we’re Americans; we don’t need to have a late dinner.  Plus Tracy fades out by 10:30 pm, how un-French, but then again we’re ‘Mericans.  Our friends arrived around 6 pm and with the exception of Aldo, we’re all ex-pats, with Michele having lived here the longest at close to 20-years.  It was sort of funny, because Aldo doesn’t really speak English and Tracy his concubine (live-in girlfriend) has been trying to encourage him to speak English, just like when we speak French.  So, tonight was reverse role play. He actually did pretty well.  I told him I would speak French, albeit badly, and he can respond in English.

Our little girl Tracy is all grown up now.  She’s a new working girl, and the legitimate kind too, had to leave relatively early by French standards at 9:30.  Aldo, of course left with her, since he was opening up his antique store as well.

Mehran and Michelle stayed on a bit longer, and we caught up some more.  We made a date that on the 21st we would all try and do dinner with the old gang.

Tuesday:  I’ve been cooped up for 2-days, and woke up and it’s raining.  So what does one do when it’s raining, typically I say go to the mall.  But the new Randy decided to get educated and told Jack let’s go to a museum.  We went to the Histoire Musee de Paris (Carnavalet) in the Marais.  It’s actually only a few blocks from here.  Looks can be deceiving, because from the outside it looks quite small, but once you get in it’s quite extensive and large.  Unlike in the summer where they don’t air-condition anything, there was no problem with the heating system, in fact it was darn right tropical.  I should have checked my 50-pound winter jacket in, but oh well, save a few Euros here and you can spend it on wine later.

Lots of paintings and sculptures from Paris’ different era.  My favorite was probably the decadent years.  It’s just so me…
 

Then walked around some more until I came across one of the fanciest baby cribs I’ve ever seen, adorned in silk and gold. It was shaped like a little ship. Imagine having a baby sh*t, spitting, puking and all the other good stuff babies do in that crib, well at least they’re doing it in style.

Wednesday:  Not a bad day, it’s alternating between the sun coming out and also being overcast.  I’m having a few friends over for dinner Friday and since I’m doing Asian this go around, I need to either go to the 13eme arrondissement (Chinatown) or Belleville.  Jack said Belleville is in walking distance of our apartment.  I’m thinking, OK I could use the exercise.  Well let me tell you, Jack’s definition of close is not my definition of close.  His definition of close is being able to hike there; my definition is 2 or 3 blocks.  It was a tad further than I expected but manageable.

When we got there close to 2 pm. (we get started late in Paris), we got really hungry.  For some reason Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) sounded really good.  Could it be because it’s freezing?  So we decided just to walk around to find an interesting Pho place.  We came across Dong Huong, at first I took a double take because it looked like “Dong Hung” with a name like that who wouldn’t want to go in, n’est pas?  It had 3-separate rooms, each with tables so tightly squeezed together a girdle couldn’t get any tighter.  It was packed, but the crowd was starting to dissipate.  We got seated next to the window, but I was smacked up against a women’s back while Jack was backed up against this really huge guy’s back, talk about talking behind someone’s back.  Fortunately, they soon left and we had the area pretty much to ourselves.  So, the trick is eat lunch later, no problem for us since we typically don’t eat lunch until 2 pm anyway.  The Pho was really good and prices reasonable, we’d definitely go back.

Afterwards, went to the Asian grocery store called, what else, “The Paris store” how original, well it least it wasn’t called “Dong Ho”.  Brought the groceries back home, and then pretty much had a quiet evening at home.


Thursday:  Sunny day, albeit very cold.  We decided we’d take a walk along the Seine and try to find where Tracy’s new office and give her a scare.  As we walked along the Seine it actually started snowing a little here and there, but did not stick.  Couldn’t find her office, I had to buy some socks so we went into CA a local department store then  Jack asked where I’d like to go, I told him Galeries Lafayette.  He said it was in walking distance; remember Jack’s definition of walking distance? Well it was more than a hike, but at least along the way we got to see some very interesting areas.  Paris has these “passages” they’re like little covered alley ways in between buildings with cute shops and restaurants.  You could actually make it a career to write a book and list all the passages they have in Paris.  We came across Passage Vivienne; it was really neat, because it was all lit up.  Not very interesting stores, just those fashion boutiques we hear so much about, where you need to take out a second mortgage to buy anything, (lol)!

