Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Life's little pleasures
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Drinks in the Courtyard
Saturday, May 8, 2010
New route for the Running Moms
Four days, three nights, five running moms, a whirl wind weekend visit from my Ottawa urban tribe was just enough time to catch up, walk the city, overdo it on cheese and of course go for a run.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
The Ring Guy
A visit to Paris is not complete without being hit by the ring guy. Here's the schtick. You are walking down the street minding your own business, all of a sudden a man bends down and picks a gold ring right in front of you. Holding it up, he asks you if it is yours. “Take it,” he motions, “my religion forbids me to wear jewelry”, or something like that. If the target takes the ring, the ring guy will ask for money for lunch and as far as I know that's the extent of the scam.
I have been hit at least twenty times by one of the ring guys and witnessed at least another twenty attempts. My friend was the first person that I know that actually took the ring. Rupert has always wanted someone to take the ring and takes great pleasure that he finally knows someone who did. Good work Sara (oops).
Please take it, it yours. I think its real gold... look at the mark.
Monday, April 26, 2010
The French Riviera
Before visiting the French Riviera, I felt like I had a pretty clear picture of what it would be like. Kazillion dollar yachts, excessive displays of wealth, plastic surgury, and quaint towns with beautiful long sandy beaches, along turquoise waters. All but the later is true. Our four days in the French Riviera was tons of fun, educational and a cultural experience.
Homebase for our long weekend was Cannes, where we enjoyed some great dinners, après dinner walks in the méditerranéen and the obligatory walk on the Festival red carpet. Since the weather was not quite ready for sunbathing, we filled our days with visiting some of the other towns along the Cote D'Azur.
The girls work the red carpet outside the Palais des Festival in Cannes.
Definitely one of the most fascinating parts of our trip was our day spent in Monaco. The second smallest country in the world (next to the Vatican), this country is basically dedicated to keeping a small handful of rich people, richer. The draw of the rich? Monaco's lack of personal income tax. Citizenship here is the most sought after in the world and the citizenship application process can only begin, when the applicant has 2 million Euros and owns an apartment in the principality. Mass obvious displays of wealth, I have seen, but never in such concentration. Two hundred thousand dollar+ cars were the norm here. Royles, Bentleys and Ferrari’s seemed like every other car.
The country is clean, with lovely buildings and is apparently very safe (the entire country is monitored by cameras). With less than two square miles of territory and 33 000 inhabitants, it felt like every square millimetre was maximized to optimal load. This coupled with its mostly exclusive population, made it feel like some sort of theme park.
Monaco was in the thick of getting ready for the Monaco Grand Prix. The bleachers were set up, banners were flying and many of the streets were bordered by temporary heavy metal fencing. Very cool to see how a city gets ready for an event like this!
Outside the Monte Carlo Casino. Rupert tried his luck with 5Euros... you know the outcome.
Our last day of our long weekend was a bit more down to earth. We started off with breakfast and an antiques market in the modest coastal town of Villefranche, then off to Nice.
The relatively large city was bustling and full of life and much more urban than I had expected. We walked through the old town to the Sunday market and sampled some Socca, a chickpea crepe, then set off to walk the miles of pebble beach which borders the city. The beach itself is peppered with restaurant patios all along the way, one of which pulled us in, about a mile in. After a salad nicois and a couple of beers, the rest of our intinerary was trashed and we spent the remainder of the day relaxing and watching the girls look for the smoothest stone on the beach.
Our beauties on the beach in Nice
We did experience some of the beauty of the coast while driving the winding roads of "the Corniches" (best known as the site of Princess Grace's car crash). But much like the disappointed tourist who comes to Niagra Falls, expecting find the great wonder deep in the beautiful Canadian Wilderness, I was a bit surprised in the geographic aspects of the towns of the Riviera.
It was fun to people watch. See the sites. The history. And the hospitality and service of the southerners was a delightful change to our current hometown :).
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Easter Weekend
Sunday, March 21, 2010
B-Cs reunite in Paris
James, Krista, G & H visited us in Paris a couple of weeks ago, and what a week. Cousins, aunts and uncles bonded, big family meals were shared, Paris was explored and experienced, and everyone was happy.
Here for a little more than a week, they packed in a huge list of activities and must see things to do in Paris, including some that we hadn't done ourselves yet - Moulin Rouge, Disney Land Paris, and the Bario Latino Nightclub.
Krista's French was quite good, and she comfortably handled the Parisians while James quickly sorted out the lay of the land, figured out the bus and Metro lines, and they were off. Every day seemed stuffed with adventure, a cafe moment and a good story or two.
James was approached by a ring gypsy, they purchased pornographic postcards at the river, Krista went wine tasting with Jo's expatriate posse, G went to a Paris birthday party, and was baby sat by a movie star (Emily our baby sitter was in the movie Madeleine). H spent 3.5 glorious hours with his Uncle Ru where he was a complete angel, and charmed his way through the afternoon, going to sleep when asked, eating all his lunch and walking to the park like a big boy.
Dad and Gwendy also visited Paris, and overlapped with James and company by a couple of days. They were on a 3.5 weeks tour in the UK/France and went south to visit Tim & Mary B-C in Provence as well. They too did Paris in style, except for their local hotel, which was a bit shocking, and I am sure will be a Paris tale to tell. We all had the chance to share a big brunch together (sorry dad, no pics in this post).
Their visits were over too quickly, but we all have memories that will last a lifetime. Thank you for coming.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Serre Chevalier
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Yes we can!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Sortie
I took it as a good sign that P even asked me to chaperon. As someone who enjoyed misbehaving at school, I never wanted my parents to come on class trips. One of P’s biggest issues at school this year was that she didn't want anyone to know that she didn't speak French. I reminded her that "I don’t speak French very well myself” and she responded “you can come, as long as you don’t speak English”. I tried my best to not “out” her, but many of the kids immediately approached me and asked if I was English (they've always known). Some of the boys made fun of my accent.
Our destination, Le Pantoufle (the slipper), was a children's play about the thoughts and experiences of baby in his mothers womb represented by the slipper.
It was not what you would typically expect for a kids play. It was quite arty in its themes and staging, with a relatively high production value. At the end the “baby”, played by a 50 something year old man, strips down to a naked suit, labia defined and all, to discover HE, was in fact a baby girl.
The "safe" voyage across town, coupled with the "questionably age appropriate" content of the play left me feeling a bit uptight and uncosmopolitan - the French arts never cease to surprise and impress me!