New Year's Eve

Today, mercifully, it was not sleeting any longer, nor had it snowed in the night. We ate pastries in the apartment (the boys have discovered "cravatte" which are long battons of pastry dough folded around chocolate chips--like a pan a chocolate with a lot more chocolate), and then set out for Notre Dame.

The Cathedral was glorious and we were able to get out of the flow of tourists streaming counterclockwise round the building long enough to really admire the remarkable windows. Unfortunately, we could not climb the towers, as they were closed due to ice on the steps. After skating round Versailles yesterday, we were grateful that the authorities decided to try to save the necks of a few tourists.

After the Cathedral, we drifted across the Seine, stopping to play on a cool playground toy.


We made a brief stop at Shakespeare and Co, which did not have Richard's book but pronised to order it, and then headed off for a blow out lunch. We had been fortunate enough to find a "Paris Best Restaurants of 2008 guide, and so were able to pick something special.

We ate at La Maree Verte in the Latin Quarter. We all had the "cheap" ( this is a relative term!) fixed price menu, and made sure we ordered so that we tried everything on offer. Declan probably had the best meal, though we all ate well. He started with a delicious oeuf en cocotte, otherwise known as eggs poached in creme fraiche. They were amazing. Richard ate the Ravioli au gorgonzola, and Aidan and I devoured the Feuillete a la fondue de Poiveaux (puff pastry with creamed leeks). Yum.

Moving on, Declan had the roast pork loin, served as a rib chop with the rib still on, roasted with potatoes, mushrooms and bacon. Richard had the sole in cream sauce (you notice that I've given up typing the French names), which included other seafood bits in the sauce, as well as potatoes, and Aidan and I both had the hare (or was it rabbit?--lapin) with honey and rosemary, served on a bed of roasted mushrooms. All were definitely a special treat.

For dessert, Declan had the lemon sorbet, served in a huge cube obviously cut from a larger block, Richard ate the cherry charlotte, and Aidan and I ate the chocolate pot de creme.

The adults washed the whole thing down with a half bottle of Sancere, while the boys indulged in cokes.

It was truly a wonderful meal, and we savored every bite as we sat in the tiny but lovely dining room.

Then we set forth on a walk that took us from the restaurant, out past the pantheon, to the edge of the Jardin de Luxemborg (closed for some reason, probably weather). Note the ice encrusted fountain below.


The day was supposed to finish with a trip down the catacombes, but we got there too close to the early closing time (New Year's Eve) and didn't get in. The boys really want to see this, so we'll go back later in the week.

We took the Metro back to our neighborhood, and joined the crowds stocking up for New Years. I'd like to say that picked up our massive platter of oysters (there are about 6 shops selling fish on our main street, and the all had dozens of foil wrapped platters of oysters with names taped on them, waiting for lucky folks to pick them up. Instead, given our lunch, we picked up some salad fixings for tonight, pastries for tomorrow breakfast, bread, hummus, carrots and tarma salata for lunch tomorrow, then some veggies and beef for a stew tomorrow evening. The butcher was great. We admired all the things you can buy in a French butchers that you can't buy in the US (from goose with head and feathers strategically attached to all sorts of pate) and had a nice chat with the folks working there.

I have to say, the reputation of the French, and Parisians in particular, is that they are surly and rude if you don't speak French. Our experience has been that everyone has been very friendly and generous with us and our halting French. I've never learned the language, but have found that I know more food words (ok, no surprise there) than Richard and Aidan, who've both studied French. I might not be able to ask for directions, but I can shop for dinner!

We're wrapping things up for the evening, probably won't even still be awake at midnight. Our plan is to be at the Eiffel Tower at the crack of dawn tomorrow, hoping that that way we'll beat the 2 hour wait in line. Little did we realize that this week is a tourist high season and that we'd face lines where ever we went.

Versailles (le Roi Soleil turning in his grave)

We and 100,000 of our closest friends went to Versailles today. (Picture #1 is us queuing in the special fast line for ticket holders.) It was raining, but hovering around zero, and every cobblestone an ice-coated death trap.

