There's no place like home in the new year

First, a quote from the fabulous Neil Gaiman:

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

Now we are home. It was a long day of travel on the first day of the new year. We started with an early taxi to CDG, and flew to Berlin... where after a few trips through security (they wanted to thoroughly check out my camera... might have been an incendiary device, you never know) we were finally able to board our plane for the trip home. I took some photos of the breaking dawn from above the cloud deck... beautiful...

Souvenirs from this trip: photos and memories, olives, gourmet mustards, a fairy necklace, and a cold. Oh well... they can't all be keepers. Hopefully this cold will disappear now that we're home.


For the new year, I have made some small resolutions. First, to write more. And more. And more. I am so close to finishing my first novel now that I resolve to finish it by February and begin the editing process on it... as well as moving forward on the second novel.


Second resolution is a bit more nebulous... to get a handle on my anxiety. I have trouble with guilt and feeling like I don't measure up or like I'm doing things wrong (things, yes, very explicit, I know... by things I mean anything from keeping house, to not writing enough, to drinking, to you name it, I have anxiety about it). My resolution is to find that calm, quiet, centered place inside that I can easily extend to others but that I can never extend to myself... to just be...


Third is, like my dear friend Beth, to start keeping track of what I read and hopefully read more. Lori and I are going to put a piece of paper on the cabinet to list our books, and perhaps I will make it a digital list at the end of this year.


And now I'm going to stop making resolutions for fear I won't keep any of them... :) I wish you all a happy and healthy new year, full of laughter, joy, and magic...

Last Days

Today is our last day in Paris and we're not doing anything special. We're hunkering down, actually, because tomorrow's travel could possibly do us in otherwise. We have a 7:25 a.m. flight to Berlin with a layover and then a flight to NYC that gets in at 3 p.m.... and it's supposed to snow in Berlin, which could complicate matters... We're more than a little nervous about getting where we need to go. Can you blame us?

Yesterday started slowly, too. We did some shopping for a couple more souvenirs, which was definitely satisfactory... and then came back to the apartment to nap a little... and then Noah cooked dinner! We had tortellinis and salad and baguette toasted with cheese on it... yum!!! After that we got ourselves together and went out back to Montmartre to our favorite crepe place in honor of Lori's birthday... crepes and tea stuffed in next to dinner and then we were ready to meet Rita and her boyfriend down by the Moulin Rouge.

I know Rita from Davis, CA, so it was fun being able to connect with her here, too. We walked back up the hill to the Cafe de les 2 Moulins and had champagne and chatted until after midnight, when we decided maybe we'd better hit the metro and head back home.

So it's noon here now, and I'm thinking it's time for croissants and espresso. I'll see if I can persuade Noah out of bed!

Shopping, eating and a travel sloth

Today was a day of wandering about Paris aimlessly... well, not entirely aimlessly. After sleeping the morning away, we made our way to Chez Omar for lunch... a late lunch... the most amazing couscous EVER, actually. We sat in that restaurant and ate our couscous with stewed carrots, turnips, zuchinni, and garbanzo beans, and drank our wine... and it was good.

After that we wandered aimlessly about Paris. See?

Cool art on a wall in the Jewish district.

Marc and Sherris :)

We bought some tasty foods at Le Bon Marche... yum, some souvenirs and some things to eat now. We've been snacking since we got back to the apartment, even though we'll be going to dinner in 45 minutes.

Also, Noah has acquired a travel sloth. Apparently Marc has three and didn't know that Noah likes sloths... so now this cute little guy will travel around with us!

Travel Sloth!

I think tomorrow will be another day of shopping with more eating in, since we are in an apartment, and since Marc and Sherris are abandoning us for the coast. We'll spend our last 2 days in Paris here at the apartment pretending that we are actual Parisians... who don't speak good French... and are vegetarians... I said pretend, didn't I???

Our day with Marc and Sherris

So tomorrow looks like it will prove to be more exciting, but it was so nice to get out of hotel living and into an apartment! Marc and Sherris (Noah's dad and stepmom) called last night to tell us they had arrived in Paris. They (and now we) are staying at the apartment of a friend while here. We woke this morning and after wrestling with the hotel checkout and taxi calling process, brought croissant and pain au chocolat as a thanks offering to the apartment on Boulevard Montparnasse.

The hotel employees were nonplussed as to our request for a taxi. Montparnasse is 3 Metro stops from the hotel we were staying at... and they wanted to know why we didn't just take the Metro. I stared at them, and then at our two huge suitcases and our carry-on items... and we put our foot down. I'm sure I wouldn't have minded taking the metro if someone from the hotel wanted to come with to carry all this stuff for me!

When we got to the apartment, we followed all the intricate directions Marc left us for getting into the building, including putting only one person and piece of luggage at a time in the VERY tiny elevator... and we rang the doorbell....... nothing... so we knocked.... nothing... doorbell? After a minute, we pulled out the cellphone and called the apartment number. We could hear ringing inside... good sign, right place... but no one answered. Just as I was pulling out the computer to connect to wifi and find another number to call, my cell rang, and Marc's voice could be heard on the other line. They were still asleep! But good to know we weren't stuck in that hallway for the rest of the day!

