The Louvre et Barres de Plongée

(The Louvre and Dive Bars)
you know, keeping a well rounded trip

Weather has not been what the travel guides have promised and it has been a bit cold and rainy, with promises to continue on this state for a few days.  But as my dear friend, Angela, put it so poetically "Champagne Problems." Well put, but as I only brought one pair of jeans and no actually warm sweaters I would love to stop dressing like my 3 year old self dressed me. If only she had packed the goulashes.  

Back to the fun stuff.
It is amazing how much Paris shuts down on Sunday, no not the tourist stuff, alive and well.  But the stores and markets are mostly shuttered up and we both compared it to walking through a deserted post apoplectic town, though less zombies.  So where was everyone? Well if it is the first Sunday of the month they are the Louvre, because it is free along with most other Paris Museums.  But don't worry they are all at the Louvre.  How do I know this?  Because we were at the louve, for what must have been one of quickest trips to the Louvre anyone has taken.  Tourist Hell, so may people all of them stopping at the top of the staircase to consult their maps looking for the Mona Lisa.  So we are planning on going back when it is slightly less touristie hell, still the Louvre.  But I still took the time to get a couple of pictures.

In looking back at the pictures I appatent I have at things for ceilings.  Which means I was the super obnoxious tourist stopped in the middle of the room staring up. C'est la vie. 

The weather continued to be crap, so instead of taking our normal walk down the Seine after dinner Daniel took me to a dive bar.  We could have stopped by the nice college, polished wood bar, lonely french guy playing a guitar, but no Daniel had a suggestion from Reddit's favorite bars. So we went to this one.

If it doesn't seem that divey, the bars across the door and windows are classing it up.  When we walked by it the first time I asked who stole their furniture.  They did have a excellent high gravity beer selection, at least I think so. Daniel had a an extensive conversation with the bartender while I stode looking adorable and clueless.  I am barely following buying lettuces let alone fermentation counts.  

Beers in-hand Daniel was selling on the delightfully diviness of the bar until I noticed their was a lack of toilet seat in the women's bathroom. Not delightful just divey, though good beer.  Return visit still a question.

Side Note: Paris waiters seem to have stealth capability in sneaking up on me when I am right in the middle of trying to practice my ordering in a cafe.  At one point I was feeling very confident about my ordering, then without warning WAITER.  And instead of ordering my Supreme Crepe avec champignons (with mushrooms) a word I actually know, I ordered it with campagne.  The waitress was kind and only half looked like I was an idiot before she verified "mushrooms" in excellent english.  You know "champagne problems".  This has happen to me enough times I am starting to think it is a game they play on the tourist, or maybe the rest of their customers are not devoting all of their attention on practicing "I want coffee" to actually look to see someone approach them.  I plan to stick with the evil waiter theory.

Last night the weather broke long enough for a stroll down the Seine last.  And I realized this post was a little picture light and I know that is what you are here for so... Paris at Night:

Notre Dame

The pad lock bridge. I hope to join this strange parisian tradition. 

Notre Dame backside.  

Saw a bunch of kids moon a river boat tour, sadly was not able to photograph. Laughed considerably though.

Bon Soir. 

Lessive et Croissants

(Laundry and Croissants)

So more from "the department of things that are a challenge to do, you never guessed would be": Laundry with the washing machine that is already in your apartment.  We were lucky, our our apartment came with a washing machine, no dryer but we hardly saw a dryer in the 6 dozen or so apartments we considered.

Notre Petite Salle de Bain

(washer is white box behind the sink) 

As you might remember from my pervious post, Rossetta Stone did not cover faire tremper (Pre Soak) and of course the knobs and lights are in a completely different configuration than what I am familiar with.  The lack for familiarity in the toilets continued to flummox me last trip so I am not sure why a washing machine came as a surprise.  We spent several minutes of some successful and more unsuccessful guessing, ee took it to the authorities, Google Translate.

You can just make out the picture on the phone that Daniel took of the instructions.  I am yelling out the spelling, my pronunciation is atrocious, of a few more directions that didn't fit on the phone for Daniel to translate on the computer.  I learned a lot that afternoon.  For those of you that are considering us complete idiots in this manner, I feel I should also mention the washing machine looked like a mini medieavel torture divice.

