Freezing and Frozen Paris

Well, the Davidson-Rothmans rang in a very Merry 2009 (just the two of us, no Dick Clark, just lots of Picard goodies, which I shall explain below) and are now shivering through a very chilly January!

We had a lovely holiday seas0n - I celebrated my first Parisian birthday with a delicious lunch of "tartines," wonderful open-faced sandwiches, and a bit of shopping with my dear friend Melissa. Jeff and I were then able to continue our tradition of taking in all the holiday windows, capped off with a sumptuous feast at a restaurant Jeff had found called Drouant. We went to a fun Chanukah party, also with Melissa and her family, at the bilingual synagogue here, and also a great Tot Shabbat at Melissa's (are you getting a feel for whom we gladly spend the most time with?) with a Chanukah theme.

On Christmas we of course missed dreadfully the annual Davidson fete... but still managed to have a quite fun day -- walked to Le Marais (the Jewish Quarter) which in contrast to the rest of Paris was absolutely buzzing with activity. We had falafels, walked around a bit, and walked back home by way of Notre Dame to see the tree (and hundreds of tourists) there. We capped off the evening with turkey and all the trimmings courtesy of Picard.

So.... Picard. I've decided I'll expound on at least one Paris novelty in each post, and today it will be Picard. It's this absolutely amazing French food chain, completely composed of... frozen foods. I'm not talking chicken nuggets (though they have them!) or frozen waffles (have those too!) it's the most amazing assortment of gourmet treats you could find. Foie gras. Scallops. Salmon in puff pastry. Cheesecake. Croissants. Sushi. Tom Yum soup. Turkeys stuffed with chestnuts and mushrooms (that's what we had!). Pots Au Creme (which we also had). All amazing, all prepared so you just pop in oven or skillet. I would say we have Picard at least twice a week. How else would we enjoy tandoori chicken on a Tuesday or crunchy Vietnamese spring rolls on a Thursday? The place is amazing. Google it. Jeff wants to open one in the states and I think we would be zillionnaires.

The day after Xmas we were off on our first cross-country road trip. We went to Strasbourg, a charming town near the German border famous for its Christmas Markets. It was basically four days of eating and drinking wine (the Alsace region is famous for its Rieslings, Gewurtztraminers, etc) and drinking in the cuteness of "half-timber" houses and 400-year old Cathedrals. All lovely -- as were our traveling partners, Melissa David and Nathalie! Lots of pics of our trip in the gallery.

Home for New Year's, which as I said Jeff and I spent at home and it was quite fun and relaxing. Especially with a nice bottle of champagne and Picard doing all the work!! Now, it's back to daily life (this was Jeff's longest contiguous break in 4 years of working for Dannon) and Jeff is off for many travels this month. But Josie and I are keeping busy with play groups, Music Together (which Josie LOVED in Nyack and we've been lucky enough to find here!) and of course, shopping at Les-Soldes, the semi-annual orgy of reduced-price shopping. I've already procured a dreamy coat, some quite kicky boots, and an assortment of sweaters and gifts. And we're not even a week in! More sooner, I promise, but for now... a bientot!

Happy Holidays! (Long Version)

For those of you with more patience for our Josie imagery (and if you weren't you probably wouldn't be here)... Happy Holidays with the longer version of our Holiday film!

Settling in

Well, we're almost a month into our Paris experience, and everyone seems to be settling in well. Our air shipment arrived - clothes, boom bucket, toys...so we finally have more than 3 outfits... but a sinking feeling about how all our stuff will fit into an apartment with three small closets. Luckily we both have lots of practice at apartment-living and space-making. We're anxious for our sea shipment to arrive so the place will really start to look like home.

We continue to enjoy the perks of our fabulous neighborhood -- the thrice-weekly organic farmers' market two blocks down our street, the beautiful Luxembourg gardens, the gorgeous views from Rue de Seine. Josie and I have fairly busy weeks - we've been on a couple of play dates and play groups with Anglophone moms in our area, and I finally started French lessons this week! They've alternated between wildly discouraging and mildly painful... but I feel like I'm at least engaging and making a real effort to learn the language.

While I'm gone we have a wonderful Swedish babysitter, Josefin, watching Josie. While no one will ever replace either Gertie or Gram, Josefin is warm and fun and Josie is always excited when she arrives which is a good sign. They get along fabulously. We also have a very nice American girl named Nicole as a standing Saturday night babysitter - last weekend we got out to a sushi dinner AND a movie (the new Woody Allen, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which was fabulous).

