…sent from the US. I tend to do that. Buy my postcards on vacation, write them and never get to a post office and end up sending them from home. I wanted to blog live! from our trip but either I was (a) tired (b) catching up with family (c) had no internet access whatsoever or (d) all of the above.
Flying baby
We got to the airport in plenty of time to get a bulkhead seat / row to Frankfurt. Mads was the ideal passenger, slept for the first 2.5h! Just as she was settling into her night’s sleep, we’d begun our descent into Frankfurt and with all the excitement on the plane, she just didn’t want to sleep. We’ve got a few hours before our flight to Par-ee, so we make our way from one end of terminal 1 to the other (FRA airport is HUGE!). Mads still hasn’t had a proper sleep since her nap on the plane, so you can imagine what she was like on the 2nd flight – NIGHTMARE! She did manage to fall asleep before take off, but decided instead to show off her lung capacity by screaming her head off the whole flight. Yes, the whole flight from Frankfurt to Paris. (Fly direct next time. Curse you United for cancelling the SFO-Paris flight!)
We hung out the first few days catching up with family and friends and getting over our jet lag. Our nephew, Leo, took to Mads immediately and vice versa. His mama was telling me that was so excited to meet her and to spend time with his first cousine. It also helps that they share a birthday – how crazy is that?!
Saturday evening we met with the Deacon who was going to officiate the baptism on Sunday. After a few minutes talking with S and I, he sensed that we weren’t the model Catholics the other families must have been, so he gave us a booklet with “appropriate answers” for the ceremony.
Sunday was a warm, but humid day. Family from all over came to Mads’ baptism and the reception following. She behaved well during the ceremony and even got the deacon to crack a smile. She didn’t even scream as the deacon poured water over her head! We had a lovely reception in the church hall with the tastiest food (the tabouleh and ratatouille were especially delicious!) and twist on the traditional croquembouche. The after party spilled over to chez Rebaud where few family members stuck around and ate even more.
Fries with a side of potatoes
Before you know it, it was Monday and S & I were about to leave Mads together for the first time for a mini-vacation to Ireland. Grany & Granpy were thrilled to be spending so much time with la petite princesse! S & I were thrilled just to be able to sleep in.
Our vacation got off to a great start: we left our map and guide books in our room at Chez Rebaud. Lovely. Thank goodness I had our hotel information packed in our backpack!
Since it’s taking me FOREVER to get this post out, I’ll have to give y’all highlights (in no particular order) and not the complete narrative on the trip to Ireland…
1. Sleeping in
2. Irish brown bread
3. Pubs & pub food – if you order fish & chips, you get a side of potatoes with your chips!
4. Dingle, Greenmount House B&B and the drive along the Dingle peninsula
5. Meeting the one french ex-patriate in the small village of Doolin
6. Did I mention sleeping in?
7. Spring in Ireland means lots of little lambs running around in the fields – cute!
8. Kissing rock in Blarney
9. Cliffs of Moher – I still think the Na Pali coast is prettier
10. Old Jameson Distillery in Midleton
Before you know it, we were back in Paris with Mads, who totally changed over the 5 days, packing up to head back home. All in all it was a nice vacation…
So, for Christmas, I bought Sylvain the book: 1000 Places to See Before You Die. I wasn’t too sure if he’d like it, but I bought it anyway since it looked like a fun book to have around. Well, I’m glad I did give it to him…today, while walking through Paris, we stopped and had afternoon tea at the Hotel de Crillon near Place de la Concorde, across from the Jardin de Tuileries. The assortment of pastries alone is enough to bring you back for more – we may go again tomorrow with his mom. ;o)
Today, I woke up late (which was nice), had breakfast and got ready for the day. We *had* a nice day planned: shopping in the 5th, then tea in the 8th, ice skating at the Tour Eiffel, and dinner on the bateau mouche. Well, we accomplished the first two, but since it was chilly and Sylvain was tired, we walked the Champs-Elysees and shopped at Sephora for makeup and products and Petit Bateau for tank tops (yes, in Winter).
Yesterday, we visited his uncle, aunt, and cousins for lunch out in the farther suburbs (near Roissy). It was there that we learned that Sylvain’s great-uncle (the brother of his grandmother), who was a secret service agent for the British during WW2, published his memoires of his service during the war. It told stories of espionage…a behind the scenes of D-day, if you will. I found it extremely fascinating to read this first hand account of D-day. Also, fascinating that Frank, his great-uncle who is probably in his late 80s, could accurately remember so much and add a bit of humor to it. Sylvain was telling me earlier today, that his grandfather was also part of the Resistance in Paris. He was working at a telephone company and was in charge of connecting the calls between occupied France and Germany. Part of his task simply included not connecting the calls or disconnecting them. At some point, the Gestapo came looking for him, but he was able to escape to the South of France, leaving his wife and 3 sons in Paris. (He wasn’t able to reunite with them until after the war was over.) I wish I could sum it all for you, but it would take some time. But, it is a pretty cool story.
Tomorrow, the meteo predicted snow! Keep your fingers crossed!
Merry Christmas everyone! I wanted to write yesterday, but the jet lag had caught up with me.
