As promised, here are some photos from our visit…
Yum! Tartiflette at the Marche Noel at La Defense
L’Arc de Triomphe from La Defense
Sylvain + Leeloo
Preparing the Christmas ham
So, for Christmas, I bought Sylvain the book: 1000 Places to See Before You Die. I wasn’t too sure if he’d like it, but I bought it anyway since it looked like a fun book to have around. Well, I’m glad I did give it to him…today, while walking through Paris, we stopped and had afternoon tea at the Hotel de Crillon near Place de la Concorde, across from the Jardin de Tuileries. The assortment of pastries alone is enough to bring you back for more – we may go again tomorrow with his mom. ;o)
Today, I woke up late (which was nice), had breakfast and got ready for the day. We *had* a nice day planned: shopping in the 5th, then tea in the 8th, ice skating at the Tour Eiffel, and dinner on the bateau mouche. Well, we accomplished the first two, but since it was chilly and Sylvain was tired, we walked the Champs-Elysees and shopped at Sephora for makeup and products and Petit Bateau for tank tops (yes, in Winter).
Yesterday, we visited his uncle, aunt, and cousins for lunch out in the farther suburbs (near Roissy). It was there that we learned that Sylvain’s great-uncle (the brother of his grandmother), who was a secret service agent for the British during WW2, published his memoires of his service during the war. It told stories of espionage…a behind the scenes of D-day, if you will. I found it extremely fascinating to read this first hand account of D-day. Also, fascinating that Frank, his great-uncle who is probably in his late 80s, could accurately remember so much and add a bit of humor to it. Sylvain was telling me earlier today, that his grandfather was also part of the Resistance in Paris. He was working at a telephone company and was in charge of connecting the calls between occupied France and Germany. Part of his task simply included not connecting the calls or disconnecting them. At some point, the Gestapo came looking for him, but he was able to escape to the South of France, leaving his wife and 3 sons in Paris. (He wasn’t able to reunite with them until after the war was over.) I wish I could sum it all for you, but it would take some time. But, it is a pretty cool story.
Tomorrow, the meteo predicted snow! Keep your fingers crossed!
Merry Christmas everyone! I wanted to write yesterday, but the jet lag had caught up with me.
Christmas Eve morning, Sylvain + I drove out to Montigny Les Bretonneux to visit our friends, Alex + Claire, their 5 month-old daughter Alice, their dog, Sherlock, and their new home. Their house is quite nice; they had done some remodeling as well – kitchen, bigger rooms, etc. We visited for a while and then we were off to Paris to meet John, Sylvain’s bro, for lunch.
John lives down the street from the famous Moulin Rouge. If you are not familiar with Paris, it is also the red light district: sex shops and strip clubs abound. John recommended an Italian place nearby. Eric, Benedicte, John, Sylvain & I enjoyed a wonderful lunch (well, at least my penne al’amatriciana was good, can’t speak for the others).
Before heading home, Sylvain and I still needed to purchase our white elephant gifts. We walked around St. Germain-en-Laye to find the same Marche Noel that we had seen at La Defense. Nothing really caught our eye, so we wandered further and found a bookstore with some cheap and decent gifts.
Christmas Eve dinner was delicious and filling: foie gras starter, seafood terrine, asparagus wrapped in bacon, cheese (bien sur!), and dessert. (Can you hear my arteries clogging?)
