E is for église

une église :: a church

the fabulously old catholic church is almost as ubiquitous as the bakery in this country, and though i do most of my worshipping in the latter (i know, heathen!!), the majesty of these places is not at all lost on me. missing in this already very incomplete list is la sainte chapelle, which is known for its stained glass. if we ever make it over there to visit, and if any of the photos are worth a hoot, perhaps i'll revisit E a little later...

notre dame de paris

the quintessential parisian gothic church 

construction begun in 1163

the architectural hodge podge that is sacré cœur in montmartre 

(great views of paris from here!)

construction begun in 1875

st. etienne du mont at dusk

around the corner from our old pad in the 5th (and across the street from a pub we liked - hence the dusk shot)

built between 1492 and 1626

interior of notre dame de lorette in the 9th

this one gets shadowed by the basilica of sacré cœur behind it, which is too bad. 

it's wonderful inside. 

interior 2

mont st. michel, normandy coast

i dreamt about this place from 1990, when i first saw a poster of it in monty holamon's classroom at WWHS, till april 2007, when knox, leigh (and sam and harry), chris, and i made the trip.

it was worth the wait.

the spire of the abbey

interior of the chapel

l'au-delà

i miss fall

and i want a ride on that groovy green bus. quick question: do we think it is inappropriate for a woman in her (still) early thirties to ride a merry-go-round? keep in mind, it's vintage. i mean, it's almost inappropriate for me NOT to... hmm... someone bring their kids to paris so i can justify this!

D is for dimanche

un dimanche en hiver :: a winter sunday

we typically spend our sundays plopped on the couch, book and cuppa tea in hand, or exploring, usually ending up in the marais for a falafel dinner - only the jewish quarter is rocking on a sunday in this town! but last week i finally lured knox into an afternoon of ice skating at the hôtel de ville. i'd been talking about it for weeks, and he'd managed to deflect all my advances - rather brilliantly, i must say:

LB: hey, let's go ice skating this weekend.
KP: what? did you say you wanted to go have burgers and see "tropic thunder" this weekend?
LB: no, i said ice skating.
KP: what? rice mating? is that in the asian quarter?
LB: ICE SKATING.
KP: slice grating? mice hating? ...

you get the idea. seriously, given how much i had to needle him to go with me, i'd rank this second to ferris wheels on his list of 'god-awful paris attractions.' he moaned and complained and even growled a bit on the way there, but all that changed the minute he got on the ice...



...and started strutting his stuff. he really got into it, until he got a wee cocky, sped up, lost control, and to avoid plowing into some dude and his 7 year old kid, face planted on the ice. out of respect (and fear of eating it myself) i did not photograph the wreckage, but i did get the aftermath:



looks kind of rocked, no? he got over it amazingly fast, but after another couple of laps, we traded in our skates for a sidewalk table and a chocolat à l'ancienne:



it was a good sunday.

C is for chat

un chat :: a cat

Let me first say for the record that convincing Leslie to let me into to the FRAVINAbécédaire was no small feat. Both Thomas Friedman and Nicholas Kristof applied for a letter and Ms. Barnes put the kabash on it. But, how could she even begin to think that the letter C could be reserved for anything or anyone other than le chat. Now while I’ve thought long and hard about impressing you with my knowledge of the history of my species or perhaps even waxing poetic about the famous Chat Noir in France, I thought, is this what the people want to hear from le chat, is this what the people demand from le chat, aw Hell No! What the people want to know is what le Bob has been up to. So, I will respond to my sea of adoring fans and give you some musings as of late.

Since it has been about six months since my owners departed for Paris, I thought I’d give them some updates on the life and times of Bob. Not very original but I’m going to steal Letterman’s song and dance and fill you in.

Top Ten Reasons Bob Has Been Too Busy to Post for Several Months

10. It’s ski season—le chat got a Colorado Pass and can be found ripping down the mountains on the weekend. Bob loves some fresh powder.

