Subscriptions and RSS and Feeds, oh my!

Believe it or not, I am a bit of a technophobe. I hate having to upgrade software, and the real reason I manage to do as much as I do online is because I married a geek programmer.

As I'm learning more about this land of blog, however, I'm beginning to understand the appeal of subscribing. Instead of wondering if Redneck Mommy or Angry Chicken has updated recently (and having to go to my browser and hit refresh endlessly to find out), I can subscribe and simply get notified whenever they've got a fresh post.

Tsh, of SimpleMom has written a great post explaining all about RSS and subscribing here. She goes into just the right amount of detail without overwhelming you with geek speak.

Of course, I still cheat. By putting my favorite links over in the right side of my blog, I can easily see who has updated whenever I log in (and so can you!). But still, subscribe. It'll save you time and help you to keep up with your blog fix. And that will leave you with more time for wine and chocolate, and other of life's most important things!

From Type A to Type EU

It’s funny, we’ve been back 11 days now, but it feels like much longer. Sitting in our funky apartment in Rouen, drinking vin chaud and eating croissants seems like such a different reality already. And yet, the effects of that time are lingering in unexpected ways.

During the last part of our trip, I started looking forward to doing some of the many things on my list when we got home. Work stuff, art stuff, house stuff — all the basics that make up my day-to-day time here in Portland. And I am doing some of that, but with a different pace and feeling than usual. It wouldn’t be accurate to say I don’t care as much, but I don’t feel that drive that I usually have. Not that that drive always translates to productivity, but it certainly always translates to a feeling that I need to be productive, that I should be accomplishing something at all times.

Instead I find myself meandering through my life here much like I was in France. Doing some things because I need or want to, but also really reluctant to schedule my days or start filling up my time with appointments and busywork.

It’s like my internal pace has slowed. I am content to sit on my couch and dream up plans for weekly excursions to Saint Honoré bakery, to see if it’s possible to have croissants and jam here that are anything like those in France. Or to spend time ironing fabrics with the plan to eventually create something beautiful, but perhaps not today. It’s a pleasant place to be. I recommend it highly.

Christmas

Update: Click on the image above to link to David's Flickr set of all the Christmas pics.

We’re just settling back to our pre-visitor routine after about 10 days of various guests and an assortment of maladies. In the days leading up to Christmas, we were treated to many delicious dinners courtesy of Tasia’s friend David (from now on referred to as David A. to avoid confusion with my David). Our consumption of the trifecta of fat (croissants, fromage, and cookies) hit an all time high (really, I didn’t even know it could get any higher!), and we managed a few outings, including two that were child-free.

The pre-Christmas highlight for me was definitely getting a few girl-hours to shop for dresses in town with Tasia. She found 3 that are true Tas (short, tight, flirty as hell), and I found one that I love, love, love (not quite so short, but the other adjectives certainly apply :-).

Christmas Eve day Anna made cookies for Santa, which she later put out with vin chaud (what, you expected milk? Americans!). Going to sleep that night she kept saying “I’m so excited,” and it was just so sweet. (Side note: a few days before Christmas we saw “Santa” riding in a horse-drawn carriage around Rouen. Anna and I chased the carriage for a block or so with Anna beaming and yelling “I’m so happy!!!” the whole time. It was definitely one of my favorite moments of this trip.)

Christmas itself was lovely, filled with the enthusiasm that only a 3-year-old can manage, as well a champagne (the real kind), and the usual goodies. We had agreed to limit gift-giving to stocking stuffers, the sillier the better. There were a few exceptions, most notably the gorgeous necklace David bought me. I had spotted it one day racing through Printemps (sort of the French Macy’s) in search of gloves (I managed to lose one each of mine and Anna’s in the first week here). He remembered and has now created a big problem, as there are 4 showrooms for the jewelry line in Paris!

Christmas dinner was the brunch we never got around to earlier, followed by the first 3 episodes of Season 1 of Californication and the finalé of season 4 of Weeds (perhaps not the expected choice for Christmas—unless you know the crowd that was present!). This is actually one of the interesting things about this trip—the dichotomy between the very old architecture, roads, etc., and the technology we have access to. Because we brought a laptop and WiFi base station, we have access to the world. Pair that with the big screen and video projector in the house and we can download and watch most anything we want. The most surreal example of this has been sitting in this funky, old, French house projecting Barack Obama in HD and larger than life onto the screen to watch his podcasts. Surreal because of what I mentioned above, but also because we are so hopeful and encouraged by who he is and what he has to say. And we just can’t believe that this man is our President, that for the first time in 8 years, we are willing to call someone our President. (Sorry for the political tangent!)

As much as we loved having our friends here to help us celebrate, I am enjoying the quiet (ok, relative quiet) that comes from just being our little family. We have time for a few more adventures and then it’ll be time to head home. Nine more days left—hard to believe.

You're welcome

Vin chaud:

1 bottle vin rouge fruité (which I took to mean cheap, fruit-forward, full-bodied red)
(side note: a bottle here cost us 1E 70!)
1/2 c brown sugar
zest of 1 orange
2 whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
1/2 c cognac

Let simmer lightly 10-15 mins and then let rest another 10 mins or so. It's even better the next day.

A votre santé!

