I really like the neighborhood I live in in Paris' 18eme, I found the most delicious pastry here called a Bichon au Citron, a sort of lemon chasson au pomme. It's one of the best things I've ever tasted sweets wise, and one weekend when Sylvain went out to get our saturday pastries he went to a different boulangerie and I had a minor tantrum when he didn't bring one home. It's not that I am prone to tantrums but for 30 minutes while he was doing errands and getting the pastries I had literally been imagining the first bite, the disappointment was bitter.
I'd say raclette has been my favorite "meal" discovery and we live near Abesses where there is a great Savoyen restaurant on the corner somewhere along Rue de Trois Freres, about a month ago we went with another couple and ordered the raclette, I literally inhaled it, I don't remember coming up for air except to ask for more cornichons. Raclette is totally brainless, if you buy raclette grill and raclette cheese all you do is add potatoes and charcuterie, I need a jar of cornichons to myself and generally you start with a salad and drink a dry white. I really don't think anyone could fail at raclette and it's fun and easy to do with a dinner party.
Sauce au poivre I ate off of Sylvain's plate and then went straight home and found a recipe how to make it, I generally put it over pork chops but it goes over red meat more traditionally I think. I make potatoes as a side because they soak up the extra sauce. This is a sauce I could easily lick the plate over, but since I know better I refrain.
We just went skiing in Savoy between Christmas and New Years and we ate well, raclette, tartiflette and fondue are traditional meals in this region and all were amazingly satisfying after a day on the pistes. Ive never been a HUGE fan of pasta, it's okay, but give me potatoes and yum. Tartiflette for me is the number one comfort food. I'd eat this on a cold winters day or on any of those days that just beat you down and you need to eat your way out. Tartiflette is like carmalized onions, potatoes, lardons (bacon), and cream with roblochon fromage. Again it's a white wine meal and it's wasy to forget about calories with food that tastes this good.
One thing you can never go wrong with in france is a planche with cheese charchuterie and if it's offered, get the ones with pate, usually it will come with some salad and cornichons, and of course, baguette, all you need is a bottle of wine.
France doesn't do a menu carte the same way we do in the states, good restaurants generally have a chalkboard menu that you choose a prix fix of starter, main, dessert or a combination of two like starter and main. I like my sweets after a meal, but I find that generally the starters are the best things on the menu and as far as french desserts go, you've already tasted most of them because they've crossed the Atlantic and although they'll be good, you won't taste anything new or surprising. I also feel that by the time I get to dessert I have two bites and don't finish it, the starter is where it's at.
In other food news, skip the chinese in France, it reminds me of what you would get if school cafeterias offered a chinese menu. One interesting food experience I had here was when we ordered a pizza here a couple weeks ago- we got creme fraiche on it and it was a winning experience, unlike some other creative offerings I've seen, like chicken, and corn in the UK. For my money, macaroons are totally overrated and overpriced and a pain au suisse kicks up a regular old pain au chocolate up a notch. After watching the Julie and Julia movie and reading Julia's book just before arriving I dropped a small fortune on trying Sole Meuniere because Julia has a Meg Ryan experience eating it in the movie, a bit of a waste of money if you ask my palette, it didn't hold it's own. I'd say ditto for the Beef Bourguignon. My two cents on the whole Julia Child cookbook thing, is it's about as useless as it is pretty. People don't eat the same today as they did 50 years ago anywhere, our tastes have changed somewhat and so has the alimentation available. I'm not advocating McDonalds eating, just that today's chefs have amped up or reinterpreted older recipes with new life, and a simple google search will reveal great recipe options without the hulk of that brick.
Anytime you have friends over or are invited your bound to experience the Apero, this is the drink and snack portion of the experience almost similar to the Brits tradition of having tea. French wine glass are very small and so it truly is just a bit of alcohol like a pastis, a kir, whisky and coke, anything you like actually, and some bar snacks, nuts, cheese, olives. I've found as much as the food, the way of eating is as enjoyable as the food itself.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Friday, December 24, 2010
Language
Lately I've been feeling a little self-conscious about speaking English with Sylvain in French settings. We met through a French friend that left us on our our own for a few hours while we sat at a bar nursing Southern Comfort, we hardly knew each other and Sylvain's English was barely conversational, so I resorted to drawing pictures on cocktail napkins to help get my point across. We celebrated our second anniversary this past weekend and I asked him what his first impression was that night, his response: I thought you were good at drawing stuff...
