One thing that we discovered fairly early on in our stay in France was that there didn't seem to be any hot water heater, and yet we never rsn out of hot water. Then, a couple of weeks ago I got in the shower and waited for the water to get warm. After ten minutes or so, I took a cold shower an resolved to email our landlady as soon as it was day in the US.
I went on my merry way, and headed out to the Auchan to pick up groceries for lunch and dinner. On the way back, I took the elevator because I'm always worried about damaging the shopping caddy ( which isn't actually mine) if I drag it loaded up the steps. Lo and behold, there was a notice taped to the wall informing us that there would be no hot water that day because they were replacing the heating element. Well, one day without hot water isn't too bad.
The next morning there is another notice in the elevator. "The village of Fontenay sous bois needs to replace a bunch of water heating elements, so we're shutting off the hot water citywide from 6 am August 24 until 10 pm August 27. So now we're wrappiing up 4 days of no hot water. I've been heating water in the kettle so that I can wash dishes, and of course showers have been pretty much nonexistant. Tommorow morning we should have hot water, and everyone will be taking a shower. (On the plus side, the shower is really easy to keep clean when no one is using it.). Also, I'm looking forward to running the dishwasher overnight.
According to one of Blaise's friends, these hot water shut downs are an annual part of life in the Paris suburbs, though it usually happens earlier in the Summer.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
In which the computer breaks
If you have been following this blog, you know that we are currently hoping to have Sapphire and Ezio sent to the elementary school across the street. Part of our plan for doing this, involves having them work very hard at Rosetta Stone, in order to (hopefully) get as much French as possible into them in as short a time as possible. (I don't know whether you know anything about Rosetta Stone, but it's an immersive computer program. The idea is that when you're using the program to work on French, there is no English involved. It's entirely matching photos with descriptives of them.)
Last Wednesday night, Blaise sat down at "my" laptop (he has his own, this is primarily mine and the kids') and said, "Why is this disk hanging out?" Sure enough, the Rosetta Stone disk was hanging half out of the DVD drive. He pushed it in, and it popped right back out. Repeat, again. And again. He flips the disk over, and the back is all scratched up. Then of course, I get chewed out for leaving it in the DVD drive in the first place. So the Rosetta Stone DVD is ruined, and since we have an old (excessively copy protected version) we don't have a back up copy. Blaise does some hunting around online, and finds out that we may be able to get a replacement copy and emails the Rosetta Stone people to find out.
Next morning, Sapphire and Ezio get to skip Rosetta Stone and Blaise waits anxiously to hear back from the Rosetta Stone people. Cherry asks for her money back. What money? Why the money she put in the slot in the laptop of course. I interrogate her. Did you really put money in there? When? About 4 years ago. Hmm, she's only 3 years old, and the laptop is only 2 years old. Did you put it in yesterday? Yes, and I tried to get it back out with a spoon. Come to think of it, I did see her going at the laptop with a spoon, which I promptly took away. We try the Rosetta Stone disk in Blaise's laptop. It detects it. (He doesn't have the software installed so we can't actually run it.) Try a blank disk in my laptop. It comes out with the same scratches as the Rosetta Stone disk.
Time to find an Apple repair center. There's one in the city (actually there are several) and I call to make sure they're actually open, never a given in Paris in August. The guy tells me to bring the computer in at 6:00. Fortunately, we have AppleCare. Also fortunately, for once, my French isn't very good. I bring it in. "Le DVD ne marche pas." Fill in the forms. He tells me it will be ready Wednesday. I cross my fingers and hope they'll just replace the DVD player because I'm not at all sure that AppleCare covers money put into the DVD slot.
Yesterday afternoon the phone rings. They've replaced the DVD player. Cherry and I go pick it up. Cherry wants her money back. I tell her she's out of luck.
Last Wednesday night, Blaise sat down at "my" laptop (he has his own, this is primarily mine and the kids') and said, "Why is this disk hanging out?" Sure enough, the Rosetta Stone disk was hanging half out of the DVD drive. He pushed it in, and it popped right back out. Repeat, again. And again. He flips the disk over, and the back is all scratched up. Then of course, I get chewed out for leaving it in the DVD drive in the first place. So the Rosetta Stone DVD is ruined, and since we have an old (excessively copy protected version) we don't have a back up copy. Blaise does some hunting around online, and finds out that we may be able to get a replacement copy and emails the Rosetta Stone people to find out.
Next morning, Sapphire and Ezio get to skip Rosetta Stone and Blaise waits anxiously to hear back from the Rosetta Stone people. Cherry asks for her money back. What money? Why the money she put in the slot in the laptop of course. I interrogate her. Did you really put money in there? When? About 4 years ago. Hmm, she's only 3 years old, and the laptop is only 2 years old. Did you put it in yesterday? Yes, and I tried to get it back out with a spoon. Come to think of it, I did see her going at the laptop with a spoon, which I promptly took away. We try the Rosetta Stone disk in Blaise's laptop. It detects it. (He doesn't have the software installed so we can't actually run it.) Try a blank disk in my laptop. It comes out with the same scratches as the Rosetta Stone disk.
Time to find an Apple repair center. There's one in the city (actually there are several) and I call to make sure they're actually open, never a given in Paris in August. The guy tells me to bring the computer in at 6:00. Fortunately, we have AppleCare. Also fortunately, for once, my French isn't very good. I bring it in. "Le DVD ne marche pas." Fill in the forms. He tells me it will be ready Wednesday. I cross my fingers and hope they'll just replace the DVD player because I'm not at all sure that AppleCare covers money put into the DVD slot.