Lest you think this sounds romantic

So today we finally went to the big supermarché (think Freddy’s if you’re from the Pacific Northwest). After almost 2 weeks of pretty rustic home cooking (lots of eggs, potatoes, cabbage, cheese, bread) finding this place definitely resulted in some binge shopping. I loaded up the stroller with such random things as Nutella, capers, frozen pizza, premade crepes with caramel and salt (oh come on, like you wouldn’t!), a decadent chocolate cake mix, fish sticks (can’t take the 3 out of a 3-yr-old), and ingredients for vin chaud. I think I speak for us all when I say it’s so nice to have options.

And that right there, I think, gets to the heart of a lot of the differences between living in the states and living elsewhere. We have so, so many options at home that it’s often hard to make a choice. Here the options are far fewer in general (cheese notwithstanding). Take laundry for example. Those who know me know that I am no laundry wimp. We chose to use cloth diapers with Anna and, through trial and error, to wash them ourselves. Moreover, I frequently don’t dry my own clothing, hanging it instead on the lovely Ikea racks we have in our laundry room, where it’s a balmy 68 degrees.

Here in Rouen (and in much of Europe I gather) we have a tiny washing machine, but no dryer. To run a single load of laundry takes 2.5 hours to complete, and then everything needs to be hung up on a line outside. I’m sure this is delightful in the summertime, but in December it’s hideous. By the time I’ve hung everything (maybe 10-12 minutes) I can barely feel my fingers and need to go rub myself all over the wall radiators in order to properly thaw. The laundry then hangs on the line for 2 days where it gets almost dry. We gather it all up and spread it all over the house, focusing mainly on the aforementioned wall radiators (which have become my best friends). One more day like this and our clothing is dry, crunchy, and ready to be worn.

Of course, there’s a flip side to everything. As I write this (at roughly 2 p.m.), I am drinking a glass of vin chaud, which I just made while the chocolate cake was baking. This is not how I usually do things. First of all, drinking wine before 5 p.m. is usually either due to a celebration (a special brunch, for example) or because if I don’t I will surely hurt someone soon (more desperation than relaxation). Here it’s just the way things are done. Walking home from the grocery store today we passed a restaurant window and I happened to look inside. Every person, at every table, had 4 wine glasses in front of them. At lunch time. Surely this is the way things are supposed to be.

And a completely random note: French people, especially French people in Paris, seem to think I’m French. They ask me for directions, talk to me in French (as opposed to David, whom they always address in English), etc. I take this as a high compliment. I can’t even attribute it to my fancy new red lipstick Tasia made me buy for Paris, since I wasn’t wearing it at the time (sorry Tas!).

Paris

Paris was a whirlwind. On the train back I said to David, “Did we really just take the train into Paris yesterday?” We packed in a lot.

On Tuesday we arrived in Paris at 11 am and took a taxi directly to the hotel to drop off our stuff. We’ve found a great B&B that we’ve made our home when we’re there. It’s expensive, but any decent place seems to be and this is a lovely, small (12 rooms), place owned by a British couple who make their own jam (need I say more?). They go out of their way to make you feel comfortable, have a fridge and dining room you can use for meals, and have Wi-Fi.

After getting settled we walked to the Eiffel Tower and then hopped the Batobus for a quick ride along the Seine to the Musée d’Orsay. Having learned that food always makes my daughter happier, we stopped in at a lovely little Italian place for some pasta and a glass of wine first. I then decided to resort to the use of bribes to convince her to “rest” in her stroller for an hour while David and I cruised the museum. Of course, the resting never happened, and there were several meltdowns in the museum, but it was well worth it. Afterwards I had to make good on my promise, so I took us on an interminably long and circuitous route (I misread the map) to what turned out to be fabulous gelato (for A) and much needed coffee (for us).

The following morning, after the requisite croissant and jam at the B&B, we set off for Notre Dame (billed as a “castle” to Anna). Surprisingly this was among the easiest sightseeing destinations we’ve had with Anna, probably because I kept pointing out all the “kings” and “princesses” on the walls. The best part, however, was the creche which had been modernized with computerized lights that I’m at a bit of a loss to describe. I’m embedding photos that won’t begin to do it justice. Suffice it to say that we were all mesmerized for a full 10 minutes just watching the baby Jesus and his princess posse get all sparkly and colorful.

Of course by then little miss was once again starving, so we stopped for fabulous crêpes and vin chaud at a stand by the cathedral. (Side note: vin chaud is a hot spiced wine and is super yummy. I Googled for recipes and plan on drinking it daily for the rest of the winter in place of the Emergen-C I was drinking stateside.) After we refueled we headed to the Centre Pompidou, stopping first at the amazing fountain outside. Despite the rain, we all had such a great time looking at all the outrageous Niki Saint Phalle sculptures (I got some great photos — definitely head over to the Flickr page to see them all).

Inside the Pompidou I got a painfully short, but totally rapturous 45 minutes to myself in the Art Moderne 1905-1950 section, which is where my passions lie. Room after room of Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, Miró — just ecstasy for me. I will definitely be going back for several hours before our trip ends. This was followed by (what else) more food, this time awesome Israeli falafels in the Marais district (I could seriously lead eating tours through Paris). Then we raced to the previously mentioned stroller rental shop, cabbed it to the hotel and then to the train station, and were back in Rouen by dinner time.

Today we just hung out and took it easy. Anna found a copy of “Monsters, Inc.” which she’d never seen (up till now, the only feature film she’d seen was “Finding Nemo”) so we put it on the big screen here with the projector and all sat together watching it. Quite a treat to just watch a matinee on a Thursday afternoon all together.

And now, it’s bedtime. Bonne nuit.