Lila spends the night!

Had fun with Lila today after we picked her up at Parc Monceau.  It absolutely wore me out...I now have a deeper understanding for Ashleigh's 3 girls and its no wonder she didn't take them across Paris very often.  I have never been so happy to see Chloé tonight.  I'll just leave a few photos...

We made "voitures madeleines" for Gaspard's birthday tomorrow.

The red is the windshield and the rest of course is the "car paint."  

On a fait le manège....avec Lila...

et on a mangé une barbe à papa.  

And then we took a blue bath....Lila loved the color tablets!  

Tomorrow night we are going to dinner for Gaspard's birthday, we bought his present today from Marie-Césare...a huge comic book of Superman.  I got him a new game for his Wii and I'll be interested to know what Chloé and Franck got him!  

Provence en été, partie 2

I took the TGV to Provence Wednesday afternoon, and arrived to a huge, warm, screaming, and hugging welcome by the one and only, Marie-Césare.  (Padi said he only wished he could be that excited about something these days....ha!)  I got to see her new glasses and how much she had grown in just 6 short weeks!  Wow! I felt as if she had grown a foot!  

I enjoyed getting to hear all about her adventures in Maillane, and at poney club, and re-learn my French a little bit.  Its amazing how several weeks of speaking only English will completely block my memory from another language!  The next day after breakfast (my favorite) of fresh bread with lots of seeds and grains in it and Padi's confiture (fig/honey and blackberry/apple-YUM) we got in the pool almost immediately.  She only likes to swim for short periods of time.  The water was pretty freezing as after all the high is only 85 or so in the afternoon so I didn't blame her.  She got some new water wings with Hello Kitty on them, and was proud to show them off.  That afternoon after lunch (guinea fowl with riz de camargue) we piled in the car and drove an hour a half to a small village, Aigues-Mortes.  Literally meaning, dead waters.  It is a small city surrounded by medieval castle walls which you can actually climb up and walk around to see on either side.  It was a safe place for protestants during 1575-1622 and actually has several visible prisons still intact today.  The little town is actually more bustling than you would think, and most of the commerce from this little town comes from inside the castle walls.  More people live in boats on the surrounding waterway and just outside in newly built homes.  

The streets of Aigues Mortes

The outside walls

Didou had read about a couple of stores she wanted to see on her visit (it was their first time too) so we found her places and then visited the boulangerie that was featured in her magazine.  It was so good we actually went back for more fougasse laced with orange oil.  

Delicious orange oil fougasse on the left and "summer" nougat on the right.

Meringue "pies" filled with good treats...oranges, nuts, chocolate....yum!

We climbed the Tour de Constance (built in 1248) which is the largest of the tours on the castle walls, and had an excellent view of what was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.  Salt.  Being manufactured...scooped up, poured into dump trucks, and then mounded into a huge, glistening, snowy mountain of salt.  They were massive!   And beautiful!!!  I couldn't wait to get a closer look.  

Tour de Constance in the distance

From the Tour de Constance overlooking the city of Aigues Mortes with the salt mounds in the background.

Do you notice the pink salt in this photo?

Didou and Marie-Césare

We went back down into the city, swung back by the boulangerie, and out one of the castle doors.  It was nearing dinner time and we still had an hour and a half's drive.  But not before I asked Padi to please get me closer to that salt!  haha....we drove down near the La Baleine factory where they produce La Baleine and Sel de Camargue brand.  I have both of those at my apartment right now!  That was fascinating.  They partition each part of the shallow sea water off until the water dries out and just like that, they can scoop up the salt off the ocean bottom.  There are about 26,700 acres that the salt is pulled from for just the one producer.  And France counts for about 3.33% of the worlds salt production.  Each year, Aigues Mortes produces 500,000 tons of salt.  It hardly ever rains, and the quick evaporating air makes Aigues Mortes a major player in salt production worldwide.  

Mounds and mounds of salt!  And here you can see the salt that has not yet been 'harvested.'

We couldn't get too close, and of course I didn't bring my other lens on this trip (naturally) but I could have sat and watched these men work for hours.  I guess I've never really thought about the process of salt production for it to fascinate me so much, but I will certainly think twice before I put it on my next tomato!  

