Month: October 2016

An advantage of staying in one place for a while is that we can encourage friends and family to join us.  While we are unlikely to have a bed to offer, we can help you find a place and then share time in the locale where our paths cross.

Ginny and Beverly, Rick’s daughters, were the first to take us up on this idea.  They arrived on October 13 and stayed for 4 (very packed!) days.  They found an Airbnb around the corner from our apartment and, even though their place had some issues, it was great to have them so close by. They did some touring on their own (Tour Eiffel, and rue du Commerce for shopping!!), and met up with a friend who works in Paris.

We also toured together – Marché aux Puces, l’Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Elysées, Carrousel du Louvre, l’Orangerie, and a boat ride on the Seine – and shared meals, both in our apartment and at local cafés.  It was a whirlwind for them, but we all enjoyed being together in this wonderful city.

Our old friends, Lew & Pat Mastrobuono, arrived the day the Bev & Ginny left.

They’d been on a guided tour, but planned to spend a few extra days in Paris and overlap with us!  We’ve had lots of fun exploring the city with them and eating (!) together.  Their first night we met at Restaurant AG Saint Germain (2, rue Clément in the 6th arr), for a wonderful, and beautiful, meal. (I don’t usually post picture of ‘food porn’ but I can’t resist!)

They, too, toured on their own and with us.  Together, we visited the Musée Rodin (one tip for here is to get the audio guide!)and the Musée d’Orsay (the best collection of Impressionist and Pos-Impressionist paintings), with a brief stop at Napoleon’s tomb in the Invalides.

Last night, we ended up in our neighborhood, Le Marias, where we shopped in our local markets and had a ‘picnic’ around our dining room table.  Of course, we bought too much food so tonight we are eating leftovers while Lew & Pat are exploring Montmartre and the Trocadero. But what great leftovers they are!!
We had one final dinner together at Les Philosophes (28, rue Vieille du Temple in the 4th arr.) with the Mastrobuonos to celebrate Rick’s birthday. Lew finally found the great French onion soup that he’d been seeking for days… After we saw them off to the Metro, Rick & I stopped in at La Cave Jazz Club that we’ve been walking past for a month but never got to until tonight.  A late night, but worth it!

We all took a Paris Walks walking tour called “Taste of Paris” this morning on one of Paris’ best food streets, rue Montorgueil. We tasted grapes, melon, breads (both baguette and la casse noix), so many cheeses(!), eclairs, chocolates, macarons, olives, saucisson, foie gras, rillettes…all by 1pm!!  No lunch needed today!

We have also had the pleasure of meeting up with friends of friends, who have been most gracious and hospitable.  Jane Coblence, a colleague of our friend Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, treated us to lunch at her golf club in Saint Germaine-en-Laye and give us a wonderful walking tour of this historic and lovely town outside Paris.

And we also met up with Julie Tave, a friend of Margot & Cleaveland Miller, when she and her husband Alain were in Paris for a meeting.  We shared a table at a cafe near the Musée Pompidou and learned much about the Dordogne, which we hope to visit before too long.

And, of course, Anne & Jeff Vitek-Doniger, who have been an anchor for us in Paris.  They moved here five years ago and have provided us with invaluable help as we learn to navigate ‘their’ city.Who knew 50 years ago, when Anne & I graduated from high school that we’d reunite in a city so far from West Palm Beach!

Our next planned meet-up is in Barcelona in February with Alicia Banks and Jim Butler, another of my high-school classmates and her husband.  But there’s lots of time between now than then.  SOOOO…if any of you readers have an urge to come to the continent, let us know and we’d love to get together.  We mean it!!

Before we left the US, we received an email from Airbnb inviting us to participate in a ‘beta’ of something new that they were trying called City Hosts.  We chose two of the experiences in their ‘immersive’ category and intentionally scheduled them for the first two weekends of our time in Paris, reasoning that it would be a great way to meet locals and fellow travelers who could share ideas that we could act on during our stay.  This turned out to be a great way to start out.

