More from the Mama

My turn to write about the things that Eric has missed. Warning: there will be no cool-looking photos with this post.

I cooked my first meal here on Thursday. We headed to the neighborhood supermarket and picked up some broccoli and some-sort-of-steak. The salt and pepper at the flat would be the only seasoning, because this little store doesn't seem to have any spices.

When I got into the kitchen I realized we don't have a steamer for the broccoli. I also learned that the only knives we had were steak knives. And there was no oil.

So I cut the broccoli with a steak knife and boiled it. I rubbed the steak down with the S&P and fried it in a little butter. Threw some butter and salt on the broccoli, and VOILA! Dinner was served. It wasn't the best meal ever, but it wasn't bad either. And I think it probably cost all of 4-Euros.

Tonight I'm going to cook again. Nothing fancy, just a little pasta with meat sauce. However, we did go to the Monoprix yesterday. It's kind of like a Super WalMart, but it's on a much smaller scale. It has groceries plus some clothing and general goods. We spent 28-Euros on a couple of knives, found a couple spices and some boullion and got some more food for Ella (tortillas, crackers, chicken nuggets).

We had to be careful not too buy too much, because we had to walk quite a distance back to the flat. Most Parisiennes have a rolling cart for groceries, but I didn't find one of those at the Monoprix. I brought a shopping bag from home that folds up into a little case, and that's been awesome. Plus we bought a couple of good-quality plastic shopping bags in the Monoprix checkout lane.

The last bit of housekeeping news (if you haven't already fallen asleep reading this) is that I've been struggling with the washer/dryer combo in our flat. We knew I'd be doing laundry almost every day, but we didn't count on the dryer being so bad.

The dryer only seemed to handle underwear and socks; I've been hanging our wet pants, shirts and sweaters around the flat to let them air dry. What a pain in the rear! Today I went online and was able to find the instruction manual for the washer/dryer. Thank God I found another setting that seems to work MUCH better than the one I was instructed to use. I came home this afternoon to find mostly dry clothes -- only the cuffs and pockets are a little damp.

We haven't been to the open market, yet. Maybe on Tuesday ... right now, I'm heading to the kitchen!

June 6, 1944: D-Day

D-Day Normandy 1944 INVASION from Transfert sur DVD on Vimeo.

Unboxing: Berthillon Chocolat

Unboxing Berthillon Chocolat Ice Cream from Eric Edstrom on Vimeo.

Ass. Torch, Indeed!

Today we had lunch at the famous Café de Flore on Boulevard St. Germain. Of course, we didn't know it was famous at the time. I just didn't want to eat at a place called Les Deux Magots (which is a lie. I'd read about that one). The problem was a certain 5 year old who was starving and telling JJ, "I'll pay you money if we just stop and eat."

I'll spare you the family unrest, but note what we had for lunch!

Coca light = 6.20 euros (it was in a glass bottle, though)
Ass. Torch = 11.00 euros
Sand. Mixt = 10.00 euros
Club Sandwich = cough, cough, 19.00 euros

JJ had the Sand. Mixt, which looked more appetizing than it sounds. I ordered the Club Sandwich because I knew what it was. I would have rather been clubbed in the head than pay 19 euros for that thing. It had hard-boiled egg on it. I still don't know why I ordered it.

When Stephane presented the damages, I was a bit stunned. But I have to hand it to the Cafe de Flore -- at least they put it right on the bill that you got your Ass. Torch.

You should have seen JJ's reaction. Oh, wait! You can . . .

"46 euros!"

"Ooooh, Ass. Torch!!"

"Tee Hee, Tee Hee!"

Today was a slow day -- kind of a recovery day. Especially after the torching. Besides, we didn't sleep well last night and didn't do much but walk down to the Monoprix to buy groceries (yet again). Had great italian food tonight near our apartment so that Ella could survive for another day.

Entertainment was the animated movie "The Tale of Desperaux," which was beautiful, dull at times, but fun for the family.

It was almost routine this evening. I might have convinced myself, for a moment, that I was still back at home, but then -- Paris happens: I look out our window and there is Notre Dame, majestic in the gloaming.

Chompsee Leezay Day!

