First Snow

I haven't wrote in a little over a month and a half. Because I have been very busy with work, housework (with more room it's hard to keep it all straight), papers, and relax time. I will try to write, but nothing really exciting is going on!

Here is a picture of the first snow of the season even before winter starts.

Halloween in France

Happy Halloween from theparisrambler!

Just a little while ago a group of kids rang the doorbell, and said "Today is Halloween can you give us candy." I said I know what today is and I am not going to give you candy because you didn't dress up. They had their regular clothes on and had pumpkins painted on their face. Ok I'll give them a little credit for the face paint. But there was no Trick-or-Treat or Happy Halloween.

Then, one kid was like I'll give you this fruitcake if you give us candy. I mean I know they just wanted FREE CANDY but why would I give them candy, when I dressed up every year for Halloween.

Finally I said "I am American, I know what Halloween is because we invented it and you are not dressed up so therefore I will not give you candy" So they left sad and probably angry but I am not going to let a holiday that I enjoyed as a kid be continued without the same traditions.

Last year, some kids tried the same thing and I was like I have chocolate chip muffins or apples and they didn't want either of them. So I guess like any other kid, these kids wanted FREE CANDY!

 What are you thoughts ? Would you give candy to kids that weren't dressed up ?

 

Paris B&W : Landmarks

Here are three pictures of famous landmarks in Paris: See if you can name them without looking at the answers below( Highlight the word for the answer and then tell me below how you did.

1. La Fontaine du Palmier
in the Place du Châtelet

2. La Tour Eiffel  - if you get this wrong, I feel sorry for you

3. Place de la Bastille - only thing it is missing is the guillotine

Little Paris Kitchen

The other day, I wrote paris and food in google trying to find some food blogs on parisian cooking. The first thing I stumbled upon was this : An English woman's take on Parisian cooking. She has her own television series, Little Paris Kitchen.

I think that I am going to try her recipes soon, and I will post the result afterwards. Or maybe I just need to create a blog series on my take on Parisian cooking without the diploma from the cordon on bleu.

Have you seen this series ? What would you like to see me cook ?
 

Paris B&W : Sacre le Coeur

One of my favorite parts of Paris is Montmartre. Maybe because I am an artist and it is an artist kind of neighborhood.

I like getting off at metro Abssess, you know the I love you wall, walking the back route to Sacre le Coeur. First to avoid the gypsies, the africans, and the crowd and second because there are some interesting places to see.

Sometimes I feel like I am in Amelie when walking up all the stairs.

I love the small Oriental influenced towers.

To go home, I walk down the hill to metro Anvers passing the fabric stores and les Halles Saint Pierre.
Check out les Halles Saint Pierre next time your there, you never know you might pass a fashion designer. It's like the Mood of Paris
 

Paris B&W : Churches

The other day, I was going through my pictures and I have decided that at least once or twice a week, I would share some B&W shots of Paris to enjoy when I don't have a story or thought to share. Some are from night and some are from the day.

Today we have two churches. And no there are not of the famous Notre Dame.
The first is Saint Eustache that one can discover near Forum les Halles at metro stop Chatelet. I find the outside of the church fasinating and elaborate, more interesting than Notre Dame. All of the flying buttresses and windows.

Saint Eustache near Châtelet

 Another church is Saint Sulpice found at you guessed it metro stop Saint Sulpice. My husband and I discovered this church when we were walking out of Jardin du Luxembourg and then stumbled upon a "brocante" like an open air yard sale (more on this later). We didn't go inside, but again the architecture on the outside is just fun to stare at.

Saint Sulpice, I think

Have you visited any of these churches ? What were your impressions ?
 

Sculpture at Gare du Nord

It sure has been a long time since I last wrote, but a lot has happened. I had to pack the old apartment and then we moved into the new apartment thus had to unpack. I signed with a new artist who is literally a handful. I was having panic attacks due to the high amount of stress from both of these events, so therefore I had to get checked out and came home with a pack of vitamins. And between all that I have had to work for my other artists and work on changing our address at all of the places, which has yet to be finished.

Anyway, the other day I was at Gare du Nord, waiting on my husband so we could go get his tooth problem checked out. I was standing next to this white box and kept hearing and seeing white smoke coming out of the box. I went to the other side and discovered this ball with a movie of people walking below it. Check out the video to see the box in action.

Apparently this sculpture has been around since 2008, but this has  been the first time I noticed it in action and even noticed it all.

And here you can find how Fabien Chalen put it together http://vimeo.com/23153562

Has anyone else noticed this sculpture before now ?