Inside, the crowding was utterly insane: a quarter of the people would have been too many. We flowed, like lumps in a river of molasses, around the pre-set route of the Royal apartments, essentially unable to see anything. Also, due to dim-witted organization, unable at any point to say, in our perfect colloquial French, "sod this for a lark" and get out.

There's a "Jeff Koons at Versailles" exhibit going on - an inflatable lobster entitled "Laughing all the Way to the Bank," two inflatable turtles entitled "Just How Pathetically Gullible are Rich People in the Art World Anyway?" - and so on - all of which we half viewed over the heads of other blobs of molasses. See picture #2.

Cardinal Richelieu, with whom I found myself briefly in conversation, did not look amused by this invasion of the damp global peasantry. The guidebooks said Louis played host to 6,000 courtiers and 5,000 servants here: no wonder it once seemed civilised.

We managed to take all this absurdity in our stride, and it was a good day out in the end - even funny, in a perverse way. Third pic is A+D sliding on the ice that covered everything. Fourth is damp K eating damp pastry on train. Another time, perhaps, in the spring...

Back at the apartment, our corner grocer says snow is sweeping up from the south.

Cheese course

We cooked dinner in the apartment tonight after a wonderful meandering shopping trip on the Rue du Montorguiell. Our best score (even though the sausages were great) was a 6 euro cheese platter. This plastic plate of nearly too ripe cheeses, on special at one of the cheese stores, featured a blue, a camembert, an edam like cheese, and a San Marcellin. We only know the name of the last because it had the label on it.

Richard, Aidan and I swooned over the meltingly soft, surprisingly mild cheese (especially the San Marcellin) while Declan wrinkled his nose and did the dishes. All in all, a satisfying end to the day.

Tomorrow we're off to Versailles, with a picnic composed of the rest of the stinky cheese, some pate, carrots, and a few other things to be picked up tomorrow, including some bread while we eat pastries in the morning. Since Declan does not like pate any more than he likes stinky cheese, we'll have to be a bit creative to keep him from eating a lunch consisting only of carrots and bread.

Freezing in Paris

Today we froze several times. The first being when we walked down from our apartment to a patisery which we discoverd yesterday but it was closed so we went to the Louve on the Metro except we didn't really go directly to the Louve, we went to a "little" side street and found a cafe and got a pastry and drink each. We then froze for a second time when we were walking to the Louve were some of the fountians had started frezing over. In the Louve we saw the Winged Nike of Samothrace, the Mona Lisa, and several other amazing paintings, statues, and other objects. Then we froze for a third time when we walked to lunch and wated to get into the best falafel in Paris. After that we froze for a fourth time walkin to a shopping center to buy a voltage adapter to charge Aidan and my D.S.s. Then we froze for the finale time, walking down the street which the cafe we got brecfast at, doing some shopping.

The Louvre

We "only" did the Louvre today but walked about 300 miles, or anyway kilometers, so are exhausted. I'm going to do a short post and let the others fill in. The Louvre was like an ant's nest filled with fat ants carrying bags, but nothing could quite take away from the magnificence (both inside and out). Why (I found myself thinking) did I not go in for the history of art? Tintoretto, Delacroix, David, Ingres, old Lenny da Vinci by the cartload of course. Fabulous Greek and Roman sculpture too, from the Winged Nike of Samothrace on down. The sort of place you want to come to with a tent, and stay for three weeks.

Of course, you then go outside, try to walk down the street, and are accosted by an eye-watering patisserie, boulangerie or chocolaterie every twenty paces. What bewilderment the French must feel, when they visit savage lands like Angleterre and les Etats Unis.

Meeting Napoleon

One of the best things Kerry and I did is spring for a Museum Pass - which means you can dip in and out of many museums without paying sepaprately - or feeliing bad about paying 20 Euros annd not spending all day there. We only went into the Musee Maritime because we were freezing, and it was both blissfullly warm and fascinating. Plus, as you see, we met all the best people there. Believe it or no, this monstrosity was a ship's figurehhead.

Food-Land

We just had a very delicious diner at Chez Marie. We each had a menu at fixed price. I had escargots, duck, and profiteroles. It was delicious. People who think escargots will be disgusting: GO JUMP IN A LAKE!!!!!! THEY AREN'T!!!!!! They taste exactly like whatever you cook them in, usually garlic.