The Parisian Locavore with Marc began with lunch at a tiny local restaurant, Bloom, where the menu was small, but everything was local and fresh.  We learned a new term, ‘flexitarian,’ which either means “one who eats primarily vegetables, but occasionally eats meat or fish,” OR “a silly word to categorize people whose eating habits don’t already fit into a category but who desperately want to belong to a label.”  An enjoyable start with 5 other travelers and Marc, our host.
The following day we all went with Marc to the markets in his neighborhood, where we chose ingredients that we would use to cook our meal on Sunday. We visited the Boucherie (butcher), Boulangerie (baker), Poissonerie (fish monger), Fromagerie (cheese shop), and Verger (produce market) and came away with a pintade (guinea fowl), 2 dorades (fish), fennel, carrots, figs, potatoes, mushrooms, tomatoes, melons and basil. And wine, of course…

On Sunday, we all showed up at Marc’s home, where we prepared a sumptuous meal using all the ingredients we’d bought the day before.  Somehow, we all squeezed into a table set up in Marc and Caroline’s tiny kitchen where we enjoyed quite a lunch. (No dinner was necessary that night!)

The Chanson Singer with Sylvain began with cocktails at Hotel du Nord, a legendary Paris establishment that was the location of  an eponymous  French movie. There we met Sylvaine and the other two guests on our tour.

We then proceeded to Sylvaine’s home, where we enjoyed a great spread of cheeses, saucissons, bread and lots of Champagne.  He performed a set of French songs for us accompanied by a talented young man who played the piano and the accordion.

 

The following evening, we all met at Madame Arthur’s, a cabaret in Pigale. Sylvain, our host, made sure to get us there early so that we had one of the few tables.  He also supplied us with Champagne and some nibbles while we waited for the show to begin.  What a show! The performers were all men in drag, and many of them made pretty attractive women!  And our host was one of the performers. Not something we would have found on our own, but we’re so glad we were there!

We would highly recommend that you check out these City Host experiences when you travel.  It looks like Airbnb has expanded the program to include many locales, even some cities in the US.

 

We are beginning our final week in Paris (for now…) and, although I’m looking forward to the adventures to come, I’ll be sad to leave the City of Light.  There is just so much here that there is always something new around the next corner.  I wanted to share some of these delights…

On the recommendation of someone we met, we took a guided tour of the Palais Garnier, an opulent building that is the home of the Paris Opera.  Finished in 1875, and recently restored, it is well worth visiting. We decided after the guided tour (15 euros), however, that we’d probably been just as happy renting the audio guide (5 euros) and this doesn’t require a reservation.

Everyone takes boat cruises down the Seine (and we will, too), but few know about traversing the Canal St Martin through Paris.  This cruise begins at the Port d’Arsenal (near the Bastille Metro) to the Bassin de la Villettes. In 2.5 hours, you travel through a 2km underground tunnel(!), 4 double locks and 2 swinging bridges right in the middle of the neighborhoods of Paris. It’s a lovely way to pass an afternoon.

Last week, I took a cooking class at La Cuisine Paris and learned how to make macarons. These little cookies are everywhere in Paris, and they’re not cheap! Now I know why they’re so expensive.  There were 8 people in my class, all English speakers. We didn’t just watch the master; we got our hands sticky and had fun making our own creations (chocolate praline and salted caramel fillings…yum…). We ate a few during the class, but each person also went away with a box of macarons, too.

Paris is full of museums. Our favorites are the smaller ones that don’t overwhelm,  like the Orangerie and Musée Marmottan, both of which feature Monet’s paintings. We visited the Marmottan with our friends Anne & Jeff last week and enjoyed the special exhibition that put paintings by Monet, Hodler and Munch side by side.  The museum also houses the largest existing collection of Monet’s work.

 

We then returned to Anne & Jeff’s neighborhood markets and put together a spectacular ‘picnic,’ which we enjoyed in their lovely dining room.

I’ve been reading about the covered passages in Paris and, yesterday, we set out to discover a few of them.  These were the early version of the shopping arcade and in the 1850s there were as many as 150 in the city.  Today only about 20 exist, all on the Right Bank.  Each has it’s own unique character; some are a bit run-down, but some, like the Passage du Grand Cerf (rue St. Denis, 2nd arr), are beautiful, and filled with little shops that just sparkle!

Another type of shopping altogether is the Paris flea market.  Here you can find everything from knock-off watches and leather jackets to antique furniture and paintings next to random drawer pulls and buttons in bins and guys hawking hot iPhones!  Marché aux Puces (Metro #4 to Pte de Clingancourt) is the biggest and most famous of these.  It is a maze of alleyways filled with stalls.  It’s easy to get lost browsing the eclectic offerings.

