Joyeux Anniversaire!

 

Vivienne's First Trip To La Tour Eiffel!

Managing the jet lag, as well as a baby who sometimes takes two morning naps makes it hard to get out of the house before noon. However we were able to get an early start yesterday and trekked all over the city.  

Vivienne's first trip to the Eiffel Tower!

...And what to my wondering eyes should appear at the steps of the Eiffel Tower but a Marche Noel - Megan you would have loved this!

This teenager was hiding behind the post, he was shy and didn't want his photo taken.

JP - We left Metro Stop FDR on our way to the tower...I think of you often, and know that you would enjoy taking pictures here.  You would do it much better than I am managing to do with little Vivienne in one arm.   I love you!

It's Snowing!

 This was the view outside my bedroom window this morning

And the smiles on the faces when I shouted the good news!

From the courtyard: what you can't see because of the branches in the way is a Kermit The Frog bike in the corner with a little basket on the front - si mignon!  Mignon means cute/adorable and that is what we hear people say when they see Vivienne on the street in her little fur coat and hat!

Re-arragning l'appartement! (Cont Jour. 3)

Jeepers this is heavy, good thing there aren't candles in this!

Laura is demonstrating that the couch really will fit if we move it horizontally.  Who needs tape measures anyway!

see, much better.

Re-arragning l'appartement! (Jour 2)

Well well well, as great as the apartment is we needed to Vivienne proof it somewhat.  Here are our attempts at doing just that - but first, Mon Cherie...

 Side note to Aunt Meggie who supplied the stroller, the snuggly pink bag and all the clothes I am wearing here in Paris - Thank You!!! I am warm because of all the goodies you send my way - Mwahhh!

The Adventure Has Begun!

Lots of catching up to be done - my apologies for taking nine days to make another post!  Fellow Moms out there know exactly how that happens ;-).  First off, I need to get this out of my system, YAY!!!!! Wowza this is soooo much fun!  I love Paris.  LOVE LOVE LOVE Paris.  Whew.  Now that we've got that out of the way, on to the fun we've been having.

Let's start at jour 1.

We arrived at our apartment after a sleepless 12 hour flight, and an hour and a half after landing not only was my french rusty but I had a fussy baby to contend with.

Now, off to transact with the lovely Arielle who showed us around the apartment.  The apartment really is darling.  It's small, imagine every hotel room you've stayed in NYC, (exception being The Mandarin Oriental ) but very cute and almost exactly as I had thought it would be - except there is no oven.  Let me repeat: there is no oven!   I tried to explain to this little french woman that to me and Neil this was akin to telling Julia Child, "welcome to your apartment in France - now don't cook for a month!"  She didn't quite understand.  So then I said,  "Imaginez dire un de France's le plus grand chef's ce il can' cuisinier de t - puis ce qui?  Still no response so then I said, "Alain Ducasse???"  Still nothing.  Anyone who knows me will know that by now I was faint.  That's putting it lightly.

...as we speak they are "working" on getting us an oven.  I received an email this morning saying they would drop one off at the apartment tomorrow.   Drop one off?  Have you seen the stairs in this place?  You're going to drop one off?  Umm...

I can assure you, my French is not that good.  It must have been the dreaded "Sharon Caruso eyebrow" that prompted Arielle's réponse très rapide!

        
You remember the suitcases - oh what fun!                                                    

Once we had a shower and nap we hit the street to see what Paris at dusk looked like.  I love this picture of Laura in front of the Vélib’s.  I can't wait to head out (without the baby folks!) on one of these puppies again and motor around The City!                        

Here are a few places we passed by on our way to dinner. 

...and what to my wondering eyes should appear... Dehillerin.  I have ooooh'd and ahhh'd about this place from across the ocean for so long!  This is the go to place for copper pots, fancy knives and madeleine cookie molds.

From there we moved on to the Bourse de Commerce

and just outside of that there was a very cute little Christmas tree market (I am hoping that for my Birthday a white flocked tree appears in my living room ;-) )

Bonjour Paris!

First night in Paris - oh what fun we had walking around seeing a few sights after a yummy meal at Cafe Beaubourg across from the Pompidou. 

 

We're Here!

We have arrived!

More to come once we are settled.  Neil arrives on Friday!

Air France Is The Way to Fly

Vivienne received special treatment going though security as we rushed to the front of the line, the little ham is making friends everywhere she goes!  We stopped for a quick bite before takeoff and as we headed for the gate a representative from Air France was yelling at us in French to, "dépêchez-vers le haut vous sont en retard!" Who are you calling retard??  Oh right, retard --late!  Eeek, we're late??  What do you mean we are late?  We sprinted towards the gate which is not easy with the bébé in the stroller, the diaper bag, the carry on and no elevator in sight.  Luckily Laura sprinted ahead down the escalator and and let them know we were coming.  They told Laura to just board and they would do what they could to wait a few more minutes for me to arrive.  Bless her heart she ran up the down escalator and helped me carry the stroller down to the gate. Whew!

We ordered a bassinet for Vivienne which hooks onto the bulkhead wall.  I can't imagine flying without one of these!

Things really started looking up once they came around with vin rouge/baguette cart. 

 

Hey...this is great!  How long is this flight and will they keep pushing that cart around the whole time?  Seriously, they're showing The Time Traveler's Wife and Julie & Julia and 500 Days of Summer - sweet - I'm staying up all night!

Over served.

By the way, Papa - do you recognize my jammies??

We Are On Our Way!

Here's a sweet picture of Neil snuggling little Vivienne a few hours before we left for Paris.

The Packing is Complete!

I've always been a carry on girl, even when I went to Italy for 8 weeks after winemaking school.  Now I find myself packing 2 HUGE suitcases that I will be CHECKING.  C'est la vie!  I admit, I started packing weeks ago so I could check and recheck my packing list and be sure to remove any nonessential items.  Packing for me is easy, it's the packing for an 8 month old that's hard.  Check out the awesome luggage I found at TJ Maxx ;-).  My strategy was to buy the craziest luggage I could find so that it's easy to spot at baggage claim and the likelihood of someone mistaking it for their own is slim.  Not bad huh?  The black bag is the carry on with all of Vivienne's things including Gordon the horse, 3 changes of clothes, a few books/toys, my ipod/headphones and travel pillow and of course a few trashy magazines for me.  WoooHoo!  I am so excited.  I could hardly sleep last night.  I can almost taste the pain au chocolat now!

Neil will snap a picture of us at the airport and upload it to let you know we're airborne.  Bon voyage!

The Countdown Has Begun!

We've been busy this week putting the final touches on our Google map with all the great places we'll visit this month.  People keep asking me, "what are you going to do in Paris for a month?"  The answer - live!  We plan on putting on about 20 collective pounds by eating our way through the 20 addrondissments.  We've done hours of research on where the best bistros, food markets and specialty shops are located.  Many of the places we've chosen we learned about through the usual suspects -  Pudlo, Gourmet Secrets, Paris Eating, Patricia Wells, David Lebovitz, Chez Pim, and my personal fave, Clotilde of Chocolate & Zucchini.  Here is a picture of Vivienne helping us map out the adventure.  To see our Google map click on the link below.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=103146887852712717916.000470b7790ab10471a74&z=13