Le Petit Parisien

On Sunday we got a guided tour of Paris with our friend Adrien. Chris met him at an insect chemical ecology course that he took in Sweden 4 years ago.  As we were snapping photos (and likely embarrassing him with our touristy ways) we came across this little restaurant and made him pose under it's sign.  We all giggled a little because Adrien towers over me and Chris.

We asked Adrien to take us to some of his favorite places, and to just be our guide - we've been making so many decisions lately, so it was nice to have a break from planning!  We met him at one of the Northern-most metro stops, in the Montmartre District.  Getting around Paris, specifically the metro, with our stroller is sometimes a pain so we decided that we would try carrying Lilah in the Ergo (baby back/front-pack) for the day.  Good thing we did, because first stop on our tour was Sacre-Coeur (Sacred Heart Cathedral), which is located at the top of a huge hill.  The walk up to the Cathedral was awesome in itself - the steps were filled with people and street performers.

This guy scaled the lamp post with his basketball balanced on his head.

Half way to the top overlooking Paris

Sacred Heart Cathedral

After walking through the inside of the cathedral and rubbing elbows with french nuns, we meandered our way through the neighborhood of Montmatre, eventually ending up at Moulin Rouge. This is the neighborhood that once was home to Picasso, Vlamenck, Derain, Soutine, Modigliani, Van Gogh, and Hemmingway. The narrow cobblestone streets are picturesque, but it has become commercialized, and it is hard to imagine modern Picasso's hanging out here. But among the watercolors and caricaturists inhabiting this outdoor painter's square, Place de Tertre, there might hang a masterpiece...

Could it be? A Bansky?

Want to buy some art from this guy?

It's so small in real life!

Then we took the metro to Le Jardin Des Plantes, and walked around there for awhile.  There is a zoo located within the garden, and some of the animals are visible without going into the zoo.  We got to see Chris' favorite creature, the red panda!  Afterwards we went to dinner at a restaurant that specializes in Pommes Aligot... cheesy garlicy mashed potatoes.  Yum!

These are mashed potatoes!

Thanks for the fun day, Adrien!

The Palace of Versailles

We kind of stumbled upon the Palace of Verasilles on Saturday.  Our plan for the day was to go to Chartres Cathedral, a medieval cathedral about an hour outside of Paris.  We wanted an inexpensive and non-Paris adventure, and the tour books and websites we consulted guaranteed this.  Chris did some research and figured out the train to get there and what to do in the area aside from the cathedral itself.  We took the RER by our house to the big train station in Versailles, where we needed to catch the train to Chartres.  When we went to buy train tickets to Chartres, we were shocked to find out that round-trip tickets for 2 on this commuter train were €56 (roughly $75).  Since we weren't particularly excited about this specific cathedral (it just sounded like a nice adventure for a Saturday), we decided to scrap that idea and head to the Palace of Versailles for the day instead since we were only about a 10 minute walk away.  Rough choice, I know.

I am not a history buff, and I had planned to do some research on French History and all of the Louis' prior to visiting the Palace, but that obviously didn't happen.  Aside from seeing pictures of the Palace and seeing it in movies, I wasn't really sure what to expect.  It's hard to describe the magnitude of the Palace, but it is enormous.  We learned that in it's prime, the palace was like a big city, home to 10,000 people.  No wonder it's so big.

Entering the Palace

After touring the main area of the palace (with the hall of mirrors, king and queen's chambers, cathedral, etc), we went into the Apartments where some of the daughters of Louis XV lived.  The U-shaped building is comprised of two symmetrical apartments with a total of 10 rooms, that escalate from biggest to smallest as you go in towards the center of the U.  Each side of the apartment had two antechambers (basically big rooms for entertaining visitors), a drawing (music) room, a bed chamber, and a study.  This was probably our favorite part of the tour, it was less crowded and we got to see more of how the families actually lived. They didn't live very private lives, as there were dozens of lesser nobles to witness, and actively participate in, their waking in the morning, and tucking-in at night. Each room of the apartments were used to host events every day, with the more interior ones being restricted to higher ranking guests, while anyone could enter the 1st antechamber.

Marie Antoinette's Interior (Bed) Chamber

Chris in the Hall of Mirrors

Organ in the music chamber of Madame Adelaide's apartment (the greyhounds on top mean it is an organ for women).

We didn't check out the gardens during this visit - it was rainy, and we'll be back with a picnic next time.  We did eat some crepes and hit up the local market where we bought mussels, wine, veggies, and bread for dinner.

Wilson found some woods!

To Wilson's surprise there is a forest right across the main street from our house. This is a huge necessity for the likes of Wilson. He is a strapping young pup with loads of energy and so he needs a regular session of off-leash running. Without it, he sometimes just runs circles in the backyard until he runs out of breath.

Our house is in the big red circle in the upper right. Entrance to park is the little red circle. Downtown is under the name "Orsay"

It has be a little rainy lately, but with our boots on, hiking through it is a pleasure. We pass by other couples, and leash-less dogs. Everyone fawns over Lilah. There might even be a way to hike through this to get to town. A path leads under the highway and up to a bluff overlooking the city. Downtown Orsay is located along the banks of a little river and these woods mount the south side of the valley.