Department stores are not usually worth noting, but the Galeries Lafayette  on the Boulevard Haussman is an exception.  The views of central Paris from its rooftop terrace are great, but the real lure is the atrium inside. This store rivals any building we’ve seen in its grandeur!

Speaking of views, though, a trip up to the top of the Tour Montparnasse provided a pretty spectacular 360° look at Paris and its surrounds.  We began on the 56th floor where you view from inside, but walking the 3 flights to 59 provides an outdoor view that is even better. We think this view is better than that from the top of the Eiffel Tower, and it’s a lot easier to get a ticket! It is in the 15th arr and there is a Metro stop close by, but we got there on the #96 bus straight from rue du Rivoli.

On Beverly & Ginny’s last night here (more about their visit in a later post), we took a short (1 hour) cruise on the Seine.  It was a lovely way to see the city by night without committing to a dinner on board – there are way better places to eat in Paris. There are lots of boat companies, but we chose Vendettes du Pont Neuf because they had many excursion times and they picked up from a convenient spot on the Ile de la Cité under the Pont Neuf.

We’re packing in a lot as our time here winds down.  And there’s still more to come…

One of the joys of having an apartment rather than a hotel room in Paris is that we have a kitchen! And we are making good use of the resources in our neighborhood and cooking and eating at home often.

Our typical day starts around 9 unless we have reason to wake earlier. Breakfast always includes a croissant (that one of us walks to the corner and buys fresh) or several slices of fresh baguette with the best butter we’ve ever tasted (raw milk butter with actual crystals of salt in it!). Rick still insists on having his eggs and orange juice in addition, but even these are special – farm fresh eggs and freshly squeezed OJ.

We typically spend the middle of the day exploring by Metro and on foot and, by about 3 we’re ready for something to eat. There is no lack of bistros and sidewalk cafes no matter where we are, so it’s easy to stop for something small and a half carafe of wine.

On a day such as this, we really don’t want a big dinner and we’re just as happy to eat in. So our choices are cooking or heading up to the boucherie for something we can eat at home.
I found a small bag of Carnaroli rice (reputedly better than Arborio) and, with it, I made a wonderful risotto, with crevettes from the local fish market and parmasean from the neighborhood fromagerie. Another evening the risotto had local mushrooms in it.  Hard to say which was better… We have enough rice to do this for several more meals.
Several times we’ve picked up rotisserie chicken parts that are soooo much better than the stuff you get at the Safeway! And the other night, our dinner consisted of escargots (sold by the dozen already stuffed with garlic parsley butter, and ready in 15 minutes in the oven) and beef carpaccio (prepared by the boucherie…all we had to do was add the shaved Parmesan and olive oil!)

Last Saturday, we tackled the most ambitions cooking project yet, foie gras. Rick found a whole foie gras on sale (!) at an upscale frozen foods store, Picard. For those of you who know Rick, you’ll appreciate that this pushes two of his pleasure buttons – foie gras AND a bargain! We opted not to follow the directions on the box (they were in French, and even the translation seemed overly complicated) but went with a recipe I found on line. Thank goodness for the Internet!!

It turned out well and was delicious, if a bit rich for our American stomachs!

We spent Thursday in Giverny, in Monet’s beautiful garden.  We took the train from Paris (SNCF from Gare Saint Lazare to Vernon), where we rented bikes at a café across the street from the station (l’Arrivée) and rode the 5km (about 3 miles) to our destination. It was a very scenic but very cold ride. The morning temp today was just about 50F! The return trip was in the sun and was much more pleasant!

My last visit to Giverny was with Julie when she was 9. We brought along a book that we’d read about a little girl who visited Monet’s garden and we sat on the edge of the stream with our toes in the water and re-read the book.  It doesn’t look much different now…maybe a bit more wild, but the flowers are lovely and the water lilies that poked their heads out were just as beautiful.

The gardens are always blooming…different flowers at different times of the year. It’s not hard to see why Monet loved this place and was inspired by it.

We tried to take a ‘selfie’ but couldn’t figure out how to do it AND get some of the garden in the picture, too.  So, a sympathetic passer-by offered to take our picture with my phone…much better…

Hello virtual travelers!!  I promised to share some of the things we’ve worked out to make this adventure possible.  I’ve tried to group these into sections so you can skip those that don’t interest you.  Here we go…

PACKING (and laundry)– The important lesson here is to pack light!  We limited ourselves to two carry-on size suitcases each. They do have wheels, but we need to be able to carry them onto trains and up stairs when necessary.

