Paris apartment...

I promised to tell you about the apartment I rented in Paris, which was fantastic. Although I'm kind of loathe to because I don't want it to be booked up next time I want to go!

It's in the 6th, very near rue Buci (one of my favourite streets in one of my fav areas), and the location couldn't be better. Walking distance to just about everything, lots of great bars and restaurants nearby, and a pretty safe area at night if traveling alone.

The main reason I chose it was that 3 people can sleep comfortably in their own bed, as opposed to just 2 double beds. Oh, and did I mention it had a terrace with AMAZING views? You can find it here.

Here's the view on the day I arrived, lovely and sunny:



And then the view on the day my family from the States arrived, lovely and snowy:



I've definitely been converted to an apartment renter in Paris. Nothing like having your own 'home' to stay in while in the city. Hotel rooms are so pokey in Paris, you never want to spend much time in them. And I know, why would you want to stay in your hotel room, but if you are staying for more than a few days, it's nice to be able to chill somewhere in between sight seeing, shopping, and eating. Not to mention that if you are sharing with someone, it usually works out much cheaper!

Hello from Paris...

I'm in Paris at the moment, waiting for my family's flight to arrive tomorrow at 6 am. I've been here the last two days, staying in a great apartment, which I'd recommend to anyone wanting to rent an apartment for their stay in Paris and which I'll post details of when I get back.

When I can break myself away from the view from my balcony (I can see the Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, la Grande Roue at Place de la Concorde, and the Seine. Any guesses which arrond I'm in?), I've been doing some Christmas shopping and trying to keep warm by stopping every 100 metres or so to have a coffee.

It's arctic here, and apparently snow is expected this week. That will make the city look even more Christmassy than it already does, but thinking I better go out and buy a hat. We have lots to pack in the next three days as my uncle has never been here, so I expect there will be lots of photos to post when we get back home!

I'll always have Versailles...

One of the most beautiful memories I have of my first trip to Europe, and one that I can still conjure up in my mind with almost perfect detail, was my first visit to Versailles, and more specifically, the gardens at Versailles. Why this memory should stay with me so strongly after all these years, and how it has managed to muscle out of the top spot some other places I saw on that same trip (the Forum in Rome, the Charles Bridge in Prague, the canals in Venice), I can't really say.

I remember standing by the Apollo Fountain on a cold, sunny day, and feeling like I'd been transported back in time. The peacefulness, the grandeur, the elegance, the sweeping scale of the landscape around me was almost like a religious experience. Sounds a bit over-the-top, I know, but needless to say I was quite impressionable at that age and I was completely overwhelmed by the beauty all around me.

The chateau itself, well, I wasn't as blown away. The Hall of Mirrors and all the opulence was quite impressive, but I couldn't help thinking how staged it all looked. I just couldn't 'feel' it. But I definitely felt it in the gardens.

So, as I sit here trying to plan my trip to Paris to meet my Dad and Uncle in December, I'm wondering if a trip to Versailles should be included. I'm wondering if maybe the memories I have of my first trip have grown out of all proportion over the last 16 years and whether or not I may feel a little disappointed seeing the place for a second time. Is this a beautiful memory I should leave intact, or is it worth the risk of discovering again, and sharing it with my family? Answers on a postcard please...

On a side note, I've found a run I'm going to aim for next year. La Grande Classique is a 16 kilometers (10 miles) run, which starts at the Eiffel Tower and ends at the Palace of Versailles. How cool would that be? I just ran a 10k yesterday in Pézeans and I didn't die, so I'm hoping by next September, with enough training, I just might be able to do it. Somehow I feel that just the idea of where I'm running from and to might be enough to spur me on. Anyone want to join me?

Paris in sight...

We've got a little bit of everything going on here at the Dukedom at the moment.

First up, the oldest little lady turns 7 tomorrow. I've spent the last week trying to come to terms with the fact that a) I have a 7 yr old, and b) this means it is birthday party time again. What I wouldn't do to have a roller-skating rink in my neighborhood at this time of year.

Just to make sure the house is even messier than usual for the party, we have officially gone back into the fray of house renovations. This time around, painting the stairwell and upstairs hallway and all 7 doors upstairs, removing the paint from the beautiful stone stairs (the person who applied that first coat of paint all those years ago should have been guillotined!), and repainting all 12 sets of wooden shutters. Those of you who know how expensive paint is in France will understand why we have been recently considering selling our firstborn.

All these renovations have been spurred on by the fact that we will be having visitors soon. My dad and my uncle are coming for a 3-week stay over Christmas. My dad has been out several times, but this will be a first for my uncle, and it will be the first Christmas in over 15 years that I will get to spend Christmas with my side of the family.