Yesterday afternoon the phone rings. They've replaced the DVD player. Cherry and I go pick it up. Cherry wants her money back. I tell her she's out of luck.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
In which Rebekah discusses schools
Our plan from the beginning has been to send our children to the French public schools rather than choosing to send them to an American or British school. It is very important to us that they learn to speak French, and they will do that most quickly and most successfully if they are spending several hours each day immersed in a French language environment instead of only a few hours a week learning French in French class.
While Blaise was in Nancy at a conference at the end of June, Michele (our landlady) and I took the kids to the Mairie (town hall) and registered Sapphire and Ezio for elementary school and Cherry for preschool. I was a bit worried that we might not have all of the documentation that we needed, but it turned out that I had our documentation. Michele needed to go back and pick up an electric bill and identity card to prove her identity and that she owned the apartment, but we managed to get the registration done. The woman who registered us recommended that we stop by the school after lunch and drop off our registration cards.
One of the biggest selling (renting) points for the apartment that we're in is that the elementary school that children in this complex attend is just out our back window, probably a 2 or 3 minute walk away. It has both an elementary school and a maternelle, or preschool, in separate buildings and with their own play areas. This was the school that the Mairie registered us at, and the school that we walked to after lunch.
The headmistress of the maternelle was very friendly. She assured me that Cherry would pick up French quickly, probably within a month or two. They had had other non French speakers in the past and they had all learned the language quickly. She gave us a tour of the building (Cherry loved the pint sized potties) and a book (in French) about the first day of school. She also told us that she is the teacher for the youngest kids, so Cherry will have her for class.
The headmistress at the elementary school was less helpful. Apparently there is a different elementary school that is much further away and in a rougher part of town which has most of the French as a second language students (and no others). She wanted to send Sapphire and Ezio there. We don't. We want them at the school across the street for many reasons, and in most places in France, they would go to the local elementary because there isn't a French as a second language school. So, Sapphire and Ezio have been working their tails off on Rosetta Stone this summer. Sapphire has been doing work out of French workbooks as well.
This morning, I mailed a letter (in French!) to the headmistress at the school outlining my reasons for wanting my children to be at the school across the street. The letter was vetted ahead of time by a friend of Blaise whose wife happens to be the headmistress at an elementary school in central France. The letter should arrive at the school tomorrow, though I don't know whether the headmistress will be there or not. I'm hoping to hear something from her in the next week or so, though I've been told that she probably doesn't have to return to the school until the 31st of August.
If you are a praying person, would you be willing to keep this in your prayers? If the headmistress refuses to allow them to attend the local school, we'll be forced to look into private schools or homeschooling.
While Blaise was in Nancy at a conference at the end of June, Michele (our landlady) and I took the kids to the Mairie (town hall) and registered Sapphire and Ezio for elementary school and Cherry for preschool. I was a bit worried that we might not have all of the documentation that we needed, but it turned out that I had our documentation. Michele needed to go back and pick up an electric bill and identity card to prove her identity and that she owned the apartment, but we managed to get the registration done. The woman who registered us recommended that we stop by the school after lunch and drop off our registration cards.
One of the biggest selling (renting) points for the apartment that we're in is that the elementary school that children in this complex attend is just out our back window, probably a 2 or 3 minute walk away. It has both an elementary school and a maternelle, or preschool, in separate buildings and with their own play areas. This was the school that the Mairie registered us at, and the school that we walked to after lunch.
The headmistress of the maternelle was very friendly. She assured me that Cherry would pick up French quickly, probably within a month or two. They had had other non French speakers in the past and they had all learned the language quickly. She gave us a tour of the building (Cherry loved the pint sized potties) and a book (in French) about the first day of school. She also told us that she is the teacher for the youngest kids, so Cherry will have her for class.
The headmistress at the elementary school was less helpful. Apparently there is a different elementary school that is much further away and in a rougher part of town which has most of the French as a second language students (and no others). She wanted to send Sapphire and Ezio there. We don't. We want them at the school across the street for many reasons, and in most places in France, they would go to the local elementary because there isn't a French as a second language school. So, Sapphire and Ezio have been working their tails off on Rosetta Stone this summer. Sapphire has been doing work out of French workbooks as well.
This morning, I mailed a letter (in French!) to the headmistress at the school outlining my reasons for wanting my children to be at the school across the street. The letter was vetted ahead of time by a friend of Blaise whose wife happens to be the headmistress at an elementary school in central France. The letter should arrive at the school tomorrow, though I don't know whether the headmistress will be there or not. I'm hoping to hear something from her in the next week or so, though I've been told that she probably doesn't have to return to the school until the 31st of August.
If you are a praying person, would you be willing to keep this in your prayers? If the headmistress refuses to allow them to attend the local school, we'll be forced to look into private schools or homeschooling.
Monday, August 17, 2009
In which we go to the beach, Paris style
The French spend the month of August on vacation. Shops and restaurants close. The trains and busses run less frequently. Even the city halls reduce hours or close completely. And people leave for the beaches or the mountains or family homes in the country, or pretty much anywhere else that isn't Paris.