We've talked to a lot of bilingual couples like ourselves many of whom have relocated to France, all of them say it's impossible to switch languages- meaning, if you initially spoke English, it's impossible to switch to French. Of course in our case my French isn't nearly as good as Sylvain's English is now, but I've noticed despite my French having improved significantly, I still switch to English when speaking with Sylvain even in French situations. Apparently this is the general case for bilingual couples, a friend of mine would love to switch to English with her boyfriend, but it just doesn't work because they started in French, and even when I consciously try to practice my French with Sylvain he responds in English out of habit, even if two seconds earlier I reminded him to speak French.
Still it reminds me of when I was younger and bilingual folks would speak their language amongst each other while we who spoke only English knew naught of what was being said. That feeling that they are talking about you in front of you instead of behind your back, or simply of being excluded. Why didn't they speak English in front of you when they knew how to. What were they saying to each other that you didn't understand. This never really made me feel too uncomfortable, but I know for some it does. Having lived in a foreign language country for a year it was sometimes nice to be able tune it all out, not to have to listen to the conversation next to me because it was being conducted in a foreign language it was easy to do so.
I have an Indian cousin who speaks her native language with her children, but she has very good reason to, she wants them to be bilingual and they aren't going to be if they aren't exposed to the language. Living in an English speaking country, this is crucial to their language development and appreciation. Moreover it's pretty obvious when the conversation includes me that I'm included and it's conducted in English, if on the other hand she's telling her son to put on his seatbelt, I'm not really missing much and I trust that what she's saying is for their ears and would be rather dull: tie your shoes, stop running around, it's your bedtime... Trust me sometimes I think we're better off not understanding, after being a nanny for a year I would get so bored of telling A to sit down in her chair or she'd get hurt and for S to stop talking and start eating if there were other's in the room who didn't speak English they'd have been lucky not to have understood the same banal commands over and over.
Language is a really complex thing, the way we express our desires needs and feelings with each other is often done through the spoken word. However in can be exclusive and hurtful too. In some situations it's a basic need. When I speak with Sylvain who is my other half I want to be understood in the clearest terms possible, for us that is in English. People often develop close relationships with other's because they feel that the other person understands them best. There are various other forms of communication; art, body language, but when it comes down to it, we connect to others based on shared ideas which are more often than not transmitted through the spoken language.
We've talked to a lot of bilingual couples like ourselves many of whom have relocated to France, all of them say it's impossible to switch languages- meaning, if you initially spoke English, it's impossible to switch to French. Of course in our case my French isn't nearly as good as Sylvain's English is now, but I've noticed despite my French having improved significantly, I still switch to English when speaking with Sylvain even in French situations. Apparently this is the general case for bilingual couples, a friend of mine would love to switch to English with her boyfriend, but it just doesn't work because they started in French, and even when I consciously try to practice my French with Sylvain he responds in English out of habit, even if two seconds earlier I reminded him to speak French.
Still it reminds me of when I was younger and bilingual folks would speak their language amongst each other while we who spoke only English knew naught of what was being said. That feeling that they are talking about you in front of you instead of behind your back, or simply of being excluded. Why didn't they speak English in front of you when they knew how to. What were they saying to each other that you didn't understand. This never really made me feel too uncomfortable, but I know for some it does. Having lived in a foreign language country for a year it was sometimes nice to be able tune it all out, not to have to listen to the conversation next to me because it was being conducted in a foreign language it was easy to do so.
I have an Indian cousin who speaks her native language with her children, but she has very good reason to, she wants them to be bilingual and they aren't going to be if they aren't exposed to the language. Living in an English speaking country, this is crucial to their language development and appreciation. Moreover it's pretty obvious when the conversation includes me that I'm included and it's conducted in English, if on the other hand she's telling her son to put on his seatbelt, I'm not really missing much and I trust that what she's saying is for their ears and would be rather dull: tie your shoes, stop running around, it's your bedtime... Trust me sometimes I think we're better off not understanding, after being a nanny for a year I would get so bored of telling A to sit down in her chair or she'd get hurt and for S to stop talking and start eating if there were other's in the room who didn't speak English they'd have been lucky not to have understood the same banal commands over and over.
Language is a really complex thing, the way we express our desires needs and feelings with each other is often done through the spoken word. However in can be exclusive and hurtful too. In some situations it's a basic need. When I speak with Sylvain who is my other half I want to be understood in the clearest terms possible, for us that is in English. People often develop close relationships with other's because they feel that the other person understands them best. There are various other forms of communication; art, body language, but when it comes down to it, we connect to others based on shared ideas which are more often than not transmitted through the spoken language.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Not Smart
A few months ago we saw a lawyer to advice us on how to get married. This week she finally emailed us back... I guess that's what you can expect when you use legal aid.