While I wrapped gifts late into the night, Sylvain taught his parents & John how to play Texas Hold’em. ;o)
Since there are no young children on my side of the family, I forgot that Christmas morning is an early rising. I awoke to joyous screams and yells from above. I dragged my a** out of bed at 7.30a to find out that Leo (our 4 year old nephew) had a Santa sighting, or at least an elf that was dressed up as Santa. To preface that, the night before Sylvain’s mom had convinced John to dress up as Santa and run through the backyard to make Leo think that Santa really does exist. Well, the plan didn’t go as smooth as she had hoped. Leo was so excited to see Santa, but he was also surprised when santa started taking off his suit. So, naturally, Leo thought that there was someone in the yard posing as Santa – an elf, he figured. (A tall one at that, John is probably 5’11” – 6′.) He still doesn’t have an idea that it was John and us adults are getting a good chuckle out of it. ;o)
Tonight, Sylvain’s family (his father’s side) came for Christmas dinner: salmon, oysters (a French Christmas tradition), foie gras (more!?), roast pork with a madeira sauce, potato croquettes (as sinful as tater tots), cheese, buches de noel (chocolate & cafe), and endless boxes of chocolates and truffles.
After the White Elephant gift exchange, Sylvain introduced poker to his family. We ended up playing for 5+ hours! (To put things in perspective, his family started arriving at 12.15p, we sat down to Sunday lunch at 3p, and the last family member left at 11.30p.)
Well, that was our Christmas in (large) nutshell. I hope to post some more pictures before we leave for London on Wednesday. Still haven’t gone ice skating yet, hopefully Monday or Tuesday. ;o) And still no snow. My mom is in Texas now, and it’s snowing there.
Greetings from France! Yes, Sylvain & I finally made it to Le Pecq.
We left San Francisco Tuesday 12/21 in the afternoon on Virgin Atlantic. We were pretty excited to fly Virgin since we’d heard that it’s the ultimate flying experience. Yah, probably if you’re flying in “upper” class and not the cattle class that we were seated in. I do give them props for their movie selection. We each had our own screen which made the 9 hour flight more enjoyable. Instead of sleeping I watched Shark Tale, The Motorcycle Diaries, and Saved! The Motorcycle Diaries was by far the best movie; the other I could have done without. We encountered some turbulence over Greenland, but other than that it was a smooth flight. We arrived in London Wednesday morning.
Future note to self: try NOT to take a connecting flight through Heathrow, it was unbearable. We departed the plane and headed towards the British Airways terminal: Terminal 1. We wait 1 hour to go through security…again, to find out that our flight is actually leaving from terminal 4. Nice. We finally arrived at terminal 4 and had a few hours to kill. Sylvain tried to get connected on his laptop, and I took a cat nap. We had a few toastie sandwiches and coffee before we headed to our gate. We boarded the plane and as soon as everyone was seated, the pilot came on the intercom to tell us that our flight had not been given clearance for another hour, but with a slight chance that might change, he had us board the plane rather than wait out at the gate. I guess that was good and bad at the same time.
We finally arrived in Paris at 6.30pm (local time). With the not so good weather and traffic, we arrived at Chez Rebaud just before 9pm. (Eric, Benedicte, Leo, and Leeloo had arrived earlier that day.) We settled down to a raclette dinner – yum! – with a chocolate pear tart for dessert.
After a wonderful night’s sleep, croissants and baguette viennoise were waiting for me. After you have a true French croissant, the croissants back in the US just aren’t the same (or as good). ;o)
By the time we were done showering and ready to tackle the day, it was time for lunch (sigh): jambon beurre (ham & butter) & rillettes sandwiches.
After a coffee, Sylvain & I ventured to La Grande Arche de la Defense.
They had set up a fair of sorts for the holidays. We walked around a bit, didn’t buy anything, but we did have gaufres avec nutella (waffles with nutella).
Ah, and no signs of a white Christmas in Paris this year. Bummer.
If the weather system in Paris keeps doing what it’s doing, Sylvain and I will have a White Christmas. My first one ever! (Yes, I am the California native.)
We had a lovely weekend catching up with friends and family – each day included delicious meals. Friday evening, we met up with our friends Lisa & Brad and Anu & Iran for dinner at Liberty Café in Bernal Heights. Saturday, we had a “Christmas” dinner with my mom and my brother at Luna Park in the Mission. Last, but not least, we had a filling couscous luncheon at the Saada’s in Palo Alto.
