My blog

I miss home. 

View from the top of the Montparnasse tower in Paris. It takes about as much time to go up 6 floors to our appartment as to go up 53 floors in the tower! That’s fast!

That green part on the left is the Luxembourg garden, and below of course is the famous Tour Eiffel…

At “Les Mouettes” restaurant at Larmor Plage in Brittany.  I ordered the magret de canard (duck breast).  So good!  We had such a wonderful view too!  Our table is pictured in the “diaporama 2“.

Today we spent the afternoon in Vannes, in Brittany.  The city centre is like a little medeival town.

The French take summer holidays very seriously.  Everybody, and I mean everybody goes on holidays, and pretty much all at around the same time - July and August.  This is a picture taken on July 11th, at the Montparnasse train station while we were on our way to Brittany for the long weekend.  A lot of these people were probably on their way to places called “centres de vacances” situated all over France.  These places employ people called “animateurs” (usually struggling students), who are in charge of organizing activities for kids and parties in the evening where everybody sings traditional “summer holiday” songs.  Everybody, and I mean everybody knows the words to these songs by heart.   They make movies about these places.  They sell “vacation” activity books for kids.  I’m telling you, in France, the summer holidays is an institution!  Which isn’t bad I suppose.  I guess I’d rather be at a centre de vacances singing my heart out than sitting at my computer figuring out how to display an “e accent aigu”.  Man, I need a vacation.

Today for the very first time, I found myself in a car driving around the “Place de l’étoile“, the huge roundabout that circles the Arc de Triomphe.  I was scared, because I’ve observed the traffic around that place from the top of the arc, and it’s crazy!  No lanes, cars coming in, cars wanting to exit, motorcycles zipping by.  Crazy!  Anyways, we managed to get out of there alive, and reach our final destination - Boulevard Haussman for the first day of the “soldes” - France’s seasonal sale period.  It lasts about a month, and everything goes on sale.  For example, you can buy a Marc by Marc Jacobs bag at 40% off!  More to come about that…

The church at Hennebont’s Place Jules Ferry in Brittany (on our way home from a friends’ wedding). The traditional wedding in France lasts two days. Here’s how our friends’ went:

Day 1: Le mariage
10:30 am - Ceremony at City Hall
11:00 am - Mass and ceremony at the church
12:30 pm - “Vin d’honneur” (cocktails) at the bride’s parents’ house
2 pm to 6 pm - Lunch at a restaurant. Yes, that’s right. 4 hours of eating (and drinking, and dancing Brittany’s traditional dance!)
6 pm to 8 pm - A little walk in a park.
8 pm to 10 pm - Buffet Dinner (cold cuts, fruit, and chips)
10 pm to 1 am - Dancing
1:30 am to 3 am - A little late night snack! “Soupe à l’oignons” (onion soup) at the bride’s parents’ house.

Day 2: Le retour
12:30 pm - Apéro at the groom’s parents’ house
2 pm to 6 pm - Lunch at a restaurant. Yes that’s right. 4 hours of eating again (and games for the newlyweds).
7pm to midnight - BBQ at the bride’s parents’ house.

It was a really fun (and tiring) weekend! Glad I got to experience how the French do weddings.

On our way back from a wonderful spa weekend at Les Dryades in the centre of France.

Every Sunday near our building, there’s a flea market. A couple Sundays ago, I found a few good things at this stand. I ended up buying three drinking glasses for 3 euros, as well as a brown patent clutch and a bordeaux red leather shoulder bag for 5 euros each. Not bad for my first ever flea market purchases!

Today we had a nice relaxing Saturday. We tried a nice little French bistrot for lunch called La Porte Didot. It was good. Planning to go back again to try out other things on the menu.

Then we went for a walk down Rue Rivoli to check out a new “arts de table” store called 13 à Table. We ended up walking all the way to the Notre Dame before taking the metro home. We happened to pass by a photo shoot!

And finally, some first signs of spring!