Which by the way, the tomatoes were plentiful in Provence this summer.  There isn't a tomato in this world that could rival my Papaw's tomatoes, but they sure came close.  The next morning was spent in St. Remy just browsing and "tooling" around.  That afternoon Marie-Césare had her last class at the pony club and I just wrinkled up in the pool.  3 hours later Padi, Didou, and I went to pick her up from her class and they were still on their horses.  She looked like a professional up there with her new boots, pants, and hat her parents had given her for her birthday.  I can't wait until we start her classes on Wednesdays here in Paris...and so I can sit and watch!  

Saturday some distant cousins came for lunch (last minute visit) and they had kids Marie-Césare's age so it was a very relaxing day.  They were Padi's brother's children...with children of their own, and now live in Montpellier.  We were in and out of the pool, had a BBQ chicken for lunch, complete with any tomato you could ever desire, camembert with fig jam, and a gorgeous strawberry tart.  We rushed off in a hurry to catch our train and literally.....barely made it.  we hopped on just as the doors were closing, in fact I had to push Marie-Césare a little bit so I could get the suitcase in.  Our trip back was uneventful, and today I started back all day!  

We had an excellent day today.  I have realized how much she talks.  She talks all the time.  I have to tell her to "close her beak." (She loves to be compared to a petite oiseaux.)  She's at the age where she asks so many questions and wants to know how every little thing works.  It wears  me out!  This morning I did some major organizing in her room with her clothes.  Chloé asked me to go through and see if there was anything I though was too small for her and if so, put it in a pile.  I made Marie-Césare help by doing the same with her shoes....it took us all morning.  We went to Parc Monceau for the afternoon and made popsicles!  Pat bought her some new bateau popsicle molds that I brought back with me from the States and we made strawberry, and let them freeze then added a little bit of lemon to the very end.  They were absolutely delicious.  Not to mention she squealed with delight every time she took a bite of her boat. 

Her sailboat popsicle.

Showing off her new glasses

Tomorrow we have to find things to make Gaspard a birthday cake as we are celebrating his birthday Wednesday night when he gets back.  We are all going to a restaurant for dinner Wednesday night so I'm sure we'll make some pretty paintings and see if we can find something for Marie-Césare to give him.  I am meeting Laurent and Lila tomorrow at Parc Monceau and I will bring Lila back with us to spend the night (yes, it was my idea...).  I don't know why I had that split second of kindness in my heart, but I did, so hopefully it will be fun!  Lila is more into sports instead of dress-up so sometimes they have a conflict of interest...pray that I can keep a level playing field!! 

Under Construction

I am in the middle of revamping the blog, so please bear with me as I make a couple of changes.  

I am busy with Marie-Césare this week so I don't know how much I will be blogging.  But, I promise to update as much as possible and send you my adventures from Provence as well.  Thank you all for your comments...sorry my comment space wasn't working, but I appreciate those of you who contacted me via facebook and e-mail.  Love you all!  

You.

Hello all you beautiful people who actually do read my blog from time to time.  I have been contemplating a new revamp of the blog for this year.  A new "school" year no doubt, but in the same city that I have fallen madly, head-over-heels in love with.  The good...the bad...the beautiful...and the ugly.  I am hoping to make this year more of a "review" of things I've done instead of play-by-plays of my days.  Unless of course you enjoy the play-by-plays?  I am in the need of some opinions.  I know you want to hear of my adventures with Marie-Césare and that will of course be here as always, but I want to make this year adventurous and exciting...and get to know the more intimate side of Paris instead of the touristy, mass advertised side.  So that being said....I would love some feedback.  I know Toni knows where the comment button is...but for the rest of you, you need to find it!  

Let me know the kind of things you want to read about, what you find most interesting, or is it fine just the way it is?  Do you enjoy reading more about my days with Marie-Césare?  Foods?  Places I've been?  My grueling language barrier between myself and the French administration?  Traveling?  I still want it to be about me and what I want...but I want to engage my readers more.  

