One Year

Wow - it's in many ways so hard to believe we have been here a year! I feel like the first six months crawled - getting settled, figuring out the lay of the land, learning to communicate with the natives, and of course trying to keep from going stir-crazy in the cold. And the second six? A flash. With Thanksgiving looming tomorrow, we have so much to be thankful for. Fascinating travels, wonderful visits from family and friends, generally good health and, of course, la vie Francaise.

It's been another busy month, beginning with a meaningful and fun visit to Israel! It was my first time, but Jeff lived in Tel Aviv for a semester in college and was eager to get back and see it. We stayed in Jerusalem for three days - right near the Old City - and then in Tel Aviv for two days.

The Old City in Jerusalem is so amazing - people of nearly every faith walking centuries-old streets and passageways. Greek Orthodox, Catholics, Orthodox Jews, Muslims, Armenians, and of course tourists both faithful and adventurous. We saw a cool model of the Old City and the Second Temple up at the Israel Museum, wandered the markets of the Old City, went to the powerful Western Wall. We went to several cool neighborhoods, including the German Colony, where we had wonderful meals, Ben-Yehuda, where we contributed to the economy in many wonderful shops. Josie and I went into the Old City and visited St. Anne's, a church where pilgrims from every faith come to sing in its amazing acoustics.

In Tel Aviv we ate lots of falafel, played on the beach, saw some friends from Paris, and investigated the winding market stalls in Old Jaffa. Jeff found Tel Aviv to be built up and improved since his travels there - the beaches were lovely, with a strip of impressive hotels, and Old Jaffa restored to house numerous artisans and traders. It was just really a great trip - lots of photos in the new gallery.

What else is new? Josie continues to enjoy her music and art preschool. She can not only count to 20 in English and French, she knows the days of the week in both languages and her colors in English, a few in French. Her teachers report that she loves drawing, singing and dancing. We're very happy with the school.

Tomorrow's Thanksgiving will be very different from last year - we had no friends yet, and spent it together eating a chicken and some side dishes. This year we have two families coming, along with my friends Katherine and Sujata who are visiting from Washington and New York. We've divvied up the dishes, and we're all really looking forward to it. Thanks to Slingbox the kids will even be able to watch the parade!

Hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. A bientot!

Octobrefete!

Wow, yet another season flashing before our eyes. My excuse for lack of blogging is that the Paris autumn has been so gorgeous there hasn't been time. Of course that's only part of the story -- we've had loads of visitors: Nam and Bee-pa, Hannah and Papa and friends, Melissa, David and Nathalie, and the Chicago Goldbergs.

Josie started a new preschool in September: The Preschool for Music and Art at Ecole Koenig in the 15eme. It's technically bilingual, but she's the only American/English speaker in the class right now, so classes are primarily in French and the teachers are gradually introducing more English. It's a lovely school, with a Montessori approach to music, art, and play. Josie loves it and they love her. It's far away, so I stick around the neighborhood and spend the 3 hours wandering, running to the gym, sitting in cafes and reading... it's nice. Nam and Bee-Pa arrived at the end of September and Bee-Pa's 10 days with us were CRAZY touristy (in a good way): Versailles, the Pantheon, the Musee de l'Armee and Napoleon's Tomb, the Louvre, D'Orsay, the Orangerie, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Medieval History Musuem, Notre Dame, the Marais, crepes, lots of coffee and kirs.

We celebrated Josie's birthday with a musical fete in her favorite park, the Jardin Catherine Laboure (or as she now calls it, "Birthday Park"). We had a wonderful American singer perform for the kids, and I successfully constructed and decorated the famous Elmo cake (see photos in Sept. gallery!). Hannah and Papa and their friends Madeline and Ed came...and afterward the grownups celebrated with a yummy dinner at a nearby bistro, La Petite Chaise. It was a whirlwind weekend - and Bee-Pa left on the 7th Oct but Nam stayed for the month! We made multiple return trips to the D'Orsay (including for an amazing exhibit on Art Nouveau), did lots of shopping and sitting in chic cafes all across the Left Bank (and Montmartre, as you'll see). A teething and cranky Josie got us booted from nearly every major museum in Paris, but oh well.

We also took Nam for a lovely weekend in the Loire - we stayed again at La Couture, where we stayed last spring, and toured some fab chateaux: Chenonceau, Villandry, and Chambord. We also went to a fabulous zoo, where Josie did actually tell the tiger: "Pooh-pooh!" It was a lovely and memorable trip! We love the Loire...

We're now in the midst of Halloween season - Josie has already been to 3 parties and a bit confused about why I make her dress up as a clownfish every couple of days and beg for candy. We have a last pumpkin-carving party on Saturday! Well that's it for now - I know you're here for the pix, so I'll sign off. More again very soon, promise...