Another day, another world famous place. Today we headed up to the Champs-Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe. Aside from the chilly breeze, the 6 Euro cokes and the snooty waiter at George V, we had a good time.

In fact, JJ remarked on how some myths about Paris have proven, so far, to be false:

Myth #1: French are rude. We've had very friendly service. No one appears to be offended when we speak English. When we speak French, they sort of understand.

Myth #2: You'll be choke on all the second-hand cigarette smoke. While people do toke up at the drop of a hat, it appears that it's not allowed inside.

By the way, the snooty waiter had just cause. We went to an expensive place and ordered free water and the cheapest items on the menu. A 10 euro crepe and 12 euro quiche. (Note to our critics: see what we ate? Good Frenchy food!)

The Arc was commissioned by Napoleon, but he croaked off before it was finished. The tomb of the unknown soldier is under it, and there are a couple rooms up inside and a cool terrace to look out from at the top.

Here's me on the Arc de Triomphe with that pointy tower in the background.

We found this sign up on top of the Arc. JJ thought the second symbol meant no streaking. Maybe it means no Speedos!

After we finished looking around at the Arc, we headed back down to the street. That's when we saw these street dancers.

Quick stop at McDonald's (but only for a "cheap" Coke*) and then a quick Mètro ride to see the obelisk and the spot where the guillotine gave people an especially close haircut during the revolution.

JJ stands next to the spot where Mary Antoinette got separated from her noggin.

The obelisk in the center of all this was originally from Egypt. It's 3300 years old and covered with hieroglyphics.

Here's me looking like I just got back from the archeological dig that uncovered the obelisk.

I chose not to document in excruciating detail the grocery shopping we did next. But know this, it is far, far, far cheaper to prepare your own food than it is to eat at McDonald's. We bought a steak, broccoli, apples, sandwich fixings, soap and assorted other stuff for 25 euros at the grocery store. We got two cokes and something else, I don't remember what*, for 11 euros on the Champs-Elysees!

After eating said steak for dinner, prepared by Chef JJ at Chez Edstrom Frederickson, we walked over to Berthillon  to worship at the altar of delicious.

You wouldn't think this golf ball sized ice cream cone would be worth 2 euros. But it is! Berthillon owns Blue Bunny.

* Okay, so I also had a cheeseburger, but it was only to see if it was the same!

JJ shows the obelisk in Paris

At the Obelisk in Paris from Eric Edstrom on Vimeo.

Botobus! Fast as a Speeding Hippopotamus

Today we chose to go to the Eiffel Tower on the Batobus. It was fine, but a little slow for me.

Got to the Tower and saw a very long line to buy ticket to ride the elevator up. We saw a shorter line by the south leg of the tower, so we went over there and discovered you can walk up to the first two levels.

So we did. Ella counted the stairs for a while. She got to 300 before deciding it was too boring to continue counting.

The view was great, but it was very crowded. Lots of students of various nationalities running around. 

Ella looking down the wrong end of a telescope

Ella stand on a garbage can to take in the view

 Not sure how the modernization of the Tower affects our genes, but I accept their apology!

Didn't have des tickets for the ride all the way to the top, so we climbed back down and took some photos.

I had to lie on my back to get this shot!

By this time it was 1pm and we were starving, so we headed down to the Batobus and off to the d'Orsay stop. Don't worry! We didn't actually go into the museum, instead we went to a hole in the wall restaurant: an asian operated Panini shop. The food wasn't great,  but we continued our streak of avoiding anything remotely French.

Ella was a champ though all this. She ran up and down the tower, twirled all over Paris, and then played like a maniac at a playground in the Tuileries. Then she hopped on this carousel for a spin in a tea-cup style thingy. It made me nauseous just to watch.

But a little while later, when we stopped to eyeball the pyramid at the Louve (don't worry! we didn't go in) she hit the wall. As you can see here, her energy was at a low ebb.

Uh oh! This doesn't look good.

Back to the Batobus for the ride back to our apartment and then inside to rest for a while. Arrived in our neighborhood to find exactly 756,000 police lined up and a big mob scene outside the Cathedral. We went up to our apartment and turned on the news. It was a memorial service for the victims of the Brazil-Paris Air France crash. The Sarkozy's were in attendance! 