That being said, I am going on a lovely holiday in Provence tomorrow.  I have my swimming suit, floppy hat, sundresses, and sunglasses packed for what I hope to be a few days in the sun.  I have Marie-Césare's birthday presents in tow (her birthday was Monday) and can't wait to see her smiling face and curly locks.  I'm interested to know how she behaves after spending 6 weeks with her grandparents!  I will bring her back with me Saturday evening, have Sunday off, work all day every day next week, then school starts on the 5th.  

Let the games begin.  

Laine = Oxford Bound

Have been thinking of my sister ALL day and wondering if its really hot in Oxford.  My guess is yes, that its blistering hot, for its the second move-in day for the freshmen!  Laine left this morning at 6 am (supposedly) for Ole Miss.  I keep waiting by my skype to see if she'll pop up and I can bug her to death until I get to see her room.  Her roommate is Madeline Cristina (Maddy) of Louisiana, and the two girls have gone to Camp Merri-Mac together since Stardust.  I know that they are going to have some good times, bad times, fun times, sad times, and we can only hope...study times together.  I'm so proud of Laine and her accomplishments thus far and only wish her the best in her 4 years at Ole Miss.  Its times like these when I wish I was home to help!!!! 

Lucky for me its pretty blistering hot in Paris today too.  86 degrees with no a/c and tomorrow..90! Wowzers!  I went back to the pool today but there was a queue like, 45 minutes long to get into the pool area, much less the over crowded piscine so I just walked across to Parc de Bercy.  I laid on the grass for about 30 minutes and decided it was just too blistering hot for this and walked back across the bridge to the movie theater.  Ahhh yes.  Air conditioning.  I just might have to go see another one tomorrow.  

For those of you *ahem*, Americans, who like to have peanut butter M&M's and Dr. Pepper during your movie showing...you can just head on over to Mk2 Bibliotheque Francois Mitterand.  

http://www.mk2.com/  

For some really strange reason, in their gift shop just past the regular concessions counter, they have a whole section dedicated to pretty popular "cheeky" American food/candy items.  Among those that I found today: Marshmallow Fluff, Lucky Charms, Mountain Dew, Cherry Coke, French's Mustard, Goober PB&J Mix, and the oh so delicious Bac-O's.  (All for a pretty price of course...3.80 for a can of Dr. Pepper?  I would have to be craving it realllll bad...that's nearly $5.50!) I could never imagine a French person buying Bac-O's either....I don't know any American's who buy those!  I'm not even sure the American food store here in Paris, Thanksgiving, sells Bac-O's.  Although I couldn't really help myself in taking a small package of Peanut Butter M&M's.  They were only 1.90 so I indulged my movie induced sweet tooth and as usual, the package was gone before the movie even started!

Vote for Kaelah

Hi everyone!  My step-brother's fiancé, Kaelah, is super creative, super funky, and super awesome and she is a finalist in a photo contest for American Eagle in 3 different categories!  She is starting her own mobile business/mobile boutique and is having it customized to match her personality and business style of course.  If she wins even one of these categories she will win $3,000 to put towards her business.  If she wins all 3 (eek!) she will win $9,000.  I don't ever do this kind of thing....but I know she would appreciate it and I know she has a good chance of winning!  It only takes a second...so hop on over and vote!  

http://www.ae.com/web/bestshot/bestshot.jsp?icid=vanity%3AAE%3Abestshot&_requestid=161726

She is on the pink tab, the navy tab, and the yellow tab.  (She is the far left photo in each category for those of you who don't know her personally!)  She also has a pretty awesome blog in case any of you are not following already:  

http://honeybeeinthecity.blogspot.com/

Her and Michael together have so many dreams and aspirations and literally move mountains to make sure everything works out as planned...and I admire them both for that.  They got engaged about 5 months ago and are truly lucky to have found each other!  And we are lucky to now have her in the family!  

Go vote!! 

Madeline

Everyone thinks of Dora the Explorer to be the pioneer show on teaching kids another language, but I rented a free episode of Ludwig Bemelman's Madeline on iTunes tonight.  Just for fun.  