It takes a flow chart to consider our future... Ultimately our first choice is to settle in London, when we get married if Sylvain gains employment there, this will (according to our information and the freedom of movement EU law, this is possible) allow me to work in the UK too.
From now until then our plans are rather bizarre... I'm not sure anything would have changed if we knew then what we know now but we are headed back to the states for something like 8 months... Why? Well, the only really solid reason is that Sylvain's internship ends at the end of the month, thus he has the choice of trying to get a job or trying to get an internship in the states: a job would keep us here for 2 or 3 years and an internship in the states although potentially really difficult to get, will give his resume more diversity and a move back to the states will allow me to try and work in my field even if that means being a substitute teacher.
We did a fairly decent job on the research end of getting married in France, the carte de sejours and the rest, when we looked into getting married in the states, we for some reason neglected to look into the greencard issue and only looked into the actual getting married... So, of course, it seemed cheaper and easier to get married in the states... From our current understanding of the situation, a carte de sejour and getting married in France might end up costing about 500 euros- according to a friend who just went through the process this year, and as far as we can tell if I enter with a longterm visa because we plan to marry I can get my papers in within a few months (although or American friend who just got married is still waiting so who knows), or at least have a titre de sejour which should allow me to work while I wait for my carte de sejour... France is notoriously finicky about these things, often one clerk will say one thing and another something entirely different regarding paperwork, and filing processes, so this is in part why getting married in France seemed like the headache of all headaches.
However after consulting the greencard process, we're looking at spending 4-6k dollars and Sylvain wouldn't be able to work during the filing process which our estimate gleaned from the internet would be 7-12 months... Since we want to live in Europe, we just figured, why bother with the greencard, its expensive and the economy is awful.
So I'm not sure any of our grand plans would have changed in the long run, but it feels a little stupid to have neglected to research the greencard more extensively in a post 9-11 America...
It takes a flow chart to consider our future... Ultimately our first choice is to settle in London, when we get married if Sylvain gains employment there, this will (according to our information and the freedom of movement EU law, this is possible) allow me to work in the UK too.
From now until then our plans are rather bizarre... I'm not sure anything would have changed if we knew then what we know now but we are headed back to the states for something like 8 months... Why? Well, the only really solid reason is that Sylvain's internship ends at the end of the month, thus he has the choice of trying to get a job or trying to get an internship in the states: a job would keep us here for 2 or 3 years and an internship in the states although potentially really difficult to get, will give his resume more diversity and a move back to the states will allow me to try and work in my field even if that means being a substitute teacher.
We did a fairly decent job on the research end of getting married in France, the carte de sejours and the rest, when we looked into getting married in the states, we for some reason neglected to look into the greencard issue and only looked into the actual getting married... So, of course, it seemed cheaper and easier to get married in the states... From our current understanding of the situation, a carte de sejour and getting married in France might end up costing about 500 euros- according to a friend who just went through the process this year, and as far as we can tell if I enter with a longterm visa because we plan to marry I can get my papers in within a few months (although or American friend who just got married is still waiting so who knows), or at least have a titre de sejour which should allow me to work while I wait for my carte de sejour... France is notoriously finicky about these things, often one clerk will say one thing and another something entirely different regarding paperwork, and filing processes, so this is in part why getting married in France seemed like the headache of all headaches.
However after consulting the greencard process, we're looking at spending 4-6k dollars and Sylvain wouldn't be able to work during the filing process which our estimate gleaned from the internet would be 7-12 months... Since we want to live in Europe, we just figured, why bother with the greencard, its expensive and the economy is awful.
So I'm not sure any of our grand plans would have changed in the long run, but it feels a little stupid to have neglected to research the greencard more extensively in a post 9-11 America...
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Winter Wonderland
It's been really cold this week and neither our heat nor the heat where I work is sufficient. I'm happy to wear layers inside, but this week I've been leaving my hat and scarf on inside, which, I think, is a bit much... Yesterday however the temp went up a little and my little charge and I had to go to Picard to get some frozen meatballs, which are, her favorite... On our way home we ran into the concierge at her apartment and this woman, whom I like, but generally shares her opinion more often then necessary. She is a typical concierge: she makes it her business to know everything about everyone who passes through her front door. For the most part, this keeps everyone safer and I can see no harm, however there are days... One day she brought the plombier up to inspect a leak, she followed him around while he worked, which in some ways, is fine, however she made it her concern that the dryer was hot and that whoever put the clothes in for an hour was crazy, totalement fou! and it needed to be turned off toute suite! See, in France, clothes get dried on low-heat and when they're almost dry, they're dry... It's great for the environment (although not as great as a clothes line would be) but it's obviously not American... (other things that are American but not European: anti-biotics).