You will get bored with your clothes, but few people you encounter will know that you’ve worn that same outfit 25 times! Choose items that wash and wear and stick to basic colors (black works really well in Paris and doesn’t show the dirt). I brought 3 pr of pants (2 black and jeans), 1 pr black shorts, 8 shirts (various sleeve lengths), 2 short skirts, a black cardigan, a gray sweatshirt, 2 dresses, and one silk vest (to wear over black to get dressed up), 5 pr of shoes (sandals, 3 pr flats & gym shoes), 2 pajamas.

Since we’re packing for multiple climates, we focused on layers and items that serve more than one purpose. For example, my exercise pants can be an extra layer under jeans in cold weather.  My heavy jacket is a Patagonia that packs into a sack that is smaller than a medium-sized pocketbook. Haven’t had to use it yet, but it’s not taking up much room. My light jacket is a biking jacket that stuffs into its own pocket. I’ve carried it with me in my daypack in Paris…it weighs about 6 oz.

Pack about a week’s worth of underwear and plan to do laundry.  We’ve tried to choose apartments that have at least a washing machine, and we wash about every 5-6 days.  In Paris, we don’t have a dryer, but this rack works quietly nicely…

A few other essentials that we made room for include a good (2-stage) corkscrew, a compact knife sharpener we bought in Japan (don’t you hate it when the apartment you’ve rented has dull knives?), our iPads and laptops, a tiny speaker for the iPod, and our AeroPress coffee maker. In addition we have what we call our ‘everything bag’ that we often carry on international trips.  It includes a few batteries, cold tablets, a few rubber bands, scotch tape, bandaids, ziplock bags, flashlight, magnifying glass, matches, sticky notes and a door stopper…all the smallest possible size and all useful at some point.

BANKING (mail, paying bills, and internet security) – For months before we left, I diligently contacted every sender of junk mail and catalogues and asked to be removed from their mailing list. Most were nice about it and we saw a dramatic decrease in our junk mail.  We requested e-bills, or at least electronic notices from the bank and all of our credit cards. Most want you to have a physical address in the US, so we are using Andy’s home in Bend, OR, where we also opened a P O Box that he will monitor periodically. We’ve maintained our bank in the US and have our pensions, etc. coming in as e-transfers to the bank.  We pay bills through the bank as we did at home and, when we need cash, we go to an ATM and get euros.
We were concerned about internet security since our wireless access will be provided by our various hosts or through the Skyroam Hotspot that we carry with us. Our financial advisor suggested that we install Hotspot Shield, a VPN that will encrypt our communication and prevent anyone from stealing our IDs and passwords. The free version does not work outside the US, but the pay version is easy to install and you can pay once and use on up to 5 devices. It works in the background and I’m trusting that it will work as advertised.

PHONE CALLS (and keeping in touch) – Before leaving, I bought an iPhone  (Rick is still a diehard Android user). AT&T allowed us to change our plan to a ‘hold status’ so we could keep our numbers but pay only $10/line/month.  Then we added a basic international plan that provides minimal access to data and reduced charges for calls.  But the big revelation is FaceTime audio!! If you call iPhone to iPhone, using this app over wireless, it’s FREE!! And the audio is better than any cell call I’ve ever had!  The main challenge is coordinating time zones, but my children and I have figured out telephone appointments…I talked to Julie for an hour (!) the other day and, on my birthday, she and Owen called on a FaceTime video so I could watch him learning to crawl.

HEALTH (and insurance) – As I said in a previous post, we obtained the bare minimum health insurance required for our visa, but made sure that it covered evacuation in case of emergency. We’re both healthier than we have a right to be at our ages, so we feel confident that we won’t need to access much health care over here.  We’ve maintained our Medicare and Medigap policies in the US, and will schedule appointments for physicals, etc. during our return trips.

GETTING AROUND (trains, planes and automobiles) – While we are in Paris, we are walking and taking the Metro…plenty of exercise and use of our Navigo passes.  We’ve used local trains to venture out to St.-Germaine-en-Laye and Giverny. When we leave Paris, we have reserved a Peugeot 308 through a lease/buy back program.  We’ll drive this as we move south to explore the Languedoc and then go northeast to Colmar.  It is a very economical and flexible way to travel outside the city. And when we’re ready to return to the states, we’ll just turn the car back in.  They will only allow someone to do this for 6 months out of a year but, if we have a different primary driver when we return, we can pick up another similar car!