I have read the books since I was little, but haven't seen an episode since I can remember, besides the movie that was made back in 1998.  During my childhood throwback, I heard so many 'bonjour's' 'zut, alors!' 'trés bien's' 'regardez!' and the guttural 'r' sound even in their English words.  That 'r' is an absolute necessity if you want to sound French.  Anyways, Pepito is Spanish and there was even some Spanish thrown in!  So why does Dora get all the credit for pioneering the bilingual movement in children's television?  Why do they not still play Madeline on the Disney channel...instead of some of that junk that's on there now.  Instead we have The Fresh Beat Band and Hannah Montana.  Maybe its because I have always loved mischievous Madeline, or maybe because I can now relate to the photos in the picture....but I think 12 little girls in 2 straight lines is genius.  

Heck...I'd probably still watch it.  

Piscine Josephine Baker

Yesterday was warm and sunny, or suppose to be anyway, so I left the house after a bowl of Special K and headed to Bercy.  Why Bercy?  That is where Piscine Josephine Baker is...the pool "on" the Seine.  You may remember me talking about it back in the winter when Kerry, Ashleigh and I stumbled upon it.  Now, the roof is open and they have all 300 lounge chairs out on the sun deck.  I don't think I have blogged about pools in Paris...and promise not to ramble, but I think the rules and regulations of public pools here are quite meticulous.  

The entrance fee for Piscine Josephine Baker is 2.60...for 2 hours.  Each hour after 2 hours is 2.60, but they don't exactly tell you that when you enter.  Its more of a *surprise!* on your way out the door.  Most public pools are at least 1.50 if not 2 or 3 euros.  As I walked through the corridor looking for the women's locker rooms, there was only one door.  The girl told me it was this way....so, off I went.  As I approached the doorway there seemed to be a basin of water, with no way around it.  Fiddling in my purse trying to decide what I should do I saw someone else just plop right through it.  So, I took my shoes off (very unwillingly) and trudged on in.  There were men and women, children and babies all just naked together in the locker room.  It was so.....

French.  

I dove into a changing room so fast I didn't know what else to do.  I didn't really need to change, but just collect my thoughts.  I put on my "pool" flip-flops and walked over to the lockers.  A man with a squeegee came up yelling at me to take off my shoes.  I looked back and of course the floors were white and I had made footprints all the way inside.  Oopsy!  The thought of putting my bare feet on a floor where other peoples bare feet made me gag a little but it was another creepy rule they had.  I went through yet another "footbath" to get to the pool deck.  The footbath I suppose is a good thought, but its just gross old dirty water that others peoples feet have been in....they could at least filter the water every now and then.  

I didn't swim in the pool this time, but when you swim you have to take a shower before you enter the pool and after.  Men must wear speedo's, thats right, no shorts for you!  And everyone must wear a swim cap.  Doesn't matter if you are there for play or serious swimming, if you don't have one, they will make you buy one from a convenient cap/goggle/speedo "vending machine" if you will on the lower level.  

You can see the part of the roof they take off during the summer.

The sun deck.  

Enjoying the sunshine.

From here you can see the library in the background.

The sun deck was nice, and they had as many lounge chairs packed in there as would fit.  If you lay in a lounge chair you must have a towel to sit on...you can't sit directly onto the lounge chair-oh, the horrors! If you can get past and remember all the do's and don'ts and the topless women, the pool is actually quite relaxing.  I stayed for about 4 hours and Omphile came to meet me the last 2.  It was sunny during the morning but became very chilly and overcast in the afternoon.  I kept checking the weather on my phone and it said 78 and sunny....NOT.  

I also just wanted everyone to know that I got the Grouchy Ladybug situation under control...so you can all breathe a sigh of relief.  :)  I returned it to the library today expecting to deal with an angry librarian who was going to charge me a million dollars in late fees but she was very agreeable, listened to my story, and took the book and cleaned our record.  No questions asked.  Yes!  

I met with some fellow au pairs today at the Paris Plage for a late picnic lunch.  These 2 girls have been here for awhile already, but for some reason we are now just meeting up!  They are both from New Zealand and we had a nice afternoon.  It got rather chilly around 4:30 so we decided to pack it up.  

Ahhh yes, le Tour Eiffel in the background.  

...Only to find this lucky lady was with me on the metro.  Yessss....one of my favorite things about Paris is fashion choices and this has to make the top of my list.  Don't you love her pants?  The shoes and blue puffy jacket only top it all off.  

I went to Chloé and Franck's to pick up my mail and whatnot and these were waiting for me!!!!!