Anyway. Today, we went to Les Invalides, Le Musee Rodin, et Le Musee de la Marine.
At Invalides, we looked at the ancient weapons and giant canons (see above left). We also went to Dome de L'eglise, where Napoleon is burried.

At Le Musee Rodin, Declan and I got fairly bored. I did notice that Rodin seemed to have a facination with sculpting naked women, or at least women with very little on. I also noticed that most of the paintings (by various artists) that hung around the museum seemed to feature a suprising amount of breast. Outside the museum, we saw sculpture such as The Thinker and The Gates of Hell. Dad went on at great length about the Burghers of Calais.

Le Musee de la Marine is a naval museum. I observed a lack of recognition of naval disasters such as tumblehome hulls (hulls shaped like an upsidedown V) and the Titanic. They have a great number of models, which they say they have for engineering students. We also got to see an anchor rope from the 1747. It was used with a three ton anchor and is about a foot thick.

Our apartment

Richard and the boys will no doubt all make more detailed posts about our adventures on our first day in Paris. Which frees me to tell you about our apartment.

The building is quite old, though we're not sure exactly how old. Everything in it is off kilter. To get in you enter the key code at the street door, and make your way up a curving staircase encased in stone walls with peeling paint and minimal illumination. The stairs might have been level once, but now they feel like a potentially lethal sobriety test. Once you get the lock open, you enter into a kitchen which slopes no less than 6 inches from one side to the other--a distance of about 5 feet at that point. The kitchen cabinets have been hung straight, which means that at the top they're about 2.5 inches from the side wall, while at the bottom they're only .5 from the wall. In the bathroom, the tile was also hung straight, which as you sit on the loo and contemplate it around the doorway, makes you feel like you failed the sobriety test of the stairs.

The kitchen is tiny, but mostly functional, as long as one remembers that the electric kettle blows the main fuse for the apartment just as it comes to a boil. If the computer isn't plugged in, that's not much of a problem since the fuse box (and flashlight) are readily to hand.

We have a small living room with a couch and fold out mattress for the boys, and a second room with a queen size bed for the parents. All beds are very comfortable, and the place is very clean. Heat is good (thank goodness, as it is darned cold here), and there is plenty of hot water. We even have a washer and dryer for when we spill chocolate on ourselves. There is a shower with good water pressure. It felt great this morning, but of course the shower doors don't quite close (not squared up for some reason), so water dribbles around the bathroom a little bit.

We did have a little bit of a problem last night when we discovered that there weren't sheets or pillowcases for the boys beds. We called the property manager, and who very kindly said he'd bring some over. It took quite a while, but when he got here he apologized and said he'd gone to his mother's to borrow sheets for us. We'll be leaving her a nice note of thanks for lending us her beautifully ironed sheets.

We're just down the road a piece from the Sacre Coeur and up the road from a nifty little street of restaurants and cafes. Having made soup for ourselves last night in the apartment, we're heading out this evening for a simple French dinner. We walked past a cafe where someone was being served a gorgeous looking steak melting fat over a big pile of fries. I nearly stole it from him on the spot.

Living it up

Declan enjoying the unexpected pleasure of First Class (triple-booked; bumped up) on the Eurostar entre Londres et Paris.



(Uncle John had very thoughtfully made us a hamper of turkey sandwiches, Christmas cake etc for the train. Because we were plied with food and drink the whole way, we were able to turn that into the basis for an excellent turkey soup and bread dinner on arriving in Montmartre.)

Paris

We got to our apartment at 14:30 (2:30) local time or 5:30 in Seattle WA, USA. After we put our stuff it our apartment we went up to le Sacre Coeur in monmarch which is were we are staying. then we went out around the back of the church and did some shopping for dinner. While we were deciding where to go from the church we were "freezing our tushes off!!" -all of us

Misadventures

We had our first travel misadventure today. Our Eurostar seats were double and triple booked! Then again, we got bumped to first =), so it wasn't that bad.

Christmas chez Goodbody

Urp. Delicious!

Merry Christmas!