Of course, not everyone can afford to travel in August, or to travel for the entire month. And some people are stuck here because some things (hospitals, police departments, supermarkets, etc) can't shut down entirely. The city of Paris, in its infinite wisdom, has provided a way for these unfortunates to enjoy the seaside as well. Every summer they turn stretches of the River Seine into the Paris Plage, or Paris beach for a month at the end of July and beginning of August. They truck in sand and set up sprinkler systems, ice cream stands, paddle boats, etc.
Last Friday we had an early dinner, and headed into town to go to the Plage. (There are 3 stretches of beach, we went to the one near the Place de la Concorde.) We spent about 2 hours there. The Plage is a long, narrow strip set up along the walkway that goes along the river. We passed a couple of mist/sprayer set ups that the kids played in, fully clothed. Since it was only a mist, they didn't get particularly wet, but it was fun. We passed a number of ice cream stands (alas, the one euro ice creams that we had read about proved to be a figment of the past) and several activity stands. We finally found the sand beach after we reached the end of the Plage and headed back the other direction. It was basically a huge sandbox, which the kids played in happily for almost an hour while Blaise and I people watched.
(Paris is a very multi-ethnic city, so it's amazing to me to see how much variation there is between the crowds at different venues. The crowd watching the Tour de France was universally white. The crowd at the Cite des Enfants was white and Muslim. I think 25% of the women there were in headscarves. The crowd at the Paris Plage was very mixed. It was a bit odd to see little girls in bikinis walking with women in headscarves and long pants and sleeves. Around 8:00 they started picking up the lounge chairs and so we headed, slowly back to the train station.
Of course, not everyone can afford to travel in August, or to travel for the entire month. And some people are stuck here because some things (hospitals, police departments, supermarkets, etc) can't shut down entirely. The city of Paris, in its infinite wisdom, has provided a way for these unfortunates to enjoy the seaside as well. Every summer they turn stretches of the River Seine into the Paris Plage, or Paris beach for a month at the end of July and beginning of August. They truck in sand and set up sprinkler systems, ice cream stands, paddle boats, etc.
Last Friday we had an early dinner, and headed into town to go to the Plage. (There are 3 stretches of beach, we went to the one near the Place de la Concorde.) We spent about 2 hours there. The Plage is a long, narrow strip set up along the walkway that goes along the river. We passed a couple of mist/sprayer set ups that the kids played in, fully clothed. Since it was only a mist, they didn't get particularly wet, but it was fun. We passed a number of ice cream stands (alas, the one euro ice creams that we had read about proved to be a figment of the past) and several activity stands. We finally found the sand beach after we reached the end of the Plage and headed back the other direction. It was basically a huge sandbox, which the kids played in happily for almost an hour while Blaise and I people watched.
(Paris is a very multi-ethnic city, so it's amazing to me to see how much variation there is between the crowds at different venues. The crowd watching the Tour de France was universally white. The crowd at the Cite des Enfants was white and Muslim. I think 25% of the women there were in headscarves. The crowd at the Paris Plage was very mixed. It was a bit odd to see little girls in bikinis walking with women in headscarves and long pants and sleeves. Around 8:00 they started picking up the lounge chairs and so we headed, slowly back to the train station.
In which Rebekah describes her home
Our apartment is quite a lot smaller than our house, about 78 square meters, or 860 square feet. That means we have to be very efficient when it comes to space. Fortunately that hasn't been a problem this far. Our apartment building is six floors, and is located in a cluster of about a dozen similar buildings with a wide paved court going down the center. The outer edges are all grassy field space, which seems to be in constant use by picnicking families and playing children. We've discovered that the fields and their surrounding bushes make ideal territory for a rousing game of hide and seek. Earlier the year, the city installed quite a nice playground along the side of our complex, so there's lots of opportunity for outside play, though at least in the case of Cherry it requires an adult be out there.
Our apartment is on the second floor ( European style, third American), and there is an elevator though we rarely use it unless we're toting lots of groceries or library books. There are three other apartments on our floor. As you enter the apartment, there is a largish entryway, with a big closet off to one side. The toilet is in a small room just off the entrance and has a large photo of the Eiffel Tower in it. In proper French style it contains nothing else.
To wash your hands you either go into the kitchen ( if you're an adult) or into the shower/laundry room (if you're a kid). The kitchen is also off the entryway, and is quite large given the size of the apartment. We have, fortunately, a dishwasher, and a reasonably large refrigerator by french standards. I've also gotten over any qualms I may have had about using up and throwing out other people's old food. There's a lot more space now that we've finished all of the wine that was left in it. There are twice as many dishes (plates, glasses, silverware, etc) and pots and pans as I have at home. Unfortunately, not much in the way of baking/measuring supplies, but I'm planning to augment what there is somewhat. I'm not planning on baking any bread while we're here, and even the grocery store cookies are better than the American versions, so I'm not planning to go crazy. There are 3 sizes of tart pans, should I decided to take up tart making.
We have a largish living/dining room (just how big was made clear when we had someone over for dinner, and discovered that his entire studio apartment was half the size of that room) with a table and chairs, flat screen TV (which only gets French programming), computer station, and a big (seats our entire family) couch. It has a big window, and French doors out to a balcony.
Down the hall is the bathroom (actually a shower room), which has our shower, bathroom sink, and the washer and dryer. I'm loving the front loading washer, though I'm still amazed at the fact that the hot water setting for the washer cleans the clothing at 95C (around 200 F)! We also have 2 bedrooms. The first has a wardrobe of sorts and a big bed. That pretty much fills the entire room. It has French doors out to its own smallish balcony. The second acts as the kids' bedroom by night and Blaise's office by day. Sapphire and Ezio sleep on a fold out sofa which is taken out each evening and put away every morning. Cherry sleeps on an air mattress on the floor. There is also a table which Blaise is using as his desk. The second bedroom has a set of doors out to the balcony adjoining the living room.