Christmas Eve morning, Sylvain + I drove out to Montigny Les Bretonneux to visit our friends, Alex + Claire, their 5 month-old daughter Alice, their dog, Sherlock, and their new home. Their house is quite nice; they had done some remodeling as well – kitchen, bigger rooms, etc. We visited for a while and then we were off to Paris to meet John, Sylvain’s bro, for lunch.
John lives down the street from the famous Moulin Rouge. If you are not familiar with Paris, it is also the red light district: sex shops and strip clubs abound. John recommended an Italian place nearby. Eric, Benedicte, John, Sylvain & I enjoyed a wonderful lunch (well, at least my penne al’amatriciana was good, can’t speak for the others).
Before heading home, Sylvain and I still needed to purchase our white elephant gifts. We walked around St. Germain-en-Laye to find the same Marche Noel that we had seen at La Defense. Nothing really caught our eye, so we wandered further and found a bookstore with some cheap and decent gifts.
Christmas Eve dinner was delicious and filling: foie gras starter, seafood terrine, asparagus wrapped in bacon, cheese (bien sur!), and dessert. (Can you hear my arteries clogging?)
While I wrapped gifts late into the night, Sylvain taught his parents & John how to play Texas Hold’em. ;o)
Since there are no young children on my side of the family, I forgot that Christmas morning is an early rising. I awoke to joyous screams and yells from above. I dragged my a** out of bed at 7.30a to find out that Leo (our 4 year old nephew) had a Santa sighting, or at least an elf that was dressed up as Santa. To preface that, the night before Sylvain’s mom had convinced John to dress up as Santa and run through the backyard to make Leo think that Santa really does exist. Well, the plan didn’t go as smooth as she had hoped. Leo was so excited to see Santa, but he was also surprised when santa started taking off his suit. So, naturally, Leo thought that there was someone in the yard posing as Santa – an elf, he figured. (A tall one at that, John is probably 5’11” – 6′.) He still doesn’t have an idea that it was John and us adults are getting a good chuckle out of it. ;o)
Tonight, Sylvain’s family (his father’s side) came for Christmas dinner: salmon, oysters (a French Christmas tradition), foie gras (more!?), roast pork with a madeira sauce, potato croquettes (as sinful as tater tots), cheese, buches de noel (chocolate & cafe), and endless boxes of chocolates and truffles.
After the White Elephant gift exchange, Sylvain introduced poker to his family. We ended up playing for 5+ hours! (To put things in perspective, his family started arriving at 12.15p, we sat down to Sunday lunch at 3p, and the last family member left at 11.30p.)
Well, that was our Christmas in (large) nutshell. I hope to post some more pictures before we leave for London on Wednesday. Still haven’t gone ice skating yet, hopefully Monday or Tuesday. ;o) And still no snow. My mom is in Texas now, and it’s snowing there.
Greetings from France! Yes, Sylvain & I finally made it to Le Pecq.
We left San Francisco Tuesday 12/21 in the afternoon on Virgin Atlantic. We were pretty excited to fly Virgin since we’d heard that it’s the ultimate flying experience. Yah, probably if you’re flying in “upper” class and not the cattle class that we were seated in. I do give them props for their movie selection. We each had our own screen which made the 9 hour flight more enjoyable. Instead of sleeping I watched Shark Tale, The Motorcycle Diaries, and Saved! The Motorcycle Diaries was by far the best movie; the other I could have done without. We encountered some turbulence over Greenland, but other than that it was a smooth flight. We arrived in London Wednesday morning.
Future note to self: try NOT to take a connecting flight through Heathrow, it was unbearable. We departed the plane and headed towards the British Airways terminal: Terminal 1. We wait 1 hour to go through security…again, to find out that our flight is actually leaving from terminal 4. Nice. We finally arrived at terminal 4 and had a few hours to kill. Sylvain tried to get connected on his laptop, and I took a cat nap. We had a few toastie sandwiches and coffee before we headed to our gate. We boarded the plane and as soon as everyone was seated, the pilot came on the intercom to tell us that our flight had not been given clearance for another hour, but with a slight chance that might change, he had us board the plane rather than wait out at the gate. I guess that was good and bad at the same time.
We finally arrived in Paris at 6.30pm (local time). With the not so good weather and traffic, we arrived at Chez Rebaud just before 9pm. (Eric, Benedicte, Leo, and Leeloo had arrived earlier that day.) We settled down to a raclette dinner – yum! – with a chocolate pear tart for dessert.
After a wonderful night’s sleep, croissants and baguette viennoise were waiting for me. After you have a true French croissant, the croissants back in the US just aren’t the same (or as good). ;o)
By the time we were done showering and ready to tackle the day, it was time for lunch (sigh): jambon beurre (ham & butter) & rillettes sandwiches.
After a coffee, Sylvain & I ventured to La Grande Arche de la Defense.
They had set up a fair of sorts for the holidays. We walked around a bit, didn’t buy anything, but we did have gaufres avec nutella (waffles with nutella).
Ah, and no signs of a white Christmas in Paris this year. Bummer.