So, tonight, we’re running errands, packing (yah, we haven’t even started or thought about it) and packing Lucie up for her trip to the kennel.
Our friend JC will be housesitting while we’re gone, so that’ll be nice.
I will try my best to update kellybean while we’re in Paris…
Happy Holidays!
This morning at the p-a-r-k with Sylvain, Lucie decided to brush up on her hunting (and climbing) skills and chase after and look for squirrels. Sylvain tells me that she would have kept climbing if he didn’t call her down. Heh.
Only a few more days of work until the holiday break…thank goodness.
Last night was Sylvain’s office party. It was a nice holiday dinner at Café Marcella in Los Gatos. In talking with his co-workers, it was a big thing to have it at Café Marcella, since the past few holiday dinners had been at Il Fornaio in Palo Alto. (I wouldn’t have minded a dinner in Palo Alto. Los Gatos is about an hour south of SF.) Dinner was okay, but dessert was the best. I had, “Bliss”, a vanilla gelato with peanuts, toffee and chocolate & caramel sauces.
Our friend JeanClaude, the recent Kelley Business School grad, got the job he interviewed for last week. He starts his new job in January and is pretty happy, relieved, excited, all of the above to be ending his job hunt.
So, today at lunch I went to tour a new doggie day care center in Palo Alto, A Dog’s Life. I was pretty impressed with the facility (it was pretty large and there’s indoor and outdoor play) and the staff (they’re mostly certified dog trainers). In the summer months, they have swimming pools for the dogs to cool off. I scheduled an interview for January – so we’ll see how it goes…I don’t want to give up on K9 – 5 just yet.
…Sigh, this time next week I’ll be in Paris. Where did this year go? How did the holidays sneak up so quickly?
Not including today, 6 more working days until the holiday break. I feel like I’m in school again, counting down the days until Christmas break.
Well, Friday capped Sylvain’s first week at his new job. Except for his unbearably long commute home Friday night, he loves his new job.
He did get home in time for us to catch the 9 o’clock showing of Ocean’s Twelve. The movie was a bit long, but we enjoyed it. It’s such a great ensemble cast. Highlights included (no spoilers here): Matt Damon’s conversation with Robbie Coltrane, Julia Roberts spoofing herself, and the wacky conversations between Brad Pitt and basically anyone.
Saturday we ran errands: grocery shopping, Christmas shopping, car shopping. We bought ourselves some nice heavy wool coats for our visit to Paris & London next week.
I’m getting pretty excited about our trip, especially since I found out that the Tour Eiffel has opened an ice skating rink on the first level. (The first level is already 57 meters high!)
Yesterday, I went to a yoga class – 1st one in months! After class, I told Sylvain that I didn’t particularly care for this instructor since he focused more on meditation than movement (it was really difficult for me to lie in corpse pose for 3 minutes – I started to fidget about after 30 seconds). It was a fairly simple class, lacking incorporation of the not-so-basic poses. Alas, I forget, that it was my first class back in months and now I am sore. One quickly forgets that, though you think you’re not working, you most definitely are.
We got home from the gym, grabbed some juice and breakfast handpies at Creighton’s, and then took Lucie for a walk / run through the woods on Mt. Davidson.
Sylvain spent the afternoon working on stuff and I spent it in the kitchen baking goodies with my mom: gingerbread cookies, peanut butter blossoms and even a pear tart. The gingerbread cookies came out wonderfully (I didn’t realize how involved making gingerbread cookies would be). The peanut butter blossoms came out…okay. They taste fine, they just don’t look like they’re supposed to. (Next year, forego the reduced fat peanut butter and buy the real stuff.) My mom had received a box of pears from Harry and David at work and wanted to incorporate them into a tart of sorts. The pears were unbelievably sweet and juicy – like we had just opened a can of pears. We tweaked the recipe a bit and the tart came out pretty good, a bit juicy, but good.
It was really foggy here yesterday – made driving to work an experience.