Our apartment is on the second floor ( European style, third American), and there is an elevator though we rarely use it unless we're toting lots of groceries or library books. There are three other apartments on our floor. As you enter the apartment, there is a largish entryway, with a big closet off to one side. The toilet is in a small room just off the entrance and has a large photo of the Eiffel Tower in it. In proper French style it contains nothing else.
To wash your hands you either go into the kitchen ( if you're an adult) or into the shower/laundry room (if you're a kid). The kitchen is also off the entryway, and is quite large given the size of the apartment. We have, fortunately, a dishwasher, and a reasonably large refrigerator by french standards. I've also gotten over any qualms I may have had about using up and throwing out other people's old food. There's a lot more space now that we've finished all of the wine that was left in it. There are twice as many dishes (plates, glasses, silverware, etc) and pots and pans as I have at home. Unfortunately, not much in the way of baking/measuring supplies, but I'm planning to augment what there is somewhat. I'm not planning on baking any bread while we're here, and even the grocery store cookies are better than the American versions, so I'm not planning to go crazy. There are 3 sizes of tart pans, should I decided to take up tart making.
We have a largish living/dining room (just how big was made clear when we had someone over for dinner, and discovered that his entire studio apartment was half the size of that room) with a table and chairs, flat screen TV (which only gets French programming), computer station, and a big (seats our entire family) couch. It has a big window, and French doors out to a balcony.
Down the hall is the bathroom (actually a shower room), which has our shower, bathroom sink, and the washer and dryer. I'm loving the front loading washer, though I'm still amazed at the fact that the hot water setting for the washer cleans the clothing at 95C (around 200 F)! We also have 2 bedrooms. The first has a wardrobe of sorts and a big bed. That pretty much fills the entire room. It has French doors out to its own smallish balcony. The second acts as the kids' bedroom by night and Blaise's office by day. Sapphire and Ezio sleep on a fold out sofa which is taken out each evening and put away every morning. Cherry sleeps on an air mattress on the floor. There is also a table which Blaise is using as his desk. The second bedroom has a set of doors out to the balcony adjoining the living room.
Monday, August 10, 2009
In which Cherry begins her research in fluid dynamics
When we were in Paris two years ago, one of the best museums that we visited was the Cite des Sciences et de l'Industrie in the Parc de la Villette. It's built in an old slaughterhouse, and contains an enormous science museum, the best children's museum I've ever seen, a submarine, IMAX theatre, a planetarium, and a science library, as well as various gift shops and restaurants. It's also quite expensive. For our family to visit the science museum and the children's museums (there are 2, more on that later) costs somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 euros.
So, Blaise did a little bit of investigating, and discovered that an annual family pass, which includes free admission to the science museum, children's museums, submarine, and planetarium (and a discount to the IMAX) costs 65 euros. Naturally, when we went yesterday, we bought an annual pass. If I take the kids back one more time it will have more than paid for itself, and since we saw only about 20% of the science museum yesterday, and the kids only saw about half of the kids' museums, that shouldn't be a problem.
We took the train to the Parc de la Villette yesterday morning, arriving just before lunch. Being a naturally organized person (you can stop laughing now. I am, sometimes at least.), I had remembered to buy packable food for lunches at the grocery on Saturday, so we headed outside for a picnic lunch first. Once we got back in, the lines at the ticket windows had decreased significantly, so I stood in line to buy our pass while Blaise took the kids off to the side. After I had filled in the forms, the ticket agent asked what we wanted to do that day. I was a bit worried that we might not be able to get into the children's museums, because they cap the number of people admitted, but we we able to get in without difficulty. I also asked for tickets to the main science museum.
Since our reservation for the children's museums wasn't until 2:30 and it was a bit before 1:00, we headed up the escalator to the science museum. We started in the technology section, where we got to use an ultrasound wand (3D no less) to identify a tomato and a goldfish. Then we headed over to the optical illusions section and to the genetics area. We have a picture of Cherry going ga-ga over a plastic case filled with dolls from a couple of years ago. She was less interested this time. We had a bit more time before we needed to head downstairs, so we went to the Mathematics area. Sapphire and Ezio got to learn some algebraic topology (a doughnut is fundamentally different than a sphere; an egg is not) and a bit of differential geometry (soap bubble minimal surfaces). Since it was 2:15, we headed downstairs to the children's museums.
Blaise waited on one side of the entry to take Sapphire and Ezio into the Cite des Enfants for 5 to 12 year olds and I waited with Cherry on the side for 2 to 7 year olds. Cherry and I headed immediately for the back of the museum, which was where the water play things were. She then proceeded to spend 45 minutes filling buckets at various faucets (all with different water sprays and handles) and pouring them into the various basins (of assorted shapes and colors), and filling up a large clear tub and watching it tip over when it got full. We spent the remaining 45 minutes of our time exploring the rest of the museum. Cherry tried the maze, but got worried because she couldn't see me and came back out the entrance. She liked all the mirrors, several of which she could bend or move, and thereby change the way she looked. She also really liked the little huts she could climb inside that were made entirely of mirrors, so she was duplicated many times. Evidently, there were always three of her. Perhaps we need to learn some larger numbers.
