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!