I'm going to meet them in Paris when they arrive and we'll spend three nights in the city before taking the train down south. I've rented an apartment in the 6th, booked the train tickets, and am now employing Master's level research skills in finding some good restaurants for us to try. I'm arriving two days before them to give myself a little 'me' time and hope to fit in some book shopping and lots of café sitting before the grand tour starts.

For those of you living in Paris, would love to hear some recommendations for restaurants and bars, and particularly bars where we can listen to some music, as per request from my dad (so probably not rock or punk, maybe jazz or chanson français, or something like that!). Thanks!

5 random things...

1. There’s only so much a girl can do with a strawberry. We’ve eaten them piled high in bowls with sugar on top, eaten them with ice cream, made a strawberry mousse with them, and a strawberry tart, and I’m tempted to introduce the little ladies to strawberry milkshakes. Is there some other strawberry delicacy I’m missing out on? I love the fact that here in France we are able to eat so seasonally, but at this stage in the game, I wake up in cold sweats thinking I’ve morphed into either a giant, juicy strawberry or a spiky green spear of asparagus. Bring on cherry season already!

2. I’m wondering if 60 euros is too much to pay to see a band I vaguely recollect from childhood and one that would force me to dig out my dangly gold earrings and possibly my legwarmers. Depeche Mode are playing in Carcassone in June at the open-air arena and part of me is tempted. If it was, say, The Cure, I certainly wouldn’t have hesitated this long in buying a ticket. But Depeche Mode? Twenty years on? I’m wondering if they will end up being like Kraft Mac n Cheese for me. I have fond memories, but I'd like to think I’ve moved on a bit since then.

3. I’m getting a bit freaked out with some of my clients who come looking for houses feeling under the weather. Should I interrogate them on which countries they’ve visited recently, say Mexico, for example? Maybe I should start wearing a face mask when I go to appointments. I managed to escape the foot and mouth outbreak and the bird flu, I don’t want it to be the bloody swine that get me.

4. Time to start swimsuit shopping again. One expense they don’t tell you to figure in when having a baby is the amount you will spend on buying a new wardrobe for the next 4 years as your body decides which size it’s actually going to stick at. I now own swimsuits in every size, ranging from an obviously-before-babies triangle bikini in a color that would make people look at me, to one piece affairs that range from nothing-to-see-here to possibly-something-to-see, but certainly-not-that-bit-in-the-middle. This year I need one of those cut-out suits, the ones that let you see a bit of the middle, but definitely not that wrinkly bit around the belly button. Anyone seen one of these miracle suits anywhere?

5. I think I’m going through Paris withdrawl. Every year, for the last 4, I’ve taken the train up to Paris twice a year for a little ‘me' time. I love my little village here in the south, but occasionally I need reminding that French culture is made up of more than shooting wild boar or riffling through people’s junk at a vide grenier. I need some action, of the Parisian people watching, art-exhibiting, and just generally bigger city kind. I told myself this year that I would head for Madrid for a long weekend instead, but you know, Paris is just a bit like that. She sucks you in, and no matter how hard you try to pretend you are so over her, you see something in a magazine or see a number 75 license plate and you can’t help but think fondly of her. Maybe I should go check out the train fares….

Painting the Eiffel Tower...

Apparently, since its creation in 1889, La Dame de fer has been completely repainted every 7 years. This week, 25 painters started the job again, which will take around 18 months to finish.

Taking painting and decorating to a new level (sorry...), the painters are harnassed and supported by cables as they wield their paintbrushes to cover every nook and cranny, using over 60 tons of paint.

And I thought painting a ceiling was a pain in the neck. I'd like to be the person on the ground who tells them that they've missed a spot...

Here's a video at Le Figaro.

Four days in Paris

Besides walking myself silly and eating far too much, I managed to do a little bit more this trip to Paris than shopping.

I didn't quite make it to the Orangerie, deciding my time would be better spent at WH Smiths. I know, I know, but remember I live an English-book-deprived life here in the south and the thought of browsing shelves of books won out over the Water Lilies. Next time, I promise.

While I was there I managed to note down a restaurant to try that evening, L'AOC, in the 5th. (I always stay at the Hotel de la Sorbonne, it's cheap, well located, and in a safe area for women on their own.) The food was simple but delicious, from the vélouté de poireaux served over lardons to the cochon rôti with mash and then the most beautiful moelleux au chocolat (pictured). Sel de Guerande and a peppermill on the table, Laguiole knives, soft yellow walls, candlelight and an old copy of Larousse Gastronomic on one of the shelves; this little resto was a good find.

The next day, after a run in the Jardin de Luxembourg in the morning and then an hour spent at the Jacques Prévert exhibit at the Hotel de Ville (definitely worth the loooong wait in line), I travelled up to the 19th to the Hammam Medina. What bliss! And the perfect way to spend a rainy Friday afternoon. Just one word of warning though, don't be put off by the facade of the place, which according to the Duke looks like a porn palace. I took the Formule Détente which included the hammam, gommage (imagine sandpapering your entire body), massage and tea and pastry for 55 euros. My skin still feels like butter....