After breakfasting (it was 11:30 by breakfast time)... Noah, Marc and I ran a couple errands to the Monoprix and to Air France to try getting a refund for our cancelled flight to Venice (no luck yet). Then we came back to the apartment to pick up Sherris and have lunch (it was 2:30 by this time) at La Coupole. Lunch lasted until after 5 p.m. and it was DELICIOUS. I had salmon... so good...

So after "lunch"... we went to look at another apartment Marc and Sherris may stay at on Il-de-la-Cite. Here's what Notre Dame looked like this evening.

The apartment we looked at was beautiful... very chi-chi. I like where we are staying because it has a homey feel to it...

I'll post more photos tomorrow, when I have more... and also because my editing site is having a problem this evening. Time for an evening snack and then bed.

The Eiffel Tower

Today we did a LOT of walking. We first got up and went to find breakfast.

We stopped by a park and took pictures of this statue...

on our way to this great furniture store... it's called Maisons du Monde and it really is awesome. We had heard about it because we were in a shop the other day and Noah was admiring the funky multicolored chandeliers. The nice sales lady said she would sell us anything in the store except those chandeliers... but she gave us the name of the store where they came from. She bought them a few years ago, so we were sure we wouldn't ACTUALLY find the chandeliers... but we went to the store anyhow. It was quite fun! I brought home a catalog and I'm sure I'll shop from there if I can convince them to ship to me in the U.S.

Anyhow... next on the list was the oldest flea market in Paris... all the way on the North side of Paris. So we hopped the metro and took a ride up to look at antiques. We had far more fun at the flea market from yesterday... it was more photogenic and ... funkier... but it was still interesting to go through and look at all the eccentric stuff that Parisians buy and sell.

After THAT we decided to head to the Eiffel Tower. We contemplated standing in line in the freezing cold to ride up to the 2nd level (the top was closed)... but opted to leave with just a few pictures from the ground instead.

 

We saw this awesome old hand crank carousel...

And also this strange bird that looks like a pigeon only it's 3 times as large... someone please identify!

After that we were freezing cold and decided to hit the Paris Aquarium to warm up and see the fishes. It was pretty cool... not as nice as the Georgia Aquarium, for sure, but it made a good place to get the feeling back in our fingers and toes before the journey back to the hotel.

Tomorrow we're meeting Marc and Sherris and that marks the beginning of the end for our stay here in Paris. I mean... it'll be GREAT to see them :) and we're looking forward to spending some time together, but it does mean that our trip is coming to a close.

Marche aux Puces

Well, Versailles didn't happen today. When I brought up the website to get directions (i.e. which train to take) a hitherto unseen pop-up appeared letting us know that the Versailles grounds would be closed today due to snow... and that the castle would be closed TOMORROW due to Christmas... sigh... we'll try later this week, although I'm starting to feel that time is running out on our trip to Paris.

No matter. We're taking things as they come anyhow, so we walked over to our little breakfast place (his cook was out for the day so instead of crepes he had tartaine et croissant to offer... we weren't complaining)... had our cafe au lait and then walked down to the local marche aux puces (flea market). Here are a few pictures of the bizarreness we encountered there.

There were quite a few people out perusing the merchandise at the market stands and we enjoyed walking through and looking at all the weird things we would buy if we lived in Paris... too many of them were too large to fit in our suitcases... and quite a few merchants expected too high a price for their wares... so we didn't buy anything there.

After spending most of the morning browsing the puces, we moved on to the Latin quarter. It's right up next to the Seine, with lovely views of the river and Notre Dame... we spent the rest of the day wandering around there, stopping into shops, eating crepes, and taking photos. All in all a lovely day.

Noah showed me this store... it's amazing. Sarah M, you HAVE to visit when you come to Paris... and Lori, wish you were there with us! You'd have loved it.

This photo is obscure, but it's of the Sorbonne for Sarah M and Lori :)

I'll leave you with a couple photos of Noah and me on the metro... and the promise to have a good time no matter where we end up over the next few days... hopefully one of those days will have Versailles in it, though!

My new hat!

Noah's new hat!

L'Arc de Triomphe

Today is Christmas, so much of Paris is quiet and still. And freezing! Today has been the coldest day yet, not lending itself to being outside for long, especially when trying to get over a cold.

We made a couple of stops, first one to Le Passage du Grand Cerf... which would have been a nice shopping street to walk down, but it was closed... and I got a tour down the seediest street I'VE ever been down in Paris... we made our way out of there pretty quick.

Next, we trotted over to L'Arc de Triomphe.

And then we took a walk down the Champs Elysees. It was crowded and more touristy than any place we have been yet. We decided to beat the freezing cold by going to the movies (thanks for the idea Lori) and saw "The Tourist" which was bittersweet... because we should have been in Venice right now and that's where the movie is set... sigh... but it was a nice theater and Johnny Depp is a dream boat... so overall it was a good idea. :)

Tomorrow we're going to try to go to Versailles. And in 2 days, Marc and Sherris will be here! Merry Christmas to everyone at home.