Since I wasn't in the museum for older kids, I'm less certain about what they did. Evidently there was also a water play area on that side, and Sapphire and Ezio spent quite a bit of time it in. I believe that it was more focused on using water to accomplish things, and less on filling and pouring. There was evidently also a studio, where Sapphire got to "do Meteo" (give a weather report) that was broadcast on television moniters throughout the museum.
We briefly discussed going back upstairs after our slot at the children's museums, but decided that since we had paid for a membership, it made more sense to leave while everyone was still in a good mood, instead of pushing things until the kids were getting cranky.
So, Blaise did a little bit of investigating, and discovered that an annual family pass, which includes free admission to the science museum, children's museums, submarine, and planetarium (and a discount to the IMAX) costs 65 euros. Naturally, when we went yesterday, we bought an annual pass. If I take the kids back one more time it will have more than paid for itself, and since we saw only about 20% of the science museum yesterday, and the kids only saw about half of the kids' museums, that shouldn't be a problem.
We took the train to the Parc de la Villette yesterday morning, arriving just before lunch. Being a naturally organized person (you can stop laughing now. I am, sometimes at least.), I had remembered to buy packable food for lunches at the grocery on Saturday, so we headed outside for a picnic lunch first. Once we got back in, the lines at the ticket windows had decreased significantly, so I stood in line to buy our pass while Blaise took the kids off to the side. After I had filled in the forms, the ticket agent asked what we wanted to do that day. I was a bit worried that we might not be able to get into the children's museums, because they cap the number of people admitted, but we we able to get in without difficulty. I also asked for tickets to the main science museum.
Since our reservation for the children's museums wasn't until 2:30 and it was a bit before 1:00, we headed up the escalator to the science museum. We started in the technology section, where we got to use an ultrasound wand (3D no less) to identify a tomato and a goldfish. Then we headed over to the optical illusions section and to the genetics area. We have a picture of Cherry going ga-ga over a plastic case filled with dolls from a couple of years ago. She was less interested this time. We had a bit more time before we needed to head downstairs, so we went to the Mathematics area. Sapphire and Ezio got to learn some algebraic topology (a doughnut is fundamentally different than a sphere; an egg is not) and a bit of differential geometry (soap bubble minimal surfaces). Since it was 2:15, we headed downstairs to the children's museums.
Blaise waited on one side of the entry to take Sapphire and Ezio into the Cite des Enfants for 5 to 12 year olds and I waited with Cherry on the side for 2 to 7 year olds. Cherry and I headed immediately for the back of the museum, which was where the water play things were. She then proceeded to spend 45 minutes filling buckets at various faucets (all with different water sprays and handles) and pouring them into the various basins (of assorted shapes and colors), and filling up a large clear tub and watching it tip over when it got full. We spent the remaining 45 minutes of our time exploring the rest of the museum. Cherry tried the maze, but got worried because she couldn't see me and came back out the entrance. She liked all the mirrors, several of which she could bend or move, and thereby change the way she looked. She also really liked the little huts she could climb inside that were made entirely of mirrors, so she was duplicated many times. Evidently, there were always three of her. Perhaps we need to learn some larger numbers.
Since I wasn't in the museum for older kids, I'm less certain about what they did. Evidently there was also a water play area on that side, and Sapphire and Ezio spent quite a bit of time it in. I believe that it was more focused on using water to accomplish things, and less on filling and pouring. There was evidently also a studio, where Sapphire got to "do Meteo" (give a weather report) that was broadcast on television moniters throughout the museum.
We briefly discussed going back upstairs after our slot at the children's museums, but decided that since we had paid for a membership, it made more sense to leave while everyone was still in a good mood, instead of pushing things until the kids were getting cranky.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Flashback: In which we spend a day in the Jura
Note: Since we had spent almost a month in Europe before I was able to begin this blog, I'm going to flash back from time to time to fill in some of what we did during that time. Entries will be non chronological.
When we arranged for our apartment in Paris, we discovered that the woman we are renting it from would be living in the apartment until the 12th of July. This was mildly problematic because (a) Blaise had a meeting in France the last week of June, and so it made sense for all of us to come then and (b) Blaise's contract here began July 1. This meant that we had to figure out what we were going to do during the time between our arrival in France, and the 13th of July, when we could occupy the apartment. Blaise found a campground in Northern Italy where we could rent a bungalow for a couple of weeks (more on that later) after his conference, and so we were left with figuring out the details of the trip to and from Italy. Because of timing issues we knew that we had 3 days between the end of Blaise's conference and our reservation at the campground. (We had been unable to get in any earlier.)
We arrived in the Jura at Au Douillet Gourmet around 8:00 p.m. on June 27. Once we had unloaded our car, we headed around to the front of the house, where we joined the owners (though not their children) and the other guests of the inn (really a gite, a French country inn in someone's home) for a dinner of fondue made from cheese produced from the milk made on their farm. (Sapphire and Cherry really liked the fondue. Ezio was quite happy to just eat bread.) Some of the guests spoke some English, but our hosts did not, so we were forced to speak French, or sit in silence and listen to everyone else talking. Mostly, they were accommodating of our woefully inadequate French, and we learned a few useful words, like mouche, which means fly, and of which there were many.