 

Construction in Ile de France

My husband works in construction. He has built all kinds of buildings from pools, to apartments, to town houses to supermarkets to redoing foundations. He has worked all over the Ile-de-France region. Currently he is working about 45 minutes away but he has worked with a commute of 2hours each way and he starts at 7 am.  He works as a mason, he is in charge of the walls. So, when we visit certain Paris monuments, the Patheon, Eiffel Tower, Invalides, etc. he stands there and is like "How did they do this ?" or just random buildings he is like "They messed up that wall etc".

and he does this all year around from extreme heat to cold. Also, it is interesting that most of the workers are Turk, Portuguese and Africans, never the French. But I guess it is like that in the States, there are more Mexican workers than Americans on construction sites.


 

Open up wide at the Dentist

I haven't seen the dentist in quite a long time, and I finally decided that I wanted to go get my teeth checked out. I prefer to find a doctor/dentist that speaks English, because if I don't understand something in French at least I will understand in English. Thankfully, the US Consulate provides a list of English-speaking doctors and the dentist that I chose accepts the carte vitale. The carte vitale is a health insurance card which permits sometimes reductions on the price that you will have to pay. Like I paid 70 euros for the first consultation, but I will receive a 40 euros refund.

Anyway back to the dentist office, it was located near Madeleine Church in a very nice neighborhood.

Also the dentist office was very unique. I felt like I was in an interior decorator's office. Even the elevator felt like a space ship, I forgot to take a picture of that.

But of course being in the dentist chair felt like a normal dentist office. Have you ever been to the dentist in France ?

 

Louvre Visit 2

Last week, I had a chance to be a tour guide for some Turks from the Netherlands in Paris. Of course they wanted to visit everywhere in 2 days. But I made it clear it is not possible to see everywhere in Paris, there are places I haven't seen and I have lived here for 3+ years.
Funny story when we visited the Louvre, the girl I was showing around just turned 26 so she wasn't going to be able to get in for free. But we were going to try anyway, so we went to the entrance counter and the girl was like I don't have my passport I only have my student card from the Netherlands. So, the  worker was like sing me a French song. So there she was singing the French national anthemn at the entrance of the louvre ! Would you do this to get into a museum or a place for free ?

While there, I decided to take some photos of some other favorite things in the Louvre. Enjoy!

The Wings of Victory

Modern Art during the Renaissance

It's incredible how many paintings they put on the walls !

I love this painting, I could stand in front of it for hours !

 

Picture of the Week : Pantheon

I discovered the Pantheon when my sister came to visit back in August 2010. It is a very interesting building that combines science, history, and poltics. Most politicians and scientists are buried here.

how they determined the earth is round and it also tells time

My husband is so amazed on how they constructed the pantheon

The weight of the world on our shoulders

the view from the top is amazing and it is FREE!

and so much better from Eiffel Tower

 So next time you are in Paris, check out the Pantheon, wlak up to the top and check out the view.

Moving yet again !

So we are moving again. Yilmaz made the comment the other day that ever since I came to France we move all the time! Which is true, but it's not my fault that we move all the time. We are moving this time after having problems with our landlord, sometimes those darn Turks ! But we are not moving that far away, we are literally about 5 apartment buildings down, so at least we won't have to get acquainted to a new city. Also, I know most of my neighbors since they are my husband's cousins.

Anyway, we have enough boxes, I just have to get inspired to pack, move and then unpack, it is going to be so much fun.

 

 And now a small glimpse inside our new 4-bedroom apartment with balcony ! 

a kitchen with a slightly smaller pantry

 Who wants to visit ?

Picture of the Week : Scenes from Vienna

Back when I studied abroad in 2008 in Paris, I took a trip to Vienna, Austria. We had visited Barcelona before going to Vienna and had received great advice from a woman in our hostel. She said that all of the museums were like the ones in Paris so there was no point in visiting them. So instead we checked out the architecture

and saw an opera for 2 euros ( standing for the whole La Traviata) but it was well worth it.

The Opera House

La Traviata

The only to remember is that when you are planning a trip back to Paris, remember to book the train for Vienna, Austria not Vienna, France. So we ended up paying 300 euros each to make it to Strasbourg, France and then tried to ask the train to reimbourse us for "our" mistake. Let's just say the site wasn't very clear, because I had friends who ended up taking the train to Vienna, France thinking they were going to Austria, they got off and were like "Where are we ?"

Strasbourg, France

 Have you visited Vienna or Austria ?