Heck yes!  40 more days!  

Champagne

My alarm went off at 6:30 am and when I heard its annoying sound I wanted to smash it into a million pieces.  Quickly realizing what I was getting up so early for, I popped out of bed and got ready in a jif for I was going to the Champagne region of France!  I signed up for one of those cheesy bus tours where you are herded around like cattle and met my fellow baseball cap, fanny-pack-wearing Americans and Japanese  bus mates on Rue de Rivoli.  We packed into the double decker yellow Cityrama bus and I of course jumped at a window seat on the top.  We set off exactly at 8 am on our adventure to taste champagne and see the Cathedral in Reims.  The bus tour was given in English and Japanese, so after every long spiel of what we were passing or crossing over we had to hear it in Japanese.  I don't know what they were saying but it sounded like the same sounds and syllables over and over and over.  You should have an optional "if you want to hear please put on your headphones" option.  

The drive was 2 hours to Reims where we first stopped at G.H. Mumm Cellars and all piled off to meet our tour guide through the cellars.  

We first watched a video of the production of wine and all that jazz.  Our guide took us down 7 meters below ground, then 14 meters below ground, then 20 meters below (I was more concerned about the stairs we would have to climb to get back up to breathing level actually) but eventually we stopped.  We learned about Mumm's original champagne, Cordon Rouge, the types of grapes they use at this facility, how things are stored, fermented, and re-corked.  

Different sizes of bottles.

The contraption the "riddler" uses to turn the bottles and set them at different angles

Old wooden barrels.  Now all wineries are using stainless steel because it doesn't leave a taste.  

Wouldn't these be cool as home décor?

Never ask a man to take your photo.  I approached a middle-aged American couple hoping the woman would quickly grab the camera out of my hand.  The woman seemed nice enough and the man looked rather like a buck-toothed Jim Carrey rockin' a gold chain around his neck.  But of course, no, the man steps up and says, "Sure thing darlin'."  I showed him how to work my camera (Its a Canon dslr) and he said "Wow, haven't seen one of these in years.  Look honey (honey being his wife), you have to look through the viewfinder."  I had no idea what he was talking about until he pulled out his Kodak family memory maker shoebox of a camera.  "Ours is a new fancy digital device.  Let me show you how to work it."  Are you kidding me?  My mouth dropped open in disbelief.  Of course I know how to work your camera crazy...its the 21st century!!  Long story short, this was the only picture he got....there was a beautiful oak bar we were standing at, walls of champagne bottles behind us, and this is what he managed to get.  My face.  You can barely even see the champagne glass in my hand.....now why would I just want a photo of my face?!!?  Uggghhh......

After a short 10 minute ride to the city center, with our English tour guide, "On your left is, enh, the Marne river, enh, champagne, enh, we have arrived at..enh, oh my gosh I have no idea what that noise she was making between every 5 words was but it was annyoing.  54 'enh's' later, we got off at the back of the cathedral.  The Cathedral of Reims is a very famous cathedral in France where all the kings of France were crowned.  The original cathedral was destroyed by a fire in 1211 (like all good cathedrals) and what was rebuilt is what we see today.  It has been through much turmoil since then, and lots of restoration.  It is a constant process with such an old structure, and you can even notice when you step back and look at it...its 2 different colors.   The towers stand 267 feet high, but were originally planned to tower 394 feet high and both have bells weighing in at 11 tons.

The gargoyles have obviously been replaced...

View from the back of the cathedral

Check out this massive door!!!

A little reflection shot....

The inside wasn't so impressive...I mean, don't get me wrong it was beautiful, but once you've seen a few of those old gothic cathedrals, you feel like you've seen them all.  Thats when the outside begins to differentiate them all.  You notice of course the beautiful stained glass rose window in the back featuring "Chartres blue." (which I have seen as well...)  There are secret and hidden rooms with all sorts of royal things, but of course you can't go back there and see them.  There was also a peculiar "choir clock" that chimes on the hour, every hour with, appropriately, little figurines of choir members that come out to play.  I couldn't zoom in on my iPhone so sorry its so far away.  Its pretty boring so I won't be offended for those of you who want to skip right over it.  

