Queen for a Day

The past week or so, I have noticed that my boulangerie, Secco (not to be confused with Rupert’s boulangerie, you will have to ask him for the name) has been full of plain flat, round, flaky pastries. After a couple of days of watching almost every person in line buy one, and P noticing (and wanting) the crown that came with the pastries, it was time to find out more. So I asked my French tutor, who has come to be my primary translator of French culture, what French tradition were we missing?

The pastries are the “Gallettes du Roi” which celebrate the epiphany, or the feast of the kings, which happens the first Sunday (after the first Saturday) in January.

Baked inside the cake is a ceramic figurine called a fève, literally meaning, a bean (which is what were put in Gallettes long ago). The person who finds the fève is declared the king (le roi) or the queen (la reine) and gets to wear the paper crown that comes with the Gallette. Luckily, my tutor pointed out that the gallettes only come with one fève, so I might want to get two Gallettes and avoid the inevitability of one disappointed little girl.

D and I picked out the traditional almond Gallette and a chocolate one and the family enjoyed them for dessert tonight.

Pastries, prizes and crowns, what could be a nicer tradition for two little girls?

The queens

The fèves

End of the Holidays

Taking down the tree is always the marker of the end of the holidays, but what do Parisians do with their trees when they are done with them?

Most of the city just leave them on the street and the daily (yes daily) garbage pick up, carts them away with the rest of the garbage. But despite Paris's bad rap for recycling, the city does offer tree recycling at designated parks.

There wasn't much left of our tree to recycle, after we dragged it to our not so convenient park, but we did pick up a tip while we were there. A man and his family were taking all of the log stands off the bottom of the trees and taking them home for firewood. Like most things here, firewood is not cheap and over the next week or so, the streets are going to covered with free firewood. My first attempts to get the stand off the trunk have been unsuccessful, but I have put a hammer in my purse for tomorrow and I am hoping for better success.

Happy mulching

What Christmas holidays would be complete without a skate at city hall. P & D couldn't be missed by their fellow skaters. Besides their Canadian expertise on ice, they were the only two kids at the rink wearing helmets.

Back to school today and Paris gets a real snow. Apparently Paris's largest snowfall in nine years. The snow actually accumulated on the ground!!! Eat your heart out Ottawa. (D with her best friend A on their way home from school.)

I Smell Evergreens, Turkey and Dead People?

Christmas holidays….dead people? Today we visited the Paris catacombs, an underground tunnel system containing the bones of 6 million Parisians. In 1786 the Parisian government decided to move these human remains, from overcrowded, thought to be unsanitary cemeteries, to an existing underground series of tunnels that were part of limestone quarry system.

The damp one mile subterranean walk was thick with human bones that were neatly stacked floor to ceiling. Fighting the urge to reach out and grab a tibia was difficult, but we managed to obey the rules and resist.

The girls walked the entire route without complaint, including the 60 feet of steep spiral stairs. P had some concerns over ghosts, but otherwise they were unaffected by the morbidity. It’s crazy to think of the 6 million lives lived by these bones, now lost in anonymity and stacked liked firewood.

I wonder how many people this is?

Is that a ghost or Dad?

Boo!

Christmas Day Photos

D & P with their new trotinettes

Catherine & Nina (our niece's grandmother & cousin) walked us to the bus stop after hosting a lovely Christmas lunch.

Rupert about to carve our long awaited Turkey

Christmas Eve in Paris

It's Christmas in Paris. While you are all taking care of last minute things, we were embracing our chance to spend our holiday in whole new world. Our Christmas Eve was filled with time together, last minute preparations and a mini adventure. After our traditional McMenamin Chowder, we ventured out to see how Paris spends their Christmas Eve. We were surprised to see that at 7:30pm there were still shops open and people finishing last minute shopping. We finished our stroll by finally going up the Eiffel Tour. It was a short worthwhile wait in line, and despite our hesitations was not a disappointment. Beautiful views of the city, lovers kissing and the girls enjoyed writing their name in the ice bar on the first level (unfortunately it was closed).

