Nice in Nice

We had Thanksgiving in Nice on the Coast of Southern France. It was a relaxing trip. We did have to juggle our travel to fly down, because the French railroad was striking...again.

We splurged at stayed at an old historic hotel, Hotel Negresco. Dome in the lobby designed by Gustav Eiffel, and crystal chandelier was originally made for Czar Nicholas II, but was never delivered because of the Russian Revolution. Beyond that the hotel was a little ...uhhh... odd. Lots of modern art crammed into quaint old-Europe style interior. Bathroom remodel run amuck with glittering gold matching sinks, tub, and bidet.

Since Nice is only a few miles from Italy, we took advantage of good Italien food, we even ate in an Italien restaurant for Thanksgiving with our friends from Austin Rob and Brian, who happened to be driving into Nice that day. Fantastic lasagne for Thanksgiving dinner. Well, it worked for me.

The rest of the weekend involved mostly strolling on Promenade de Anglais, and watching the waves in the powder blue ocean. It was pretty chilly, except the last day was a georgeous clear blue sunny day.

Beware of Houston Crosswalks!

Sarah had to travel to Houston to get her 'official' Visa from the much beloved French Consulate. She's had to go there so many times, they know her by name now when she walks in (no, I'm not kidding). The plan was drop in, get the visa, and head home to Paris. Apparently crossing when the signal says "walk" in a crosswalk in Houston is not so safe. Sarah got pegged by a car while crossing in front of the French Consulate. Suzy flew back, and we spent some time recovering in Austin. Sorry we didn't get to see everyone, but we didn't want to push our luck.

Sarah was well enough to fly back, so we're home in Paris now. Today we were able to walk a bit along the river, and had pasteries (which have wonderful healing properties). Suzy is 'finding religion' again, as November has another French religious holiday. Whoohoo!

Apologies to the jeans

Sorry we've been negligent in posting.

Sarah and I took our first overnight trip to Brugge Belgium. It was incredible. Belgians specialize in Beer, Chocolate, and "french" fries (actually invented in Belgium). Suzy thought she died and found heaven. Her jeans aren't quite so thrilled. They're a little tight after pigging out all weekend. One bar we went to had over 300 different beers! Another we went to had been open since the 1500's. Chocolate shops were amazing too. Green tea flavored dark chocolate was the most interesting. Chocolate covered ginger was a hit.
Brugge itself is very beautiful. Canals everywhere, lined with cute 18th century row houses. It was immaculate, a waitress told us her friend was fined 150 euros on the spot for not cleaning up after her dog. The policeman actually walked with her to the ATM to pull out the $$ for the fine. Wish Paris had that law. We took plenty of beautiful pictures, you know you are in a nice spot when the heavy duty photographers with their hulking medium format cameras and plethora of lenses are walking around. It was especially nice at night, several castles were lit up, and the canals were still enough to catch good reflections.

Butcher of Seville

Suzy got her first Paris haircut from a woman who doesn't speak a lick o English. She dove into my hair with her scissors flying. Uhhh... If we measure in weight of hair chopped off, I definitely got my money's worth. Thank the Goddess we have plenty of Aveda with us, I think I'm gonna be using it.

Assumption Day weekend in Paris

Suzy and Sarah have found religion in the form of French religious holidays. A French holiday called Assumption Day snuck up on us, I didn't even know I had a 3 day weekend until Friday night when a friend told me. It was a nice surprise. We had a blast of a weekend. We started with Champagne with two friends from the UK that live in the building, then they took us to dinner at one of their favorite places. It was great! I had scallops with a different risotto. It was almost like barley with a thick cream, it was extremely delish! Sarah and I also tried Pastis (anise flavored drink). It was interesting, I'll probably have it again.

Saturday we rushed to Darty and bought a TV and DVD player. The language barrier just keeps slapping us down when we get off the beaten tourist path. Everything is a struggle, but it is all so interesting because it is different than the US. After Darty, we caught the train to Giverny to go see Monet's Gardens. I won't mention the fact that Suzy almost knocked over a machine gun carrying policeman in Gare St. Lazarre. Eeeek!! The gardens were beautiful. Flowers elbowing each other out of the way. The ponds were nice, but I wasn't prepared for the mass of people. I had Monet's Water Lilies in mind, and his paintings don't have a bunch of noisy tourists in them. D'oh! When we got back to Gare St. Lazarre, we walked down to our Cafe on rue de Rivoli and had a beer, then had Japanese food, then walked to Ile St. Louis for ice cream. Bertillon pour moi, svp! I had Poire (pair) sorbet, and Sarah had a nice dark chocolate. We walked home through Ile St. Louis to the apartement.

