Monday brought a new week, and a new language school for me and Will. We are now taking classes at the Alliance Francaise, which is going to be much better for both of us than our prior school, if my first class is any indication. Unlike the other school, the Alliance actually has a curriculum and textbooks, if you can imagine such a thing, and the instructors actually give out […]
We went to see the riders in the Tour de France today. Not feeling up to the crowds at the end of the race on the Champs Elysees, we went to a spot near my (old) language school in a near suburb called Issy-Les-Moulineaux, which had the advantage of being near a Metro stop and yet outside of the density of Paris. We stood on a small street named Boulevard […]
It hit me yesterday afternoon, really hit me, for the first time, in a relaxed, satisfied way, rather than a manic, what-have-I-done way — I am really living in Paris. I am experiencing daily almost as many interesting, new things as I can safely assimilate. I am meeting people from all over the world. How extraordinary. I arrived at this emotional place in part because Friday was the last day […]
I had an “wow” moment coming home on the Metro today from class. I realized that for the past couple of days, I’ve been able to sit in class and listen to the teacher speak in French and understand what she was saying totally easily and comfortably, seemingly without having to translate the words into English in my head. This, I think, is the very beginning of being able to […]
Ugh. Last night was horrible. I couldn’t get to sleep (the boys had their friend Fernando sleeping over, and they kept horsing around), and when I did get to sleep, it was fitful and uneven and interspersed with horrible, scary, and violent dreams in which I was utterly helpless to stop all the bad things that were happening, and when the bad dreams ended I had a series of cramps […]
This weekend I realized that I had to tighten my belt a notch — literally, not figuratively — because with all the walking around we’ve been doing, I have apparently lost a few pounds notwithstanding my consumption of baguettes, cheese, tarts, pain au lait (God help me if they had pain au lait easily available in the US; I would weigh pounds); non non-fat lattes with sugar; non non-fat milk, […]
Strange goings-on last evening. South of the Place d’Italie on the Avenue de Choisy is an area with lots of Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Cambodian, etc. shops and restaurants. The family with whom we picknicked at Parc Montsouris had recommended a couple of good Vietnamese restaurants in that area, so we made plans with the Fernando family to meet them at 7 at one of them. En route, we had two […]
Waiting for the coffee to kick in, here’s the report from Sunday. We slept in and lounged around in the morning, then gave the apartment a thorough cleaning, which it badly needed. Suzie then took the boys and Fernando back to the Pariskate facility. We met up again about 4 at the St. Placide Metro stop near Montparnasse. One of the best things about Paris (especially for someone like me, […]
We find almost impossible to force ourselves to have down time. It is too hard, when the whole city of Paris is out there, to stay in our apartment and rest, especially when even otherwise mundane tasks are exciting and novel — like returning something to FNAC, the big electronics/book store, which Suzie and I did on Friday afternoon — an experience which provided further evidence to my hypothesis that […]
We were invited over to Fernando’s family’s apartment near the Place d’Italie today for a Spanish lunch, which we enjoyed very much, both the food and the company. The food was excellent — appetizers consisting of bread with an olive-oil, garlic, and tomato spread; proscuitto and melon, and an absolutely delicious gazpacho soup; a main course consisting of a delicious, somewhat spicy combination of chicken, green and red peppers, onions, […]