Lilah mesmerized by the leaf-less trees against the sky.

Peek-a-boo

We are looking forward to the spring, when the woods will drastically shift in appearance.

Sunset

Lilah month-by-month

Our sweet baby girl is 6 months old already!  To celebrate her half birthday we put together her monthly sticker shoot to-date.  She gets cuter and more fun every day, we love watching her grow and change.  And that smile...  

Our First Trip to Paris

We've been talking about moving to Paris for so long. And we've been planning all the steps involved in making that move come to fruition. But we have spent zero time actually planning what to do while in Paris. Truthfully, Kimmy and I know very little about France. So when we set out to "do" Paris one random weekday, we really weren't sure what it is that we were going to "do". So instead of getting overwhelmed with tour books, schedules, museum passes, and reservations, we just decided to keep it simple: Take the metro to the Eiffel Tower and just walk towards whatever nearby attraction reared its head.

A 10 minute walk from our house is a "RER B" station. I guess the RER is equivalent to Chicago's Metra, in that it stretches from the heart of the city out to all the nearby suburbs. We take RER B into the city and transfer to the metro. The tiled tunnels of the metro are clearly marked with metro lines and directions, so it's actually pretty easy to navigate. We get off at Bir-Hakeim (Tour Eiffel) and our anticipation grows. We are fully embracing the tourist obsession with the Eiffel Tower. We walk around a corner and Kimmy squeals.

It is pretty thrilling being in the presence of such an iconic monument such as this, so we have a good time just walking around the gardens surrounding the tower. There's a ginormous line to get to the top and so we move on and walk towards the Arc de Triomphe. But we're a little hungry. We don't have a guide book or a cellular data plan so we just walk up interesting looking streets and find a very authentic Tapas restaurant. 

I do have a really good offline map app called City Maps 2Go Pro. This map is a great tool for travelling because without the fear of getting lost you really can delve into the twisted back alleys of a city and really get an authentic experience. You download the maps when you have wifi, and then just use the phone's free gps abilities to move around through the map. The map also has addresses and (I am now realizing) a lot of businesses names, so you can search for things.  

We hear Paris is know for its fine international cuisine, so we don't feel too bad that our first restaurant in Paris is non-French. Plus it was really good. 

Next time I'm getting some of this shaved off

three little paella squidlingtons

We gorge on paella and giant capers and head back out to arrive at the monument to French military victories. It's huge!

Kimmy & Lilah dwarfed by a relief on the Arc de Triomphe

Detail on the Arc's ceiling

Several major streets radiate out from the Arc, we follow Champs-Elysees (The "magnificent mile" of Paris) down through Jardin des Tulleries (A huge garden), and to the Louvre. We pass inumerable amounts of attractions along the way, but for now we just walk and look. The architecture is obviously beautiful, and the open, large avenue aesthetic feels very royal.  On our walk we stop in a random British pub for a pint.

Some pictures along the way.

We then cross the Seine river, and enter a little island holding Sainte-Chapelle and Notre Dame Cathedral. On one of the blocks was a street bird market. Yep only birds. Cages upon cages of song birds tweeting away as, in timely fashion, the hunch-back of Notre Dame rings his bells.

Back on the mainland we take a break in a cafe as night fell. I'm drinking coffee now and it is delicious! After the cafe we walk around the Pantheon and find the Latin Quarter. I think this is supposed to be an international quarter and a university neighborhood. The street we find is literally lined with French/Fondue restaurants and crepe stands. We walk the entire length twice before choosing one, and have our first French dinner. Variations on Boeuf et Beurre!

Before ducking down into the metro to find our way home, the Eiffel waves goodbye with a spotlight and sparkles

Orsay

We live in a small town called Orsay, it's located Southwest of Paris and Southeast of Versailles.  Before moving here, we worked with an organization that helps scientific researchers move to France; they had a number of apartments available for us to rent - we chose ours in Orsay because it was the closest option to Versailles, where Chris will be working.

Here's the outside of our French cottage.  We live on the top floor.  Our downstairs neighbor is very nice and has a black lab who Wilson gets along with well.

Orsay is a very quaint super cute town.  We are about a 10-15 minute walk into the city center, which consists of many shops including my favorites: the butcher, fish monger, bakeries, cheese shops, cafes, wine stores, and chocolate shops. There is also a super market, clothing stores, bars, restaurants, pharmacies, etc. My new favorite pastime is going into town, trying some cheeses, picking up a new one and a fresh baguette, and then walking to the wine store and asking what to pair with it.  Obviously this can't last forever, but it is really fun for now!

Here are some pictures in town:

Little path on the walk:

Fromagerie:

Boucharie:

The hardest part (and also something I enjoy) about living in Orsay is that nothing is in English, so the language barrier is really rough at times.  We bring our phrasebook everywhere but it's still pretty difficult to communicate with people.  Luckily we really haven't experienced the stereotypical rude French attitudes, most people we interact with are very friendly and don't laugh at our broken French; they try to speak to us in English, or pantomime with us. Maybe it's because we usually walk around with either a baby or dog, or sometimes both.  We are working on our French, and I think we're getting a little better every day.