9. Between the cat-napping, eating, purring, cat-napping, and general yowling, I just haven’t had time.

8. As a part of Obama’s transition team, I can’t seem to get any free time from putting out fires in the President’s Cabinet. Not even through the entire vetting process yet (damn you Daschle), and the work has just begun.

7. For months I’ve been looking for Knox’ phone that plays “Twinkle Twinkle,” it’s my favorite and I can’t figure out where he hid it.

6. Few know this, but Leslie and Knox aren’t the only two working on dissertations - le chat is finishing up the theoretical framework chapter of a mixed-methods, critical race study on the socio-political history of Pierre Bourdieu’s house pets. It’s some heavy shit.

5. I’m actually the creator of the “Snuggie,” and we’ve been doing great business. I’m currently perfecting a cat-snuggie for keeping all four paws warm when reading at night (friends stateside will have to fill Leslie and Knox in on the hype).

4. Spending three-quarters of your day salivating over the squirrels who race around the backyard makes le chat sleepy.

3. The tight economy has forced Janet to start collecting rent. In exchange for my space on her bed and in the windowsill during the day time, the expectations include laundry, cooking three meals per week and scrubbing the bathtub. Those tasks aren’t easy for a 4 pound feline, but le chat’s got to do what le chat’s got to do.

2. Ok, I broke down and got a Face Book Profile. Between updating my status, poking people, tagging folks in photos, stalking my high school classmates, listing 25 things you didn’t know about me and playing 80’s movie trivia, I just don’t have time to blog.

1. And the #1 Reason I haven’t had time to post: I found the box in the basement with the bag of catnip. Can we just say, Bob just loves to get wasted!


Signing off from Kittylandia. Much love to all.

Le Bobbers (and ghost writer, Janet Lopez)

B is for boulangerie

une boulangerie :: a bakery (french lesson for the day)

what else?? the french take their bread very seriously, VERY seriously indeed. widespread famine linked to massive bread shortages plagued the last months of louis XVI's reign, and along with some very badly managed wars, a staggering national debt, and an unfortunate comment by his lovely bride ("qu'ils mangent de la brioche!"), helped lead to his demise at the foot of the guillotine.

today bread is served at every meal and baked on nearly every corner. a professor at cornell, steven kaplan, has written a contemporary history of bread and a guide to the best bakeries in paris. you must watch this clip of his appearance on the conan o'brien show - it's hilarious. and a little bit creepy. anyway, you'll never look at a baguette the same way again.

one of knox's first priorities when we settled in the 14th was to find a new bakery. we were big fans of maison keyser in the 5th, but it's too far now for the daily dose, so within days, he'd found our replacement.

l'atelier d'antan - workshop of yesteryear (for the longest time we thought 'antan' was a dude's name and that this was his workshop. we're just glad knox never asked which one was antan!)

this is the best bread in the 'hood, no doubt about it. i had my pal delphine over for dinner a few weeks ago, and she agreed (imagine my pride - i impressed a frenchie with my bread savvy!). they close at 8 though, which jacks our work schedule just a bit, so we've started buying in 'bulk' and freezing a few loaves at a time. still awesome.

knox, trying to resist the urge to bite into the fresh baguette - most of the time, he's unsuccessful.

january is also galette des rois season. the french eat the galette for the epiphany, the holiday that celebrates the visit of the three kings to the baby jesus. many celebrate on the first sunday of the month, but since the actual date is a little fuzzy, the galettes are served all month. for knox and me, i'll be honest, the celebration is one not of christ, but of the buttery-frangipanyyy-goodness that is the galette des rois (and we have made it a point to celebrate at least 5 or 6 times this month). traditionally, there is a fava bean hidden in the galette, and if it's found in your slice, you get to be the king or queen for the day (which, sadly, does NOT excuse you from dishes). typically, the youngest member of the family hides under the table and decides which slices go to whom, but since knox is really just too big for that, we usually buy the 2-man galette, sans fava. still dee-lish.

all this talk about bread... hmmm, i've got some chèvre and a few tomatoes lying around - i think it's time for lunch!!