Finally got to Galéries Lafayette and it was typically crowded.  We decided to have a late Lunch around 4 pm at the top floor caféteria.  I have to say that for a caféteria it has really good food.  I had a cold salad of pasta, salmon, Shrimp and mussels, imagine that?  Jack had the lox salad.

As we sat at our table, I noticed an elderly gentlemen with his dog sit next to us.  He had a heap of food on his tray you just could not imagine.  I assumed there was someone with him.  Turns out he was by himself.  He wasn’t obese or anything, but he started with this soup, then a vegetable salad, followed by chicken, then a green salad, and then cheese and then dessert, and of course lots of wine?  Wow! Imagine eating all that? I was impressed!

Afterwards, we decided to walk home, and Jack said it wasn’t too far.  Well this time he went too far, literally.  It was easily a marathon distance from Galéries Lafayette to our apartment.  By the time we got to Rue Saint Dénis I could barely walk.  What made it interesting, as you may recall from last year’s missives, this is the street where they have 70-year street walkers.  I found them so fascinating, it begs the question, do they get customers? Talk about a senior citizen moment?

Further down, I also noticed something really interesting.  They had all these men; I’m assuming recent immigrants, with their dollies.  I wish I had taken a picture of it, but I barely had the strength to lift my feet.  It looked like a perfectly neat row of dolly’s queuing up to start a job.  Apparently, this area is a wholesale area, so when lots of merchandise need to be schlep from place to place, they have instant man with dolly, who knew?

Finally got home and I crashed!


Friday:  Cold wet day, but I had to do some more errands for tonight’s dinner party.  So first stop our neighborhood Chinese grocer for fresh vegetables.  I found some Bok Choy for tonight.  Then went to G20 grocery store to guy some staples.  While there I was trying to look for bay leaves, or what they call here laurel.  As I may have mentioned, you cannot do one stop shopping here in Paris.  You have to go to several different stores for this and that…  However, in the suburbs you have Carrefour or Auchan which are like huge Super Wal-Mart’s, but much nicer.

After G20 I asked Jack to check at another grocery store, while I went home to unpack the groceries.  He actually went to 2-other Grocery stores, and, oh well, no bay leafs.  I decided to check online, because I remember there was a spice market nearby.  It was called Epicerie Bruno (Bruno’s spices) on Rue Tiquetone.  Yep, it’s a real street name, pretty shocking eh?  I got all excited and told Jack let’s take a walk there.  So we did, got into the store and do you think the spice store carried bay leaves, you’d be correct if you said no, go figure?.  But he was kind enough to let us know where we could find some.  He told us to go down to the Montorgueil and at the produce store we’d find some laurel.  Got there, and I typically use dried bay leafs, but they only had fresh which is fine, got them and cradled them home.  Who knew it could be so difficult to find bay leafs?  Oh well.

Took a quick nap and around 6 pm started cooking dinner.  Mathias our German friend, Xavier and Sue, Léandre, and a new friend Sarinda from Madagascar would be coming for dinner.  We’re hoping that the single Sarinda would hook up with one of the newly separated from their partners Mathias or Léandre.  Just call me cupid Randy. Dinner conversation was interesting, it switched from English, German and French, with French being the dominate language.  I dare average Americans to try and keep up with this conversation.  Xavier also speaks Dutch, so I was tempted to get a Dutch speaker just to add some spice!

Sarinda and Léandre brought beautiful flowers.  Our apartment feels like a florist, got flowers last week and two bunches today.  Nonetheless, I love flowers, I just have to sneeze every so once awhile, oh well, the price we pay for a little bit of beauty.

Xavier, Sue, Léandre and Sarinda left at about 1:30 am and Mathias left around 3 am.  All-in-all was a nice evening.