We had a nice if slightly lonely Thanksgiving, with a chicken instead of turkey but all the trimmings including Jeff's fave Sweet potato and marshmallow dish and cranberries! Thanks to technology we got to spend parts of the day with both our families. Also thanks to technology and Jeff's savvy, our new TV and Jeff's laptop, we've been able to keep up with most of our favorite TV shows! We've got lots of fun plans for the next month, including a Chanukah party at the Anglo-French reform Synagogue here, our traditional dinner-and-store-windows for my birthday... it should be a fun holiday season.

Sadly Josie has been sick for the past week and a half with a playgroup-aquired cold, and I seem to have caught it as well. So cross your fingers I get past that soon!! Love to all (and new photos and movies!) Au revoir!

Josie's new tricks:

BONJOUR a Paris!

So, we landed last Sunday finally, in the City of Lights! Buoyed of course by the election wins - not just Obama but the many EMILY's List candidates who triumphed - we packed up our house in Nyack and flew over Saturday night. Josie was a dream on the plane, slept the whole night through.

Our apartment is gorgeous, and the location really could not be better. We're in the 7th arrondissement right on the border of the 6th. Musee D'orsay? 5 minutes away. The Bon Marche (great food and clothes shopping)? 5 min. The Tuileries and Louvre? 10 minutes. Luxembourg Gardens? 10 minutes. The Opera (close to Jeff's Office)? 25 minutes. It's really incredible. It's a very Parisian apartment - with high ceilings, four fireplaces, a separate W.C. down the hall from the "bath" room, and a very non-Parisian, large kitchen. Jeff had posted great photos on our last blog entry if you want to see.

We spent the first night in Paris taking a long walk along the Seine (which is also a 5-minute walk from our apt) all the way down to the Eiffel Tower. Now every hour on the hour after dark, it sparkles -- really beautiful, we'll try to get some footage -- and Josie's exhausted face when she saw it was priceless!

We spent the whole first week acclimating to our new neighborhood. My priority was of course to find a good grocery store - which I did, finally. Food shopping here, aside from the prices, is a dream, even in the regular grocery store. I have yet to brave a real boucherie (butcher) but I've found a boulangerie (bakery) with incredible baguettes and pain au chocolat (chocolate croissants). We've figured out the metro system (it's quite expansive and clean, wonderful) but with Josie (and her stroller) the bus system is much easier to navigate.

We had our first visitor on Saturday - Jeff's aunt Louise - who is with us until tomorrow. Yesterday she and I had a wonderful visit to the Louvre, seeing a quite impressive Mantegna exhibit as well as a small Picasso exhibition based on his fascination with the Women of Algers by Delacroix. Both were terrific! Jeff and Josie came and met us for lunch at a local boulangerie/cafe, and we walked down the Seine to catch a "Bateaux Mouche," a boat tour that takes you all the way down to the Ile St. Louis on the Seine. It was a little cold coming back into the wind, but it's a great way to get the layout of this gorgeous city. Then she struck out on her own to an exhibition of a private collection of modern art at the Musee Luxembourg while I prepared apertifs of kirs and cheese and a roast chicken dinner with potatoes, onions, and haricots verts, of course! This morning she's out walking with Josie while I wait for our dryer to be delivered (thank god!) and when she returns we'll meet my friend Melissa for some shopping around the Opera area.

Everyone is definitely having his or her own adjustment. Josie was definitely unsettled the first couple of days, crying whenever one of us left a room... but now she likes her new room and lOVES how much space she has to toddle around, especially the one long hallway, which she enjoys tearing down at the speed of...Josie. She has also been adjusting to the new food, becoming quite a picky eater and staging several food strikes. But all in all, she seems to be acclimating to la vie francaise. Jeff and I are definitely missing American television - our hopes of keeping up via Hulu.com were dashed when the server rejected our non-U.S. isp address. I can still watch some things on Jeff's American Laptop, which still has its U.S. address, but I'm also just reading more and letting go my obsession with Gossip Girl, the View, Brothers and Sisters (sigh). We both also are eager to learn French -- Jeff started lessons before we left and I hope to start them next week - as soon as I can find a babysitter for Josie! I think once I can communicate better, I'll both appreciate and enjoy everyday life even more!

All in all, we're so happy to be here and enjoying this big adventure-- not feeling too lonely yet, since we're skyping often with family. More - and more photos - soon! a tout a l'heure!