Your clothing goes into the circular cheese grater and then you have to snap it shut, which likes to spring open with gusto when you release it.  Of course when the very long washing period is done the barrel does not automatically cycle to the top, you have to spinning it around by hand first, hoping you are not breaking it.   Remember no dryer and no clothes line or even curtain rod in the bathroom just a "V" shaped drying rack and where else we find an edge to hang things from.  Forgot to get a good picture, will include next time.  Daniel and I were both a little not sure about air dried everything.  But  now I am a bag fan of air dried jeans, once they softened from their initial  crunchy air dried condition, I will see if the same holds true for my crunchy air dried underwear.

In other big news, I know what more than doing laundry could you ask for :

 I BOUGHT  A CROISSANT ALL BY MYSELF!!  Thrilling, I know!

And by myself I don't mean Daniel was behind me doing all the talking, I mean all by myself!  Daniel woke up feeling bad yesterday morning and opted to stay in bed a bit longer.  Since we did not have any breakfast food in the apartment I spend my shower practicing my french.

"Bonjour Madame" " Je voudrais deux croissants, s'il vous plaît." "Merci."

"Hello Ma' am" "I would like two croissants, please" "Thank you"

I woke Daniel up long enough to clarify "Madame" and not "Mademoiselle".  Which he did and then unprompted recited everything I would need to say.  This is the first time I have even left the apartment with out him, but I put on my brave, "you don't know I don't know french face" and when out on the street.  Luckily I on had to put on my  brave, "you don't know I don't know french face" for two blocks, I love living so close to things.  The boulangerie (bakery) lady was very sweet and patient with me.  I stumbled once I got " Je voudr..." out before I got completely tongue tied. I took a deep breath and started over again, I am sure I looked like a complete idiot, but I felt pretty proud of myself.  I wouldn't say it was smooth sailing from there but manageable.  I didn't entire understand the amount I need to pay but I hear "one euro something" so I figured out if I handed her two euro's and whatever she handed me back would be fine. I didn't actually figure out how much they cost until hours later, mind like a steel trap.  I was feeling fairly confinent afterwards so I stopped by a connivence martet to pick up some jus d'orange (OJ). Luckily the cashier was chatting with a fellow so minimal discussion was needed.

I arrived home victorious to a slightly up and moving Daniel.  I regaled him of my heroic tale in which I realized I mostly likely completely forgot the "please." Daniel followed this up by informing that my pronunciation of almost everything had been wrong, including the word "croissant".  He was very luckily I gave him his croissant after that. Croissants were eaten before a picture was remembered, and they were delicious.

Later that day when Daniel was feeling better we went to Shakespeare and Company, (an english language book shop, home for wayward writer, and other interests) and watched a street performance from a New Orleans acting troupe. 

Very performance art and skit like.  A good time.  The upstairs of Shakespeare and Company is a in-house library.  The books are not for sale but you should feel free to read a book and lounge if you like.  Maybe taking them up on that offer soon.

There is more, but for know I will just leave you with a little Paris food porn:

Sexy Oui?

Here we just call it lunch. Ham, I do not know the proper name to, soft cheese, I do not know the proper name for the the bread that is called "la tradition"(not to be confused with the baguette, which is apparently an inferior bread)

Au Revoir Pour L'instant. 

Nous Sommes Arrivés

(We have Arrived!)

Alright so we arrived three days ago, but I hear we have been busy.  There were two very long days spent getting here including a 12 hour layover at the Gatwick Airport in London.  Was very thankful to have lounge access but a very long wait still, an hour plane ride later we were in Paris, more accurately a Paris Airport hotel, but Paris still.  If you caught that, we waited 12 hours to take an hour long flight.  We could have caught a bus and made it here in less time.  I digress.... PARIS!

Our apartment in fantastic and very much what the pictures implied... one tiny kitchen.

Our glorious kitchen: mini fridge, sink, microwave, toaster over and prep table.  Despite "the deer in the headlights look" I knew Daniel was taking my picture.  The apartment is quite charming (more pictures to come) and our artist landlord has made many DIY alterations and filled the walls with her art work and the view ...