After our guided tour of the cathedral with my tour guide calling the cathedral a "castle" the entire time, we were left on our own to discover the town for a couple of hours.  I had no idea what else was in Reims so I set off to the tourism office for a pretty pointless visit.  Instead of rushing around trying to find touristy things to do to fill my time, I grabbed a sandwich and went to a pastry shop to find some delicious dessert.  A bee landed on a delicious looking strawberry tart so I thought...if the tart is good enough for a bee, then its surely good enough for me!  Turns out it was a strawberry tart made with champagne cream and champagne gélée.  How perfectly fitting.  I sat down in this plaza in front of the cathedral to have lunch outside, under the sun with the most fabulous girl I know...me!   

Our next stop:  Épernay and the cellars of Moët and Chandon.  Moët I found to actually be pronounced "mwet" which is not what I expected.  The 50 minute drive to Épernay was b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l.  There were acres and acres and acres of vineyards just like this one.  

The Moët & Chandon cellar was a beautiful old building, an old home of the founders family.  Did you know that Dom Pérignon was a monk?  Its not just the name of Moët & Chandon's finest champagne, but Dom Pérignon is responsible for doubling and improving the vineyards and grapes under his time as cellar master at the Abbey.  It was because of his initial push and innovation that the cellar is what it is today, even though he can not be credited with inventing champagne.  Our guide came along shortly after we arrived and ushered us into this huge ball room with marble floors and detailed ceilings.  The television popped up from the floor and we watched a stunning video narrated by Scarlett Johannson that left us all thirsting for a glass of sparkling goodness.  We were finally taken down to the cellars where it was much colder than Mumm and much larger.  At Mumm we didn't really get to see the bottling process (more museums, stories, examples) where as here, we did.  We were in the official caves and there were workers driving around on fork lifts with palettes of wine in tow.  

HUGE bottles.  They looked like torpedos.  I'm pretty sure those bottles of Dom Pérignon cost more than some people's yearly salary.  

We learned all about the picking of the grapes, bottling of the wine, and then the production and distribution of their fine bottles all over the world.  That to be considered or labeled as 'champagne' the grapes must come from this region of France.  There are 76,000 acres of vineyards in the Champagne region with around 5,000 growers that make their own wine.  The other 13,500 growers supply grapes to bigger companies such as Moët & Chandon, Mumm, and Veuve Cliquot.  There are different hills and mountains for different grapes, the 3 required for champagne being pinot noir, pinot meunier, and chardonnay.  Yes, that is 2 red grapes and one variety of white.  Our guide was very informative and impressive, much better than the Mumm tour to say the least.  The most impressive part of the tour?  These cellars.  This, for example, is a storage cellar for their regular, Brut champagne.  The special sign on the front has a number on the top, middle, and bottom.  The top is a special code only deciphered by the riddler's and producers that state exactly where the grapes for this batch came from, what kind of grapes they are, and the status of the wine up to this point of the process.  The middle number is any particular group of bottles location in the cellar and the last number is exactly how many bottles are there.  So in this case it is in row P, cave 22 and there are 8,278 bottles here.  That's a lot of champagne.  

In this one, the cave filters 8 meters back, so that means in this particular cave there are 29,800 bottles of champagne.  She lighted her flashlight back and its true, I believe there are 29,800 bottles back there.  There are hundreds of caves just like this one down every hallway.  

One girl asked how come the cellars weren't touched or destroyed during the war?  Apparently, during the war they supplied free champagne to the Nazi's...in exchange of course for not laying a finger on the city or surrounding land of Épernay.  I love interesting facts....

Before our tasting.

Sorry the lighting was so bad...I look glowy and distorted.  Notice Scarlett on the poster in the background.

Our tasting was fun and relaxing...and the ones who stayed behind got to finish off the bottles already opened before getting back on the bus.  Aka, me and a few other Australian girls here on vacation.  I bought a bottle of Brut on my way out as well as a beautiful coffee table book with photos of the region of Champagne.  

We drove back to Paris along the Marne river enjoying the thousands of acres of vineyards almost ready to be harvested.  I am so glad I spent the money to go on this trip, it is something I've been wanting to do for awhile now!  Always a nice break from the city...and to such beautiful countryside, who could want anything more on a sunny day?!  Not I!!