After breakfast the next day (baguettes with butter, again from their cows' milk, and jam, mostly homemade) we headed to the Cascades des Herrisons. Everyone there seemed quite adamant that this was the thing to do in the area, so we stopped at the next town for picnic supplies and then headed out. We parked and then walked up the path to the falls, which were pretty, then hiked up along the side of the falls to an overlook at the top. Cherry decided halfway up to throw a temper tantrum, so she and I waited and joined the others later. We walked back to the car for a picnic lunch, and then stopped alongside the stream for a while so that the kids could splash in the water. Not surprisingly, Cherry ended up falling in, and so, wet and tired, we headed back to the room.
Cherry (and the other kids) changed into dry clothes, and then we met Christelle (one of the owners) out in front. We followed her to their farm, about a kilometer away. We all got to see their goats and sheep, and watch them milk the cows (with a big milking machine of course). We also got to see a calf that had been born only the day before. He (or she) sucked on Sapphire's fingers, which she thought was both cool and weird. We also saw lots of rabbits, which the kids thought were cute. I'm fairly sure they didn't realize that they were being raised for meat. (Maybe the rabbit I made last week came from that farm. . ..)
Since we were the only guests at the inn our second night, we ate with their entire family on the back porch. Their youngest daughter was only a year older than Sapphire, so they played together a bit. We learned that one of their cats was named Chaussettes (Socks), which Sapphire thought was really funny, since it's a fairly common American cat name.
When we arranged for our apartment in Paris, we discovered that the woman we are renting it from would be living in the apartment until the 12th of July. This was mildly problematic because (a) Blaise had a meeting in France the last week of June, and so it made sense for all of us to come then and (b) Blaise's contract here began July 1. This meant that we had to figure out what we were going to do during the time between our arrival in France, and the 13th of July, when we could occupy the apartment. Blaise found a campground in Northern Italy where we could rent a bungalow for a couple of weeks (more on that later) after his conference, and so we were left with figuring out the details of the trip to and from Italy. Because of timing issues we knew that we had 3 days between the end of Blaise's conference and our reservation at the campground. (We had been unable to get in any earlier.)
We arrived in the Jura at Au Douillet Gourmet around 8:00 p.m. on June 27. Once we had unloaded our car, we headed around to the front of the house, where we joined the owners (though not their children) and the other guests of the inn (really a gite, a French country inn in someone's home) for a dinner of fondue made from cheese produced from the milk made on their farm. (Sapphire and Cherry really liked the fondue. Ezio was quite happy to just eat bread.) Some of the guests spoke some English, but our hosts did not, so we were forced to speak French, or sit in silence and listen to everyone else talking. Mostly, they were accommodating of our woefully inadequate French, and we learned a few useful words, like mouche, which means fly, and of which there were many.
After breakfast the next day (baguettes with butter, again from their cows' milk, and jam, mostly homemade) we headed to the Cascades des Herrisons. Everyone there seemed quite adamant that this was the thing to do in the area, so we stopped at the next town for picnic supplies and then headed out. We parked and then walked up the path to the falls, which were pretty, then hiked up along the side of the falls to an overlook at the top. Cherry decided halfway up to throw a temper tantrum, so she and I waited and joined the others later. We walked back to the car for a picnic lunch, and then stopped alongside the stream for a while so that the kids could splash in the water. Not surprisingly, Cherry ended up falling in, and so, wet and tired, we headed back to the room.
Cherry (and the other kids) changed into dry clothes, and then we met Christelle (one of the owners) out in front. We followed her to their farm, about a kilometer away. We all got to see their goats and sheep, and watch them milk the cows (with a big milking machine of course). We also got to see a calf that had been born only the day before. He (or she) sucked on Sapphire's fingers, which she thought was both cool and weird. We also saw lots of rabbits, which the kids thought were cute. I'm fairly sure they didn't realize that they were being raised for meat. (Maybe the rabbit I made last week came from that farm. . ..)
Since we were the only guests at the inn our second night, we ate with their entire family on the back porch. Their youngest daughter was only a year older than Sapphire, so they played together a bit. We learned that one of their cats was named Chaussettes (Socks), which Sapphire thought was really funny, since it's a fairly common American cat name.
In which we drag our children through two museums
One of the wonderful things about France is that on the first Sunday of each month most of the national museums are free. While children are always free at these museums, we adults are not, so we try to get as much as possible out of free days. The museums are typically a bit busier than they might be otherwise (though I'm not sure), but it removes a lot of the pressure to make sure that we get our money's worth from the experience.
This past Sunday was the first Sunday in August, so Blaise and I sat down on Saturday night to figure out where to go. This list of free museums in hand, we immediately eliminated several (including the Louvre, because we're thinking about getting an annual pass, the Orsay, and the Museum of the Middle Ages) because we wanted to pick museums that were less popular with tourists. We figured that while they might not know about free days, they were likely to show up at certain museums in swarms anyway, and we didn't want to be there. We'll go to those museums this fall when they're likely to be less crazy. We also wanted to pick 2 museums that were relatively close together so that we could walk between them and not have to waste Metro tickets.
Sunday morning we set out for the Musee Quai Branly, a relatively new museum specializing in primitive art. We arrived 20 minutes or so before opening and had to wait in a substantial line, but things moved quickly once the museum opened. The first step was to find a bathroom, since I should (evidently) have stopped after a single bowl of coffee that morning. (The French drink their morning cafe au lait out of bowls rather than cups, which seem to perpetually be much too small to bother with.) We dropped the Ergo off at the coat check, then headed up the ramp to the exhibits. A few highlights of the museum were the decorated skulls (from Oceania), the big grassy looking costumes (from Papua New Guinea), and the collection of African instruments. (We had to listen to the guy behind us go on and on about how shocked he was to learn that they had instruments other than drums in Africa. And then listen to his anti-rap diatribe.) They had a temporary Tarzan exhibit upstairs which we also went to. It was supposed to be a kids' exhibit, though I don't think our kids got much out of it. They did think the Viewmaster things they had set up along one wall were pretty cool. Poor kids are growing up in a post Viewmaster world.
