No promises, but I'll try to start posting again, though probably with less regularity than before. To be honest, writing has always been sort of difficult for me and I think my last post took several hours to write, proof, and edit. Who has that kind of time? Maybe if I keep my posts shorter and more informal I'll have time to do it more often. We'll see.
Okay, what has been going on with those two old farts living in Paris? I'll probably forget a bunch of stuff but here are some highlights:
THANKSGIVING
Francis, a lovely (and rather feisty) writer at Pretty Simple, invited us to our first Parisian Thanksgiving dinner party. We had a great time, ate some wonderful food, and met a very nice and rather eclectic group of people, including a jewelry designer from Cartier, a pastry chef, some burlesque performers, a woman who works for Yves Saint Laurent, a graphic artist, and more. We had a wonderful time.
CHRISTMAS
Our lovely daughter and her fiance came to visit us for Christmas! We spent a day at the Louvre, went on some walks, took a trip to the Christmas Market, had some great French food, shopped for wedding dresses, ate Chinese food on Christmas Eve (a family tradition) and more! It was too bad they couldn't stay longer, because before we knew it they were gone. :-(
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| Autumn and Mike puzzle over an ornate sculpture at the Louvre |
A few days before Christmas we walked over to the incredibly beautiful (and crowded) Galeries Lafayette to do some shopping. While eating at the food court a French gentleman about my age overheard us talking and asked if we were Americans. We struck up a conversation and he introduced us to his mother. We learned that this poor little Jewish woman had lived in Paris during the Nazi occupation, and the recent terrorist attacks a month earlier had stirred up some painful memories. Pretty soon she was crying, Autumn and Melanie were crying, Mike and I were tearing up... It's amazing how those special "moments" in life can really sneak up on you sometimes.
VISAS
With more help from Carole we got our Visas. Yay! We had been told that they would need to be renewed every year (which everyone says is a real pain in the derriere), but apparently, because of my many years of experience in my field, our papers are good for the next THREE years! That was a pleasant surprise!
SUPER BOWL
Melanie and I stayed up all night to watch the Super Bowl, which was tough because I had work the next day. But Denver won so it was absolutely worth it!!!
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| Go Broncos!! |
FRENCH LESSONS
We have French lessons every Monday and Wednesday night, for two hours at a time. The lessons are going well but we still can't parlez le Francais worth a merde. Despite that, earlier this month we somehow managed to graduate to a slightly more advanced class and now have a teacher who doesn't speak much English. Her first lesson was completely in French so we were pretty lost for most of it. But she seems like a nice woman and I'm sure we will learn a lot. She was Steve's teacher and he says she is great, so we'll see how it goes.
Our last teacher, Julie, was super nice and every one in the class loved her. (Melanie even cried a little when she found out we were getting a new teacher.) I think I would've learned more during her class but instead of studying French in my spare time I spent several months working on a web app to... ironically... help me learn French. It's basically French Flashcards using the vocabulary Julie taught us. If you're interested, click on the picture below:
EXPLORING
Now that the weather is a little warmer, Melanie and I have been going out one day every weekend to explore Paris. We pick a direction and just start walking. When we get hungry we stop at the nearest outdoor cafe and get something to eat and drink, then we sit and talk for several hours before heading back home. It's awesome!
A few weeks ago we stopped in front of an old Church and when Melanie said, "Bonjour" to an old French woman who was leaving she smiled and came over to speak with us. She spoke very little English but we managed to communicate anyway. It was the highlight of our walk!
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| Saint Roche is a baroque church built between 1653 and 1740 |
DINNER OUT
Steve and Deborah invited us out to dinner a few months ago and we now have a new favorite restaurant: Auberge Pyrénées Cévennes. This place serves French comfort food for cold winter nights and boy did it hit the spot! Melanie and I both had a kind of peasant stew called "cassoulet" and it was outstanding!
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| Serving up some of their delicious cassoulet |
WORK
Things are going well at work. Our project is really coming along well, and we just reached the stage where the game is fun to play! That's always a good sign as we still have lots of work to do -- so hopefully the game will just continue to get better and better.
All employees at Pretty Simple get hired on as contractors. After a set period of time the company can decide whether to cut them loose or hire them on as full time employees. I was very pleased to learn, recently, that I have officially become a full time employee!
PARENT'S VISIT
My mother and father are coming for a visit next month! Melanie and I are very excited to see them again, and to share all the things we have discovered and love about our new home!
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Well, I think those are the highlights of the past few months. As I said, I'll try to post a bit more often when/if anything really cool or exciting happens.
Yay! ❤️ Your blog. Miss you two!
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