Sunday morning we slipped out, it was cool and clear. We grabbed pain chocolate, and walked around eating it. We went to the Bastille open air market with a friend. He showed us around the market, and we picked up amazing fruits and veggies. The white peaches melt in your mouth they are so good. Our friend lives one street over, so we got to see his place with timbered walls, and he made omelets for us. There was a chill in the air, and it was raining a bit, so we hung out with him for a while. It was tres relaxing. We had Indian food in the Latin quarter that night, and watched them play boules at Paris Plage. Paris Plage is a month long party on the Seine where they bring in truckloads of sand for a "beach", have bands and performers every night, and a big party. So we're hanging out on the bridge watching this huge party below, when along comes the special boat cruises that are holding Assumption Day religious services on the boats. The contrast with the Paris Plage party was incredible (and a little funny to us).

Monday another pain chocolate while walking. We headed over to a roman amphitheater that was built in the 2nd century. It's still there. There were firemen holding their morning soccer game in the middle, glad the place is still getting used. After working on a report for work for a few hours (damn that pesky job!), we met some friends for a beer.

Whew! I'll take an Assumption Day weekend any time. We really needed a nice weekend, and we definitely got that!

Can you please check for my visa one more time?

After two weeks in the hotel, I left for Houston, and Sarah moved into the bare apartement. Our air shipment hadn't arrived so Sarah was roughing it on a camping mattress, and towels stolen from the hotel . In Houston I had to once again...you guessed it.... Visit the French Consulate. My third visit there, they now recognize me. I had to pick up my long awaited Visa that goes with my work permit. The clouds parted, the divine light shone down, ....and they couldn't find my friggin Visa. They hunted through stack after stack of papers. "Are you sure it was sent here?" *Finally* they found it, and of course made me come back later that afternoon. Sigh.... Well, Suzy also got caught up on some shopping while she was there, things are much cheaper in the US than in Paris. She escaped the Houston heat without melting, and headed back to Paris, where summer weather is much more reasonable.

Money Money Money

A rough week, we almost ended up begging for Euros on rue de Rivoli. Well, not really. But it was weird. My PIN for my Austin debit card stopped working, and the bank couldn't figure out why. We didn't have our $$ here yet for our moving and living expenses, so no euros in the Paris bank. Two different Visa cards had the "call Visa" red flag go up because we were buying things on them at appliance stores in a foreign country. It was really weird. Finally my $$ showed up in Paris, and the Austin bank figured out that the new computer system screwed up all cash withdrawals in Europe. And the Visa people are now happy (I had forgotten to tell them we were moving to France). D'oh!

Tour de Lance

A week after arriving in Paris, we got to see Lance Armstrong finish his last Tour de France. Overnight rue de Rivoli became English speaking as all the people following the Tour clamored into town. Since the Tour route went right in front of our hotel, many streets were shut down between us and Champs Elysees. It took us over an hour to walk up to the Champs Elysees. Along the way we bumped into the head of France's UT Alumni Texas Exes in her burnt orange (or is that tres cuit l'orange?) shirt. We also met the head of Democrats Abroad in Paris, also from TX. We waited and waited and waited for the cyclists. Finally the Tour whizzed by. Dang those guys are bookin'! My camera was having trouble with motion blur, but I got some good shots of the peleton. It was impossible to get a shot of Lance, he was buried in the pack. Finally they finished at Concorde, and played the US National Anthem. It was soooo weird to be in public in Paris singing the Anthem. We got to see the teams take their victory lap, finally they were going slow enuf that we see Lance. We even had our TX flag out for him (the special one our friend Jimmie got for us that flew over the TX Capitol).

Room with a View

Yes, we are alive, we survived the trip.

When we signed the lease on our apartement in June, they had the building encased in scaffolding, we thought our balcony had a nice view, but we we're really sure. They have the scaffolding down now, and our view is nice. Unfortunately Bloggers new picture post doesn't seem to be cooperating at the moment, so I can't post my pic taken from the balcony. dang!

We're scrambling with moving details, whew! is there a lot to deal with.

Apartment in Paris

Living room windows and fireplace.

Other end of Living/Dining and entryway.

Our search is over. What a tres fou week! We looked at 14 different apartments mostly scattered in the 16th and 17th. Did I mention Paris is having a heat wave? We were climbing lots of stairs, and sweating buckets. But it was fun to get a peek behind the front doors of all these buildings. Many (including the one we chose) had detailed ceilings and wrought iron balconies. One had a 150 sq foot deck with a view of the Tour Eiffel, and was in a famous art deco building (but resembled a small overpriced chicken coop otherwise).