Anyway, yesterday the concierge asked if my wee one was wearing collants (leggings) due to the cold (the same woman who was just sweeping the sidewalk without a coat). She was upset because A had on some flannel pants and they weren't (and I had to agree with her) seemingly very warm. But of course she wasn't wearing collants, and neither was I she complained, and I heard a three minute lecture about how Americans were crazy, JUST CRAZY... I left this tete a tete annoyed, but by the time we reached the 3rd floor I remembered that as a child I wore tights everyday during the winter, even my cousin Joey who was my daily companion and a dude wore his older sisters old tights under his pants... And my annoyance melted away at this memory, because we were awesome in our cable-knit balling and fuzzy tights.
Other news this week- I gave my months notice! Yay, for la fin de ce chapitre de ma vie!
Anyway, yesterday the concierge asked if my wee one was wearing collants (leggings) due to the cold (the same woman who was just sweeping the sidewalk without a coat). She was upset because A had on some flannel pants and they weren't (and I had to agree with her) seemingly very warm. But of course she wasn't wearing collants, and neither was I she complained, and I heard a three minute lecture about how Americans were crazy, JUST CRAZY... I left this tete a tete annoyed, but by the time we reached the 3rd floor I remembered that as a child I wore tights everyday during the winter, even my cousin Joey who was my daily companion and a dude wore his older sisters old tights under his pants... And my annoyance melted away at this memory, because we were awesome in our cable-knit balling and fuzzy tights.
Other news this week- I gave my months notice! Yay, for la fin de ce chapitre de ma vie!
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Thanksgiving Abroad
In the last 10 years I've spent 5 of them abroad, 3 in London, last year we were in Chile, and this year, Paris. I don't remember what I ate that first year in London, but I remember my roommate Annie, who was studying abroad with me had tacos. In a way it was a pretty American homage because mexican food doesn't really happen in London. I know she invited me to share her American meal and I remember declining having already eaten. The last year I was in London friends made a big meal for me and another American friend and I had delicious parsnips for the first time.
It's really hard to give a shit when you are without all the cultural connections. I'm from Green Bay Wisconsin and football is sort of a big deal where I grew up. But it's next to impossible to watch these games abroad unless you're willing to stay up past your bedtime, which isn't an especially good idea when you have to work the next day because it's not a holiday wherever you're living. Plus who cares, if no one else cares- I'm not going to shout at the boob tube at 3 am by myself in my jammies half awake wondering how Joe Buck still has a job- where's the fun in that? I've lived in New York for a while but I have never been to the parade, nonetheless the hype surrounding it is enough; plus when you're in NYC during Thanksgiving you are hyper aware of avoiding the tourist scene so as not to lose your time and patience so in a way, by going out of your way to avoid it at all costs you were still a part of it.
It's not impossible, but it is pretty hard to find or at least afford traditional Thanksgiving food stuffs while abroad- you can get oreo's and peanut butter, even cream cheese is available on the shelves in both Chile, London and Paris, but cranberries and turkey's aren't exactly standard fare. Today I spent more than 20 bucks on a chicken that is thankfully without hormones, and thus about half the size of an American chicken. With a bottle of wine and a couple of sides, we could have had a decent meal out, but American's who dine out on Thanksgiving seemed to be missing the point, and I remember feeling so much pity for a school friend of mine whose family did this...
A couple days ago Sylvain and I started talking about what traditions we want to start or share when we start our own family. We were making crepes on Saturday night and decided this would be a genius meal to make routine, which apparently is something his family did every Sunday night anyway... Crepes are fun for the whole family, like dessert and a meal, salty this round, sweet the next... Our kids are going to love it. Wherever we end up, I hope we will find a way to create a hybrid Thanksgiving with expats or whomever likes to eat and drink well. Definitely going to have to take that day and maybe the next off of work though...
It's really hard to give a shit when you are without all the cultural connections. I'm from Green Bay Wisconsin and football is sort of a big deal where I grew up. But it's next to impossible to watch these games abroad unless you're willing to stay up past your bedtime, which isn't an especially good idea when you have to work the next day because it's not a holiday wherever you're living. Plus who cares, if no one else cares- I'm not going to shout at the boob tube at 3 am by myself in my jammies half awake wondering how Joe Buck still has a job- where's the fun in that? I've lived in New York for a while but I have never been to the parade, nonetheless the hype surrounding it is enough; plus when you're in NYC during Thanksgiving you are hyper aware of avoiding the tourist scene so as not to lose your time and patience so in a way, by going out of your way to avoid it at all costs you were still a part of it.