Crappy photo, I know. TV shows news coverage of what's happening out the window. You can see a little piece of Notre Dame there outside.

Later . . . starving . . .

Dinner. Oh, we had such big, wonderful, idealistic plans. Cross the bridge to Ile St. Louis, find some quaint Brasserrie, dine on simple (but delicious) french food, then stop for some Berthillon ice cream.

Of course, none of that happened. Instead we walked through the Ile but didn't stop at any restaurants because they all seemed . . . too much. 

Ended up dragging a decreasingly friendly child on a huge, fruitless loop. But wait! We went to a cafe: L'institut and had . . .  duh, duh, duh, duh (<-- dramatic music): french food!!! (crowd noise!)

I was the big bad wolf and had the roasted piglet, while JJ had steak of some sort. 

Ella played Peggle on my iPhone and gnawed at some bread.

Not satisfied to end without my Berthillon, I sent JJ and Ella home while I headed back to get a 1/2 litre of it. Just as I turned the corner, slam, they closed the door in my face. Oh well, at least I still have the peanut butter I brought from home!

So that was it. My pedometer says we walked over 17,000 steps today. Amazingly, Ella walked almost all of them too. Tonight she fell asleep as if somebody flipped her light switch off.

Did I mention I went to Starbucks this morning? Je veux un mocha, s'il vous plaît! Why sit outside a cafè and watch the people go by while savoring a delcious cafè au lait, when you can get a corporate mocha, to go, in a paper cup?

Too much sleep?

So we slept until 10:30! We completely overshot, so now we're on Moscow time or something. Oh well, at least we felt normal today. We didn't get out of the apartment until 1:30 or so because Ella was a little sick. But she perked up and we went for a late lunch at a Breakfast in America.

Yes. Of all the places in Paris, we went to Breakfast in America, an American style diner. Are we the worst tourists of all time? Well, no. Since Ella wasn't feeling well, we decided to find food we knew she'd love: pancakes!

I'll make the place look more French, but posting this atmospheric B&W photo.

I can't recommend the veggie burger, however. Kind of like a hot hockey puck on a bun.

Later on we had pizza, so we're three for four for our unauthentic French dining experiences.

Since we slept late, we stayed up late and took a little walk at 10:30. We noticed lots of Americans out and about. 

Two guys were loitering in front of Notre Dame Cathedral saying "I don't know what to do, it's a week night."

All this and Skype too! Had a nice video chat with Mom and Dad back in WI!

Day 2 - From Puke to Pizza to an Accordian Player in the Moonlight

Yesterday was a haze. I was so tired; I knew I was in Paris, but I wasn't exactly "here" in the mental sense.

I fell asleep around 9 p.m. last night and woke up briefly when the sun was up. Eric wasn't awake yet, so I went back to sleep until 10:30 a.m. I figure I got 12-13 hours of sleep, so I felt GREAT! I haven't had that much sleep since before I was pregnant with Ella.

The problem is, of course, that it's now 10:30 p.m., and I'm not tired in the least. The jet lag continues ...

So today, we didn't get out of the house until almost 2 p.m. After sleeping late, Ella woke up complaining of being "shivery and having a sore throat." I proceeded to get ready until she actually threw up all over the hallway. Thank God it was hardwood and not on the Oriental rugs in this place!

Now, I know how I'd proceed with that mess at home -- with a lot of paper towels and Chlorox Clean-Ups. But here? I had to search for some-sort-of-disinfectant. Then I grabbed a bucket, because we had precious-few paper towels, but I just couldn't go through with it (the bucket thing). I had to grab the paper towels for the first go-around. Then I moved to the bucket of water with some-sort-of-disinfectant. Finished up with a liberal spraying and polishing with some-sort-of-Windex.

Ella felt MUCH better after that and didn't even have the sore throat anymore. So I whipped her in the shower to clean up. Then I had to figure out how to use this crazy washer/dryer combo unit. Since then, we've had a lesson on how to use all of the appliances. But the stuff I threw in the dryer (two hand towels, pajamas, sweater, Ella's blanket) are still damp after 2.5 hours in the dryer. I'm not impressed with these laundry facilities; I think we'll be air-drying a lot of our clothing.