We ended up in le Marais. We just feel more comfortable there, it's less formal than the 16th and 17th, and very convenient to a lot of fun stuff. Our street is nice and quiet without too much traffic, and I already know two HRC Federal Club members from Australia that live a block away, and have some friends that live close by on Ile de la Cite. And Bertillon (world's best ice cream) on Ile Saint Louis is also close by. Yum!

Our building is a Hausmann style building that is just finishing being cleaned on the outside. We are on the 5th floor which is the top floor, and are within walking distance of 4 Metro lines. There are a ton of pedestrian streets close by filled with cafes and bars. We love the detailing on the inside of the apartment. It's 2 bedroom, with lots of storage (by French standards). The bedrooms are away from the street, and with windows out onto a nice sized courtyard. The kitchen will be a challenge, we're used to a much larger one.

We opened a bank account, signed the lease, got insurance and utilities. It was definitely a busy week. Now we're back in Austin, I've been up since 3:30am, my brain constantly stewing all the things on the "To Do" list, worrying abt how to work out the timing of the move, and dreaming of furniture placement in our new pad....

Houston, we have a problem

Sarah and I had a very disappointing trip to Houston. We were trying to get Sarah's Visa application started (although we won't have a Paris street addresse for two weeks), and went to pay homage to the French Consulate.

Well, I can say it was an interesting experience. The French workers sit behind a huge plate glass window with a small slot at the bottom (for passing papers). The small slot also happens to be the only way for sound to transmit between you and the workers. So you are in a room full of strangers and you are screaming at a small slot in the bottom of the window trying to explain your situation. Big fun. Remember I mentioned they don't answer questions about the visa process on the phone? There was one woman there who waited in line, and when she got to the front, called her daughter on her cell, and then fed the cell phone thru the slot to the workers. So I guess that's how you get questions answered.

We weren't so lucky. We tried asking in 4 different ways if we could provide the address later, etc etc etc. "We cannot start your application until you have an address". We took our 2 inch stack of papers and left. whooped.

Ding Dong the wicked witch is dead!

We've been working on a bathroom remodel since the dawn of time, in an earlier post, I noted that we've been having a little trouble making progress on it. We had to bite the bullet and hire out the finishing details. It has to be done before we move to Paris in July. Sarah "ran herd" on workers while I was on business in Paris, and "voila!". I can't decide which I like better, how nicely it turned out, or the massive weight lifted off my shoulders.


New dual vanities with raised center section. Tile tub surround reflected in mirror.

Favorite Museum

Musee d'Orsay across the Tuileries

I spent Sunday of my last day (of this trip) in Musee d'Orsay. I think this museum might just be my favorite. If you like impressionist art, even just a tad, this place will blow your socks off. I also go gaga over Art Nouveau, and they had some nice pieces of that too.

Outside Chartres

quelle heure est-il ????

North Porch of Chartres

North porch of Chartres


Ouch, that's my tail you're stepping on!

The detail on carving here was amazing. Freshly restored North Porch.

Escape to Chartres

Chartres cathedral

I tacked on two extra days to the trip, so I could enjoy the weekend here. I do admit, I'm ready to go back to Austin, but mostly because I'm tired of eating out, and I really miss Sarah. I escaped to Chartres Cathedral (hour train ride outside Paris) for a day. It ended up being a really nice day. Chartres is the best preserved medieval cathedral in Europe, with much of it's original 13th century stained glass still intact. It's larger that Notre Dame in Paris, with over 175 stained glass panels! Most of the panels are story telling panels, telling stories from the Bible through pictures. The stained glass at Chartres really is mind blowing. I really need to come back with my other camera, and get some shots of the glass. Mental note to self: also bring binoculars next time.

Malcolm Miller is a Brit who gives tours of the cathedral, he does an excellent job. He's devoted his life to studying the cathedral and gives a very entertaining tour. He helps bring the glass panels alive by explaining each scene.The medieval "advertising" is interesting. At the bottom of each panel are scenes showing local craftsmen at work. If it shows guys baking bread, it means that particular glass panel was sponsored ($$) by the local bakers. If you go to Chartres, definitely go on his tour.

I also had a nice leisurely lunch at a sidewalk cafe looking up at the cathedral. Pinch me, I'm moving to France!!! I guess part of the reason it was such a wonderful day is because Sarah and I visited here 9 years ago, and I remember the day being a tough one. It was a grungy grey cold day, and we struggled all day to stay warm. Today was a much easier and more relaxing trip.

Social butterflu

I had dinner with people 4 nights in a row, it gave me a case of the social butterflu.

