Good Morning, England!

Mon Dieu!

I mean...bloody he**!

Where are we, anyway?

Well, after a string of tearful goodbyes and frantic last visits to all our favorite sights and restaurants, we said goodbye to Paris last Friday. I'm still not even sure how to process leaving the City of Lights. When we set out on this adventure I knew we'd have culture shock, I knew we'd spend months, even years battling the stereotype of the Dumb Americans in Tennis Shoes, I knew we'd struggle with the language. I didn't know we'd make wonderful, lifelong friends. I didn't know that eighteen months later, the sight of the sun hitting the Seine beyond the Pont des Arts would still take my breath away. I didn't know that my trek across the 7th on Rue de Grenelle would become as familiar as a walk down Broadway in Nyack. I didn't know I would fall so deeply in love with Paris.

I spent my last three weeks (largely without Jeff, who had already started his new job in the UK) frantically hitting exhibits - a terrific photography show by Willy Ronis, the amazing Yves St. Laurent retrospective at the Petit Palais, the Catacombs (I would not recommend going solo, very creepy!), the "Crime and Punishment" show at the D'Orsay... and saying goodbye to friends. Here we are at Bistrot Peres et Filles, my crazy Parisian posse. There were dinners, picnics, awards ceremonies... it was all too much. THEN the mad scramble to please difficult Parisian landlady who sounded very much like Cinderella stepmother. "Before you go to the Ball - er, Baff (they don't say "th"s here) you must clean the sofas, wash the windows, replace the lightbulbs, scrub the walls," etc. I really became a nut job as I watched our security deposit tick downwards to zero. But it was also like the city was telling me it was time to leave.

Then, finally, it was over. The taxi came and in we went. The second we turned onto Boulevard St. Germain for the eastward drive out of the city the tears started rolling down my cheeks. Josie, little brow furrowed mightily, declared "I'm sad, too!" We said goodbye to all our favorite things (see list on left), Tower, Dome (Les Invalides), Castle (what she calls the Palais de Justice), Louvre (where Peter Pan sleeps on a couch, did you know that?), river. Lots of new photos that will trickle up slowly.

And now, here we are! And talk about culture shock! Everyone speaks English (sort of - still looking up wodges, scrummy, bangers, minger). People smile at you and say hello! Less than an hour after we moved in our neighbors next door arrived with flowers and a warm welcome (as opposed to the French "ehhh merde," and flicked cigarette butt). Now that we have two floors, it's taking us about six times as long to unpack. We've also moved from a furnished to an unfurnished flat, so we have quite a bit of furniture shopping and organizing to do. But Josie loves her long-promised Peppa Pig Bed and her "own room for toys" complete with new dollhouse assembled by moi. Will get pics up when flat doesn't look quite so shambolic (I think that's British for "messy").

True, we are already missing baguettes, Pompotes, and sunny park days. But I am also appreciating the new, small things... like being able to take a hot shower whenever the heck I want! Like shopping without a dictionary. Like being told I'm "brilliant" all the time. Like ordering pizza and cheesy garlic bread and having it brought to my door, with a smile and a "Cheers"! Like the blooming cherry tree next door that reminds me of home. Like finding ground turkey and non-sugar-drenched Cheerios in the supermarket! Like being able to walk outside in my (ok, only about 8' by 8', but still!) garden. Like not freezing in a dark, remote, unheated kitchen. Like an exciting election, in which I can follow about 80% of what's going on (there's that "minger" word again).

Oh, but speaking of freezing, we are completely inappropriately attired and outfitted. I'm sure there will be many posts about England's mercurial weather, but suffice to say one should leave the house dressed to accommodate rain, wind, sun, and about a 30-degree F swing in temperature depending on, well, wind, rain and sun. Why oh why didn't I place that large L.L. Bean order when I was in the States? Bollocks.

See? I'm getting the lingo already. More soon, mes amis. Cheers, then! Brilliant.

Here we go again!!

So... it has been a long time since our last update. But with good reason. Our lives and future have been a bit up in the air!! We learned in November that our time in Paris would be winding down soon. But where next? Still a mystery!

After interviews with several companies in several locations, we have learned that the Rothman famille will indeed be decamping our beloved Paris toute de suite for Bath, England. Jeff will be working for Cow and Gate, an exciting and relatively new baby food and formula company. So no more yogurt for him, but hopefully lots of new challenges. We visited Bath last week and decided it was definitely a place we could picture ourselves... it's a quaint, historic, yet vibrant community. Bath has existed since Roman times (they built, well, baths on top of a natural spring) and was extremely popular in Georgian times (see: novels of Jane Austen) and remains a lovely, near-to-London-but-less hectic place to live. Lots of cute, windy streets, good shopping, etc. We're excited.

But let me back up a bit and cover the last 6 weeks or so. We had a lovely December -- Josie was for the first time really present and excited about Hanukkah. We had fun treating each other with little gifts. In the midst of the Festival of Lights we celebrated the Festival of Mommy, heading to London for a birthday bonanza weekend! I had never been to London - can you believe it - and fell in love! We shopped, drank good beer, went to a fancy dinner, shopped some more, saw the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey (both fabulous) and took the Eurostar to and fro, which was very exciting and tres comfortable!!

We headed to Michigan to celebrate Xmas with Nam and Bee-pa, which was great fun as always, especially making everything special and fun for Josie, which everyone near and far (Andy and Emily and Becca) worked hard to do! We caught up with lots of friends as you'll see in the pictures - Annie and her daughters, Amy and her children, Jeff Hannah and his wife and new-to-us baby. We celebrated the Solstice with our neighbors and Josie performed a 30-minute one-woman show (see video!) We celebrated Christmas night as tradition with the Fonts, and Josie hopped right up to harmonize with Uncle John.

Then it was on to New Jersey for the New Year - we checked on our house in anticipation that we might not return in the spring, and the new renters are caring for it beautifully. We saw MORE friends, went into the city to see the Fleisches, visited Travis and Neil and their new baby Ethan, and had a slam-bang New Year's Eve dinner and celebration with Hannah, Papa, Roger, Jaxi, Manny, Jake, Hilary, Todd, Delila and Scarlett. Josie just had a blast being with everyone (and so did we).

And back to Paris, where we determined to "accelerate the fun," knowing our time is short. We've been going to fabulous dinners, at L'Affriole, Le Restaurant, Les Fables de Fontaine, and some of our old faves. I've hit the sales in earnest, stocking up on gifts and little things for myself. My endless search for a new bag ended at Nice Day, Nice Things on Rue de Commerce: a lovely, deep green number that fits all my necessities plus entertaiment and nourishment for Josie and the latest copy of New York Magazine.

Jeff wrapped up his flurry of interviews and after visiting Bath we made our decision. We stayed right in the Royal Crescent, near the circus, both very famous architectural wonders you can see in our photos and any website about Bath or architecture. We even found an apartment! As you'll see, there's plenty of room for visitors:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-28332587.html

While we will really miss Paris, we are also very excited for this new adventure! We have until the end of March to soak all the fun from France, and after some touring around North America we'll return and move in towards the end of April. Cheerio! So more very soon as we wrap up La Vie Parisienne! Meanwhile, LOTS of pics in 2 new galleries to the right!

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...