Hello All,
We are in that lovely time between opening presents and putting the final touches on the Christmas turkey. The boys are all playing a board game, Isobel is talking with Auntie Annette, John is peeling potatoes, Granny Wendy is off on a little walk, and Richard and Clarissa are putting the rest of us to shame by going for a run. Needless to say, I'm putting up this post, then curling up with a book.

We heard/saw a magnificent performance of the Messiah two nights ago, and then for Christmas eve went to a lessons and carols service at Westminster Abbey. The choir was amazing, even if one could not see them. We all laughed though...right near the beginning a toddler lost it and was carried, howling, by her father out a side door just as the congregation was singing the lines from Once in Royal David City about how children should be as meek and mild as the Christ child. We all had wondered why the father took quite so long to get her out, and then realized that the poor man was also the first reader and was clearly worried that he might miss his cue.

Thanks for everyone's comments on the blog, it's nice to know that you haven't forgotten us yet. (And yes Zea, most of Aidan's family uses ridiculously big words, unless we're tired and then we just grunt and point).

It's hard to believe we're off to Paris the day after tomorrow, but we've still got a trip to Edward Scissorhands tomorrow evening.

Merry Christmas!

After hearing the Messiah

This is Aidan in front of the Palace of Westminster.

There was not room for everyone in John's car, so after the Messiah (best I have ever heard), Aidan and I walked to Westminster tube (the stop is at the light in the photo). But had to stop and take this first.

London

It's nearly 10 pm, and I'm sitting at Clarissa's computer in Brook Green wondering why I am not cross-eyed from jet-lag. Our flight was delayed two hours at Newark, then we were somewhere south of Greenland by the time the crew got around to doling out the aluminum trays of curry; add the fact that I just don't fit into airline seats and I got the equivalent of about two 20-minute naps last night. Yet here I am, perkily typing away after everyone else has gone to bed. Dinner this evening with Clarissa, John, Adam and Granny Wendy. (That was after Granny Wendy, Kerry and I had put our heads together over tea and Christmas cake and finished the crossword). Poor Isobel is not here: having been admitted to hospital with a nasty rash, she only got masses of antibiotics instead of mince pies for dessert. Activities galore planned for the next couple of days - we just hope Isobel recovers enought for Christmas.

Heading to England

We're doing a few loads of laundry, eating bagels and lox, and gearing up for a long drive to the airport. The weather is switching from snow to rain, so hopefully the drive won't be too bad.

Last night Lori and Jonathon treated the adults to a fabulous italian meal...probably the last one of those we'll have for a while. The best part was Jonathon's risotto with white truffles. I'm not sure he got to eat very much of it, as we passed it round the table before he even got his first bite.

Max and Grace are growing up so fast, we've really enjoyed seeing their personalities while we're here.

White Greenwich

Six inches of snow here. We have spent all yesterday and most of today doing as little as possible, though yesterday afternoon I very narrowly escaped being beaten at chess by Declan and was then killed off in less than 2o moves by Aidan. (Lori and Jonathan have a beautiful chess table and a reproduction of the Isle of Lewis chess set. Every piece has a different expression.) Aidan, Declan and I are supposed to be doing a French lesson "every day" too, and finally got around to our first one.

This afternoon, unsure that our bodies were still working after so much torpor, we went ice skating for an hour, which was a blast. The third time in my life, I think - and I proudly advanced from slug speed to fast-snail speed, only falling into an ignominious heap once.

Snow in Greenwich too

I understand that Seattle has had some snow recently, and its the same here. I just got in from a snowball fight with my brother, my dad, and my granddad. Pictures to follow if i can get him to give them to me.

Bad

Well, at some point yesterday, my wallet with $20 in it fell out of my pocket. I know it wasn't stolen, because my camera was in the same pocket, which was stupid of me, see if you can guess why. Oh well...

Sunny last day in NYC

More New York. Our last day, and the sun came out! First, a rather rude take on the Wall Street bull in Lower Manhattan.



Then, the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

We only passed by Liberty, then spent 45 minutes (it should have been 4 hours) on Ellis Island, where I took this artsy shot of the Empire State from the main hall of the Museum, with the window bars on the other side reflected.