Decorating cookies for Santa

It's hard to keep still for a photo, when you are on the Eiffel Tour on Xmas Eve

Giggling by the fire in their new grandma Cherry PJs

The girls are now tucked tightly in bed. After this post, we are settling into some Champagne by the fire, waiting for Santa, and listening to "The Shepherd".

We are thinking of you.

Day in Montmartre

This Sunday was spent in Montmartre, a former artist haven, and place of debravity which was famous for Can Can dance halls (Moulin Rouge), and bordellos. Atop the Montmartre butte (hill) sits Sacre Coeur, an impressive looking, domed basilica. The walk down the switchbacks from Sacre Coeur, take the crowds of tourists, through narrow cobbled stone streets, filled with cafes, street artists, marvelous views of the city and even a small vineyard. We totally lucked out on the weather and spent the lovely balmy afternoon outside, enjoying the village atmosphere.

We start our journey at the top of Montmartre in front of Sacre Coeur Basilica.

Ru & P sit on the steps of Sacre Coeur, enjoying the view of Paris and listening to a heavily accented street performer, sing Allison Krauss.

P waits for her Dad to pay the for the yummy crepes, we just ate on a patio in Montmartre.

D joins her.

Ru relieving P from tackling one of the many sets of steps, on our walk down from Sacre Coeur.

Shark Girl discovered in Paris

We were affraid that Ps interest in tooth fairy money, was causing her to prematurely wiggle one of her front teeth loose. But an insistant little girl and eventually a painful apple experience proved she was right - she did seem to have a loose tooth.

Our biannual trip to the dentist revealed what should have been obvious, and can clearly be seen in the picture below- her grown up teeth have arrived and the babies must go! P must wiggle the teeth often, because the sooner the baby teeth come out the better.

She is growing up so quickly!

Seal is broken...first overnight house guests test drive the spare bedroom

Well, we finally had our first house guests this week. The Wey family (Chris is a fellow IBMer) from Boston came to Paris for xmas and spent their first four days with us. We had a great time, and the apartment soaked up four more people without a hitch. Note to all Canadians who are planning a trip...the doors are open, the seal is broken, and inn keepers promise they are ready for a good time. First come first served.

Christmas in the hood

Secret Agent Pop

Getting Festive

And so the Christmas preparations begin.... first stop - a tree. Most of the many florists in our quartier sell Christmas trees, but as you can imagine, a Parisian florist Christmas tree comes at a premium. Prices start at 65 Euros ($105) for a 3 foot tree, so we opted to save a few bucks (we paid 25 Euros) and sacrifice quality, and buy our tree at a neighbour grocery store - and boy did we sacrifice! A tree only Charlie Brown could love. The one redeeming quality of our grocery store Christmas tree, is that it comes with its own stand made out of a buche (log). The buche keeps the tree rock solid and apparently allows the tree to stay fresh and keep its needles until March. We'll keep you posted validity of this myth.

D checking out the trees at "Ed".

D & P help their Dad carry the "tree" home.

On Sunday we decided to walk down to the Champs Elysses to check out a Christmas Market. I had seen them setting up the long rows of charming white wooden huts, a couple of weeks ago and had visions of French craftspeople, making the trip from the country to sell their handwoven linens, pottery, and arty Christmas decorations, I couldn't wait. In the end, the huts contained Paris tourist crap, asian gift store trinkets and a surprising number of huts selling Canadian stuff (maple syrup, fleece belaclavas). As we pushed our way through the bus loads of people along the boulevard, Rupert hit the nail on the head "We could be in Hull".

But all was not lost. Almost all heavily congregated areas in Paris offer a pay-to- play ride for children. Usually a charming old carousel, car ride or swing of some sort, but this time the Champs Elysses had something new to offer - Trampolines, with the added bonus of a harness hooked up to, tensioned surgical tubing. The girls had a blast!

D, P & Rupert reflecting on their stroll through the "Hull" Christmas market.

D with P in the background trying out the new ride.