Saturday: Woke up late, what a surprise?  It’s a sunny day today, so we decided to give Tess, our housekeeper some privacy so she can do her “thing.”  We left at about 1:30 pm and decided to walk around the Montorgueil.  I saw some fabulous looking pizza on the street, so decided to have some.  It looked better than it actually tasted.  Today is Valentine’s Day.  You’d never know it with the lack of any Valentine’s commercialism that we have in the U.S.  I’m assuming it’s not as big a Holiday as you would think it would be in the city of “romance”, oh well. The only sign that I saw of Valentine’s, I came across these flowers at the Florist.  Even the chocolatier did not have any hearts or any of that “stuff” we see in the states…

After tromping around the Montorgueil, we headed back to our apartment for a bathroom break.  Tess was still busy cleaning so after our rest stop we took off again.  This time to BHV just to do some window shopping.  France is technically in recession. You would never know that by the amount of shoppers in the store.  It was pretty mobbed, so we left and took a walk around the other parts of the Marais.

Since tonight is Valentine’s Jack said let’s go out to dinner, and I said no.  Imagine that? But I was concerned that since it was a Saturday the restaurants would be packed, so we decided to have a quiet evening and home and go out next week for Valentines.

I was also told that for the next 2-weeks it’s a school Holiday.  It’s like our ski week in the US.  So many families head out of Paris to quieter grounds.  So I’m going to assume it’s going to be a little quieter in Paris next week.  We’ll see.


Sunday:  Got a late start, how shocking?  Got a call from Léandre, it’s such a beautiful sunny day why don’t we get together with he and his sister Evelyne.  So we made plans to meet in the front of the Japanese cultural center near the Eiffel tower at 3 pm.  We’re becoming so French, we were all late running about 15-minutes behind, not too bad.  We walked down passed the Eiffel tower and then onto the Musee de Quai Branly. It truly is a rare beautiful day, sooooo sunny, who knew?   It’s an interesting museum, because it is eco-friendly.  The outside of part of the building is all grass and natural weeds etc.  This is primarily to absorb some of the pollution.  The inside of the building housed different indigenous art from around the world, primarily of the Oceanic and Asian countries.  Very interesting.  Funny, we had visited most of these countries, so I was actually able to give Léandre a few lessons.  Jack went off with Evelyn, and Evelyn being the consummate teacher, gave Jack a lesson in all the art, plus she had already been to that museum.

After the museum, we decided to walk along the Seine, then I had suggested since we’re so close to the American Church, we may as well go see which artist is performing there.  As you may recall from last year’s missives, the American Church has different artists from around the world perform every Sunday at around 5 pm, and it’s basically free, you can give a donation if you like.  We went and saw John Muratore, a pretty well known guitarist, he was great.

Afterwards, we were all feeling hungry and decided why not have an early dinner.  It’s around 7 pm, so by French standards it is VERY early.  Léandre knew of a restaurant at the Champs Elysée called Flam’s, which is short for flammenkueche an Alsace pizza typically topped with cream, onions, and cheese and other toppings like ham.  And, surprisingly, it’s all you can eat, who knew?  Got to the restaurant, and it wasn’t too crowded.  We started ordering pizza, after pizza, after pizza.  The pizzas are very deceiving because it’s really thin crusted.  It almost looks like matzos topped with all sorts of goodies.  Although thin, they’re quite filling, because of the rich sauces.  We had a great time.  So, around 10 pm we had finished, and I thought Evelyne was asking if I wanted to go home, and I said yes, but she was asking if I want to go have degustation (after dinner drink) somewhere else), oh well.  Typically, I never turn down a free drink, but after a few glasses of wine, my French gets worst, not better.  And, Evelyn speaks no English.

We decided to walk down Champs Elysée towards our respective metro stops, and said our good-byes.  Jack and I took the metro to Hotel de Ville, then we walked back to the apartment since it was such a nice evening.

All-in-all, it’s been a great day and a great week.  Ah, la vie est belle!  I should be so lucky!