Afterwards we were all pretty hungry and not sure what we were going to do about food, restaurants in Paris being largely out of our budget. I noticed people carrying baguettes and eventually found the boulangerie that they were coming from, so I picked up a couple of ham and cheese sandwiches and a very expensive half liter bottle of water. (We had eaten pancakes for breakfast and were having beef stew for dinner, so we didn't need a very substantial lunch.) We ate lunch sitting in a little garden just to the side of the Eiffel Tower and afterward the kids ran around a bit.
After lunch we walked through the Champs du Mars and along the Trocadero to the Musee Guimet, which specializes in Asian art. Most of the pieces that we saw were statues (we didn't make it up to the top floors, since the kids were beginning to wear out). Cherry was quite good at recognizing statues of Buddha by the time we left, and Sapphire and Ezio were having fun counting the arms on the statues of some of the Indian goddesses. Ezio found one that he thinks had 244 arms.
Blaise and I had talked about walking to a more distant metro station on the way out because it was supposed to be an interesting walk, but Sapphire and Ezio were quite insistent that we go down to the metro at the first possible opportunity.
This past Sunday was the first Sunday in August, so Blaise and I sat down on Saturday night to figure out where to go. This list of free museums in hand, we immediately eliminated several (including the Louvre, because we're thinking about getting an annual pass, the Orsay, and the Museum of the Middle Ages) because we wanted to pick museums that were less popular with tourists. We figured that while they might not know about free days, they were likely to show up at certain museums in swarms anyway, and we didn't want to be there. We'll go to those museums this fall when they're likely to be less crazy. We also wanted to pick 2 museums that were relatively close together so that we could walk between them and not have to waste Metro tickets.
Sunday morning we set out for the Musee Quai Branly, a relatively new museum specializing in primitive art. We arrived 20 minutes or so before opening and had to wait in a substantial line, but things moved quickly once the museum opened. The first step was to find a bathroom, since I should (evidently) have stopped after a single bowl of coffee that morning. (The French drink their morning cafe au lait out of bowls rather than cups, which seem to perpetually be much too small to bother with.) We dropped the Ergo off at the coat check, then headed up the ramp to the exhibits. A few highlights of the museum were the decorated skulls (from Oceania), the big grassy looking costumes (from Papua New Guinea), and the collection of African instruments. (We had to listen to the guy behind us go on and on about how shocked he was to learn that they had instruments other than drums in Africa. And then listen to his anti-rap diatribe.) They had a temporary Tarzan exhibit upstairs which we also went to. It was supposed to be a kids' exhibit, though I don't think our kids got much out of it. They did think the Viewmaster things they had set up along one wall were pretty cool. Poor kids are growing up in a post Viewmaster world.
Afterwards we were all pretty hungry and not sure what we were going to do about food, restaurants in Paris being largely out of our budget. I noticed people carrying baguettes and eventually found the boulangerie that they were coming from, so I picked up a couple of ham and cheese sandwiches and a very expensive half liter bottle of water. (We had eaten pancakes for breakfast and were having beef stew for dinner, so we didn't need a very substantial lunch.) We ate lunch sitting in a little garden just to the side of the Eiffel Tower and afterward the kids ran around a bit.
After lunch we walked through the Champs du Mars and along the Trocadero to the Musee Guimet, which specializes in Asian art. Most of the pieces that we saw were statues (we didn't make it up to the top floors, since the kids were beginning to wear out). Cherry was quite good at recognizing statues of Buddha by the time we left, and Sapphire and Ezio were having fun counting the arms on the statues of some of the Indian goddesses. Ezio found one that he thinks had 244 arms.
Blaise and I had talked about walking to a more distant metro station on the way out because it was supposed to be an interesting walk, but Sapphire and Ezio were quite insistent that we go down to the metro at the first possible opportunity.
A Saturday morning post
There are several posts currently in the pipeline, so there should be a rash of postings coming up soon. In the meantime, I'm sitting in a hollow outside my apartment building, typing a brief update on my iPod touch while listening to Cherry and Ezio run around. Sapphire is inside working on Rosetta Stone, hence I don't have a laptop to work on. The kids are rolling down a biggish hill next to me. It's very quiet otherwise. Many I are on holiday and it's still relatively early.
Later today we may head to the Parc de la Villette, which has a very nice science museum and children's museum. I think we'll likely end up getting an annual pass. Well, my kids are off to the playground, which is out of range of our wifi.