The guy who showed us how to use the appliances also told us how to dispose of our garbage. We just have to go through the "Acces Caves" door and head to the basement. Sounds like we might need to bring our spelunking gear, no?

For a late lunch, we headed to a diner called Breakfast in America, and Ella ate some pancakes. Dinner was at a pizza & pasta place -- not French cuisine, but really great Italian-style pizzas. The only French food we had today was French ice cream. It was a 2-Euro cone that had a scoop of ice cream on it the size of a golf ball. Seriously, a golf ball! But it was divine. Really divine!

Other than that we explored the neighborhood today. I have no direction sense, so I'm really checking out all of the landmarks to get my bearings. Of course, having Notre Dame across the river is a pretty major landmark. We headed over there just a few minutes ago to stroll around. It looks amazing with all of the lighting. And it was really cool to come around the corner and hear a man playing his accordion on the corner. Eric took some beautiful photos (of the church, not the accordion-player) with his nifty Leica camera.

Now it's time to pop a Melatonin and try to get some sleep. Ella's watching a little Sponge Bob, and Eric is searching for some camera gear. The sky is finally dark, and the day is finis!

Looks like we made it . . .

So we're here. I'm looking out our apartment window at the side of Notre Dame Cathedral. Aside from the no sleeping thing, the trip flight went smoothly.

We were so tired by the time we got settled in, it required incredible will to walk a block to a cafè for lunch. I've learned that Croque-Monsieur is a ham and cheese on burnt toast. It was just okay.

Then we had to do the grocery shopping. The list was short: milk, bread, Coke Lite, and some other assorted junk. I didn't carry any of it, because I was carrying an unconscious Ella instead.

Got back to the apartment and had to sleep -- but we only allowed ourselves 30 minutes. It kind of helped. 

Beautiful breezy, sunny day in Paris and there we were inside trying to muster the will to go out. Eventually struck on the idea to take one of the boat tours on the Seine, which was fun. Ella slept through most of it. JJ and I saw everything! The Louvre (well the outside of it), the D'Orsay (again, the outside), the Eiffel Tower, bunch of bridges and other buildings. I guess we can go home now!

When it was over, Ella was unable to walk; she went total flop-out like a baby, sleeping on my shoulder as I carried her 40lb body through the bustling streets of Paris. So instead of venturing out for dinner and experiencing something new and gastronomical . . . we bought sandwiches at Subway and ate in our apartment. In our defense, Subway is actually underneath our apartment on the first floor, so the convenience factor played a big role.

As I write this, Ella is watching SpongeBob on her computer, streaming it all the way from our house in Wisconsin via the Slingbox. We have awesome internet here!

I didn't try much French today. My tongue could hardly do the English "R" so the Frenchy "R" was out of the question. I got in the odd "merci" but it sounded more like "messy" with the accent on the second syllable. I give my self a D- for effort. 

It's now 7:30 pm Paris time, just 12:30 back home. I want to stay up for another hour and half. I suppose the caffeine I just drank will help some. It's gonna take at least a few days to get adjusted, then we can focus more on the experience. 

Departure Day

We just got back from our final lunch in Burlington for two months. Culver's! But no frozen custard today. Then it was a quick stop at Nana's to say goodbye and hand off copies of our passports and verify travel info.

We're ready.

As I write this the last suitcase is about to be zipped shut. We have some plants to water and final clothes to fold. Ella says she doesn't want to go because she's going to miss everything.

We're excited and anxious. It's hard to leave home, especially on a gorgeous sunny day like this. But on the other side of this long, boring flight is an adventure. 

T -1 day 1 hour

This is the blog for our family's crazy, amazing trip to France. We'll be living in Paris for two months, and though we speak only un peu de Français (a little French), we are very excited and somewhat anxious about diving into this adventure.

I could list here all the things we want to see and experience, but that would just be a list of typical tourist stuff. We'll do all that. But mostly, I want to have the total experience. Living and working and being there, and just taking time to absorb it.

Tomorrow we'll board an American Airlines 767 in Chicago O'Hare. Eight hours later we'll arrive at Paris-Charles De Gaulle. When we land -- well, we'll be there. And then what will we do?

Buy groceries, of course.