It's not impossible, but it is pretty hard to find or at least afford traditional Thanksgiving food stuffs while abroad- you can get oreo's and peanut butter, even cream cheese is available on the shelves in both Chile, London and Paris, but cranberries and turkey's aren't exactly standard fare. Today I spent more than 20 bucks on a chicken that is thankfully without hormones, and thus about half the size of an American chicken. With a bottle of wine and a couple of sides, we could have had a decent meal out, but American's who dine out on Thanksgiving seemed to be missing the point, and I remember feeling so much pity for a school friend of mine whose family did this...
A couple days ago Sylvain and I started talking about what traditions we want to start or share when we start our own family. We were making crepes on Saturday night and decided this would be a genius meal to make routine, which apparently is something his family did every Sunday night anyway... Crepes are fun for the whole family, like dessert and a meal, salty this round, sweet the next... Our kids are going to love it. Wherever we end up, I hope we will find a way to create a hybrid Thanksgiving with expats or whomever likes to eat and drink well. Definitely going to have to take that day and maybe the next off of work though...
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Tis the season
Last weekend my friend Dave visited from London. We went golfing, had brunch, enjoyed the view at Butte Chaumont and generally had a full but relaxing weekend... and the clocks changed...Somehow this kicked off the holiday season for me. Waking up when it's already light, and finishing work just as the night sky is setting in. It's changed my mood entirely...
We have about 2 months left in Paris, this week were going to London to get my passport stamped, the following weekend we have up to 3 thanksgiving celebrations planned, then we'll spend the next weekend in Lyon for our nieces birthday, that leaves a few free weekends in December before Christmas where we're going to celebrate in Lyon and then spend 3 days snowboarding... It will go fast, but I hope time slows just enough to take it all in. I'm excited for the next chapter, back to NYC but I am anxious not to hurry things along. I love this season, playing Christmas music during the day with the girls, making christmas sweets and planning a thanksgiving menu, the coziness of fall, leaves floating and even that scent in the air at Bois de Boulogne. I half hate myself for enjoying the commercial aspects of Christmas shopping, but something about picking out the perfect gift for loved ones sucks me in every year... We have next to no money, and the money we do have we have tightly clenched in our fists in case everything falls apart when we get to NYC but we've got a secret santa 20 euro budget for his family.
Something about NYC and the states right now seems very fragile... there is a bug bed epidemic in NYC- I survived one in London and New York already, but I'd rather not fight that battle again. The political situation in New York is angry and vitriolic, and it's a battle that seems like it's really just getting started. The job crisis is still entrenched and no matter how capable either of us are, if the opportunities aren't there... well...
There is still so much to enjoy about being in Paris, and we will not move back to Paris even if we do end up back in France or Europe. Dinner parties in French, Bichon au citron, Sylvain's family, and of course, the calm before the storm...
We have about 2 months left in Paris, this week were going to London to get my passport stamped, the following weekend we have up to 3 thanksgiving celebrations planned, then we'll spend the next weekend in Lyon for our nieces birthday, that leaves a few free weekends in December before Christmas where we're going to celebrate in Lyon and then spend 3 days snowboarding... It will go fast, but I hope time slows just enough to take it all in. I'm excited for the next chapter, back to NYC but I am anxious not to hurry things along. I love this season, playing Christmas music during the day with the girls, making christmas sweets and planning a thanksgiving menu, the coziness of fall, leaves floating and even that scent in the air at Bois de Boulogne. I half hate myself for enjoying the commercial aspects of Christmas shopping, but something about picking out the perfect gift for loved ones sucks me in every year... We have next to no money, and the money we do have we have tightly clenched in our fists in case everything falls apart when we get to NYC but we've got a secret santa 20 euro budget for his family.
Something about NYC and the states right now seems very fragile... there is a bug bed epidemic in NYC- I survived one in London and New York already, but I'd rather not fight that battle again. The political situation in New York is angry and vitriolic, and it's a battle that seems like it's really just getting started. The job crisis is still entrenched and no matter how capable either of us are, if the opportunities aren't there... well...
There is still so much to enjoy about being in Paris, and we will not move back to Paris even if we do end up back in France or Europe. Dinner parties in French, Bichon au citron, Sylvain's family, and of course, the calm before the storm...
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