Later today we may head to the Parc de la Villette, which has a very nice science museum and children's museum. I think we'll likely end up getting an annual pass. Well, my kids are off to the playground, which is out of range of our wifi.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
In which Rebekah makes pancakes
During the months of July and August many of the small shops in Paris close down so that the owners and employees can go on vacation. This is very nice for the butchers and bakers (and candlestick makers), but not so nice for those of us left behind. Normally when we are in Paris, I go to the boulangerie each morning and buy a couple of baguettes for breakfast, which we have with butter and jam and Nutella. It's a pleasant way to start the morning, assuming of course that there are good baguettes available within a reasonable walking distance. We're fortunate in that there is a very good boulangerie only about a 2 minute walk from our apartment. However, it is now closed until the end of August, and the closest decent boulangerie that is open is at least a 10 minute walk each way; too far for daily breakfast runs. Since the bread at the Auchan is passable at best, and the store doesn't open until 8:30, we've been mostly reduced to cereal for breakfast. Worse, we've been reduced to daily bulk muesli with raisins, because the French seem to be of the opinion that all cereal ought to contain at least one form of chocolate, and if you can get 2 to 3 in there, so much the better. It gets a bit dull, so. . ..
It occurred to me on Friday that if I only had baking powder I would be able to make pancakes. We wouldn't be able to have them with maple syrup, but they're good with cinnamon sugar as well, and I had all the other ingredients in the apartment.
Problem 1: I have no idea what they call baking powder around here.
Solution: Blaise gets on the net and pokes around. He figures out that baking powder is called "levure chemique" and that instead of being sold in tins like it is in the US, it's sold in little envelopes. Armed with this information, I find a packet of 6 envelopes for 25 euro cents. Each contains about a tablespoon of powder, which is just about the right amount for a batch of pancakes.
Problem 2: The French don't actually measure things. Standard American style measuring utensils are, so far as I've been able to tell, unavailable here. I have soup spoons, tea spoons (which they call coffee spoons) and various sizes of cups, bowls, and glasses to work with. I also have a single graduated measuring pitcher, marked in centiliters, and the knowledge that there are roughly 24 cl in a cup.
Solution: I decide to assume that the tea spoons actually measure something approaching a standard teaspoon, and the soup spoons actually measure something around a standard tablespoon. If I were making rice or something like that (2 parts water to 1 part raw rice) it wouldn't matter how much my other potential measuring things held, but pancakes have eggs in them, and that means that the other ingredients have to be in, at least roughly, the right amounts. So, I carefully fill a white tea cup to the top with water and pour it into my measuring pitcher. 20 cl, almost on the nose. (Fortunately, since only every 5 cl is actually marked on the pitcher.) That means that 3 cups of flour, or 72 cl, will be roughly 3.5 tea cups. 2.25 cups of milk will be a generous 2.5 tea cups.
I mix the ingredients as best I can with a fork, and add whisk to the list of things that I don't have in the kitchen but desperately need to buy, along with a couple of decent knives and a cutting board that can actually go in the dishwasher (for the next time I buy a rabbit, of course). In Kansas, I have a really big nonstick skillet with a perfectly flat bottom. I can fit 4 decent sized pancakes in it without them running together. Here, I have a somewhat smaller nonstick skillet with a not quite flat bottom. I try making 4 pancakes, but they run together, and the outside third doesn't cook properly because the pan isn't actually touching the top of the stove. So I try lots of little pancakes, but get complaints from Blaise (and they take forever to flip). The solution ends up being to make one really big pancake at a time, which Blaise then cuts into sixths.
The next day, we're back to cereal.
It occurred to me on Friday that if I only had baking powder I would be able to make pancakes. We wouldn't be able to have them with maple syrup, but they're good with cinnamon sugar as well, and I had all the other ingredients in the apartment.
Problem 1: I have no idea what they call baking powder around here.
Solution: Blaise gets on the net and pokes around. He figures out that baking powder is called "levure chemique" and that instead of being sold in tins like it is in the US, it's sold in little envelopes. Armed with this information, I find a packet of 6 envelopes for 25 euro cents. Each contains about a tablespoon of powder, which is just about the right amount for a batch of pancakes.
Problem 2: The French don't actually measure things. Standard American style measuring utensils are, so far as I've been able to tell, unavailable here. I have soup spoons, tea spoons (which they call coffee spoons) and various sizes of cups, bowls, and glasses to work with. I also have a single graduated measuring pitcher, marked in centiliters, and the knowledge that there are roughly 24 cl in a cup.
Solution: I decide to assume that the tea spoons actually measure something approaching a standard teaspoon, and the soup spoons actually measure something around a standard tablespoon. If I were making rice or something like that (2 parts water to 1 part raw rice) it wouldn't matter how much my other potential measuring things held, but pancakes have eggs in them, and that means that the other ingredients have to be in, at least roughly, the right amounts. So, I carefully fill a white tea cup to the top with water and pour it into my measuring pitcher. 20 cl, almost on the nose. (Fortunately, since only every 5 cl is actually marked on the pitcher.) That means that 3 cups of flour, or 72 cl, will be roughly 3.5 tea cups. 2.25 cups of milk will be a generous 2.5 tea cups.
I mix the ingredients as best I can with a fork, and add whisk to the list of things that I don't have in the kitchen but desperately need to buy, along with a couple of decent knives and a cutting board that can actually go in the dishwasher (for the next time I buy a rabbit, of course). In Kansas, I have a really big nonstick skillet with a perfectly flat bottom. I can fit 4 decent sized pancakes in it without them running together. Here, I have a somewhat smaller nonstick skillet with a not quite flat bottom. I try making 4 pancakes, but they run together, and the outside third doesn't cook properly because the pan isn't actually touching the top of the stove. So I try lots of little pancakes, but get complaints from Blaise (and they take forever to flip). The solution ends up being to make one really big pancake at a time, which Blaise then cuts into sixths.
The next day, we're back to cereal.
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