Le Jours du Chien d'Aout

Can't believe August is almost over, that summer is almost over! It was a FUN one, and when you look at the pictures and how busy we've been you'll hopefully excuse how overdue this post is.

August came and went in a flash, starting with a week-long Rothmanfest. Anne, Lew, Roger, Jaxi, Hilary, Todd, and all the kids came to celebrate Lew's 70th birthday. We had a blast - between the 13 of us we saw the Eiffel Tower, the D'Orsay, the Pompidou (extra fun with ProfArt Roger leading the way), the Conciergerie, Notre Dame, the Jardin Luxembourg (the playground quite a few times!), Disneyland Paris, and every boulangerie in between. We had a fun picnic and show to celebrate this Lew Rothman milestone at the Parc Floral, as well as a lovely lunch at Laduree to celebrate Hilary's 40th. Josie was in hog heaven, being able to hang out with all her cousins, and we had a lovely time too.

Then it was off to Tuscany! We spent the second half of our summer vacation (and the only really relaxing time for Jeff) at Le Boscarecce, a really nice, child-friendly villa smack in the middle of all of Tuscany's best cities. Every day we visited a city in the morning, and lounged by the pool in the afternoon - perfect. And since we could see our suite from the villa's restaurant, we were able to feed Josie early and enjoy a peaceful and delicious dinner together every night. You'll see from the pics we hit Volterra, a cute little medieval village, Vinci, Medici, Pisa, Lucca, Florence, Siena, and Certaldo. I think I loved Pisa the best - walking through the medieval gates and seeing the "Field of Miracles" (the church, baptistery, and of course the Tower) is really something. Rick Steves helped us with good grub and sightseeing tips. We also loved the Botticellis in the Ufizzi Gallery and of course, the David, which we finally got to see but couldn't photograph! Lots of gelato, pizza (which Josie loved) and of course Chianti! It was a great and relaxing vacation and we recommend Le Boscarecce to anyone traveling with children.

We had some sad goodbyes this month as well - Melissa, Nathalie and David departed for Miami, so Josie lost her Paris BFF, as well as her beloved "Nonny," our babysitter Josefin who returned to Stockholm to finish her masters' degree. But we are rebounding, with lots of new fun activities - already started garderie in the "grandes" section, and preschool (a music and art school called Ecole Koenig) starts in 2 weeks. So watch for lots of action-packed September and October posts!!

Bastille Day!

SORRY for the long gap between posts, we have had a very busy couple of months!! Josie has been doing great in nursery, better every week... and I've been in school too, taking a class at the American University in Paris on the History of Paris! It's so interesting, and if you visit I should be able to do a better job showing you around.

We've taken lots of cool class trips - to the Cathedral at St.-Denis, where all the kings and queens of France are buried, to the Palais Royal, which the Duc d'Orleans built in the 18th century to entertain the public, and a sobering visit to Drancy, the Paris suburb from which all the deported Jews and political prisoners were taken to Auschwitz.

Anyway, the class is over this week and I'm sad... I even had to write a term paper (I got an A) which was extremely stressful as I had no memory of how to write one! I had all those stress dreams and everything! But we have a busy August ahead of us so it's just as well...

June was also busy both with visitors and travel - Rosemary and Doug, our dear friends in Nyack, were with us for a week which was terrific. We saw lots of fun sights with them, including the Rodin museum, a boat trip down the Seine, and a walk through the Marais ending with falafels in the Place des Voges (built as a royal residence/compound by Henri III to keep all the nobles and bankers close!)

We took a nice trip to Giverny with Melissa and Nathalie to see Monet's house (and gardens of course!) Lots of great photos in the gallery. It was our last getaway with those girls as Melissa and David are moving to Miami in a couple of weeks... we're very sad and will miss them so much. We also made it back to the U.S. for about 10 days... first for my 20-year (gasp) page reunion in Washington, D.C. which was great. We got to go down on the floor of the House (though a very noisy Josie was banished to the Speaker's lobby, as you'll see from the photos) to see where we used to work... we also saw the Page school where we went, and House pages still go, and the new House page dorm. We also got to spend some quality time with Wally and Jean and their children Caleb and Tess... and caught up with a few friends in the City.

Otherwise we've managed to stay busy and enjoy our first summer in Paris... Josie and I started a morning musical playgroup once a week, and we've spent every Wednesday playing with our friends Catherine and Millie in the lovely Rodin gardens. This past weekend has been a long one, for Bastille Day... we packed it with activities, including a trip to the Sculpture garden and Berthillon ice cream on Ile St. Louis, a jaunt to the very cool Parc Andre Citroen, reclaimed from the old Citroen factory on the Seine, to hear a concert, the new Woody Allen movie followed by Italian dinner, shopping at les Soldes and a boat trip down the Seine. Today we're going to people watch in the morning (les enfants de la Patrie) and head to the Parc Montsouris with Melissa and Nathalie for a picnic in the afternoon. Aux armes, citoyens!!!