Crazy Dara in Paris - Parisian Evening coming up!

Dara has come to visit us all the way from Blacksburg! Dara is JM's work colleague from Nuvotronics. Soon we will have all of JM's work visit us in France! She is eating her way through Paris and we are happily joining her.

more Nutella Crepes... 

 and more beautiful cheese.

An afternoon visiting the  Palace of Fontainebleau

 A very happy Dara in front of the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Elysees.

Tomorrow JM's cousin is babysitting the kids and we are having a night out in Paris with Dara before she leaves for Blacksburg. Fun night coming up!

Playdough in Paris

 

Playdough took on a whole new meaning this Christmas.

 Cutting, baking and rolling away, pretending to be top chefs. Keo made me snails...in spaghetti, Kenji - a crepe..of course!

 I got JM that french bakers hat :) He will soon wear it at our Crepe Festivals in Virginia!!!

 While in Fontainebleau we caught up with some old friends. Actually our very first friends ever in France.

Here are the boys with Margaux and baby Josephine. Margaux and Kenji met when they were 6 months old! They were born in the same hospital in Fontainebleu, took their special baby massage class together every Thursday and chewed on baguettes together from an early age. We said goodbye to them when we left for England, they were both 3 years old. Now! - 8 years later they meet again and go the same school! A bit  more shy and timid, but...still, and when they see pictures of themselves rolling around in diapers, well, Vanina  (Margauxs mother pictured above) and I think it's very cute, they just kinda turn red in the face :).

Joyeux Noel 2010!

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house...

 not a creature was stirring, not even Keo mouse...

(or this cute half eaten Mousse de Canard Christmas rabbit!)

 The stockings were hung on our Sapin with care, 

 in hopes that le Pere Noel would soon be there!

And indeed he came, All the way to France! 

Canapes for hors d'oeuvres!

Seafood from the morning market! 

 Oh la la! C'est tres bon!

(Look! Kenji and Keo ate Sea Urchins!)

 

Christmas Day! The suspense! Kenji and Keo woke up at 5 am, then fell back asleep till 8(phew.)

, 

We celebrated at home all day long... watched Toy Story 3 (and Mary Poppins - my favorite :), took a nap, stayed in PJ's and had some of the best hot chocolate ever created.  

 Often thinking of friends and family, - wishing everyone a 

Merry Christmas from Fontainebleu.

Christmas Crepes and Monster Snowflakes!

Christmas in Paris!

 

Crepes in Paris! - Parisian Eyeware!

Red glasses with Spikey hair for when buying Crepes in Paris. (Always buying Crepes in Paris.)

                                            Hooray for Christmas Crepes!

Hooray for Christmas Snow Flakes!

 Kenji takes Paris by Snowflakes

 

Paris Christmas Market, look at all the goodies!

 

 This is the largest Christmas market within Paris City Limits. The market stretches from the Champs Elysees to the Concorde! We started at the Concorde and made our way down to the Champs Elysees. Along the way we picked up some hot mulled wine, gingerbread treats and nibbled on cheese and sausage! We ended our walk right at the movie theater on the Champs Elysees where we watched MegaMind in English! And Keo made a little friend that happened to be from Virginia also!  Oh he was so so so happy!!! They sat next to each other and chatted (all the way through the film) with their 3-D glasses.

Sausages and Bread!

Oh when we saw these! A toasty place to warm your hands up and did we ever need some hand warming on this chilly evening. Every few hundred yards they would have one set up and we would stop, warm our hands and cheeks and get on with our Christmas Market Sightseeing! 

 

My boys, still little, I love the magic of Christmas.

Look at how the tree is planted in that piece of wood!

Our backyard is so cute. This is it, just enough space to build a snowman in the winter, plant some tomatoes in the summer, carve a pumpkin the fall and pick some flowers in the spring!

Say Cheese!

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We are enjoying time in France and all the amazing things it has to offer. It's very cold right now, not many things to do indoors at all either, but that's ok!  It's all about the outdoors and the markets, the boulangeries, and pastries, and coffee, window shopping...lots an lots of window shopping, and lots and lots of pastry eating, and not so much exercising :(...but lots and lots of walking- (and eating.)

Preparing for our Christmas meal too! What shall we have? Frog legs? Oysters? Snails of course! 