Saturday was a day of walking and shopping and then I met up with some friends in the Marais for dinner and drinks. Sunday morning was filled with reading the Sunday paper at Le Rostand cafe, overlooking the Jardin de Luxembourg, and then finding some good secondhand Ladybird Early Reader books for the oldest little lady at Shakespeare & Co. My train left the Gare de Lyon at 3.20 which was actually good because by that point I wanted to cut my feet off.

So, a perfect mix of doing, watching, being, eating, walking and relaxing. In theory I should now not need to get away again for a few more months. But funny how traveling has the opposite effect on me. The more I do it, the more I want to do it...

I couldn't possibly walk anymore....

Paris always has that effect on me. I remember one of my first trips to the city, we had walked so much during the day and somehow forgotten to eat (I know, in Paris, how is that possible?), so upon arrival at our restaurant that evening, as I was making my way to the toilettes, I passed out. Right in the middle of all the other diners, passed out cold. Embarrassing to say the least but you'd think it would have taught me a lesson.

But no. Whenever I go to Paris, even if I have a carnet of metro tickets in my pocket, I always think, 'oh, it's just a couple of blocks away', and proceed to walk until I can't feel my feet anymore. And it doesn't matter what kind of shoes I'm wearing either, although I do tend to keep the heels for the evening now.

Couple all the walking with the 4 hour train ride home and I'm reminded of being heavily pregnant in the middle of summer and wondering who the hell the fat ankles and swollen feet belonged to.

I had a great weekend, managed to fit alot in and still have quiet, lazy moments sitting in cafes and people watching. Once I tackle the small Matterhorn of laundry that has sprung up in my absence, I'll fill you in....

Paris...

I'm off on the TGV to Paris for a long weekend. I plan to eat and drink myself through the city. If I have a few spare minutes, I'd like to stop at the Orangerie, the Jacques Prévert exhibit, the Hammam Medina, the épicerie at the Bon Marché and the Village Voice bookshop.

I'm not sure 4 days will be enough....

Bon weekend everyone!

Jacques Prévert....

Amongst all the reasons why I'll never be a cool Parisian (a. I don't live there b. just look at me, etc, etc.), according to Olivier Magny at Stuff Parisians Like, real Parisians like to know about good exhibits going on in the city, but they would never deign to go to one, that's for the tourists and the bored ex pat housewives.

But I'm going to Paris in November and I'd like to see the new exhibit at the Hôtel de Ville 'Jacques Prévert: Paris la Belle'.

I read Prévert at university and he has remained one of my favorite French poets. Originally I liked him because his poems were so easy to read, meaning I could understand his language without having to look every word up in the dictionary. Then of course, like a lot of poetry, it dawns on you that the meaning has nothing to do with the words....

I like him now for reasons similar to why I like Neruda. I adore the simplistic language that conjures up so much imagery without pandering to verbose, archaic, 'poetic' pretension. He writes of lovers, Paris, angst, politics, humor. It's the black and white language of Paris after the war.

Prévert wrote poetry (Paroles, Spectacle) and screenplays (Les Enfants du Paradise, Le Jour Se Leve). He collaborated with artists (Miro, Picasso) and photographers (Izis Bidermanas, Robert Doisneau). He created works that have remained relevant for several decades and are now being celebrated by the exhibit at the Hôtel de Ville from the 24th of October until the 31st of January.

I'll leave you with one of his poems from Paroles:

Alicante

Une orange sur la table
Ta robe sur le tapis
et toi dans mon lit
Doux présent du présent
Fraîcheur de la nuit
Chaleur de ma vie.

Richard Avedon...

If you are lucky enough to be in Paris this summer between the 1st of July and the 27th of September, you should check out the Richard Avedon exhibition at the Jeu de Paume.

Richard Avedon's career is a bit of a marvel to me. His work covered an amazing span of subjects and times, including Parisian fashion in the 50's, civil rights in the 60's, his father dying of cancer in the 70's, and celebrity portraits and the American West in the 80's.

His work as a fashion photographer revolutionized the fashion industry, his photojournalism saw him cover events such as the Vietnam War and the fall of the Berlin Wall, and his portraits of subjects as varied as the Beatles, Samuel Beckett, Audrey Hepburn and Charlie Chaplin are instantly recognizable as his work.

The exhibition covers his work from his beginnings as a photographer in 1946 to 2004, when he died at the age of 81.

If any of you in Paris do get a chance to see it, please let me know what you thought!

April in Paris......

Such a cliché, I know, but one of the total bonuses of living a 4 hour TGV ride away.

Here's a little Paris quiz to test your knowledge of the City of Lights.

Looking forward to a bit of shopping, people watching, and re acquanting myself with this thing called 'nightlife'. Just hope we won't be singing in the rain......