It's Been a Busy Summer

I've been trying to post to this blog once a week, but I apparently took a three week break. (Didn't realize it had been that long).  Okay, time to play a little catch up.

Autumn Was Here!!

The biggest news since my last post was that our daughter Autumn paid us a visit! She was only able to stay for about 5 days, and as I mentioned in my last post, all of our favorite restaurants were closed, but we made the most of it anyway.

Autumn arrived on Monday, a little after noon. We were waiting for her at Bistro D'Edmond which is directly below our apartment. When Melanie saw Autumn in the back of a cab she let out a little squeak, but it turned into a shriek when the driver didn't stop. He wasn't paying attention and missed our street, initially, but realizing his mistake the cabbie backed down Quatre de Septembre and let Autumn off right in front of us.

There were lots of hugs, and as I always do I picked Autumn up and put her back down again. This has become a tradition with us ever since I read a question on Reddit many years ago.  It said: "At some point your parents picked you up, put you down, and never picked you up again." Since reading that I pick her up every single time I have the opportunity.

Autumn spent a few days in Portugal before coming to France so we sipped some cocktails and heard all about her trip. After a few hours I called my buddy Steve to see if he had time to get together for a beer. He chose a great bar/restaurant near one of the canals and the five of us (Me, Melanie, Autumn, Steve and Deborah) had a great time chatting, drinking, and snacking on hummus and other delights.

Tuesday, Autumn and I took an early morning walk.

Autumn and I walked past the Louvre and then across the Seine

After working up an appetite we stopped at a boulangerie for some flaky and delicious pain-au-chocolats, then ordered espresso from a little cafe on a nearby corner. We sat and talked for at least an hour and it's probably one of my favorite memories from her visit.

After lunch the whole family headed to the train station for a two hour trip to Lyon, France.

Here's Autumn at the hotel bar in Lyon, just before we headed out for dinner

We had an amazing meal in Lyon (it's reputation as one of the food capitals of the world is well deserved) and we were quite stuffed, but happy, when we got back to our hotel rooms.

The next day Autumn told Melanie that we should take a bus tour of the city, and this turned out to be an excellent suggestion! We learned a lot about Lyon and came away with a completely different impression compared to our first visit about three weeks earlier.

Part of the tour focused on Lyon's amazing architecture, though some of it is a bit odd, in my opinion:

Some of the crazy buildings we saw in Lyon...

There's also a charming area in Lyon that the locals call "old town", which even includes an amphitheater from the Roman era! We stopped here and got something to drink, then checked out an amazing medieval clock. It still runs!

The Lyon astronomical clock was built in the 14th century. It resides in the Lyon Cathedral.

Our final destination was the Paul Bocuse food market called Halles Lyon.

Although some of the shops were closed for August, the food market had a huge variety of local delicacies. We picked up some sausages, cheese, and an assortment of sweets to take home with us.

Quick aside: when Steve was learning French he played a little game with himself at restaurants and cafes. He would order in French, trying to sound as much like a native as possible, and if the person waiting on him did NOT switch to English that meant he won the game. 

Naturally, I have been trying to play Steve's game, though I should add that I've had very limited success so far. Unfortunately, my most humiliating failure happened at the Bocuse food market... right in front of my daughter. I was trying to order some Lyonnaise candies, and I started out okay, but then got confused by the little name cards. Instead of calling out the flavors I wanted, I think I was mindlessly rattling off the list of ingredients. It must have sounded like this: "I will have some Jelly Beans with... uh... sugar, wheat syrup, cornstarch..."

After hearing me destroy her language the woman behind the counter finally requested, "Just say it in English!"

Despite my French failure, we had a great trip and a really nice visit with Autumn. On Thursday we had dinner at a trendy tapas place called "Au Passage" (it was very good), and that night we all got a little drunk at a bar called "The Mary Celeste".

Melanie and I teared up a little on Saturday when it was time for Autumn to leave, and we pretty much felt lost for the rest of the day.

Help Us! We're Melting...

This is a pre-emptive understatement, but it's been a little hot in Paris. For a good portion of last week we had temperatures around, or just under, 100 degrees Fahrenheit (about 38 Celsius). Couple that with about 50% humidity and you have a recipe for lots of discomfort and more than a few restless nights.

The heat literally drove these Parisians in-Seine. (I'll let myself out.)

I'm writing this on Sunday and it finally cooled off today, which is good. Not sure I could've taken another day of that heat.

Mosquitoes

For the most part, Paris has been surprisingly bug-free. Every time there's a garbage strike I expect to be inundated with flies and other little insects, but these seem to be fairly rare around here for some reason. (Though we have seen quite a few bees.)

Unfortunately, Paris doesn't have a lot of AC, so when it's hot outside everyone just leaves their windows open. I don't think I've ever seen a screen here, which means we get the occasional mosquito.

What hell is up with Paris mosquitoes??? In the United States these little blood suckers are big, slow, stupid, they move in swarms, and they make a faint buzzing sound so you always know when they are around. Mosquitoes here are quite different. They are like crafty little Ninjas. More than once I've woken up with a bite on my arm or leg and immediately turned on a light. Nothing. Not a sign. Twice I've managed to see one biting me but as soon as I moved to swat it, ZIPPP it disappeared without a trace. I've got so many bites I'm starting to look like a teenager with acne.

New Diets

Melanie and I really do love Paris but boy is this a difficult place to stay on a diet. There is just way too much good food, and cheap delicious wine around here. We've started diets a dozen times since we moved, but after a few days or weeks we would think, "We're in Paris. How can we deny ourselves the culinary treasures this place has to offer?"

After that we would ask ourselves: "When we eventually move back to the United States and people ask about the food are we going to say, 'We don't know. We didn't get to eat any of it'"? No!

Then we would start to rationalize: "In fact... wouldn't we be literally spitting in the face of French food culture if we didn't eat what they have to offer???  We can't be rude!" Then, we would finally feel justified to wolf down a pan of foie gras swimming in hollandaise sauce... 

It's REALLY hard to stay on a diet when surrounded by croissants, baguettes, and all the rich French food here

Fortunately, Autumn told us about a diet that should work great for us. It's based on a Tim Ferris book called "The Four Hour Body", and it's pretty similar to the paleo diet we were on back home. The biggest differences are that we can have legumes, and we get a cheat day once a week. This last feature is critical, because now we don't feel like we are depriving ourselves of all that amazing French food. It even works with our weekend travel plans! Saturday is our cheat day, so if we travel to, say, Frankfurt for the weekend, we can go to a biergärten Saturday night and eat and drink whatever we want!

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Now that the summer break is over I'm hoping to get back to my old posting cadence of once or twice per week. We're still loving Paris, but it's starting to feel like home and not some exotic fairy tale city. That's both great.. and a little sad.