That is the Pantheon in the background.   Our landlord enjoyed this view so much there is a painting of it hangs over the couch for sale, crafty that one.

So the first few days have been all about getting set up and finding our bearings.  We are in the 5th, off Rue Saint Jacque (street).  This makes me laugh because it is a street referenced in one of my learn french directions audio tapes. 

"Où est la rue Saint-Jacques" (Where is Saint Jacques Street)

"C'est ici." (It is here)

Unexpected challenges in running out to the grocery store was reading labels.  Yes I know the word for coffee is café and the word for soap is savon but a lot of dish soap does not simply read savon à vaisselle on the bottle it reads Paic Citron.  And I don't want to admit how long we spent reading coffee labels trying to find a course grind for our coffee press (which we did not successful buy).  In short the grocery store which I thought would be the easy part of the shopping was by far the hardest. Side Note: did not see a hair dryer there nor at the pharmacy.

Shopping for dinner on the second day turned out to be a bit more rewarding.  We walked two blocks from our apartment to the Boulangerie (bakery) and bought a beautiful baguette (not actually called a baguette but more on that later) then we walked next door to the fromagerie (cheese shop). I have no idea what we bought but it was very taste with the bread. Two doors down we stopped into the vegetable shop, the shopkeep was very amused by us and one of the few shop owners that coninuted to speak french to us, as soon as most shopkeeps heard our "bonjour" they immediately switched to english.  Then we finished up with a swing by the butcher next door.  These were actually much simpler shopping, staring at things for a while and then just randomly point to something that looked tasty.

Our awesome haul.

My awesome dinner.

So yes my first french dinner in my tiny kitchen I made a salad, but your body would be craving veggies too after two days of airplane/ airport food. Today we went for a bit more of an adventure and hit up an open air market, for your most Parisians of shop experiences.  It was amazingly overwhelming, Daniel and I walked through the entire two cross town block gauntlet of stalls and bustling shoppers before we regrouped at the end and geared ourselves up for the shopping experience.  We shopped from five different stalls where hardly anyone spoke english to us and I even spoke a little, very little, but everyone was extremely nice and helpful.  Amounts are a hard thing to process right away and most venders were happy to repeat themselves or automatically showed us the printed amount upon asking us to pay.  

I am still letting Daniel do almost all of the talking, but by the market was feeling comfortable enough to engage a little.  I even bought the garlic, by bought I said hello, handed her the bulb, handed her the money, and said thanks, Daniel answer any necessary questions (big step for me none the less).

My even awesomer haul.

Please note the pork chops.  There was a butcher stall that after we spent much time guessing at the cuts of meat, for one they don't look like they do pre packaged at Harris Tetter and again Rossetta Stone covered porc (pork) it didn't exactly cover ham hacks, we ventured an order.  The young man picked up the huge piece of meat with his bare hand and proceed to hack at it with a meat cleaver, remember open air market, and I was just like "damn." A super exciting morning, everyone should have that kind of entertainment from grocery shopping.  I will have pictures of the market later on when I don't feel so touristy, which I am.  We are still a little flummoxed by ordering weights of things (I believe a kilo is about two pounds) and would love to know how to ask for less than quarter of a kilo (half a pound).

Well I have been going on for awhile so I will wrap it up with a few shots of Paris at night from Daniel and I's strolls by the Seine the last two nights.

La belle ville la nuit.

Tomorrow Croissants for Breakfast!

Bon Voyage Á Nous

(Good Trip to Us)

Currently sitting in the British Airways lounge at the Atlanta Airport waiting for our plane to board, which will still be for another hour and half.  Someone wanted to get here early and we did, four hours early.  I am just giving Daniel a hard time we had a five hour drive to Atlanta and I was happy to make sure we had enough time to deal with a flat tire, or missed turn as well.  So we have been enjoying the lounge access, which is so the way to go. OPEN BAR! No seriously serve yourselve open bar.

The last few weeks have been crazy with finishing my last show, Daniel finishing grad school, packing for this trip and more notable packing up the house to sell.  We are homeless at this point, well there is a house, there is just nothing left inside of it.  In these last few busy weeks not much frenching has been going on, which has certainly caused this slightly panicky "I am not ready" feeling, but the plane is taking off and all of my underwear is packed so I might as well suck it up.  I had certainly imagined more of an immersion week full of rosetta stone, french music, french literature, and blogging.  Instead there was a lot of sweating, cleaning, and cursing.  This coming week is soon to be full immersion and hopefully less sweating, I always forget how hot and humid NC is in the summer.