Walking miles

We've arrived in Greenwich to see Lori, who produced a glorious meal this evening. Her house is absolutely gorgeously decorated for the holiday, and we're looking forward to seeing it when we're less tired.

We calculated that we walked roughly 30 miles in NY over the last three days, getting as far north as the Met and as far south as Ellis Island. We saw the Rockettes and a Broadway show, we ate hot dogs on the street, we checked out the Armor room in the Met and admired the origami tree in the Natural History museum And did lots else.



A winter storm is apparently on the way in tonight, so we're looking forward to spending several days ensconced on my sister's couches reading books and resting our poor feet.



[Richard adds: an exhausting but spectacular day. The sun finally came out, polishing the city to a pale bronze gleam. It was cold, but we were able to see the whole of NYC from the 88th Floor of the Empire State. Ellis Island was truly moving - at the museum they have made spectacular use of archival photos, some of them just mugshots and some of them looking like Pulitzer-winners, all ordinary people from Luthuania / Poland / England / you name it who came through these doors a century ago. So much life and energy and worry and hope. I have never been in a place so loud with ghosts.]

One Computer Problems

I just had to wait an hour and a half for Declan to write an email and his post. Talk about slow. Anyhow, we are going to Boeing Boeing tonight. Last night we saw the Rockettes Christmas Special. It was really cool. Yesterday we also went to the Museum of Natural History. It had some neat exhibits.

2nd day in NYC

Today is our 2nd day in NYC and we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. First we went to the temple of Dendure and saw so much graffiti on the walls! next we went to the musical instruments but mom got distracted in the American gallery, which had some amazing chess sets! then we got to the instruments were several amazing instruments that I never thought could egsist. then we went to arms and armor. There they had several muskets and suits of armor that looked way to fansy to be for battle. Then we left the Met to get lunch and then we started walking toward the hotel but had a little acsedent wen we went to FAO Swharts and saw 2 foot ugly dolls on sale for $10!!!

Seattle to New York

Tuesday 16th: sharing a hotdog with Theodore Roosevelt, the Christmas dinosaur and some light snow, on the steps of the Natural History Museum.

Tuesday evening: at Radio City Music Hall just before seeing the 75th Anniverary Rockettes Christmas Spectacular with Greg and Susan.

Small blessings

In front of the tree at Scott and Lisa's, en route to the airport:


We managed to get out of the house, only half an hour after we thought we'd leave. We had a lovely meal at Scott and Lisa's house (Lisa made the most incredible tortellini pie, while Julie produced her luscious roast tomatoes as a starter.) Scott then schlepped us all to an airport motel for the night. We made it to the airport without any problems, boarded them plane, and then, miracle of miracles, the plane was not full and I got a whole row to myself. I stretched out, slept the entire way, and woke up in NY.

I'll let others fill you in on everything we've done since we've got here...we are absolutely making the most of our time.

Thank you to everyone who made it possible for us to get out of the Seattle snow and ice.

Snow, from a parent's perspective

We did indeed get snow, a generous inch or so. I'm not quite so thrilled as Aidan, as I am wondering how we are going to make the last storage unit run today, or get to Scott and Lisa's for a farewell dinner.

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE GOT SNOW BEFORE WE LEFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
EVEN IF IT IS ONLY 1/2 AN INCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

48 hours and counting

Thus far this morning we've made a run to REI and Outdoors and More, Richard is on his way to Value Village and the storage unit, and I'm drafting the shopping list for the drug store (pepto bismol, anyone?) We're hoping the temps stay above freezing for a little while longer, but I'm looking out the window and noticing that the wind is picking up. The arctic freeze is on its way.

Meanwhile, the house looks like a bomb exploded in it. Why does packing everything up involve first strewing it all over the place?

E-books, DRM, and a new computer

We finally got the Kindle, and it turns out one cannot read a digital library book on a Kindle (note to Amazon, figure this out, it's a major problem).

