Photo from Paris

When we were in Paris, getting American citizenship for Fatima, we saw this mannequin in the window.

I'm pretty sure the whole ensemble costs 3x my rent. I'm sure just the broach is 800 euros! Second because it just isn't my style. So, I don't think I would buy anything off this mannequin, what about you ?

Château Chantilly

My parents took a side trip to Chantilly, specifically the castle, while they were here. They sure did have an adventure à la française.

The château de Chantilly was built for the House of Montmorency, then was home to the Condés and finally to the Duke of Aumale, fifth son of Louis-Philippe. He willed it to the Institute of France. Le château has two parts: the Petit Château and the Château Neuf. The first was built in 1560 by the architect Jean Bullant for the constable Anne de Montmorency. The interior decoration goes back to the 18th century for the larger apartments, and was carried out by Jean Aubert, Jean-Baptiste Huet, and Jean-Baptiste Oudry. The smaller apartments redone in the 19th century are on the ground floor. The Château Neuf was built by architect Honoré Daumet between 1876 and 1882 on the site of the portion of the older building destroyed at the beginning of the 19th century. It contains paint galleries, libraries and the chapel. A gallery, built by architecte Félix Duban in the 1840s, links the two buildings. The château is surrounded by a 115-hectare park which includes 25 hetares of water gardens. The parks includes large formal gardens designed by André Le Nôtre, the Anglo-Chinese garden installed between 1772 and 1774 in the center of which is the Hameau de Chantilly, the English garden installed in 1817 around the temple of Venus on the western side and, near the forest, the La Cabotière and de Sylvie parks. The entire estate was designated a historic monument by the decrees of October 24 and December 1988. (from Wikipedia)

Interesting Facts (from Wikipedia)

• The château and the Great Stables were featured in the 1985 James Bond movie A View to a Kill, as the home of villainous Max Zorin (played by Christopher Walken) which was being infiltrated by Bond (played for the last time by Roger Moore) in his quest to find out more about Zorin, who had already aroused suspicions of MI6 with various business activities, and ultimately eliminate him.^[5]
• Pink Floyd performed, on two consecutive nights, at the château during The Division Bell Tour on July 30–31, 1994.
• Every two years, in June, the "Nuits de Feu" international fireworks competition is held in the château's garden.
• Brazilian Footballer Ronaldo married model and MTV VJ Daniela Cicarelli in the château in 2005. The ceremony reportedly cost €700,000.
• Every May, a rowing regatta, the Trophee des Rois, is held in the grounds. French university crews compete in the 750m race for a trophy.

My dad accidently ordered steak tartar (raw meat) instead of terrine. Oops.  He did say it was a well-worth it mistake and now he has a story to tell. Maybe one day they can guest-post about their adventure.

Look at that yummy dessert!

Chantilly gave its name to Chantilly cream, popularised by the "maître d'hôtel" of the princes of Condé, François Vatel, and to Chantilly lace.

Have you ever visited Chantilly or eaten Chantilly cream or bought some Chantilly lace ?
 

French Vocab Sundays - October 27, 2013

Note : Every Sunday I will post French vocab words that I learned throughout the week. They are mostly random words, ones that I think of at a certain moment and others are actually important ones like parts of the body or words pertaining to paperwork. 

Yesterday I was on an organizing kick and kept thinking that it was Sunday. I kept thinking that I needed to add the French words to this post. This morning with the time change and all, I am still confused on what the actual time is, I  realized I had still forgot to add the words. So I am editing this after the original post. Enjoy!

tongue-tied - muet

contact paper - vénilia

yarn -  une laine / un fil

ball of yarn - une pelote de laine

thread - un fil

velcro - velcro

dust bunnies - des moutons

furniture polish - une cire 

appareil ménager - home appliance

burp a baby - faire faire son rot à
 a burp - un rot
burp cloth - une bavette
bib - un bavoir
phlegm - du glaire

cough up phlegm - une toux grasse
changing of the leaves - les arbes prenaient leurs coleurs automnales
falling leaves - une chute des feuilles
it's raining cats and dogs - pleuvoir comme vache qui pisse
 (literally it is raining like a cow who is peeing! - I think I like this better :)

Till next week, I am now off to a Turkish wedding! 

 

French Cuisine Friday - Mousse au Chocolat

French Cuisine Friday, I will show you a French cuisine item I made during the week. I will post pictures as well as the recipe and some background on the item and possibly including some French vocab in the process.

While my mom was here, she kept complaining that she wanted chocolate mousse (mousse au chocolat). We had planned on making it several times but we actually never got around to doing it. I think it was all the prefecture visits (posts to come soon!).

One Sunday morning when she went to church, I decided to make her some as it was a few days before she was leaving and it would be a nice surprise.

I didn't use a French recipe for this. Julia Child has a good one, but I don't have access to her book. So, I ended up using the recipe off of Joy of Baking.


According to Joy of Baking,

One spoonful of this Chocolate Mousse and you will be hooked forever. It is what you could call a grown up chocolate pudding. A simple yet elegant dessert. While it uses only a few ingredients, its chocolate flavor is rich and its texture is silky smooth, airy, almost foamy. And foamy is an apt description as "mousse" is French for 'froth' or 'foam'.

Read more: http://www.joyofbaking.com/ChocolateMousse.html#ixzz2hxd3Vgdl

I experienced one problem, the cream wouldn't whip.  So I just ended up pouring the semi-whipped liquid in and the chocolate mousse was a little liquidy. But it received a 10/10 from my mom.
 

 

Live the Language : Paris

I stumbled across this video on Pinterest, my new obsession. I hope to post other videos or images particulary in regards to French vocab soon.