Mon Petit  Fromage with continue through the summer and at a more frequent rate.  Daniel will be joining me as a contributor and drum roll.... it will be written in ENGLISH! I know you are excited.  Not to fret if you have missed my muddled french, there will still be the "french" version of the posting just at the bottom.  Soon we will be relating our wonderful Paris adventure and freching missteps just in a more stream line english reading.

Welcome to the Adventure!

limite de Paris!

(Paris Bound) 

(Good Trip to Us)

Currently se reposer in le British Airways lounge at the Atlanta Aéroport waiting for notre voin to board, which will still be for another heure et demi.  Someone wanted to get here early et nous avon fait, quarte heure early.  Je suis just giving Daniel a hard time we had a cinq heure drive to Atlanta and I was happy to make sure we had enough time to deal with a flat tire, or missed turn as well.  So we have been enjoying the lounge access, which is so the way to go. OUVREZ BARRE! No seriously serve yourself ouvrez barre.

The last few semaine have been crazy with finishing my last show, Daniel finishing grad école, packing for this voyage and more notable packing up the maison to sell.  We are homeless at this point, well there is a maison, there is just nothing left inside of it.  In these last few busy semaines not much frenching has been going on, which has certainly caused this slightly panicky "Je ne pas ready" feeling, mais l'avon is taking off and all of my underwear is packed so je might as well suck it up. J'ai certainly imagined more of an immersion semaine full of rosetta stone, musique française, lecture français, and blogging.  Instead there was a lot of sweating, nettoyage, and cursing.  This coming week is soon to be full immersion and hopefully less sweating, I always forget how chaud and humid NC is in the été.

Mon Petit  Fromage with continue through l'été and at a plus frequent rate.  Daniel will be joining me as a contributor and drum roll.... it will be written in ENGLISH! je sais you are excited.  Not to fret if vous have missed mon muddled french, there will still be the "french" version of the posting just at the bas.  Soon nous allons be relating our wonderful Paris aventure and freching missteps just in a more stream line anglais reading.

Bienvenue à l'aventure!

Deux Mois et Comptes

(Two Months and counting)

Nous sommes (we are) just cinquante-neuf jours du vol vers Paris (fifty nine days from flying to Paris).

Crunch time has begun.

Fier de Moi

(Proud of me)

Daniel travaille (is working) in Denver for a couple of semaines (weeks) designing sound for a college’s musical.  And currently je suis (I am) in route to visit him for a few jours (days).  Well most likely I will be there in son petit appartement de crack den (his little crack den apartment) by the time I have internet to check mon français et (my french and) upload this.  So why the trip all the way out to Denver when I have plenty of work?  Because j'ai voulu (I wanted) to.   Daniel et je (and I) have been very much dans l'amour avec (in love with) Colorado, more specifically Boulder, since trios et demi d'années ( three and a half years) ago when we spent our first married été (summer) working for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival.  Have you ever been someplace and looked at yourself and how vous étiez (you were) living your life and thought "this is the person je veux être (I want to be)"? That is how nous (we) feel about Boulder.   Which certainly explains pour quoi (why) we returned the deux following étés (summers).   Cet été (this summer) we spent in Conecticut and while a bon été (good summer) je still missed going  out to Colorado.  Daniel worked this gig last année (year) while I envied from home, busy avec le travail (with work).  When the job came up again this year and je was only working deux par á semaine (two days a week) je n'étais pas (I was not) to be left at home again. 

So fier de moi (proud of me), j’ai (I had) a very reasonable vol ce matin (flight this morning)  at 10:20, mais très (but a very) unreasonable quatre heures (four hour) lay over in Atlanta.  Luckily my gate was on the opposite end of the aéroport (airport) which killed dix minutes (ten minutes) only trios heures et cinquante minutes (three house and fifty minutes) to go.  Mon (my) gate was graveyard vide (empty), probably having quelque chose (something) to do with the fact there was un peu de temps avant la vol (a little time before the flight) in fact that whole part of the concourse was dead.  Je decided to take advantage of this vast privacy et quite, and Rosetta Stoned.  If this does not sound dedicated to you, vous n'avez pas (you have not) Rosetta Stoned.