Yvan - another person in our life these days

Ok, so let me brag about our steet corner bakery. 

When searching for apartments in Fontainebleau I had a checklist of things I wanted to make sure we had  in arms reach, one being the most important of all of course - a good bakery nearby. And what do you know, we just happen to be living near one of the most famous french bakers/patissier/chocolate maker in ALL OF FRANCE. no joke, yeah, I'm his neighbor :) His name is Yvan. He opened his lux pastry shop in 2010 here in Fontainebleau (read that, scroll down past the castles) before that he was Top Pastry Chef at Palace Elysee on the Champs Elysee in Paris! -And...oh my goodness, words can not describe how happy I am to walk into his bakery, order his bread and amazing chocolates, and start a conversation with him (he even wears this long tall pasty hat - like in the cartoons), yes, yes he does. And I enjoy every bit of watching him bake away as I nibble on my baguette. Here is what some have to say: " In August 2009, The citizens of Fontainebleau proudly welcomed one of the best pastry chef of France, Yvan Le Pape. A rising star at an early age, Yvan Le Pape trained as a chef and began his career in France , 22 years ago. In the bakery there, he worked with the boulangers and became captivated by the ritual of afternoon tea and the beautiful and intricate pastry he saw each day. Still convinced he should be versatile in the bakery to become a pastry chef. He is best known in Paris for the innovative desserts he created while serving as Pastry Chef at the

palace, first in Italie, in Belgium and now in Fontainebleau. He worked 16 hours a day just to learn how to make blown sugar. He worked also with one of the biggest baker a that time who make the best bread of Fontainebleau, the best pastries of Fontainebleau and the best chocolates of Fontainebleau."

- So, yeah, I have a pretty cool street corner bakery at arms reach, and no that is not his bread in the above picture, don't want to offend him if he visits my blog which I told him to do so since he has given me permission to go on behind the scenes and take pictures of him at work!

One early morning at the market, it's my very own ready made community garden - Ha! look at that airport acres, no weeding, just pick and eat (they knew the Rollins where coming!!! Yippie!)

Screens? what are those? Children security gates? - what? - Childproofing does not exist, Bah! - live and learn.

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Christmas is coming, Hooray! Our plans? Staying put. Staying warm, and Staying healthy. Lot's of French Christmas caroling going on in the streets, lots of beautiful bright lights and lots and lots of pastry eating. Let's enjoy this holiday season!

Fast Food , French Roof tops and Miniture Gardens

It's late, we are out, kids are tired and hungry..where do you go to get some good food fast? ...Chez Leon of course, and right next to IKEA! Ah, some good Moules Frites childrens menu and we are good to go. It's set up like...Denny's or....a Panera :) - but... tastes a little better. Talk about good fast food fast!

 

Discovering our backyard. It's approximately 20m2...Kenji and Keo are already talking about making a vegetable garden. Hm. not sure that we will have enough room, but Keo is getting started anyway. This little "jardin" is surrounded by a rock wall with ivy and plants climbing the walls, it's so cute.I think I can handle this one. But - lawn mowers are not a common tool here, so...clippers will have to do (that is what I was told by our neighbor..:/

French rooftops, another one of my very favorite things about France, that and French windows.

You could plop me down in front of a French Window, hand me a box of popcorn and I would be as happy as a little girl watching Cinderella. Same goes for French rooftops. --You know, now that we are finished house searching I would, really really would go house hunting just for the fun of visiting 5th floor apartments and getting a glimpse of the roof tops out of that gorgeous french window that would be waiting just for me to lean out of. I would, on a free afternoon just do that. What fun, no pressure of making decisions, just me, a french window, a stream of rooftops and a box of popcorn. --Oh, yes, and that ever so patient agency lady tapping her high heel shoes (on that gorgeous wooden floor), but let's forget her and get back to my window watching! (oh not window washing of course)

 

Life is feeling normal again. We we are enjoying our first weekend of just doing NOTHING.

Tomorrow we go the the local outdoor "Marche" to get a bunch of vegtables, some Veau...which just up until right now thought it meant Lamb...but JM just at this moment told me it means Baby Cow. Um..hmm. might rethink my menu for the week. Cow is fine, but baby cow makes me feel a little strange..I'll stop here. Happy Weekend!