In other news, today is Lilah's 6 month birthday, I can't believe it!  She's doing great.  She's a very smiley baby (although not for pictures it seems), she loves to eat bananas, and we started her on apples this week.  She's sitting up on her own, babbling a ton, giggling and squealing at us (and Wilson).

Here she is while we were unpacking the other day.

Getting to France

On Chris' 32nd birthday in October he got a job offer as a post-doc through a joint position at the Pasteur Institute (a French University) in Paris and the INRA (basically the same as the USDA) in Versailles.  We were hoping to move abroad for a few years following our stint in Riverside, and jumped at this opportunity. I mean, when you get a chance to move to Paris... you move to Paris.

Chris graduated with his PhD in December, I quit my job in January.  We listed our house in Riverside and it sold in a day with a very short escrow.  In the period of 2 weeks we sold our house, car, most of our possessions, and closed the Southern California chapter of our lives.  It was a whirlwind, and really hard, especially with a 5 month-old baby who refuses to not be held at all times, and doesn't like sleeping at night.  Not to mention we had to say good-bye to friends and a town that we grew to love.

To give you an idea of all of the stuff we got rid of, check out Chris' ad for our garage sale.  This was the third(!) garage sale we had.  Thanks, Riverside friends, for coming out and helping get rid of our stuff... hope you're enjoying it!

We had a little over a week in between when our house sold and when our French visas arrived, so we went to Chicago to spend some time with family and friends.  Leaving 80* California and arriving in 1* Chicago winter was definitely a shock to the system, but a good preparation for life in France.  Lilah got to experience snow for the first time, and Wilson got to meet his cousins Bailey and Egon.

Here's Little L on her first walk in the snow. Thanks Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Andy for your hospitality!

On February 10th we left Chicago for the trek to Paris.  We decided that we would bring Wilson with us - he's part of the family, we didn't want to leave him for 2 years, and we were nervous that if we did leave him that he and Lilah wouldn't get along when we got back.  But we were also really nervous to fly him as cargo for such a long, and non-direct flight.  So I got a note from my doctor saying that I need Wilson for 'emotional support' which gives him the same rights as other service dogs.  We also bought him a service dog vest online so he looked the part.  Though we hoped this would do the trick, we were still obviously nervous, especially since the whole 'service dog' thing isn't as recognized outside of the US. 

Luckily, it DID work - Wilson is safely here with us.  But, it was terrifying at times!  The first scare was when we were checking in for our flight to Turkey - the manager came out and looked at the doctors note - and told us the note didn't have enough information on it.  I think all of the blood must have drained from our faces, I could feel the tears starting; but there was a nice ticketing agent who took pity on us, talked to the manager, and got him to allow Wilson on the plane.  She also set us up with an entire row so we had tons of space for Lilah and Wilson.  In addition, she said she would send a note through to Istanbul so they knew to expect us on our connecting flight.  Phew! We thought we were in the clear.  The flight was 10 hours and went well - Lilah slept on my lap and Wilson slept at our feet.  We arrived in Istanbul and the TSA-equivalent there checked Wilson's international health certificate (the EU does not quarantine dogs from the US, but you do need to have a vet and USDA-certified health certificate with vaccination records, etc).  They stared at us like we were crazy but let us through.  Again - phew!  We walked Wilson through the Istanbul airport and people either came up to us wanting to pet Wilson or scurrying as far away from us as possible trying to avoid him.  

When our flight to Paris boarded we were the first people allowed to board since we were the only ones traveling with a baby.  However, when the gate attendants saw Wilson they were not amused and told us to wait while they figured out what to do with him.  We sat on the side of the gate as we watched the entire plane board and the gate attendants converse on their phones, and walkey-talkies about what to do with us.  We still don't really know what happened because it was all in Turkish, but we do know that they closed the boarding doors and we really did not think we were going to be allowed on the plane.  About 2 minutes before the flight was scheduled to take off they told us to board the plane.  Everyone stared at us as we boarded - and to their credit we looked ridiculous with a baby, a dog, 2 carry-on suitcases, a diaper bag, and a backpack.  But we were safely on the flight!  

We landed in France, prepared with our health certificate, and our rented microchip scanner (Wilson has a US-only recognized microchip and we read online that dogs will be scanned going though customs to make sure their microchip matches their rabies vaccination information, so we had to rent a scanner from the US and mail it back once we got here).  We walked through French customs and they barely even looked at us as they told us to continue through the airport.  It was so nonchalant that we thought that must have been the initial check and we would go through actual customs before we left the airport or something.  But then we just walked out of the airport and were safely and successfully in France with our pup!  Of course, one of our bags was lost along the way, but we got it back the next day. :)

Here's a pic of Wilson all decked out in his attire.

  

Now we are moved in to our new home in Orsay, a quaint suburb just southwest of Paris. More to come later....