The full premise of this program is it gives you everything, see the picture pour pomme (for apple), while you see le mot pour pomme (the word for apple), while the program dits le mot pour pomme (says the word for apple) et ensuite vous dites le mot de pomme (and then you say the word for apple).  The program then buzzes you si vous dites (if you say) it wrong, et ensuite vous dites de nouveau. (and then you say it again).  So to practice Rosetta Stone vous avez (you have) to be some place you don’t mind les gens (people) hearing you butchering a language over et (and) over again.  The box set come with a dandy headset, which les miens se sont cassés il ya des mois (mine broke months ago), to at least cut down on the noise coming from your ordinateur (computer).  One can not always trouvez un (find a place) that embraces this much noise.  Je ne sais pas (I don’t know) what je sound like quand je suis (when I am) practicing, mais de mon mari (but from my husband's) chuckling and occasional shouting the proper procounciation from une salle différente (a different room) at me, I have figured out this is not something je veux (I want) to put strangers through. 

So je suis fier de moi ( I am proud of me) for finding time to practice français dans  l'aéroport (French in the airport).  While traped in my center sear on le tour plat de quatre heures (the four hour plane ride ) je even typed up this blog entry.

*Sadly it took me trois jours (three days) to get enough internet to post this.

Tonight’s Picture:

Les montagnes que j'ai manquées.

Pervious Picture:

The cafe where I write my blog.

Horizons en expansion

Expanding Horizons

Je (I) continue to roll right along with my Rosetta Stoning, most recently les continents et d'océans (the continents and the oceans) j'ai (I have) tried to expand my exposure to français especially parlé (spoken).  I figure si je ne peux pas comprendre ce que les gens disent á moi ( if I can not understand what people are saying to me) all le lit, éscriter, et parler (reading, writing, and speaking) skills are not going to do me any good.  Je picked up several "Learn Français dans la Voiture" (Learn French in the Car) around the start of last semester, which was tres (very) handy as un de mes travaux (one of my jobs) required un de deux heures (two hour) drive trois fois par semaine (three times a week).  One of the tape sets was acctually fairly useful for learning français dans la voiture (french in the car) the other one was not as effective for learning nouvelles choses (new things).  But my orngial idea was to help enforce my current vocabularity so I could recgonized les mots (the words) when they were not in the same sentences I had heard cents de périodes (hundreds of times before) in Rosetta Stone.

Unfortunatly not a lot of french stations on la radio (same word in french) around here, so back to more creative ways of hearing french.  I optined for another Disney movie dubbed in français while l'anglais (the english) subtitled roll au bas (as the bottom).  J étais triste (I was sad) to realize mon nouvelle (my new) favorite Disney movie " La Princesse et la Grenouille" ("The Princess and the Frog) did not have a french audio option. Ills (they) set it in New Orleans, which I believe still has a tres fort (very strong) french influence, what sense does that make?  I find when other movies disappoint me, I can always reach for mon vieux (my old) faithful stand by "Robin de Bois"  (Robin Hood, literally translated Robin of Woods).

Mon favorite movie since before je can remember has always been there for me, et y a maintenant il pour moi en français (and now it is there for me in french).  Though je aways seem a bit confused how un lion can be oncle à un renard (uncle to a fox), mais qui suis moi (but who am I) to question animaux de danse de chant (singing dancing animals).  This went a bit better than trying to watch "Up", my advice to you for watching a movie in foreign language for la première fois que (the first time) pick one you have had memorized since vous aviez cinq ans (you were five).  It will save you a lot of time of trying to understand the language and know what is going on in the plot.  Et écoute (And listening) to "Oo de Lally" in a french accent is pretty amusing.   Soon to see what other movies we have with french options.

Ended up watching "La Princesse et La Grenouille" later anyway, what can je dis, je suis (I say, I am) a sucker for a mains (hand) drawn princes movies.

Tonight's Picture:

Le café où j'écris mon blog.

Pervious Picture:

This kitchen will not make crossants.