The story in the video is similar to my Parisian adventure back in 2008.  Enjoy!



I did meet my husband during my study abroad experience but not how the girl meetsthe boy. The school looks familiar and it might actually be L'Institut Catholique where I studied, because it wasn't that far away from Jardin du Luxembourg.
 

Pregnancy : Paperwork

12.12.12 was a good day, it was the day I discovered I was pregnant and so my adventure began.

First, after confirming my pregnancy with a blood test, I found out that I would have to declare my pregnancy to my health insurance and the CAF. The declaration would need to be sent before my 14th week of pregnancy. Interesting fact : In France, a baby is not considered an official pregnancy until the woman is 14 weeks pregnant. Because of the risk of miscarriage and I guess the woman has 14 weeks to decide if she wants to keep her future baby (which in itself is another post - sidenote I am totally against abortion). The CAF also gives you a stipend of 900 euros at the 7 month mark just for having a baby, like an incentive.  This incentive helped us stock up on all those diapers, wipes and other baby necessities.

I sent my papers sometime in January to the RSI, my health insurance provider. Sidenote : RSI is for those who are independant workers. But they ended up losing the paperwork I sent, apparently there was a specific place I was supposed to send it and I had to end up sending it again this time to the right address. Finally I was declared and was able to receive full healthcare benefits at 6 months!

Also, I bought this book, French Mama's Pregnant in France which really helped make my pregnancy adventure easier. Because the book is in French and English and there is a quiz and vocab section at the end of each chapter, which helped to make doctor's visits and what to expect easier.

French vocab :

formulaire déclaration de la grossesse : pregnancy declaration forms.

assurance maladie : health insurance  - the most common form of insurance

CAF (caisse d'allocations familiale) : family allowance fund

enciente - pregnant

J'attends un bébé - I am expecting a baby

prise de sang - blood test

French Vocab Sundays - October 20, 2013

I have decided to start another series this time called  French Vocab Sundays. Every Sunday I will post French vocab words that I learned throughout the week. They are mostly random words, ones that I think of at a certain moment and others are actually important ones like parts of the body or words pertaining to paperwork.

First, because I have discovered I do not know a whole lot of vocab words. I will be in the middle of a sentence and think "Oh I don't know that word" and then I have to give the definition of the word that I was thinking of. Second, I want to learn new words and later help Fatima learn them too.

I will be using wordreference.com and linguee.com to look up these words.

Words from this week :

ribs - une côte | rib cage - une cage thoracique

gall bladder - une vésicule biliaire

arts & crafts - l'artisanat d'art

popsicle sticks - un batôn de glace

felt (the material) - de feutre

construction paper - un papier cartonné

lollipop - une sucette

wheel barrow - une brouette

French words that I had to look up their meaning

diurne - during the day

un paillasson - doormat

And lastly, because writing them down might actually help me to remember them and may help others like you learn them, even if you don't speak French. Or if you do, they can be good reminders.

French Cuisine Friday

I have decided to start a series called French Cuisine Friday where I will show you a French cuisine item I made during the week. I will post pictures as well as the recipe and some background on the item and possibly including some French vocab in the process.

This week, I am reposting items that I have made in the past :
Upside Down Apple Pie / Tarte Tatin
Crepes
Mussels / Moules
Fish / Poisson

so try one of these out this week and let me know how it goes!

Next week, is a famous French dessert that my mom was dying to have when she was here and kept complaining about how much she wanted to eat it until I finally made it. What do you think it is ?
 

Eiffel Tower View

One day, when my mom and I were sitting in the living room, she asked me if I knew that I could see the Eiffel Tower from our living room window. At first, I thought she was kidding, it seemed more reasonable to me that Sacre Coeur would be visible from our apartment.

We waited until it lit up and sure enough it was the Eiffel Tower in all it's sparkly glory. It is incredible to see it every night light up and from 16 kilometers away. This proves that it is really as big as they say.

We shouldn't let our apartment agency know or the rent might go up !!! An apartment with an Eiffel Tower view, haha!!

My Accomplishments

The other day, my mom asked me if I was amazed by all the stuff I have done in my life so far and if I thought I would be where I am today at 26 years old.

And thinking about this I am amazed, by all that I have accomplished so much and hope to accomplish more in the years to come.

Already at 26 :
I have a Bachelor's in Music (Summa Cum Laude ! )and a Masters in Culturel Communication and Finance (all my classes were in French)
Speak English, French, and debutant in Turkish and Islamic Arabic
Living in a foreign country (even though I always knew I would be living here), with a foreign husband (our common language is French!) and a baby
Have my own business which had a slow kick off but is starting to pick up
Housewife and stay-at-home, work-from-home mother - still working on this

Started work at 15 at a Dairy Queen
Volunteer for different structures in my area when I was younger
A musician, an artist, and a writer

Plus, many more that I can't think of at the moment because it is late and my brain is drained from a long day.
Are you amazed at the things that you have accomplished so far in your life ??

 

Back in the Blogging Saddle.

I know, I know, it has literally been ages, since I last wrote. And I know I always say I have been busy, but I really have been busy.

For those of you who know me in real life, you know why and for those of you who don't, I had a baby in August and I have had my hands full since then.

Fatima Tul Zehra was born on August 16, 2013 and for privacy reasons I prefer not to post pictures of her on my blog.

I will be posting here and there in the upcoming weeks about my pregnancy experience in France (the paperwork to fill out, the appointments, buying baby clothes, the room etc etc), my delivery experience and how life has treated me since then. Also, I am going to post pictures of some of the fun stuff we've done since I last wrote.

Until next time,