Paris in the snow

Buried in snow in Paris!

And it's Friday which means cake making day at Keo's school. Every Friday is cake making day...

Exposition Monet!

 

Kenji, Keo and Monet in Paris! This amazing show opened here in Paris in the fall at the Grand Palais . The New York Times says it's "The biggest art spectacle in Europe this fall, with some 160 paintings, it is, believe it or not, the first full-dress overview Paris has staged in decades, the first chance anywhere to see the whole sweep of his work in some time. The French are treating it like a national celebration." And we are too! We all went to see this ravishing show!!!

 

"Monet was really painting mental states, states of reflection. His late, sublime “Water Lilies” is literally that: reflections of light, clouds and foliage against the surface of his pond at Giverny, Monet’s erotic, mysterious, multicolored abyss of shimmering, indefinite space, which kind of describes memory itself."

 `A Hop, Skip and a Jump and here we are! From the park to the museum! Paris is Magnifique!

Parisian Eyeware

I think it was about 2 weeks into our arrival in France that Keo started having some trouble with his eye. Oh, to top it all off, right... So somewhere in the middle of our house hunting escapade we made a visit to the doctor who then referred us to the eye doctor the same day and after a few very quick exams and in a very brisk manner she said "here is his prescription, he has a stigma, he needs eye glasses at once" I was so sad, just sitting there with Keo on my lap I wanted to say " what? really? glasses? Now???" So, today Keo is to wear some glasses until he grows out of his stigma she said, and he needs to have some visits to another eye doctor for some eye exercises (12 sessions). We went to pick out two pairs of glasses, one for school -- and one for Paris! That was fun. He choose the above for school, a nice brown pair, very Harry Potter and then he choose a bright RED pair to wear with his spiky hair for when buying crepes in Paris!  Oh La La!

 And so, today things are feeling pretty normal again. We are pretty much settled in and the boys have their wake up at 6:30am routing, school/home/goutez (chocolate pastry/bread and salted butter/hot chocolate eating time) then homework, bath and dinner time... - all the things I so longed for not so very long ago right...right...right.

School is underway, I have my very first parent teacher conference tomorrow at my request. Since I can never pass those tall iron gates to speak with teachers I have absolutely no clue what is going on in Kenji's school since the day he started...And when I ask Kenji " How are things going, do I have to sign something? What about homework - are you doing it all? How do I know your doing ok in class?" He just glances at me, rolling his eyes while quickly walking ahead of me on our way home for school and calls back "It's called responsibility mom..." and then of course Keo runs ahead and says "yeah, mom, Responsibility."

Tall thick iron gates. Oh, if your late...Those large iron doors shut loudly at 8:30am and if you don't make it in your in trouble! You have to use the intercom and wait wait wait till someone answers:

"Yesss"

"Yes, hello, would you please let me in"

"Your LATE"

"Yes, yes I know"

"Your name..."

"Rollin, .. Kenji Rollin..."

after a good few seconds...

"(sign) Come in. BEEEEEEP" - iron doors open.

Who is this person behind that intercom that makes us feel so small when I press that button? This voice, sizing you up from behind a speaker. Why don't they just say come in? Or better...."Hi :) Good morning, come in :)" What can this person with that voice look like?. spending their morning saying "Your late!" and then there is that brief moment when you don't know if they're going to say "come in" - like, what else are they going to say? Go home?

 

A picture of our walk to and from school.

Kenji making some friends on one of the first days of school..

Some time with Papa:

This week has been another long week with a lot of progress. JM went in for a minor pre-transplant operation. He was in for about 5 days. This was all after our very fun weekend in Paris. On Saturday night we went to the famous Moulin Rouge, had a great time, and then on Sunday night I was dropping JM off for his hospital stay and heading home with the boys to Fontainebleau. This was my first week home alone in our new home. It was a little bit lonely in the new place, but kids lunch time pick-ups kept me busy, still unpacking, still trying to get internet, still reminding myself whatever I unpack has to be packed up. JM is home tonight and resting.

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I'm including a picture of the newest addition to my husband. It's a new option that makes him stronger, brighter and happier! 

Hmm..what is that? Jm says this little contraption is a testimony of his love for electronics. He sent a message to work saying "This is how close electronics is to my heart :)"