The problem lies in the attempts to protect copyright. As the wife of an author, I'm all for protecting copyright--after all, the only way Richard will ever make any money from his writing is if people buy new copies of his book. And protecting copyright in a digital format is tricky. Publishers use something called DRM, or digital rights management. Essentially, it is a bit of code which prevents someone from duplicating a digital book, and can, in the case of library books, cause the digital book to become unreadable after a certain period of time. Just like print books, the library buys a certain number of copies of the books, and then lends them for a specified period of time.

When you download a book from the library, you use special software, and download directly to your computer. If you then want to move the book to a reader, you have to find a way to deal with the DRM. Sony has managed to do this, but not kindle.

Our problem, as you may have seen in an earlier post, is that we bought a netbook that runs linux, and the Sony software will not run on Linux (note to Sony, fix this, it's a problem). What this meant was that we would be unable to download any new library books, or, for that matter, buy anything from the Sony store while on the road. Though this did not mean we would be bookless (we could load several hundred books before we left) and we could download non-DRM books from places like Project Gutenburg (all works in the public domain), it sure limited our choices.

So, finally, last night we made the decision to return the linux netbook, and get one running windows. Thank goodness for Costco, which is selling the Acer Aspire One Netbooks at the moment. Our main reason for choosing the linux version had been to get a solid state drive (which has no moving parts), rather than a hard drive (which has moving parts and is therefore more susceptible to breaking). But, we really needed to be able to get books for the readers, and this was the easiest way to do it.

For those who are wondering, we haven't yet used the Kindle, but my initial impression is that I like the feel of the sony much more. Somehow the kindle feels cheap and plasticky, while the sony feels sort of sleek. After we've used them both, I'll let you know how they really compare.

The Great Haircutting

Before:

During:

And after:

Four days to launch, all systems panic

Cleaning the house, stacking up things that still have to be stored, working out which documents we need - and which work files I need in order to make progress on two books while on the road.

We just discovered that Aidan and Declan's wonderful nanny from long ago, Sarah, is living in Hong Kong. We are planning to meet, and she just sent me a long e-mail full of good advice on where to stay and what to do.

Boys' haircut day tomorrow... Aidan, Declan and I have (to Kerry's consternation) decided to "travel short."

More on E-Books

Well it turns out all is not quite so simple. Library books are protected by digital rights management (DRM), and the only way to get a DRM'd book on the sony reader is to run it through the sony software. And the sony software only runs on windows based machines. And the netbook we'll be traveling with runs linux. And for that matter, to buy from the sony store, we also have to run the sony software (which again, we can't, since we've got linux). So we'll be loading the ebooks before we go, and be forced to rely on non-copyrighted items when we've gotten through our initial purchases.

Once the Kindle arrives, we'll see if they do any better. I was told that you can send non-Kindle formatted files to amazon, and they'll convert them to kindle format, but...wonder whether this works with DRM?

In good news, we can load a ton of books on the readers before we go, and we can add while we're with Clarissa and John in England (using their windows machine). And there are an amazing number of free books out there (anyone want to read all of Shakespeare?).

Just testing

Google makes it easy to post a photo to your blog and have it automatically land in a Public Web Folder too. Trouble is, I want to do the opposite: publish multiple pictures to the Web folder, then pick some from there to put on the blog..... I don't have the hang of this yet.

E-Books

I've done it--I finally managed to order a kindle (if you're hoping for one for Christmas, lurk on the site until they post some refurbished ones). Now we'll have both a sony e-reader and a kindle so we should never lack for reading material.

I've heard from other long term travelers, especially those with kids, that finding suitable reading material in English is hard and expensive. Digital books are such a great way around this problem.

And we've discovered that the public libraries, both Seattle and King County, have wide selections of e-books we can download for free where ever we happen to be in the world so long as we have an internet connection.

We're at less than two weeks and counting...

New York, London, Paris...

It sounds like the boast underneath an international perfume brand.

We just booked our accommodation in New York City (we'll be in Manhattan for three nights at the Belvedere Hotel near Rockefeller Center, then in Greenwich for three nights with Lori and family). Then to London, where Clarissa is trying to get us into both the Messiah and the Westminster Abbey Christmas Eve service. Then to Paris, for which our Montmartre apartment keys have just arrived.

This, irrelevantly, is a picture of a spectacular dawn over the Cascades taken from our bathroom window.