I had dinner with two HRC Federal Club members from Australia (one of them is dual US citizen, that's where the HRC connection came in). They had a nice little one bedroom in the Marais, in an old building. The door into the complex was one of those monstrous doors that used to be the carriage entrance. All of the apartments open out onto the courtyard. You really are at the mercy of your neighbors when everything backs onto a courtyard, the noise just bounces around. (I play attention to stuff like this, since we'll be apartment shopping next month). They made a nice dinner, with some monstrous asparagus that musta been on steriods. They were really funny, and we polished off plenty of wine. As I left, I mentioned that I probably drank too much, to which one of them replied, "We're Australian. If you don't go home drunk, we haven't done our job."

I had dinner with Jeninne and Chris the night after that. They are two really sweet people from San Francisco that have escaped to France. They have a killer apartment, on Ile de la Cite, directly on the Seine looking across at Hotel de Ville, and a peek at Notre Dame's Towers out the backside of the apartment. The gay mayor of Paris is always doing something on the plaza in front of Hotel de Ville. Last February, there was a huge igloo with ice skating, this time, a bunch of tents housing a bakery exhibition. Jeninne and Chris get to look out across the water and watch the show.

The next night was dinner with Casey and Benjamin, who are on vacation here from Austin. They were having fun, but struggling with the food. The french have a completely different scale for how cooked beef is. The high end seems to be what Americans would call "Medium", and the low end of the scale says "mooooooo" at you. Benjamin had ended up with something too far down the scale. We went to Polidor, which has been open since 1845. Pretty odd to go to a restaurant that's been open since before the US Civil war. It definitely looks well worn.

The last night was dinner with the local GLBT employee group from my company. Just a few showed, but it was good food, and definitely good company.

Fitting into the neighborhood

The Louvre peeking thru the trees in Tuileries. 

One thing that has been really nice on this trip is that I stayed in the same place as we did in February right next to the Louvre, and both workers at the coffee bar recognized me, and also remembered that I drink cafe creme in the morning. One of them even asked where Sarah was. That doesn't happen in the states. A guy at a restaurant Sarah and I went to twice in February recognized me, and asked where Sarah was. It was also nice that I knew where the grocery store was, and was mentally prepared for it to be closed on Sunday. We're so used to the 24-7 convenience in the states that it's quite odd to find everything closed early, and closed on Sunday.

Jet Lagged in Paris

poppies in Jardin du Luxembourg

I arrived on Sunday morning at CDG, after a lovely full flight. To try and fight off jetlag, and force myself on Paris time, I spent a few hours walking, including walking thru Jardin du Luxembourg. Spring has definitely hit Paris, while it's still chilly, the trees, grass, and flowers are beautiful. I grabbed a Jambon et Fromage Crepe, and wandered thru the Latin quarter. The pre-Haussman Paris thrives here, with crooked little streets, and buildings wedged in every which way. Very up close and personal, tiny little sidewalks mean I'm always playing "chicken" with pedestrians coming at me. They usually win. :-)
This is in stark contrast to the ordered elegance of rue de Rivoli, with several blocks of virtually identical buildings lined up on one side, flanked by the gold tipped fence of the Tuileries on the other. My hotel is on rue de Rivoli, a block from the Louvre. At the end of my walk, jet lag caught me, I could not keep my eyes open, so I slept for a while.

No Soup for You!

We're lucky that my employer gives us the same rights and benefits as married straight couples. While the US government does withhold benefits from same sex couples (for instance, taxing domestic partner medical benefits and not allowing survivor rights on social security), usually it equates to $$ out of my pocket.

I guess that's why what's happening right now with my foreign assignment is so unsettling. The French government won't recognize Sarah as a dependent of mine, and thus she can't be included on my worker permit. Typically when a worker permit is done to go work in France, the spouse and children are included on the worker permit, and all the paperwork is included in one thick stack. So they won't let us do that. Sarah has to file for a visitor visa separately, and we're struggling to make all the timing work. Right now it looks like there will be timing problems for us.

Which finally brings me to my "No Soup For You" title. In trying to figure out the timing (and the requirement to have a Paris address before Sarah can file for her visitor visa), it would be nice to call the French Consulate in Houston and ask some questions. My employer called, and was told "We do not answer questions about Visas on the phone". So a native French speaker from my company called and asked in French. Same response. Email in French to the Consulate was like sending it to /dev/null. So, if I have a question about the Visa process, I have to drive 4 hours to the nearest Consulate, get my question answered, and drive home? How unreasonable is that? "No Soup For You!"

Bathroom details

Sure, we're ready to leave for Paris.


A few last things to finish up before we leave.

So why does a blog about two women living in Paris start with pictures of a bathroom remodel in Austin? Because we sort of ..uhh... need to get this bathroom remodel finished before we leave. As you can see, we're almost done. :-) Luckily we have some help, Renato and Hector have been sheetrocking, taping and mudding. This has been helping maintain Suzy's grip on reality.